Business Overview:

If you love to cook, enjoy parties, and get great pleasure out of people truly enjoying wonderful food, being a caterer might be a great career choice for you.  If you like to make beautiful presentations of the food you’ll be in even higher demand. Catering is like event planning with a menu.  The diversity offered with this business idea is immense: You can cater everything from formal black tie events to children’s birthday parties to company picnics.  Or maybe you’ll want to specialize in just one area and focus on weddings.  Whatever you choose, you’ll find great flexibility because you get to decide how many events you want to cater and when you want time off.  If you already have a restaurant, adding a catering division may be a simple way to branch out and gain additional customers.  If you are not a restaurateur, you can run this business like many other caterers and prepare all of the food in your own home kitchen and then transport it to the location, or you can do all of the food preparation on site.  Your goal is prepare wonderfully tasting food and to present it in a timely and beautiful manner so that the host doesn’t even need to think about that aspect of the event. This can be a very lucrative career and the possibilities for expansion are immense.

A day in the Life of a Catering Business Owner:

This article brought to you by Business Ideas! If you enjoyed this article, make sure to subscribe to the Business Ideas Newsletter to get ideas sent straight to your email inbox.A typical day as a caterer would find you spending the day preparing food for the event you will be catering.  If you choose to prepare the food in your own kitchen this means that you will later be carefully packaging up all the food to transport it to the event location. Once there you will be setting up the food in a beautiful presentation.  If you choose to prepare the food on site, you will need to transport the ingredients and any cooking equipment you may need to the site.  During the actual event you may need to be very close on hand, perhaps serving the food to the guests, either at a buffet table or circulating appetizers among them.  When the event is over you will need to completely clean everything up, collect your payment, and transport everything back to you home. The next day may find you meeting with future clients to discuss menus and pricing for your services.

The Good

• Flexible schedule in being able to select which events you want to cater.
• Being part of a fun and festive atmosphere where celebrations are often taking place.
• Much of the prep work can be performed in your own home.
• Catering services are in demand in nearly every location.

The Bad

• Start-up costs can be high if you do not already have a well-stocked kitchen.
• Long hours may be required on days when a major event is planned.

Resources

• International Caterers Association
• National Association of Catering Executives
• National Restaurant Association
• General Catering Information

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Each month, we give you ONE (and no more than one) "marketing project" to complete in your business.

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