About Small Catering Businesses

Thousands of amateur chefs and experienced bakers start small catering businesses each year. These businesses can fail within several months due to medium-quality products, small-scale operations and price quotes that sell the owners short. Before a caterer opens her own business, she should understand the challenges in running a small catering operation. The first lesson for every caterer is accounting for materials, labor and wages when determining price quotes. While lower prices may draw in more customers, the lack of profits will dishearten the best caterers.

Function

Small catering businesses are able to offer overlooked foods and new cooking techniques to traditional catering clients. While large caterers can make classic Italian dishes over and over again, a small caterer can offer Spanish tapas, Ukrainian perogies and blintzes depending on client tests. The flexibility of a small catering business allows it to cover business lunches and small parties with existing staff or hire temporary staff to serve large conferences with unique culinary creations. While small-scale caterers cannot handle multiple clients in the same day, each client is treated well if the caterer wants to stay in business and get referrals.

Types

Small catering businesses are categorized based on the service levels they provide. Some caterers offer bagged and boxed meals available for delivery, eliminating high overhead costs for clients. The next level up from packaged lunch delivery is onsite cooking without table-to-table service. Caterers create meals and desserts at their home kitchens for use in buffets, allowing diners to enjoy food at their leisure. For caterers hoping to increase their clientele, full-service events offer higher profits and opportunities to show cooking and service capabilities. This type of service requires the caterer to cover cooking, delivery, service and cleaning for the convenience of the client.

Features

Every caterer starting out in the business needs a reliable chef, a delivery van and a sizable work space to meet the needs of clients. Stubborn caterers will realize the importance of experienced chefs when clients ask for hundreds of dinners and desserts for delivery within the next 24 hours. A reliable chef can whip up sauces, create attractive plates and juggle multiple projects while the caterer deals with clients. Catering businesses outfit delivery vans with ramps for rolling racks, internal shelving and exterior signage with contact information and company colors. The typical kitchen for a caterer contains a newer oven, plenty of counter space and a full supply of cooking supplies within arm's reach.

Considerations

Caterers need to think about food safety, insurance and advertising between orders of crab cakes and desserts. It is important for a caterer to consult with city and state health officials about licensing requirements as well as inspections to keep food safe for consumption. Caterers have to invest in insurance coverage for kitchen equipment, employees and delivery vehicles to avoid losing valuable assets. The typical caterer is able to pay for insurance, licenses and supplies by keeping a steady stream of clients on the schedule. A reliable clientele is possible by offering referral discounts to past clients and targeting traditional advertisements to your target demographic.

Benefits

Caterers who run small-scale operations can maintain strong control over their menus as well as their staff. The caterer's menu can evolve based on successful servings to past clients as well as failed experiments with sauces and pairings. This control allows a caterer to develop a single menu that tours the world or multiple menus to meet the needs of diverse clients. A caterer develops a close relationship with servers and chefs working under her tutelage. These relationships can yield word of mouth by employees to friends and family as well as loyalty to the catering company's vision. While the profits may be slim in the early days of a catering business, the caterer can rely on her menu and her employees to realize her creative vision.

Resources

• Virginia Cooperative Extension catering tips
• Galasource catering supplies