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How to Start a Catering Business
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"This is consistently a popular field. Caterers and Food Prep Services will Always be Needed." Bookmark This Page
How to Start a Catering or Cooking Business
Whether you like working with small private parties, large corporate businesses or festive wedding events, there is good money to be made in catering. Surprisingly, you can even start your own catering company without having formal cooking training.
In addition to catering, you can also offer a personal chef service - one of the fastest growing businesses right now. If you enjoy the creativity that cooking offers, why not take your interest to a whole new level and make money while doing something you love?
Take it from Lex Thomas, who started a successful catering and personal chef business herself - you can start your own successful catering business using her experience and advice from other expert caterers in the field.
It continually amazes me at how business start-up guides are priced so low. You can get all the benefits from years of business experience (and lessons learned) that a Catering Business Owner has endured - simply by buying a book.
Imagine your very first client being so impressed by your catering that you start getting calls out of the blue from people who want you to cater their events too! People want to work with professionals who get the job done right - and with start-up guides showing you how to be that professional - you don't have to have years of experience to attract a large following of clients.
See what you get >>
- How and where to get financing, insurance, licenses, permits, supplies, staff, software and more, so that you can run your business effectively with less hassles.
- Creative ways to market your business, get free publicity, how to do a client consultation
- How to set prices, prepare estimates and contracts, get deposits, set schedules - plus sample menus, invoices and more!
- What do you do now? Download here: Start Your Own Catering Business
- Advertise Your Catering Services & Find Clients Online
Find wholesale supplies and equipment for your catering business:
Cleaning Supplies
Coffee
Closeouts
Clothing
Credit Card Machines
Electronics
FoodFurniture
General Merchandise
Housewares
Imports
Restaurant Equipment
Restaurant Supplies
WholesaleKey Ingredients for Starting a Catering Business
All of us dream about starting our own business. The kind of business we start should be compatible with our abilities and personality. If you have a passion for cooking, a head for planning and can keep your cool under pressure, consider starting a catering business.
You don't need a big initial investment to start a catering business. You can keep your costs low at first by renting needed equipment. Most of your spending can wait until you get your first contract.
Catering is not affected by downturns in the economy. In good times or in bad, there always seems to be a market for catering: catered parties for rich clients, business lunches and meetings, birthday parties, wedding receptions and more.
If you're not sure about starting a catering business, test the waters first. Ask your friends or your office to let you "pretend" cater a dinner party or lunch meeting. They pay you for the groceries and you do the work for free. Experience first-hand the challenges of planning and running a catered event.
When you start a catering business, you'll need to check state and local laws. Zoning laws could affect where you do your cooking and how much of your catering business you can actually handle from home. The city you live in may require a permit. It won't be fun or easy getting everything set up legally, but when it's the law, you don't have a choice. Starting a catering business illegally is a bad idea.
Decide on a name and then create your identity. The entire process of naming your catering business and creating an identity is known as "branding." Don't rush through this important step. If your catering business really takes off, you can brand things like spice mixes, sauces, baked goods and other food items. Sell these from your website or give them away as gifts to clients. The point is to keep your name in front of your potential customers as much as possible.
You probably won't need to set up a separate office when you first start your catering business (unless you want to). But you will need to make sure you have some basic office supplies around so you can look professional.
If you're serious about succeeding, start working on a business plan for your catering business. A business plan is a blueprint for a successful business start-up. Good plans are the result of careful study and hard work. Your business plan explains how your catering business will operate, how it will be structured and managed, how it will be financed, and how much profit it will make. If you need cash to start your catering business, your business plan is what investors and lenders will use to make their decision.
The children's TV character Aardvark Arthur Read wisely pointed out that "the catering business is tough when you only know how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches." But if you enjoy working with people, have good intuition about what they like, and have the planning and cooking skills to make it happen, starting a catering business may be your dream come true.
Get a free, well-done catering business start-up guide stuffed with essential info and helpful links. It's ready for you at http://catering.getmoredatanow.com
Art Turner has been self-employed for over 23 years, working in marketing, market research and strategic planning. He is also the creator of http://selfemploymentstation.com, a destination filled with info on business startups, freelancing, consulting, working from home and self-employment.
