Tips to Starting a Catering Business

The food industry nowadays has been increasing gradually, due to the fact that everyone seems to want to eat more and more. With various events upcoming, food is something that you know will never run out of business. And if you happen to be a good cook, then you might want to start your own restaurant. Unfortunately, starting a restaurant isn’t easy. You need a lot of money to buy your own place, set up the permits and prepare everything for the opening. On the other hand, if you start a catering business instead, you just might save yourself the trouble of all the restaurant expenses.

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So how do you start your own catering business?

1. First, you need to do some research first.

Before anything else, you need to know how the catering industry works. In order to do this, you have to do some research to make your business work. It might take a few months, even years. But if you’re truly acquainted with catering, you’ll know how your business should work too. If you really want to know how catering works, you should also do some catering of your own. Get a few catering jobs. See how everyone works. See what your business would need. The best way you’d know how to improve your catering business is to see what other people lack.

2. Second, find a licensed kitchen for cooking

Unfortunately, you can’t really cook at your own home, especially if you have a small kitchen. You’d need a lot of space and equipment to get the food going. Before you start making plans of licensing your own kitchen at home, you should try renting first. It’s going to take a lot of money to build and have a licensed kitchen so you might as well try and rent first. Look around the area for some kitchens and get their hourly rates. You’d need this for your packages.

3. Get catering equipment and supplies

Now, your catering business will not work without catering equipment. This includes the platters, the plates, custom beverage napkins if needed, utensils and more. If you cannot afford to buy your own catering equipment and supplies, you can also look into renting. Renting won’t be as sustainable, but you can always change that in the future.

4. Create your own packages

Once you have all the expenses sorted out, you need to create your own catering packages. Create a list of the things you could offer your customers. Make a wedding package, maybe a budget and luxury wedding package. Consider creating a package for other events too. Be flexible with your packages and give your customers a lot of things to choose from.

5. Attend socializing events

When you have everything in place, you need to do some socializing to get to your target market. Attend weddings; meet wedding planners and event planners. Get on their list so that they have someone to call when they need a caterer. Catering businesses usually thrive on word of mouth marketing. Make a lot of contacts and your business will benefit from it in the future.