College Money

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The catering business is said to be one of the many home-based businesses that is so fun as it is financially rewarding. If you love dealing with people and events, love planning, and much more, love cooking – then this might be a business model that you should consider. A catering business always has room for growth, and you will never run out of ideas on how to improve on it – you can start really small by attending to private birthday parties, romantic anniversary dinners or or even small reunion gatherings. Then later on when you have much more experience, manpower and equipment, you can serve company parties, sports team homecomings, or even wedding receptions. If you are a person who can handle stress, has a lot of perseverance and stamina, and can creatively find solutions to problems, then this might be the job for you. Hard work will surely be needed, and sometimes it will stretch the limits of your patience, but in the end, it is one of the businesses that pays extremely well.

How to Start a Catering Business in Your Spare Time as a College Student

Step 1: Consider Your Skills and Your Chosen Cuisine
Do you know how to cook? Do you make your own recipes? If you think you’re more than capable in the kitchen, assess what kinds of food can you cook, course by course. Are you better at making breakfasts than full meals? Do you prefer cooking than baking? Take these into consideration. Do not force yourself to put out products that you might not be good at. If making cakes and pastries is not your forte, then it’s likely that you won’t be offering that on your menu. Also consider the cuisine of your food – will you be cooking All American style? Are you more knowledgeable on Asian recipes? Before you begin catering, you must first know what you can offer.

Step 2: Decide on Your Location
Where do you live? Do you have the necessary equipment in able to do some catering? Do you have a kitchen that will fully support your needs? If you are at home then cooking up a lot of food will not be a problem. However, if you live in a dorm, or sharing a room with another, where will you be cooking? Consider renting a restaurant kitchen or borrowing a friend’s kitchen on the days that you will be catering. Also consider storage – sometimes you need to prepare ingredients ahead of schedule. Do you have room to store these as well? Another thing to think about is if you are welcome to potential clients coming to visit your place. Find an area where you can receive them like a good host should, and where you can meet with them to discuss their requests.

Step 3: Get the Necessary Permits
Call your local health department and ask about any rules and regulations regarding catering. If you need to get a permit, do so. They will also probably ask to inspect where you will be working, and give you any certification or business license that you need. Make sure that your place of business is clean and hygienic.

Step 4: Choose Your Niche and Plan the Menu
Catering to a certain market will make your job easier. Don’t try to serve everyone and everything all at once. It is best to start small where you can control what you do and you can predict the results. Since you will be doing this in your spare time, you can consider, for example, catering to school org meetings, pool parties or private birthday celebrations. Mostly you will be dealing with snacks, appetizers, finger foods and heavy meals that are simple to make. Plan a menu that you can show to potential clients. Make several that they can choose from.

Step 5: Invest on Ingredients and Other Cooking Materials
Between getting permits and making sure that you have the necessary equipment to be able to cater, you are looking at around $500-$1,000 as an investment. Make sure that you have this financial security with you before you begin to do anything else. If you don’t have the budget then you might need to start in something really small, like baking brownies or cookies instead of full meals.

Step 6: Pricing
List down everything that is considered as an expense: materials used for cooking, materials used for packaging your food, any advertising costs (it would be better if you can market yourself offline for free) that you incurred to promote your business, electricity, water and other utilities expense, gas for travel if you will be delivering the food, etc. Then add a percentage of what you want to earn on top of that. The end result is what you should charge your clients. People who go into the catering business can earn as much as $200,000 annually if they take it seriously enough or if they live in a big city where demands are high. Small catering businesses or those who work part-time can earn as much as $50,000 per year even if they live in a small town. However, don’t let the numbers fool you – there will be a lot of expenses for this kind of business so be ready to shell out some money before you can even begin to think about earning them.

Some unique catering niches if you don’t want to do the usual:

• Boxed lunches for companies
• Breakfast catering
• Wedding receptions
• After parties
• Self catering and accommodation
• Smoked salmon catering (appetizers only)
• Dessert catering

More tips and advice:
What kind of caterer do you want to be?

10 Catering Business Success Tips

How to Market Your Catering Business

How to Start a Catering Business in Your Spare Time as a College Student5.051