Catering Business Resources to Save You Money:
Hire Help the Easy Way:
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oDesk makes outsourcing easy and affordable so you can grow your business faster. Get a Free Tour, Post a Job
- Website Designers and Software Developers
- Marketers, Salespeople and Telemarketers
- Accounting and Bookkeeping Assistants
- People to handle Customer Service and Administrative Tasks
Catering Business Plans:
If you want to know how to organize and plan your business, using a professional business plan "template" is the easiest way to get started.
What you'll get >>
- The keys to your business success
- Easy start-up summary, competitive advantage and sales literature guidelines
- Help with you target market needs, trends & growth
- Easy marketing, pricing and sales strategy & forecast outlines
- Financial & organizational plan templates
- Download now >> Catering Business Plan
- Download now >> Cafe Business Plan
- Download now >> Bakery Business Plan
29 Ways to Get Catering Clients
Take the guesswork out of finding customers by picking up the best marketing guide I've found. You'll find out free and extremely low cost ways to attract new clients to your business with very little effort - saving you tons of money.
Respected Small Business Marketing Expert David Frey shows you how to implement these strategies right away, for immediate profit. Find out how >> The Ultimate Small Business Marketing Resource
Business Cards that Make Advertising Easy
Give them to people in your neighborhood, network with people you know, leave them with stores, offices and other places that busy professionals tend to hang out. With over 300 professional business card designs and easy-to-use templates, creation is a snap, and printing is done for you.Click here now >> Free Business Cards for Your Catering Business
See also: Instant Sales Letters & Instant Marketing Toolbox
Attracting New Customers to Your New Catering BusinessSo you have set up your dream catering business? How do you go about getting new customers? Here are a few tips:
Website
Your catering business should have its own website complete with sample menus, customer testimonials and references, pictures of some of your presentations, pictures of your food and, of course, all of your contact information. You can also advertise your website on the Internet through pay per click ads, search engine optimization for appropriate localized phrases and advertise on local community websites.
Wedding Directories
Some of the biggest customers for catering companies are wedding receptions. Get your ad or pitch in front of brides, grooms and wedding planners. You can advertise in local wedding newsletters, newspaper sections and magazines. Advertise online by getting listed in every major wedding directory, some may require a fee, but if they have good traffic to their directory, the ad should pay for itself many times over in new customers.
Partnering
Establish good relationships with wedding planners, florists, party stores etc. Once you have done a good job for one wedding planner, for instance, they will send you more business in the future. You can even give discounts to wedding planners who recommend your services, this further increases the chances of them recommending your catering business in the future.
Word Of Mouth
Word of mouth is one of the best ways to expand your business. When you have done a stellar job serving one wedding event, the people at the wedding will remember your food and may think of your business for their own weddings, parties and other events.
Good PR
Also under the category of word of mouth is good PR, or public relations. Send out press releases, try to get a feature article in the local food section, contribute articles to food and catering related magazines and newspapers. Do a great job at every event you cater so people will remember your company.
Flyers
Distribute flyers in your community and to local businesses. Businesses often have parties for birthdays, company anniversaries, company picnics and holiday parties, and they usually will need a caterer for these events.
Yellow Pages
Despite the ubiquitousness of the Internet these days, many people still rely on the yellow pages to find businesses in their community. Make sure to place your ad in the caterers section of your local yellow pages, it's well worth the cost.
Using these tips, you should be able to attract new customers to your catering business to keep it prospering for many years to come.
Lydia Quinn writes for R & I Solutions, makers of Cost Genie restaurant costing software. Get a free demo at: www.costgenie.com
Catering Associations
- National Association of Catering Executives
NACE offers members, partners, and the public a variety of rich resources that support, promote and enhance the catering and special events industries.
- International Caterers Association
The International Caterers Association (ICA) is a non-profit organization dedicated to providing education, mentoring and resources for professional caterers and promoting the profession of catering to clients, industry members, vendors and the public.
- National Restaurant Association
The National Restaurant Association is the leading business association for the restaurant industry.
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