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If you enjoy cooking for others and are passionate about the recipes you see on cooking shows, catering might be a great full-time job or something you can do on the side. Turning your passion into a profitable business sounds easy and great, but there are some things you need to think about first and make sure you know how to get everything organized. There are clever ways to promote it, methods for landing new clients and shortcuts to finding your style, so here are a few ideas you can use.
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How to find your catering style?
What you need to decide in the beginning is whether you’ll focus on a specific type of food, remain a small event caterer, or able to and prepare food for weddings, corporate parties and other large gatherings. Do a research on your competitors and find things they don’t offer – that way, you’ll be able to land a bachelorette party, engagement celebrations and any other parties no one has thought of yet.
Once you’ve settled on a menu, gather your friends and family and ask for their honest opinion of what is delicious and what’s something they’d rather not eat anymore. Surely, you can’t satisfy everyone’s taste, but you should know that every event will have a variety of guests who’ll also have something to say about your food. Practice until you’re satisfied with the end result and offer the largest possible choice from day one.
Set up your kitchen
Your home kitchen will be quite enough at first, but, with more business comes the need for a larger kitchen. If you look up health codes, you’ll find that lots of countries have laws that forbid you from using a home kitchen for business purposes. Find a small place to rent and adjust it to your needs by making it easy to work around – also, be sure it’s close to your suppliers! Furnish your kitchen with all the appliances you’ll need and go for a quality Maytag dishwasher that’ll help you with all the dishes left after you’ve finished cooking.
Get a license
Even though your startup is still in its early stages, do a thorough research on every law in this field and be prepared for everything. Risking being shut down even before you’ve had a chance to make a profit is a waste of time and resources, both emotional and financial. Find out which permits and licenses you need and get them as soon as possible as that’s the only way to make your business legit and ready to start.
Hire someone to help you
You don’t have to do this right away, but do it eventually. Going through agencies that work with servers and chefs is something you should definitely do as it will save you a ton of energy you would otherwise waste. Buy uniforms with your logo and keep things professional at the fancy parties. This will also be a great way to advertise your company because everyone will see that every cog in your machine is at the highest standard and up to any task.
Find suppliers
Seek out for local suppliers who can deliver you high-quality products and, if possible, get them to lower their prices. Ordering food from same supplier is a guarantee you’ll always have the best products and won’t have to deal with different people trying to sell you their low-quality products day after day. Also, this will save you a lot of time because you won’t have to go to farmer’s market and spend hours looking for what you need.
Let the people know about your business and spread the word advertising your services if you want to move your startup from an idea to a successful business. Finding courage to start is a big step and you should continue to learn about every aspect of your job before being able to expand it. Home-based businesses have a unique flavor and are more interesting to the customers. This can be a great start of something that can become an inspiring story to lots of other perspective businesspeople. Learn from experienced caterers and always thrive to do something new – finally, don’t forget to be creative with the menu!
