Blog Archives

How to Start a Catering Business from Home

Are you passionate about cooking? Do you love making recipes? Do you want to learn how to start a catering business from home? Do you want to learn how to make money with your cooking or baking skills? Then read on as I share with you in-depth details on how to start a catering business from home with little or no money and write a catering business plan.

Whether you intend starting a small daily catering business or you aim to offer huge extravaganzas for a large number of people once a year, then you probably want to consider pursuing your dreams in the food industry because the potential profit margin in the catering business is extremely high. Some caterers often manage to walk away with 66% of pre-tax profits. This figure may seem hard to believe but when you consider the various ways caterers can keep their overhead low to practically nothing, this figure becomes more credible figure

  How to Start a Catering Business from Home with Little Money

This article is not targeted at any region or country. The catering business is a profitable business that can be taken advantage of; regardless of your country or locality. With the information I will be providing below, you can start your own catering business in USA, Canada, UK, India, Nigeria and even Ghana. The business metrics of the catering business is universal; the only difference in this business is the currency of the location you are operating in, the economy of the region, the perception and culture of the particular region you are targeting.

Make the decision to start your own catering service business

To get started in the catering business, you need to first decide if this business is for you. As expected of all business, offering catering services is a business that requires passion; you need to love the job in other to reap the profits.

   Acquire the Necessary Qualifications and Skills

In as much as you are passionate about being your own boss in the food industry, catering is really not a service you can just wake up and engage in. Even if you know how to cook and make recipes perfectly, you still need to be trained on the systematic intricacies of offering catering services. It is also advisable you attend a catering school or take a catering course online, as this will earn you the qualification you need and boost your reputation before your clients.

After getting the necessary qualifications, you need to develop your entrepreneurial skills if you really want to succeed as a caterer. Some business skills you cannot do without in this industry include:

  • Sales skill
  • Persuasion and negotiation skill
  • Accounting skill
  • Marketing skill
  • People management skill
  • Self confidence
  • Good sense of humor and neatness, etc.

    Your Catering Business Plan Template

You can begin your catering service business out of your own home, using a spare bedroom as your office but you will definitely need a license and liability insurance cover such as Product liability insurance, public liability insurance and workers compensation insurance.

When it comes to setting up a catering business, you can start up from your own kitchen (but you need to be careful about the Local Health Department regulations and city ordinances) or better still, you can rent a kitchen in a restaurant, school or church on an as-needed basis. In the catering business, you definitely don’t need to hire full-time waiters or bartenders etc. There are quite a lot of individuals out there willing to work part time, or when you need them.

   Catering Business Requirements

There are few items that are very crucial to running a successful catering services business from home that you can’t afford to keep renting everyday. These include china wares, flatware, glasses, tents, pots, etc. If you are really serious about carving a niche or building a brand in the catering industry; then you certainly need to purchase these items that are used regularly because they may become long term assets to your catering service business.

The only immediate cash-outlay you’ll encounter is what’s needed to market your services. You need to think carefully about your target market and choose your advertising media to reach that targeted population.

  • Who are your target clients?
  • Will you target individuals or corporate entities?
  • Will you offer On-premises catering or Off-premises catering?

These are questions you need to answer.

 Types of Catering Business Opportunities

  • Special events
  • Social catering
  • Corporate catering
  • Community affairs
  • Kosher catering
  • Wine and bar services
  • Full event management services

If you are interested in catering for weddings, you may decide to contact florists, department store heads, musicians, and people in charge of places that book weddings; and form strategic alliance with them. If corporate entertainment is something that catches your fancy, then you may decide to contact the corporations in your area (the chambers of commerce should be able to supply you with area names).

  How to Start a Catering Business from Home with Little Money

The Pros and Cons of starting a catering business from home

Before I go into the intricacies of starting a catering service business from home; I will advice that you conduct your own feasibility study and write a business plan. It’s not advisable to start a business blindly; you will only end up losing your hard earned cash.

  How to market a Catering business from home

When it comes to running a catering service business from home, the most important marketing tool you will need to cultivate is word of mouth. Most brides, corporations, etc are not going to risk embarrassment by trying an unknown or untested caterer. If you are fortunate enough to have a solid reputation when entering the catering business, you will have a good head start. If you are starting entirely from scratch, you need to be really creative in order to get your business going. To successfully market your services, you need to:

  • Define your niche
  • Know how much to charge clients
  • Learn how to write agreements, contracts and proposals
  • Learn how to get referrals and repeat business
  • Learn how to talk persuasively to clients
  • You must have a marketing plan
  • You must know how to advertise your services cost effectively
  • Maintain a client’s portfolio
  • You must know how to track your success and scale-up

A good way to go about marketing your catering business is to invest some capital in throwing a party of your own and invite the decision-makers from various corporations in your area, or the aforementioned florists, department store heads, etc; and give out your business cards to them. These people are not going to risk their perceived reputation by recommending an unknown entity like you; so give them something to remember and to endorse.

