Starting a Catering Business - Important Pointers
Sep 30th, 2008 by James Cavalier
If different cuisines interest you and you have a penchant for social gatherings, the field of catering is perhaps the ideal career route for you. Catering jobs involve a lot of hard work and you have to sort it out over hot stoves for long hours; nevertheless it is worth all the effort, if you have a genuine interest.
Although it’s not necessary to have a culinary degree, you must be familiar with food safety and handling procedures, food preparation techniques, and food presentation. As you may be aware, eating food begins with the eyes, therefore it is crucial for you to possess the ability to present your food in a pleasing-to-the-eye manner. Not only must your food look good, it must taste even better!
If you are seriously contemplating catering as a career, you can start by collecting information. You can read stuff related to catering and nothing beats all the resources that the internet provides. Important information to look for is regarding licensing and approvals, as per the law in your region.
Once you are through with your primary research, you will have to assimilate relevant data and organize it well for your use. Now you have to formulate a business plan and a marketing strategy from all the information that you have learned. The internet provides excellent resources for this. You can check out websites like www.sba.org, where you can find various published papers and other useful data.
Financial institutions and private venture capitalists/investors are more likely to approve your monetary loans when you provide detailed business and marketing plans. You will also have to invest a certain portion of your savings for your business, but always remember to limit your investment to the amount you can spare to lose, if the business fails.
Starting your own enterprise is a dream come true. In the beginning you are going to have to multitask. Apart from catering, you will have to conduct other jobs like marketing, answering the phone, customer follow-up, accounting, stocking, etc.
Although owning your own catering business is a highly rewarding experience, you should be prepared to work long hours and be available to work weekends and evenings, at least until you are well-established.
A catering business is not just about preparing food for an event. The actual A to Z process involves preparation, delivery, table arrangements, food serving and cleaning up after the event. You’ll need lots of stamina for this business and it’s best to be prepared for the uphill climb.
There’s more for you to tackle when you are running a catering business. Most often, caterers work 15 hours per day, 7 days a week. Outdoor events are more common than indoor events, so you’ll need lots of energy and gumption to be able to handle the summer-day catering events. Also, maintaining a friendly attitude with lots of vitality throughout all this is essential for a good catering business relationship.
In any case, notwithstanding all the hard work, in the end, if you genuinely love what you do, it is going to be worth it, and a lot of fun. Catering jobs are hectic and taxing and hence you require a good plan for all your activities.
