Catering is a booming business for any great cook but being a great cook is just a small part of owning your own catering business. There are several aspects of a catering business that often get overlooked when initially starting up that can make the difference between success and failure. Much like a cake, if you leave out the flour you have disaster.
Many steps are essential in order to start a catering business to not only be successful but also excel above the rest of the competition. Shown is a compiled list of the many aspects that have to be met in order for your catering business to succeed:
- Licensing: States vary in the types of license you need for starting a catering business. Home based catering business license requirements can differ from that of an offsite catering business. You need to check with your local Health Department and go through the various requirements they have in place to obtain your catering license.
- Business Plan: Here are a few important questions you need to ask yourself: What do you intend on marketing (e.g. bakery, course meals, event catering)? What is the market for this? What is my potential competition? Is there a current need for this in my community? What can I offer above and beyond that my competitors do not offer? Are required supplies easily assessable? How do I intend on promoting my business? Can you achieve desired results solo or will there be a need to hire help? Can I afford to pay extra help initially? Do I have the require business skills to keep my business functioning?
- Financing: Regardless of what type of business one establishes, there are start up cost involved. Starting a catering business is no exception. Compile a list of everything that you will need in order to give your business a great start including advertisement and other miscellaneous items that are often overlooked, then make sure you have the finances to cover it as well as any surprises that can and do often come along. .
- Print material and misc.: Menus, advertisements, phone listings, and numerous other things that are all part of starting up a catering business cost money and are time-consuming things that need to be taken into consideration. Other items that should be taken into consideration is service ware, off site warmers, are you providing serving service, do you providing table ware for banquet or parties, etc. All non-edible items must be taken into consideration and developed into your business plan.
- Insurance: You are serving food and mistakes can happen this is where insurance comes into play. It is essential to have insurance in place for product and personal liability, coverage for business and equipment, vehicles used in transportation of food, and worker compensation if hiring employees.
Other considerations that anyone looking into starting a catering business should give a considerable amount of attention to is pricing of their product and service for sale, record keeping, food safety to name a few.
Jeff Grundy
http://www.articlesbase.com/business-opportunities-articles/start-a-catering-business-what-you-need-to-know-713150.html
