Start & Run a Catering Business. George Erdosh

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СКАЧАТЬ that determines whether there will be any future business from that client. This is where your skill in working with people enters the scene. (See Chapter 8 for further discussion on dealing with clients.)

      Contact with strangers is intimidating to many people, while others feel immediately comfortable with anyone. But even the most timid person can learn to be perfectly at ease when meeting potential new clients, introducing the business to them, and letting them know what you have to offer and at what price. Evening courses on public speaking are popular, and there are helpful books and audio guides that offer techniques on good communication and presentation skills.

      Based on an initial introduction, the client will decide if you are the right caterer. If you are, start selling yourself and your business. A great deal of your success depends on how well you can do that. Catering, particularly small catering, is a very personal business. It is you and not your company that the client will hire. Your reputation and recommendations from satisfied clients will help a great deal, but if you personally don’t impress your client (and the first impression is always the most important), you may not have a deal. He or she may want to talk to someone else before deciding. If you give the right impression, the client may decide right away with a deposit check.

      For a small catered affair, that first contact may be the only face-to-face meeting you and the client have until you arrive on the agreed-upon date with the agreed-upon food. If the event is a large wedding, chances are that you will be dealing with the client several times. Some clients will call you daily, even several times a day, for the entire week preceding the wedding. You have to know how to reassure this type of client so that he or she will relax.

      With the convenience of email and fax, you may not meet your client in person until the day of the event. If you were recommended, the client may not insist on a face-to-face meeting, and the event may be arranged through the magic of instant electronic transmission, saving time and money for both parties.

      2. Desirable Skills and Knowledge

      No one can be so perfectly well rounded that he or she has all the necessary and desirable skills and knowledge for running such a complex business. You are a fortunate person if you have all seven of the essential skills just discussed; if you do, you have a good chance of becoming a successful caterer. However, there are another six skills that are very desirable, although not essential, to have. The following are definitely ingredients for success, too:

      (a) Well-developed marketing and selling skills, and ability to network

      (b) Good record keeping and bookkeeping skills

      (c) Ability to manage staff

      (d) Solid financial backing along with good budgeting skills

      (e) Financial and emotional stability to deal with seasonal highs and lows

      (f) Ability to deal with extreme pressure and stress, especially during the holiday season

      Let’s look at each of these desirable skills in detail.

      2.1 Marketing and selling

      It is a great advantage to have solid marketing and selling skills when you own virtually any business, particularly if you are a sole proprietor. Unless you have few competitors and what you provide is much in demand, you have to sell your service.

      If you live in a small town with few competing caterers and many social and corporate clients who need catering services, you may not need to spend so much time and money on marketing. If, through word-of-mouth and repeat clients, your business is operating at the level of your expectations, marketing is again optional. But these are rare cases.

      You may or may not have the time to do marketing and selling while running a catering business alone. It depends on your volume and the other time requirements the business imposes on you. To properly market your business and sell your services you will need to put in at least 10 to 20 hours a week, possibly 30 to 40 hours if you want to do aggressive marketing. Can you sacrifice that much time from the catering side?

      Many caterers who have all the essential skills to run a good catering business, but who also can sell and market, prefer to do the latter and delegate the catering end either partly or entirely. The choice is yours as long as you can find competent, reliable help. Good sales and marketing people are rare. It is often easier and cheaper to find a good catering and kitchen manager.

      Networking is an important part of marketing. To be good at networking, you need self-confidence and social skills. If you have decided to hire a person to do your marketing, you can either do your own networking or delegate it to your marketing person. Many marketing people love networking and are good at it. Networking will bring in business both directly and through referrals.

      2.2 Record keeping and bookkeeping

      Many, if not most, small-business owners detest the numerous chores that keep popping up at the record keeping end of their business. They consider record keeping and bookkeeping unnecessary headaches and procrastinate as long as possible, except when it comes to depositing the checks. The longer administrative chores are postponed, the more difficult they become to do, not only because of the sheer volume of the work but because you forget the useful little details you didn’t record when they were still fresh in your memory.

      The best way to approach office chores is to do them daily, keeping up-to-date on every record keeping system you use. There will be some extremely busy periods in your business when you simply cannot get into the office. Fine. Postpone the office stuff, but only until the next opportunity comes for a free hour or two. Don’t let your mind tell you there is no free time. Much of the office work approached this way can be, if not exactly fun, at least tolerable. Adding up your books every month can definitely be fun, provided your cash flow is a healthy, positive one. Whether you prefer the traditional low-tech tools of bookkeeping or newer accounting software programs, you have to add your own numbers to know how your business is doing.

      Without good records you face many potential problems. You don’t know how much you owe your staff. You’ll have to rely on their record keeping — a very poor practice. You don’t know how much to charge clients. You forget a scheduled event because it wasn’t written on your calendar! You don’t know how your business is doing, what your actual expenses and your total receipts are, and what your gross and net profits (or losses) are. Your business is doomed under these conditions, no matter how good your food is.

      Your other choice is to hire someone to do all the office chores. But remember, if someone else is doing your bookkeeping, you will still have to hand your records to him or her, and the bookkeeping won’t be any better than your record keeping.

      2.3 Staff management

      In a survey of a large number of US catering companies in the late 1990s, an overwhelming majority of the respondents indicated labor issues are their largest concern, including hiring chefs and kitchen personnel, service staff (both full and part time), and sales staff. Over the years such concerns became more acute and caterers (like other business owners) constantly complain about finding competent and reliable help even if they are willing to pay good money. Should you be able to find good staff, appreciate them, nurture the relationships, and count your blessings.

      If you are basically a one-person operation, with on-call staff only, your staff and production-control problems will be minimal. If your business is a little larger and you employ part-time or even full-time staff, and perhaps a sales СКАЧАТЬ