How To Start Your Own Highly Profitable Catering Service

People with money seem to be on a binge to prove their status andflaunt their wealth by staging large, catered parties. As amatter of fact, in some circle of affluency, a party or socialget-together isn't considered an event of any significance unlessit's a catered affair.
With the same kind of reasoning, businesses of all sizes areusing catered lunches, cocktail parties and dinner meetings tobuild their images and increase company sales. It's a matter ofkeeping up with the competition in promoting a company and/orproduct.
On a smaller, but just as busy marketing scale, more and moreworking mothers are paying to have catered birthday andgraduation parties, as well as wedding receptions handled bycaterers. The reasons are simple to understand--if she's workingoutside the home, today's mother just doesn't have the time orthe energy to do all the planning and staging of a memorableparty.
Besides those reasons for turning everything over to a caterer,working mothers feel a little guilty about the time away fromtheir children they lose because of their jobs. Thus, they'reready and willing to make it all to them by paying for a lavishparty the child will remember for years to come.
Caterers handle everything from birthday parties for children, tobreakfast in bed and intimate candlelight dinners for two, tocompany dinner parties for 50 and wedding receptions involving athousand or more guests. This kind of entreprenuerial business isdefinitely growing and becoming more popular with people of allincome levels.
An imaginative caterer in a large metropolitan area can easilygross $150,000 per year, while a small part-time caterer in asmall town can count on at least $10,000 to $15,000 per year. Onesmall, but very ambitious caterer is reported to have grossed$250,000 after only 2-years in the business!
You don't need special education or training to become asuccessful caterer. You do need a affinity for people and a kindof intuition as to what people enjoy in different environmentalsettings.
A quick survey of successful caterers across the nation showsthat began with zero capital by working out of their homes. Thebasic starting up investment would appear to be around $500, withsome big spenders capitalizing their idea with as much as $15,000in order to get off to a fast start.
This seems to be an ideal business for an ambitious couple tostart and operate with very little capital investment required.One person can spend his time hustling up business while theother would do the planning, organizing and actual catering.
As with any business, your success will be directly related tothe soundness of planning and the working of that plan.Understand exactly what your client wants, and give him what hewants in the way of service that reflects upon the client in acomplimentary manner.
Basically, you can start with an advertisement in your localnewspapers. This advertisement need not be much more than asimple announcement: Creative Catering-Specializing in personalservice- We can handle any party or special event from start tofinish-no idea to small or too large- Your satisfaction is alwaysguaranteed! We can handle everything for you.. Call us, and letus make your parties worth remembering...
Naturally, the first thing you want from anyone calling to askabout your services, is that anyone calling to ask about yourservices, is that person's name, address and phone number. Thenyou want to know what kind of party or event they have in mind.As soon as you have this information, relax a little bit andinquire to find out about the person or the company--thepeople--sponsoring the party and their ultimate goals or reasonsfor the party.
If it's to celebrate birthday, graduation, anniversary or awedding reception--finding out about the interests, backgroundand ambitious of the guest of honor will be of value to you inyour planning. Taking a few minutes to learn everything you canabout whoever the party is for, and the people giving the party,will also make it much easire to close the sale than any salespitch or special persuasive tactics.
People like to talk about themselves, and they especially like totell everyone why they're honoring someone, even when theypretend to keep it a secret who initiated the idea. So, it'simportant that you be a good listener, that you have the abilityto get people to talk about themselves, and that you take noteson the things they tell you.
This same principle applies to business people, regardless ofwho's talking to you or the purpose of the catered affair. Themore polished and adept you can become in getting your prospectsto talk about themselves, the more information relative to theirbackground you can elicit, and the more you listen; the betteryour parties will be, and the greater success you'll attain inthe catering business.
You take the information you glean from this first interview andplan/organize the event on paper. This means you're going to haveto have contacts or at least working relationships withinnumerable service businesses.
If your client wants to stage a birthday party for a 12-yearold---he or she greets the guests as they arrive, makes sureeverybody knows who he is---then what about party favors---a softdrink and a conversation leader until all the guests arrive--theopening of presents--icecream and cake--and games to play, athank you gift for coming, and a reason to end the party at apre-determined time...
Do you greet the guests, does the mother or father, or the littleboy or girl? Where do you come up with the party favors at lessthan regular retail prices? Where are you going to get the softdrinks-your cost and the glasses or paper cups to serve them in?What about ice? What kind of games to play? Who'll be theconservation leader? Will there be a clown or someone special tokeep everything moving according to plan? Where do you get theice cream and cake? What games to play? How to get everyoneinvolved? And finally, a feasible and polite reason for endingthe party and sending everyone home...
