I am currently running a catering business. Everything is really doing fine. I was able to start to set up with this kind of business because of a certain article I read. Plus, my hobby is cooking so I believe I could put it to great use. Anyways, do you have any tips or guidelines to make it more successful? Thanks ahead!
Good luck with it first of all, I also love cooking but would not want to do it as a business but as an idea offer to cook for free to promote your business. For example my friend held a surprise party for her boyfriend and I offered to help her out by providing catering for her I cooked 3 course meal for 30 people!! ok that was too much but in smaller scale you can give taster with your business card.
Tips for Starting a Catering Business What skills are helpful? The number one skill that would be helpful in running a catering business would be the love of food and the passion to cook. To run a successful catering service you will need to be able to work well under pressure, keep your calm and be reliable. When you are offering a service based business you are selling your dependability instead of a product. Deliver what you promise. What tools are needed? If you are just beginning a catering service you might be able to eliminate some start up costs by renting equipment instead of outright purchasing it. In the long run renting probably would end up being more expensive if it's done over and over but until you get a few contracts and some cash flow it could be the way to go. Besides the equipment you will need to do all the cooking, you'll need chafing dishes for serving the food hot and insulated containers for transporting it. You will need some other basic business items as well. A phone line, fax machine, client contracts, and possibly even a computer and internet access if you plan on working online at all.
Thank you for the wonderful replies sarauk and fixaprob! I would consider doing them! It's going to be really hard as I am just starting this business but I believe I can work my way through with perseverance and hardwork!
Are you planning to cater from home? If so, you must have a separate kitchen for your business. that makes everything much easier. You should start with small events like birthday parties and not weddings yet. Remember to cater for your clients needs, and be generous with the amounts! Good luck Dolci [Link removed - Admin]
The catering industry is very competitive and if you want to rise above this cutthroat environment, you need to take a good look at the market. Research the market trends, the similarities and differences of the major catering firms, and the things that they don’t offer that you think the market needs and that you can offer. It would be even better if you can give better service or offer and extraordinary (and unique) dining experience! Always be positive on your outlook. Always try to be innovative and creative with your ideas, although don’t be too overconfident to underestimate the competition. There are several ways on how you can market your catering business such as distributing flyers and press releases, advertising in media like radio, print ads and TV, and advertising online by creating your own website. But of course, in choosing the right method that you will use you have to consider factors which include your budget. Use Facebook and Twitter to announce new menu items, tastings and specials. Make generous use of photographs on sites such as Pinterest. Describing your lobster salad is one thing, showing a picture of succulent lobster meat nestled in a bed of crunchy lettuce and topped with a rich lemon sour cream dressing is another. Upload videos of your catered events, or food preparation and presentation, on web-based video platforms and link to your Facebook page, Twitter and Pinterest pages. Another is tradeshows it be a goldmine of leads! I hope that helps !Good luck!
I'd suggest you to look up the keywords that your future customers are looking for (f.e. catering los angeles, greek catering la etc) and create a different page on your website which each of these keywords and them optimize it. Like this you'll have a better chance of getting traffic from people looking for different things. Good luck Art
On the Marketing side make the most of Facebook! That will probably be your best Marketing Tool for your catering business.
I once read a great course on this subject by Dustin Cannon. In order to market he drilled it down to a niche and setup the website according to that niche. Candlelight dinners or close to that. Once you have the niche you have the theme and can market that to the world.
