Saturday, August 22, 2009

Starting an Event Catering Business - Ten Steps to Success

By Robert Sutherland

If you are passionate about cuisine and making people happy or you feel that you are a person who is capable of hosting parties and events then starting an event catering service could be an excellent opportunity for you.

In this article we have set out 10 steps that you can follow to be ready to start doing business within a few short months.

1) Researching the Market and Education - Start by examining the catering market in your city. Take note of what competitors are doing, find out more about market demand and try to find market sectors that offer the best opportunities. Talk to people that have hired caterers in the past and ask them what they felt about the service that they received.

2) Food Industry Experience - If you have never worked in the food and beverage industries then you should try to find a part time position for a while so that you can learn something about the business.

3) Look into Health Regulations - One of the most important points to think about is the local health rules and regulations that you will be subject to. Aim to know all about the permits that you will need and the compliance costs before you even dream about starting your own business.

4) How are you going to Prepare Food? - Will you operate a home-based business, lease a commercial kitchen ,operate out of a restaurant kitchen after hours or only accept on-site jobs that let you use the kitchen on the premises?

5) Talk to suitable insurance providers to get an idea of the policies that a catering operator should have to provide cover in case of property damage or liability.

6) Menus and Sourcing Supplies -Start thinking about the styles of menus you will offer prospects and start to look at wholesalers and other sources of food stuffs in large volumes.

7) Practice makes Perfect - Why not have a trial run before you start your home catering company to get some idea of what is required to cater a function for a large number of people. One way to do this is to host a dinner party for a large number of friends or family members and ask them what they thought of your service and how you could improve.

8) Branding - Start thinking about an appropriate name for your new business and think about how you want customers to perceive your business. How can you differentiate your company from the competition? What about your company philosophy?

9) Start Up Funding and Costs - It is important that you understand exactly how much you will require in the way of start up funding so you should carefully write down all of your anticipated start up costs.

10) Once you have given serious thought to the nine factors above you can then go ahead and prepare a plan for your business. A solid business plan will help you to organize your research and prove to yourself that your idea is viable. It will give you a blueprint to follow and help you to set and reach goals.

Get your catering business off to the best possible beginning by following these ten steps before you start offering your services to prospects.

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