In order to operate a successful catering business, you have to know how to price your catering job accordingly.  In order to do that, you have If you intend to run a successful catering business, it is important to know how to price catering jobs correctly.  In order to calculate a catering job, you must calculate all catering costs and make sure that you are pricing them competitively.  Different catering jobs have different pricing considerations, but there are basics on how you can calculate for a catering job that applies to almost all catering businesses.

Before starting on a catering job, you need to calculate first the total overhead costs.  These will include equipment, utilities, transportation, and rental spaces.  You need to include them into your calculation of a catering job.

The next thing that you need to include in your calculations will be the associated costs.  List all the possible food costs, utilities, staff wages, disposable goods, and others.  The more you do the calculations the better you will get at approximating the costs for your next catering job.

This is perhaps one of the most important considerations that you must make in calculating for your catering job: head count.  You must set a minimum and maximum number of people you are willing to cater for.  Also before accepting a catering job ask your client how many possible people they are expecting for the event so you can make the necessary adjustments and calculate accordingly.

Another important consideration for calculating a catering job is the type of food that you will be serving.  Calculate the cost of ingredients and the cost of the chef’s preparation.  Some ingredients may be cheap but require a lot of preparation; you need to keep this in mind.  Additionally, you need to consider the number of course that you will be serving.  Elaborate courses are obviously more costly compared to 3-4 courses.  Ask your client if you are required to prepare for a formal dinner or a simple picnic gathering.  Through this you’ll be able to determine how many courses are needed.

Remember to include in your calculations the number of waiters and servers required for a certain catering job.  It is also important to take note that offering buffet style service requires less servers compared to the regular catering service.

Compare your pricing to that of your competitors charge for their catering job.  Make sure that you are not overly cheap leaving no room for profit for your business, but also try to avoid over pricing.  If you want to charge extra, give your catering business a specialty to set your business apart from the competition.  Specialties can include extra decor services, flower arrangements if necessary, etc, etc.

Calculating for a catering job is never an easy task, but it gets easier the more you do it.  Make all the necessary pricing considerations and make a list of your standard pricing.  This is important so you won’t have to figure out the pricing for each client that approaches you for your services.

There are times where in the success of a business depends on the events that takes place after office hours. The best example of these events is none other than corporate catering events. If you are assigned to organize this type of event, you might want to consider giving it all since a successful corporate event can lead to a very satisfied boss. Here are some tips that can help you organize a successful corporate catering event.

Get all the facts straight. Know the number of people that are going to be attending. Make sure that the venue will be able to accommodate everybody and that there is more than enough food for everyone. Also, try to get the big names that will be attending the event. Once you have their names, do a little background check. Try to find out the things that they are looking for in a corporate catering.

You should also figure out if your boss is hoping for a casual or formal event. If your boss wants a casual event, don’t lose your sense of style. Make sure that the corporate catering is still somewhat chic but fun at the same time. The food should still be impeccable and the venue should look impressive. For formal corporate catering events, it is best to hire the help of professional planners in order to get the job done properly, especially if this is your first time to plan an event of this magnitude.

Make sure that the corporate catering will start on time. The best way to do this is by being at the venue 2-3 hours before it starts so that you will be able to fix any last minute disasters. The whole event should have breaks in between so that the guests won’t be too exhausted.

Lastly, when doing corporate catering, be aware of the budget that the company is willing to give you. Make sure that you maximize it and that you are prepared to put your best foot forward even though the budget is limited. Make the most of the money that you have.

Ever thought of opening a home-based catering business?  What better way to get your business known than through online means?  Knowing how to set up an online catering business will allow you to take your home-based catering business to the next level.  The internet can help you reach more potential customers which can also qualify to more profits for you.

Set up your own website where you can showcase your dishes and menu.  Through this website you can let your customers take orders or book dates for your service.  You have a choice of free or paid website set up services.  Paid website hosting and services are much better but if you do not have the capital for that yet, you can set up a blog advertising your service instead.  WordPress, Blogger, and a slew of other blogging sites are available and its up to you to pick which one suits your needs.  Once you have set up a site or blog for your online catering business, you may also want to include a merchant account so that you can accept payments and deposits online.

