To acquire a license, you must apply to your local Health Department. Before issuing a license, the Health Department inspects your place of business to see whether you meet sanitation requirements. Once you are issued the license, the Health Department constantly conducts routine inspections of the business. These inspections are done to ensure the maintenance of good hygiene and sanitation. Outbreaks of food-borne illnesses have resulted in many restaurants from poor hygiene, inadequate cooking times and improper cooling and storage of food.
Plan
A good business plan is a must and will help guide you in establishing the business. Before planning to start a catering business, you must assess your area of specialty such as baked goods, seated diners, lunch boxes, receptions, picnics or wedding receptions. You must also analyze the type of food you intend to serve. Before venturing into a catering business, you must ask yourself some questions to find out whether your business can be successful or not.
The questions are:
- Will the business serve your basic needs? - Will your business serve the existing market in which the demand exceeds the supply? - Can your business compete with existing businesses?
Before attempting to start a catering business, you must decide on the type of customers you want to cater to and also study your competitors. Based on this, you can then decide your business promotion strategy. You will also have to decide on the number of staff you may need for service and cleanup. Always consider extra skills and techniques you may have to develop to outshine your competitors.
Initial Setup Costs
Initially, you may start your catering business by renting equipment to reduce startup costs. You can rent equipment such as tables, chairs, utensils, tablecloths, serving equipments and other items. This will help to build your reputation in the market and gradually develop some initial capital for further investment and expansion. It also gives you a chance to evaluate the money and time you need to invest and think about the impact the venture will have on your family.
Food Safety
To be a successful caterer, you must be able to prepare delicious, hygienic and wholesome food. You should maintain high quality standards while preparing the food. It is your prime responsibility to prevent contamination of food, as contamination can lead to serious illness - and this can ruin your reputation and business, in addition to possibly leading to lawsuits.
Despite the pitfalls, you can have a profitable, well run business. When well planned, having your own catering business can be personally and financially rewarding.
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.
Both Tony Jacowski & Sean Tan are contributors for EditorialToday. The above articles have been edited for relevancy and timeliness. All write-ups, reviews, tips and guides published by EditorialToday.com and its partners or affiliates are for informational purposes only. They should not be used for any legal or any other type of advice. We do not endorse any author, contributor, writer or article posted by our team.
Tony Jacowski has sinced written about articles on various topics from University, Six Sigma and Information Technology. Tony Jacowski is a quality analyst for The MBA Journal. Aveta Solution's Six Sigma Online offers online and certification classes for lean six sigm. Tony Jacowski's top article generates over 90500 views. to your Favourites.
Sean Tan has sinced written about articles on various topics from Dieting, Video Games and Web Development. Sean's article on provides some interesting insights on how one should go about the whole thing. You can read more article. Sean Tan's top article generates over 110000 views. to your Favourites.