Gen Wright asked:


Efficiency is the life blood of any business, since the more efficient a business is the more of its income will be profit. Considering how much work is involved in running a successful catering business, it can be difficult to keep the business running efficiently at all times, resulting in loss of profit, which is not good in a slump economy. By choosing fully-featured catering software for your business, however, you can drastically increase your efficiency while at the same time cutting costs that result from over-ordering and overstaffing. Best of all, the software can help you to avoid costly mistakes by keeping all of the information for your events in one convenient location.

One of the most noticeable things that catering software can do to make your business more efficient, is to simplify menu creation for upcoming events easily. Normally you might spend hours or even days coming up with a menu for an event, only to have it rejected by the customer who hired you or have them request a number of revisions to it. The catering software that you use can reduce this time drastically, letting you create several different menu configurations in a matter of minutes. This will give you the ability to offer alternate menus for your customers to choose from, even though the entire process took significantly less time than it would appear. Allowing you to create professional catering menus on the fly. If the customer’s still request revisions, they can be made in under a minute with ease.

Catering software can also simplify the ordering process for inventory and ingredients as well! The software will generate requisition lists based on the number of servings that you will need, letting you see exactly how much of each ingredient you will require for the event. This can be adjusted based on the items that you have in stock, while the rest can be ordered as close to the required amount as possible to reduce wasted ingredients. Packing lists can also be generated to show you exactly what equipment you will need to help prevent return trips to pick up something that was forgotten.

Software add-ons can allow you to be as efficient as possible with your staffing needs as well, ensuring that you have enough employees to work your event; while making sure that you aren’t wasting labor by having the event overstaffed.

All of the event information will be saved within the software, giving you reminders based on the time until the event to make sure that you have everything done when you need it. The software’s built-in calendar will help you to avoid event conflicts while also providing you with daily to-do lists to keep every scheduled event on track. Email and correspondence templates can be automatically filled in with event information to make contacting clients easier, and optional integration into software such as QuickBooks and Outlook can make invoicing and customer recordkeeping significantly easier as well. Once you start using catering software to help improve your businesses efficiency, you’ll wonder how you were ever able to keep your business running without it.

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Sean Tan asked:


If you are thinking about catering business start, then the following is a simple summary of things you will need to look into:

1. Getting a license: You cannot think of start your own catering business without a license. This license is given by the government, and state rules will apply.

2. Finance: Finance is an important requirement to start any business. To start with a home catering business, you need to invest some money. You can invest according to what you need to put in kitchen. Initially you can invest less by renting the kitchen items, table, tablecloths and linens, serving equipments, etc.

3. Location: A good location is the key factor of a successful home catering business. Before issuing the license, the Health Department will inspect the location that you have planned to use for preparing food. According to the law, the food operation area for catering should be separate from the kitchen facility at home. Your location must also be in a good location, from the business point of view.

4. Insurance: Insurance is necessary expense for the protection from unexpected reasons. It includes personal liabilities, place used for business, equipments, products, vehicles, worker compensations, etc.

5. Profit Making: No one plans out a business without profit in it. To make your catering business profitable, you must plan some proper strategies, including the proper price for the service. Determining the cost of an event is important. Here is the formula that can help you in calculating the price of your services.

Material cost + labor + variable costs + fixed costs + profit = price of service

Material cost includes cost of food and beverages, transportation and handling charges acquired on the material.

Labor includes cost of preparation of food and services, wages paid to employers, etc.

Variable cost includes vehicle expenses, rental expense, utility bills, etc.

A fixed cost includes insurance, purchase of equipments, marketing and advertising, etc.

Profit is the percentage added to your total cost. The percentage is added to each item in the menu or the type of menu.

6. Plan a creative menu: You should plan the menu according to the type of event, timing of an event, number of people to be served, equipments available, amount of money to be spent, etc. The menu should contain popular and delicious items; it should balance texture, flavor, shape, size, etc.

Well, these are just some of the things you will need to start out with. This sufficient knowledge will put you on the right track of home based catering business. The rest you will definitely learn through experience.

