How to Identify Goals for a Catering Company Business Plan

Any business plan needs goals, which show how to succeed in business. Goals for a catering company differ from those of other companies, but are similar to those of other service companies in that you supply intangible as well as tangible needs.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Scrutinize your catering business mission to understand what success will look like in a year. If your mission is to be the caterer of choice for medium sized businesses in an area of 100,000 people, determine how you will know that you have succeeded. Perhaps success will mean that you provide 500 boxed lunches each month in a year. Write a concrete interpretation of your mission that includes projections to one year and three years, modifying these annually as your business develops.
2. Ask yourself what needs to happen to obtain this measure of success in the next 12 months. Maybe you need to expand your customer base from the four businesses you currently supply. Because you may need to expand to 20 or 50 or 100 business customers to achieve your target of 500 lunches a month, determine the incremental steps that will introduce you to these additional customers.
3. Specify goals in all areas--marketing, hiring, training, supply--so that changes necessary to growth do not take you by surprise. A catering business making 500 lunches a month will look very different from the one you run now; you will need to acquire additional skills, either through training or by hiring it done. Planning for success prepares you for the changes ahead.