Also, especially in the beginning phase of business, add that little extra touch to the events you cater for. DON’T CUT CORNERS! Remember, your compensation will not always come in the form of naira, dollars and cents. Your reputation is equally as valuable, especially in the long run. Remember; that little “extra touch” is often more effective and sometimes cheaper than paid advertising.

  How to grow your catering business from home

In the catering business, you have an unlimited growth potential. You can buy your own facilities and accoutrements, hire full-time chefs and servers, buy a catering business software, find new catering business supplies, use temperature-controlled holding cabinets and vans or you can rent or lease just about anything you need. But you must start from somewhere first.

You may decide you want to cut off the middle-man’s profits by buying the specific items you find yourself renting regularly such as china, flatware, tents. You also need to boost your brand awareness and reputation by getting a business card designed with your company details and signature. If eventually you grow big and acquire a vehicle, you can design your logo on the body of your delivery van. This is an effective marketing strategy because people will see get to see your marketing message as the van moves around the city and most importantly, when it is at the site of an occasion you are catering for.

  More Tips for Starting a Successful Mobile Catering Business from home

While 70% of the restaurant business is food oriented with the rest going for service, organization, etc; this statistics drops to 30% in the catering business. The bulk of a catering business include delivery, transporting the food, lining up rental equipment, juggling personnel. With respect to the catering business, organization is what counts.

You also need to be a salesperson with a charming personality to push your catering business through. Since you may be dealing with corporate executives, party planners and nervous brides; you will need to convince your prospective clients that you are not only capable of providing a memorable feast but you will also deliver on time, and discharge your services attractively, quickly and unobtrusively.

There are a number of profitable engagements that naturally spring from the catering business. You can act as a coordinator for flowers, party locations or themes. You can also be caterer and party planner, caterer and florists, caterer and rental agent. Don’t just limit your options. Be creative!

Remember, if individuals wanted to stick to a set menu; they could choose to go to a restaurant, so be flexible. Make your menu suggestions, just suggestions (a starting point, if you will). Let the client be your guide but don’t overlook opportunities to turn a modest “do” into a major profit-making event. Don’t be reluctant when you see an opportunity to “bump-up the bottom line of an event. You may be able to turn a barbecue into a Hawaiian luau complete with roast pig.

Strive to ensure that every event is party to remember. Go that extra inch, sometimes it can be a mile and result in mile-high profits. Remember that in the catering industry, there are no restrictions except those you place there yourself.

Start-up Investment for a Catering Business

  • Low -     $1,000 (working from your own kitchen)
  • High -    $75,000 (outfitting a professional kitchen)

A projection of Annual Revenue and Profit for a Catering Business

  • Revenue:            $200,000 – $2 million
  • Profit (Pre-tax) –               $50,000 – $1 million

For more in-depth information on starting a profitable catering business from home, preparing a catering business plan, writing client agreements, contracts and proposals, information about licenses, liability insurance, permits, mobile catering business name ideas, the legal structure of your business, taxes, insurance and much more; please seek advice from a reputable business consultant.

Best Unique Service Business Ideas to Start

What is the best service business to start in 2013? Do you need unique service business ideas that will make you money? Then this article is for you.

Everyone has skills, knowledge and experience; and anyone can convert these self developed assets into a lucrative business. What you just need is the determination and a little bit of creativity to get started. In fact, most service businesses require little or no money as startup capital; provided you possess the knowledge.

The service industry has grown big, overtaking other fields of businesses in the last 15 years. But for entrepreneurs, business owners, technical and highly skilled individuals, starting a service business is a very good career path to follow.

  • Who can sell a service? Who can start a service business?

The answer is simple; anyone and everyone. Everyone is qualified to provide one service or the other because each of us possesses skill, knowledge or experience that other individuals are ready to pay for in the form of a service; or they are willing to pay you to teach them your specific skill or knowledge. Selling services know no boundaries; in fact, anyone with a need or desire to earn extra money, work from home, or start and operate a full-time business can sell a service, regardless of age, business experience, education or current financial resources.

  • How to Capitalize on Your Skills

Don’ t worry if you lack business skills and experience in areas such as time management, personal-contact selling, negotiating, bookkeeping and the ability to create effective advertisements. Though these are all important skills to have, but at the same time they are also skills that can be learned and mastered with constant practice. More important than all these skills is the question:

“What skill(s) do you have that can be sold as a service?

Any skill(s) you possess can be your best and your most marketable asset. Being a self employed entrepreneur and business owner for a number of years, the fruits of being your own boss is the freedom and independence that calling the shots affords, which can be difficult to achieve when you work for others. With that being said, below are 12 unique service business ideas you can start today and make a lot of money.