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jasabelemandelona asked:


Gourmet catering is not for everyone. It requires research, training and flawless organizational techniques. Great food and excellent presentation skills are basic ingredients for a catering service. Remember! All catering events are judged by the food quality, presentation style and speed of service. While it is a demanding business, the need for gourmet catering is increasing. Indeed, this is one industry where the demand will always exceed supply. Therefore, even a small catering service can be very successful.

Before setting up such a venture, it is important do research. Potential business owners should know how much it will cost to set up an initial structure? While making a business plan, it is imperative that an entrepreneur knows where his customers are and how they will attract them to a new start-up? A good businessman will breakeven if they can get one or two clients before the start-up. It can be in your family. If you have the right tools in place i.e. you are ready to deliver high quality food, offer good service and presentation, the word will spread around much quicker than you can imagine.

Picking up a desirable niche will make things much easier for the caterer. You have to decide on either the business is going to cater to parties, corporate functions or wedding events. A small start ?up cannot deliver to masses. As discussed earlier, catering require acute organizational skills. Going into business without a niche is a sure recipe for disaster. Different events require different equipment, skills and staff.

Food inspectors can be very pesky; considered by many as the nuisance of gourmet catering. Therefore, you should be aware of all the health regulations and make sure that your staff does, too. The inspectors will not only look at sanitation but also at the food safety and related health hazards. A certificate or two, on your premises, will be the best reflection on your attitude towards a healthy society.

Gourmet catering is a serious business. One good presentation can make or break your business. It is a good idea to get the training and study the dynamics. Everyone likes good foods and a decent environment. If you can learn the art of cooking, presentation and service, it will serve you just right.

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Caterequipment asked:


 

Significance of selecting the right kind of equipment

The importance of your catering equipment comes into light at the time of handling, preparing and serving of food to your clients. This is the point where you want to ensure if you are getting the best output from the catering appliances you have bought. The most required tools and catering equipment used in various segments of the catering industry include things such as chafers, mobile ice bins, banquet carts, beverage dispensers, buffet servers, holding and transporting bins and many other such items.

Either you are shopping for catering equipment for your new catering business or just need to buy new appliances for updating your list of equipments; there are certain factors required to be kept in mind such as:

Keeping in mind the space you have

This is one of the most vital factors to be kept in mind as you have no other option but to accommodate the set of equipment within the fixed space that you have. Therefore it would be smarter on your part to carefully select the equipment which is most required as well as not bulky to **** up all the space you have. This is essential also for the reason that just keeping in the equipment will not do the job and so the correct positioning of the tools is equally important for which you have to smartly choose the equipments fitting into your limited space.

Compare prices before shopping

If you do not want to run out of resources while purchasing for the best quality equipment then it would be a good idea to compare the prices of the various leading manufacturing stores so that you can estimate before hand what would be the best equipment to buy for your catering business. Also make sure that not only in terms of price but you get the best out of the features as well.

Keeping in mind all these aspects you must keep all your equipment in a good condition so as to have a smooth running catering business.

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Munya Chinongoza asked:


The first step in operating a catering business is starting it up. You might consider getting a franchise so that you can reap the benefits that the franchise may already have such as a good reputation. You also get help in training management and free advertising because in most cases for a franchise people should already know and hear about the company.

However for a franchise, every year you must give a certain percentage of your sales and revenue to the franchisor and you must follow their standards and rules. If you decide that you do not want to do those things and that a franchise is not your thing. Then you may want to start your own company, but you must remember that marketing, advertising and good public relations is key to help the success of a catering company.

Depending on how big your market is, things that you may want to consider are either flyers, advertisements in the newspaper, television radio and even on the internet. Just remember that a satisfied customer is advertising right there because they will be sure to tell their friends and family about their pleasant experience. Also if your company has a website make sure to have hours of operation, telephone numbers, fax numbers, and any other information that maybe valuable to the customers.

Preparing menus and setting the right prices is the next step, things to consider are operating expenses as well as competitor’s pricing. Licenses and regulations should also be considered, they are the rules that all business need to follow and comply with. It is mandatory for the entrepreneur to contact the municipality that is involved as well as the provincial and federal governments.

