How to Start Your Own Catering Business
Small business ideas – How to start a catering business. There is a catering niche that have a growing demand. Nowadays most households have two bread earners. In all these families, no one have the time for cooking tasty nutritious meals. That’s your niche, to serve good quality food for families, who don’t have the time to do it themselves.
And your offer includes an escape way for these families, when they use your service they don’t have to do the tedious daily shopping, your customers don’t need to cook and clean, they can spend their time together as they want.
How much does it cost to start up?
A home based catering business can be set up with a very small budget. Start in a small scale with just a few customers. You can use the equipment you already have in your kitchen.
As your business grows, you can buy bigger and more efficient equipment, one piece at the time. It is wise to plan for these investments, set a side funds for it from your daily profit.
How to plan the menu?
I suggest you use one of these two menu systems. The easiest one is the No Choice menu, where you offer 3 dishes everyday. You decide the dishes.
The disadvantage with this menu system is of course that your customers may not get what they really want. One way around is to serve dishes that are generally very popular.
If you aim higher with your catering business, you can go for the 3-choice menu system. You will offer 3 different meals of meat, vegetarian and side dishes. Your customers make their choices for a 30 day rolling system.
This menu system require a lot more planning and cost control. However, with the extended choices you will have a broader customer base. And they might stay with you for longer.
Starting a catering business and make it profitable
The main key of making money as a home based caterer, is to keep the costs as low as possible. It means you haw to buy your raw material cheap. You have to buy in bulk.
Now, as you first start your catering business, you can’t buy in bulk, but as your business grows, you’ll be able to benefit from the cheaper buy in bulk system.
To find out how much you can charge for your services, you can call other caterers and ask what they charge.(you don’t necessarily have to tell them you’re starting your own business)
What kind of permits and licenses are needed?
You need to check with your local health and food administration authorities, it’s wise to get all licenses and permits before you start.
How to get your catering business going
It all depend on your budget and how big you want your business to grow. If you plan to stay as a one or two person operated business, then you go for flyer’s, poster and banners.
If you aim for a bigger venue, you need to advertise in magazines and newspapers. Remember though, the best publicity you can get is satisfied customers. They will spread your offered service widely.
How to get the food to the customers table
Your customers can pick up themselves or you can deliver for a fee. You have to create a cooking and delivery time schedule. You want to pack the meals in standard sized food containers, it’ easier to handle just one size and type of containers.
More things to keep in mind
- Cost control, always be aware of your costs
- Customer relationship, listen to your customers needs
- Try to develop a good relation with your suppliers, you’ll gain a lot from that
Now, is it easy to realize your catering business ideas?
Yes, if you keep it as a small home based catering business, it is really simple.
And No if you want to grow to a large catering business, you will have the same growing problems as in all other business : find reliable staff, accounting, marketing, advertising and so on. But these are all “nice” problems, it’s only a sign of development.
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Tags: Caterer, Choice Menu, Customer Base, How To Start A Catering Business, How To Start Your Own Catering Business, Menu System, Menu Systems, Nutritious Meals, Quality Food, Raw Material, Side Dishes, Small Business Ideas
