The most important ingredient in business: Passion

Soft skills, hard skills, vocational training, University degrees… There are plenty of skills and courses that institutions offer aspiring business people.

But one thing they cannot teach is the one thing that business woman Mina Khan considers the most important of all: Passion.

Mina worked as a pharmacist for 25 years before making a notable career change to become a chef. She has since launched a health food restaurant and, more recently, a prepared meals delivery service called Well Meals.

She tells us:

“Becoming a Pharmacist was, perhaps, my calling. I spent 25 years of my life prescribing medicines to cure common ailments and dispensing medications treat all sorts of illnesses.

“My passion wasn’t in dispensing the medication. It was in helping people to recover their health. That’s the important thing for me: health.”

Mina’s Indian heritage of Ayurvedic medicine coupled with a love of creating tasty good-for-you food meant she had been creating healthy home meals for her family for as long as she could remember and it was amongst the things in life she most enjoyed to do.

As time went on, she began to feel that so many of the conditions and ailments she was dispensing medication to treat could be potentially prevented with better nutrition and she finally took the plunge to launch her own now very successful health food restaurant in Bolton.

She comments:

“I love it. I love to use natural ingredients that have genuine health benefits and to create tasty and balanced food. Nothing gives me as much joy as watching someone enjoy a meal and knowing how good that meal is for them. It’s addictive to me! 

“It was the love I have for this sort of food that led me to create Well Meals. We create healthy meals, blast freeze them and deliver them frozen nationwide. It means anyone anywhere in the country can have a healthy and balanced meal in just minutes.”

Well Meals products use ingredients Mina sources herself, all with direct health benefits. They include high quality extra virgin cold pressed rapeseed oil which is high in Omega 3 and 6, freshly ground spices to get maximum flavour and health benefits, turmeric which is rich in cancer fighting antioxidants and many more. 

They’re also low in saturated fat, sugar and free of additives.

Mina is supported in the running of the business by husband Tahir Khan who also runs Perpetual Fostering. When asked what the most important ingredient in her meals is, she tells us:

“Passion. Without a doubt. I believe so firmly in what I’m doing and love it so much. The product reflects that. Being able to create a business from something you love so much is a real privilege.”