Other things that are a must are insurance which varies from business to business, accounting, furnishings, equipment, cost control to control, inventory and costs. Education and training is always important to make sure that your employees are up to par and know exactly what they are doing.

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Lisa Jenkins asked:


The catering offers a very different and interesting side to cooking than you would find when working in a conventional restaurant kitchen or hotel. Catering jobs are exciting as you will be working in wonderful venues, in an unconventional kitchen setting and creating magical food for weddings, birthday and anniversary parties, and even film and TV sets. You can either get a job at a catering company or start your own catering company after you have gained the necessary experience and capital. If you enjoy preparing interesting starters and meals for specific functions, then the catering industry is just for you. If you open your own catering company, you will be the head chef, and in charge of everything on the business side as well as running the entire kitchen. You will hire a team of chef, kitchen staff, and food preparation workers.

Besides being talented at preparing delicious meals and interesting cuisine for various events, you may feel that you want more out of your executive chef job than just cooking. As an executive chef you get to experience the best of all worlds in the catering industry, restaurant business, hotel industry and others. You will have a combined knowledge and background to appeal to investors and banks for loans to start your catering business. You will know exactly what will work and what won’t for a catering company, being a chef yourself, instead of opening it with no cooking know how.

The chefs in the catering industry are basically the same for a restaurant or a hotel, but you will also need to assist each other when things get stressful and chaotic in the kitchen, or make-shift kitchen. Everyone works as a team in a catering company, as you might not have specific dedicated stations as in a conventional kitchen. The executive chef jobs will require you to have to have an impeccable sense of timing, because you will need to have everything prepared for many guests just before they need to be served, and not let the food stand too long. You will also have to know about food proportions and the exact amounts of food and ingredients you will need to purchase for each event. You need to know a lot of finances and budgeting. The catering management side of things can get stressful and it might be a good idea to hire someone to be specifically in charge of the accounts and bookings.

The catering management will also involve working with event planners and wedding coordinators, dealing with clients and function venues, managing the chefs, ordering and buying ingredients, keeping the equipment and tools maintained, and setting up stations at various venues. If you want to start off working as a demi chef, sous chef, commis chef, pastry chef, or any other kind of chef, staff, or food preparation worker for a catering company, you will find that the best paying ones are those that deal in weddings, and on film sets. To get the best kind of experience in the catering industry, you should try to find jobs at catering companies that are just starting out, or looking specifically for new chefs. You can also apprentice or offer your services for a cheaper rate if you want to start out at a large company.

You can always try new things in a catering company and propose unique ideas to clients. Most of the time people are interested to try something unique, and especially the pastry chefs in any catering company are revered. Of course, to end of any party you will want a decadent and delicious cake. You should be able to create gorgeous wedding cakes and delectable desserts fit for any occasion. For the pastry chef in a catering company, many of the desserts are created before the actual event and it is just the plating of the food or pastry that takes place on the day of the event. The catering industry can be tough if you don’t like busy, social atmospheres, but if you love the party vibe and can work well under pressure to replicate a stunning meal a few hundred times, then executive chef jobs at catering companies are perfect for you.

The best way to open your cuisine business and be an excellent cooking entrepreneur is to put your own finances into it. By saving up for a couple of years until you can put your savings into the business and really make it flourish. Make sure you have enough finances for the base kitchen, portable kitchen, equipment, appliances, everyday products and ingredients, as well as some basic decor like table cloths. You should also set aside budget for employees, as well as a marketing section and branding, as well as your all important health license.

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Gen Wright asked:


s get into the hustle and bustle of the catering business because of their desire to create visually and flavorfully appealing dishes for their customers. Most don’t realize, however, that they may not have time to relish in the beauty of their dishes. Catering is a fast-paced industry with many customers to serve, events to plan, and orders to fill. So how do many successful caterers stay on top of their hectic schedules? They do it by using catering software. Catering software allows even the busiest caterers to experience more overall organization, more event cohesion, and more time to enjoy their culinary fortes. The program can feature amenities such as event planning, event reminders, master menu completion, customer invoices, and even employee payroll.