All this takes planning, organization, and if you're going tomake a profit, a definite awareness of cost control. Get it alldown on paper as a proposal to the people who want to pay you tocarry it off. Figure out your costs, the time involved in puttingit all together, and then get back to your prospect.
Always leave room for changes in your proposal. In fact, expectthem--invite input and suggestions from the client--and alwayshave an alternate idea in your mind for each of those on yourwritten proposals. Discuss your proposal with the client just asyou would a script for a television show, make the suggestedchanges and ask for a 50-percent advance deposit. From there,it's just a matter of following your plan.
Regardless of size or type of party--whether your client is aworking mother or a giant corporation--the format is always thesame: initial inquiry, interview, your proposal, 2nd interviewfor any changes, agreement, deposit, staging the party itself,and your final payment. As mentioned earlier, success in thisbusiness comes from your planning--having a lot of contacts--andworking your plan.
An important word of caution: Try not to get "boxed in" tosetting or even revealing a tentative price until you've had achance to listen to what the prospect wants, to study your owncapabilities, and to make a formal written proposal. If acustomer wants to know how much you charge--and if you feel itnecessary in order to eventually close the sale--you can tell him50 to 100 dollars per hour, plus expenses, and of course,depending on the type of event the customer wants.
As for how much the average party costs, again tell him that itvaries anywhere from 50 to 5,000 dollars.
Always keep in mind that you are a professional, and that if theordinary person had your knowledge, contacts and ambition to doit himself, he wouldn't be calling you on the phone. He needsyour help for any number of reasons. You specialize in this kindof work or service just as a doctor specializes in medicine and alawyer in legal matters. Therefore, you should, and do expect tobe paid accordingly.
Something else--this business thrives on word-of-mouthadvertising--referrals--and thus, is direct "freeway' to the kindof customers where money is of no concern. However, on order togain access to this market, your business emphasis has to be onservice.
This means the capability of handling everything for thecustomer, from having the invitations printed and sent out tocleaning up after the last guest has left. Businesses and peoplein the upper income brackets, like to pick up the phone--tellsomeone they want a party on a certain date--and then forgetabout it, knowing everything will be taken care of withoutfurther worry or time involvement from them. Once you'vedeveloped your expertise and clientele to this level, you'll havea business in the $200,000 to $250,00 per year range.
Definitely arrange for a display ad in the yellow pages of yourtelephone directory. You'll probably get 40% of your inquiresfrom this source alone. Generally speaking, radio and/ortelevision advertising will be too expensive when compared withthe immediate results. However, it is recommended that youconsider these media prior to special holidays.
Working with restaurants, supper clubs, bridal shops andentertainment business in general. can bring in hundreds ofreferrals for you. Rubbing shoulders with, and circulating as apart of your area's civic and service clubs, should also resultin more business for you.
Keep your eyes and ears on the alert. Where ever you go, and withwhomever you associate, always be ready to promote and sell yourservices, if not on the spot, at least make a note to follow upwhen conditions are more in your favor. Promoting and sellingyour services will require at least half your time, and that'swhy two people operating catering services are so successful fromthe start.
The actual selling is quite simple so long as you emphasize theservice and time-saving aspects. The more time-consuming work youcan handle for the client, the easier it's going to be for you toclose the sale.
Handing out business cards is one of the least expensive ways toadvertise, promote and sell your services. One enterprisingcaterer makes arrangements with the sponsors of all his parties,to see that each of the guests gets one of his business cards.
Another gives each of his clients a stack of his business cards,and tells them he'll pay them $25 for each prospect they refer tohim. He tells them to write their name on the backs of the cards,and to hand them out to their friends. And then, whenever aperson tells him that John or Jane suggested he call, and hepresents the card with John or Jane's name on the back, this verysuccessful caterer sends John or Jane a $25 check.
Another very successful caterer pays commissions to a group ofhousewives and college students who solicit--via their homephones--interviews for him with brides-to-be. They get theirleads from announcements, and pictures of brides-to-be in thelocal papers.
Many caterers pay sales people a commission for letting them knowwhen they hear about a party or special event being planned byone of their business customers.
The possibilities go on and on, and are seemingly un limited.Time is becoming more valuable to a lot more people every day,which means there are more and more opportunities for greatwealth and personal independence as a professional caterer. Inreality the success for just about any person entering thisfield, will be limited only by his or her own imagination andenergy.
There is definite opportunity for great wealth within thecatering field. Anyone with a sense of service to others cansucceed. Very little "readycash" is needed to begin. Therefore,the only thing standing between you and the realization of yourdreams, is the action it takes on your part to get started...