File for a business name and use it to open a business account in a bank.  You just need to take care of the necessary papers and pay the fees to your local business registrar.  Since you are already there, you can ask for additional requirements such as business license, and other taxes or licenses that needs to be taken care of.  You will want to make sure that you are cleared from any legal liabilities early on.

You will still have to make sure to advertise in person.  Take samples of your food to local event gatherings, conventions, even PTA meetings.  It is important that people get a first hand taste of the menu and dishes that you offer to make a good impression on them and get your catering business known.  Online advertising is great, but it is still word of mouth that is the most effective form of advertising.  If you can combine the 2, then you will reach a lot more potential customers for your business.

Now we go to advertising your catering business through online means.  You can join catering forums and advertise your business through these avenues.  You can also get your website or blog listed to online directories.  There are both free and paid directory services and it won’t hurt to try both means.

Take advantage of the fad today.  Utilise your Facebook, Multiply, or MySpace accounts to advertise your business.  These social networking sites allow businesses to advertise through their sites so as long as you are working within the bounds of their terms of use.  Social networking sites reach more potential customers and the good thing about this is that you can get your friends in your social networking account to advertise and spread the word about your business for you.

Starting a home catering service is actually a good business to invest money on especially if you are into cooking or organizing events. If you are a chef who wants to work at home, then this is definitely the perfect business for you. On the other hand, those people who are not certified chefs can also take a go at this business which makes it even more ideal. However before having a successful home catering business, you have to know the tips and tricks in starting up this kind of business. Here are some of them.

Prepare a capital that has the capacity to pay for the ingredients, the cooking utensils and the delivery service. If you’re starting at a limited budget, start with simpler menus. Be resourceful when it comes to the cooking utensils that you have. And, for the delivery service, you might want to start using your own car first.

Always remember that the key to a successful home catering business is a building a loyal clientele. If you’re in the food business, the best way to do this is by providing each and every one of your customers with the best tasting food that you can make. You can start off with simple dishes but make sure that they are very tasty.

It is also very important to advertise your business a lot. With today’s technology, spreading the word that you have a home catering business is just one click away. If you are living in a smaller community, the best way to do this would be to give out flyers. The flyers should contain nothing but the best food that you can offer and of course the number that they can contact you.

One thing about the home catering business though is that you might not be able to see a solid net income after your first few events. But, once you get to establish your name and once you have loyal clients, you will soon see that the home catering business is indeed very profitable and is something that is worth pursuing and developing.

Weddings are one of the most exciting and beautiful events in a person’s life.  Accordingly, it can be one of the most expensive events a person will have to go through.  Planning a wedding event certainly means everything has an associated cost with it.  Catering for weddings is perhaps the most expensive part of a wedding day.  However you need not spend too much for a catering service.  You just have to know what to include in your wedding reception.

The best way to bring down the costs of catering for weddings is to have your reception buffet-style.  Generally caterers charge lower for a buffet-style catering service than a waiter style service.  This is because there is lesser manpower involved and fewer staff will be paid.  There will also be less work in the kitchen giving the caterers lesser time to labour on some menial stuff.  All these amount to a lesser catering service bill.

Stationary appetizers are another way of lowering the cost of catering for weddings.  Instead of having waiters serve the appetizers to the guest, strategically station appetizers to 3 or 4 different spots.  This not only lowers the cost of you food bill, it also allows your guests to mingle with one another.  This also allows you to avoid overcrowding the guests in one particular spot.

Provide your own alcoholic beverages such as wine and alcohol.  This will help you save a lot in your budget on catering for weddings.  Think about it: if you include the alcoholic beverages in the catering service, they will charge extra.  As most reception areas require some sort of corkage fee, the catering service will be forced to burden you with paying for that fee.  Providing your own alcoholic beverages like beer and wine will cost less and will enable you to purchase them in bulk.

Cupcakes are the craze nowadays.  Aside from this being cheaper than a big cake, caterers will be able to design individual cupcakes not only to make it look more attractive, but also make it tastier.  Most of the time traditional wedding cakes are made or consists of fondant.  It looks nice and gives the cake smoother appearance, but it tastes awful and tastes more like paste.  Besides it costs more to have a wedding cake made from fondant.  However cupcakes are fully edible and aside from the fact that they come in many servings, you won’t have any problems in having a lot of leftovers for your cupcakes.