It’s no surprise that a lot of caterers think that creating sales reports, planning employee staffing, and billing customer invoices is boring. If you wanted to be an accountant, you would have gone into the accounting field, right? Well, catering software can take some of the pain out of all of those necessary tasks. The program will keep track of your event costs as you are planning them, so it’s easier and quicker to create customer invoices once the event is complete. You can also keep track of your employees’ timesheets electronically, which helps when you generate payroll. Updated sales reports can be viewed at any time as well, making it simple for you to see where your company stands today so you can set additional goals for tomorrow.

Caterers generally agree that though they enjoy the challenge of creating the perfect master menu for an event, the time involved with it has a tendency to detract from other important items of business (aka, planning the event itself!). Catering software offers a solution for this problem as well. Creating a master menu, an exploit that could take anywhere from a few hours to a few days previously, can now be completed in just a few minutes. Because your recipes will be organized within your catering program, it’s much easier to track down favorites, look up new recipes, and even create a zesty twist on an old classic. And if one or more of your recipes is rejected by a customer, it’s no big deal. Take a few more minutes (not hours) to adapt the master menu and meet their taste preference.

There’s no argument that the food, the environment, and the embellishments are vital to creating a successful event. In order to reach that success, however, the process must begin with efficient planning. General planning, like all other aspects of catering, takes time and can be somewhat tedious. Catering software can help ease the load of planning by providing automatic event reminders. If you need to marinate your orange chicken the night before an event, the program will remind you. If you have an appointment with a potential client this afternoon, you won’t forget to bring a sample of your shrimp marinara to dazzle them. Catering software can help you keep track of all the details of any event while allowing you to enjoy your time in the kitchen and serving your happy clients on the big night.

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Catering Success asked:


The mobile catering trailer business can be a great business to start and be a great source of income as a part-time or full -time business. When it comes to starting your own mobile catering trailer business there are many things to watch out for and starting in the mobile catering trailer industry without doing your research first is strongly unadvised.

Fortunately there are certain strategies for success in the catering trailer business that if followed can ensure your mobile catering cart gets off to a profitable start.

Here is a short action plan to follow when buying or considering any catering trailer, food cart, concession trailer or general commercial catering equipment for your mobile catering van business. I have used these very steps to start multiple mobile catering trailer businesses often with no money down

1: Plan for Success

Have a plan from the start and know where you will trade from, who your target market is going to be, the foods you will be selling and what equipment you will need. Think about preparing a business plan as it will help give you direction and also significantly help out with financing.

2: Choose

Narrow down the search for equipment once establishing your business model. Know exactly what catering equipment you will need and consider the electrical and gas supplies and requirement for that equipment.

3: Talk

Interview the manufacturer or seller over the phone and ask the right questions before going to a viewing such as:

Will they negotiate on price or terms? Is the chassis galvanized? Are the wheels and tyres in good condition? Is there any rust on the unit? Is it clean and presentable? Does everything work? What is the reason for selling?  and so on…

 

4: View

Put yourself in a health and safety mindset and know your stuff. Check that all equipment is working and legal and make sure any certificates are valid and up to date. ***** the concession trailer as a business asset and decide on the return on investment you think it will bring.

5: Negotiate

Like a pro by creating a little common ground with the seller. Express your interest (but not too much) and try to negotiate without the damaging admission trying to de-value the catering trailer too much instead come across a serious buyer with a limited budget who is concerned with a few minor details and the overall price.

6: Prepare for business

Many mobile catering businesses fail not knowing where or even how to effectively start trading and have no idea on how to make money in the concession trailer and mobile catering business.

Many People will often go in to huge debt and do things wrong because they did not know how to successfully start up and get into the trading pitches and events that count. This can often be the case in business and without learning the strategies that will lead to a successful and profitable food operation you could end up loosing money fast.

Educate yourself as much as humanly possible and try to immerse yourself in the industry. Learn as much as possible about the road ahead and prepare for business professionally by reading up on the best methods to use in this industry.

