Things You'll Need:
- Catering Contract
- Catering Menus
- Catering Prices
- Food Catering Services
- Full Service Catering
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Step 1
Meet with the prospective catering client to ask questions about the catering menu (ex. breakfast, lunch, or dinner), type of presentation (ex. bbq catering, buffet catering, or kosher catering), and location of the event (ex. home catering versus corporate office catering).
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Step 2
Determine your catering pricing. You should consider the food costs for a catering job such as fresh ingredients. For example, a breakfast catering job may include fresh breads, fresh fruit and low-cost meats like pork. Also, the catering contract should consider drinks such as coffee, herbal tea and freshly-squeezed orange juice.
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Step 3
Understand your labor costs for a catering job. You want to set your prices to include a profit for your hard work. Your prices may depend on the catering event. For instance, a small catering job for 20 guests may have 2 to 3 staff/independent contractors while a large catering job for 100 guests can have up to 10 catering staff members.
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Step 4
Provide catering clients with a detailed catering contract. You can break down menus by price based on cost per guests. You have to consider your fixed costs and variable costs to create a break-even point for your catering event. Add a profit margin each time.
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Step 5
Learn about the catering business and pricing by using catering tips. Each time you consider a catering job understand a potential client is considering your catering business among other competitors. A client may be looking for the flexibility to customize menus. For instance, switching from high-priced seafood to low-costs pork.
