How to Start a Catering Business
By Mikee Dunn
Has it always been your dream to start your own business? Have you ever wondered how to start a catering business of your very own? It’s really one of the easiest businesses to start with just a little bit of knowledge on the field.
Here are a few simple and basic things to keep in mind when thinking about how to start a catering business:
What are you catering to? Are you going to be the officially hired caterer of a Hollywood production? Do you want to only make wedding cakes for that special day? Do you want for everybody to be able to eat your food? These are all questions that must be answered before you decide to invest any money into this venture. Some people only want to do wedding cakes and that’s perfectly fine. Wedding cakes generate a lot of money. Other people want to sell food on a daily basis, so they will be catering sandwiches and snacks.
You’re going to need a clean kitchen. Some states allow for you to bake and sell food out of your home kitchen, as long as you get inspected and licensed. Other states ban home kitchens from making sellable food. Find out which kind of state you live in and act on that. If you can do cooking from your own home, then by all means do so in order to save thousands of dollars in rent, insurance, bills, etc. If not, then start searching for something close to home.
What are you going to do about materials? You’re going to need at least one large van for transportation of your catered goods. If your business is a bit larger, then you may want to get a refrigerated truck, which could help increase your area of business because now you can drive further and reach more customers. Pots, pans and utensils can add up very quickly. If you want, during your first year in business, try renting these materials to save money. Then, the money you made from going cheap the first year can go towards upgrades all over the board.
It’s amazing that many small business owners don’t know how to start a catering business, considering that it is such a profitable industry. As stated earlier, it doesn’t matter if you are only doing wedding cakes or if you’re catering a Hollywood premier, anyone can do this.
Mikee Dunn operates the How to Start a Catering Business Squidoo lens.