Wishing you success with your mobile catering ventures

Mike Carter

Beautiful Flowers

Sean Tan asked:


If you are thinking about how do you start a caterer business, take a little pause and ask yourself why you want to do it. Is it only about the money that will come in? But remember that you will have to put a lot of efforts in to get that money. Is it then because you have a passion for cooking and feeding people? That’s a better qualification, but you must know that catering has a very brutal business side to it too. It is only when you have a proper blend of determination, punctuality, skill and zeal that you can succeed with your catering business.

Okay, caterers are in large demand nowadays in wedding, birthday and anniversary celebrations, in high school and college functions, in business meetings, in social events and so many places. But you must know how to get there, shouldn’t you? Read on to see how you can make the most of the catering industry. These are some useful points on how to start a food business.

1. Your family and friends might be totally bonkers over the food you make for them, but remember that you will need a license from the authorities before you can enter into business. You will requirement to apply to the local Health Department. The officers will them come over and inspect the premises where you are planning to run your business. There are some standards of hygiene and operations that they will need to assure themselves on before giving you a license. Be prepared for periodical and even surprise checks from them too.

2. You need to have good planning about organizing your catering business. And the planning is not just about the food you will be serving. You will need to plan about how much staff will be working in the kitchen point at a time, how they will be positioned, how they will access their equipment, the food washing area, the washroom for the staff, the storage and preservation area for the food and so on. The more planning you do in your premises, the more efficient the turnaround will be.

3. Pricing is fun if you know how to go about it. Make a survey within your place on what kinds of prices the other caterers are charging. See if that works with your own costs. Then decide the prices. Keep the prices less initially, hovering slightly above your breakeven point. When you work out a reputation in the market, you can hike them. Do not forget to have a menu card of the foods you prepare, which will also serve as your rate card. There is no need of making this too flashy.

4. Starting a catering business is simple on paper, but it becomes a nerve-wracking situation when you have to decide what dishes to prepare. Certainly the food that you cook at home won’t be good enough for a catering business. Plan on ordering some parcels from the nearby caterers at,the outset, so that you can look into their menu cards. Then think which of these dishes you can include in your own business. You will also have to consider the expertise of your cooks. In the initial stages, it also pays to take into account the tastes of your clients.

Nutrition and Food Supplements

jasabelemandelona asked:


ne without experience, gourmet catering is not a suitable option. Customers are always looking towards credentials. For a newbie there are crucial six steps to establish themselves in the catering business. Let us look at the essentials:

Step1. Experience

It is important to get the relevant experience before setting up a catering business. You can always work with a gourmet caterer to get the first hand experience. You don?t have to work full-time; there is always great demand for caterers and businesses love to hire part timers and volunteers. Apart from caterers, any job related to gourmet service is as good, as any. Working in hotels, bars or restaurants will provide ample opportunities to get you acquaint.

Step 2. Training

There is a difference between experience and training. Experience only comes when working in an industry while training is used to fine tune the already present skills. Entrepreneurs should always get training from an institute. It not only helps them build credentials but also serves as a proof of their professionalism. A certificate of training along with experience is what distinguishes a basic establishment from the professional.

Step 3. Establishing an Entity



Setting up a business entity means that you have taken the first step towards establishing a proper business. You can do this by getting yourself registered with the local authorities. This will allow you to process much needed paper work and deal with basic requirements.

Step 4. Getting a License



After you are through the paperwork, it is time to put an initial structure in place. You will have to get proper licensing for the food business. It means visiting nearest health & safety department, fire marshal?s office and insurance company. Once, you have the license and a proper inspection of the premises, you are ready to go.

Step 5. Attracting Customers



You can start by advertising your catering services to your family members and friends. Give them a reasonable rate and they will be glad to give you a fair chance. People start by catering to a small group parties like birthdays, picnics and get-togethers. A good service will spread the word and do the trick. Don?t forget to distribute advertising material, at the end of the event.

Step 6. Expand your Business



Once you have successfully catered to an event, ask for testimonial. You can do this at the end of each function. With a solid reputation, experience, training, business plan, licensing and customers, you can apply for a loan. It will provide you sustenance to build on the foundations.

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