After years of contemplation, senior Raghav Kharel made the decision one month ago to finally start the ramen delivery service he’d been thinking about for so long. Raghav’s Ramen, a ramen delivery service that is conducted through Instagram, is a tedious and time consuming process that results in doorstep delivery of fresh ramen in three flavors.

“[Making ramen] had been on my mind for a very long time,” Kharel said. “I’ve always been big on making ramen and have wanted to share it with others. It was just a matter of figuring out the best way to go about it. Once I got my car this year, I knew exactly what to do. Making it a delivery service through Instagram was the perfect idea because we don’t have to worry about sitting people down.”

The first thing Kharel did when dreaming up his ramen delivery service was to create more flavors, as he had only ever made one kind before. Since then, he has been working with junior David Beck on the business to help manage sales, cooking and delivery. 

“I used to make ramen only one way, ‘The Original,’ but I knew if I wanted to turn it into a business there needed to be variety. After that, I listed all the items I would need and bought them in bulk so that I’d get a cheaper price. Along the way of planning everything, I got a business partner, David Beck,” Kharel said. “David and I sat down and figured out how much it would cost to make each bowl and what our profits would be per bowl. We created an Instagram, Twitter and a personal website for the menu.”

The team has roles in the business. While Beck handles the marketing of the business, Kharel takes the orders and cooks. The team occasionally adds others into the business to help with delivery.

“The person who has helped me the most is David Beck, my business partner,” Kharel said. “He has single handedly taken care of a lot of things [such as] the Instagram page, the Twitter page, and he made the website. Other than that, my dad has also helped a lot, he always lends a hand in cooking the ramen if I’m getting swamped.”

Though the business is something that Kharel has wanted to do for a while, his plans for the future don’t include Raghav’s Ramen.“I won’t be continuing the business after I go to college, so [I] don’t have any long term goals,” Kharel said. “The main goal right now is to have really good sales over the summer and hopefully be open at least five days a week.”

In the meantime, before Kharel heads off to college, he is just enjoying the process and seeing the reaction his customers have.

“My favorite part about Raghav’s Ramen is seeing people enjoy something that I made,” Kharel said. “After every delivery I shoot the customer a [direct message] to see how they liked it. Their kind words always make me very happy.”