12 Best Unique Service Business Ideas to Start and Make Money in 2013

  • Starting Your Own Money Lending Business

Venturing into a money lending business is a good idea because people need money nowadays. However, you need to focus on a small market if you want to be competitive. It will be best if you start small. You must also note that proper documentation is vital in order to keep track of your cash flow. There should also be well a written kind of documentation on the agreement to be reached between you and the borrowers.

  • Start a Corporate Training Business

Corporate training is one of the most stressful activities for a company’s human resource department, yet the training is forever in demand because people constantly need to be trained for new processes or programs that the company uses. You can take advantage of this demand by establishing your own corporate training business. In order to carry out the corporate training business effectively, you may need a wide contact base. These contacts should include individuals working in the Human Resource departments of various companies, or even at the executive level.

  • Starting your own Computer Training Center

A computer training center is a place where people go to learn how to use a computer and accomplish tasks using the computer. The lessons offered can range from the basic to the utterly advanced. With the computer becoming an item that’s used on daily basis in every career thinkable, it is now a must that everyone know how to use it. Armed with this fact, you can tap into starting a computer training center; and you will smile to the bank because it is a very lucrative business opportunity.  Setting up a computer training center is not a difficult task, once you familiarize yourself with its intricacies.

  • Start an Auditing Business

Starting your own auditing business requires various skills and talent in order to attain success. One of the most important things you have to consider before starting this business is to write an auditing business plan because this will help you establish your goals. Auditors usually make money through commission payments. Since the trend today is hiring auditors who are not part of the company, you can tap into this trend. The fact is that external auditors are much preferred compared to internal ones, due to the fact that the former provides more transparency and it is less likely for them to be influenced by individuals in the company.

  • Start a Health and Fitness Club

There are a lot of advantages that you can reap from starting a health and fitness center as a business. This is because Nigerians now acknowledge the benefit of keeping fit and that is why many people are so health-conscious; and they will do anything just to maintain or lose weight. In fact, they will pay money to use a club’s physical fitness equipment as long as they see results. A health and fitness club’s offerings are not limited to providing equipment that can be used for exercise. It can also sell health products like vitamins and food supplements, among others, that would complement your clients’ health and fitness routine.

  • Start a Security Company

Before you start a security company, you first need to register your company with the Civil defense corps or with state security department or police. Secondly, you need to determine what kind of security service you want to provide. Is it only the executive protection or bodyguard services? Or will you add other security services such as patrolling, cash in transit, event security, etc?

Regardless of the option you choose, you will definitely make a lot of money by providing security for Nigeria Millionaires, Celebrities, and Corporate organizations. But you must make sure that the individuals you hire are provided with the necessary training with respect to giving executive protection. You should strive to hire people that match the standard or needed requirements for your permits.

12 Best Unique Service Business Ideas to Start and Make Money in 2013

  • Start a Laundry or Dry Cleaning Business

A laundry or dry cleaning business can start off very small, and it has great potentials for growth and expansion. Plus, the fact that most everyone needs the services of a good neighborhood dry cleaning business makes it an ideal entrepreneurial practice. A dry cleaning service can also have laundry services, but not all laundry services have dry cleaning. The wonderful thing about the dry cleaning business is that it leaves a lot of room for business development and growth.

  • Road haulage transport business

As a new entrant into the business of Haulage business, you can decide to buy a Trailer or more and station it with any of those multinational companies, they will maintain your Trailer for you, employ a driver for you, at the end of every month; all you need to do is to go their office and collect your money. These companies usually pay between N1million to N5million on a Trailer every month but before you can be part of this, you need to register with them as a contractor or fall under another contractor in their fleet. You don’t have an excuse for not getting a trailer as there are so many leasing companies in Nigeria that are giving out Trailers to interested investors in this sector of the economy.

  • Break into the directory publishing business

The Directory contains a wealth of information of interest to visitors and is also enticing to the advertisers. Your income is from paid advertisements in your publication. Advertising rates are proportionate to the circulation; which is the total number you print and distribute to people.  Therefore; the more you print and either sell or give away, the more you can charge for your ads.

  • Starting a Recruitment Agency

Thousands of Nigerians are on the look out for recruitment agency jobs. Many businessmen have already seen this as a good opportunity and invested on recruitment agencies. If you are looking for a perfect business that you can engage in, you might want to consider investing in a job recruitment agency. You can, for example, send letters to companies and tell them about the services that you offer. It is best, however, that you are able to persuade them to avail of your employment recruitment agency services by telling them about the advantages and benefits that they can avail when they take advantage of recruitment agencies.

  • Export Service

Nigeria is a country naturally blessed and endowed with items that are in serious demand in the export markets around the world. We are not only blessed with solid minerals (besides crude oil), we are also blessed with natural resources, good climate and weather conditions to support the growth of commodities that are industrially useful in the developed nations. No wonder an Asian will come into this country with a briefcase and 2-5 yrs down the line, he would become an employer of labour by harnessing our resources to build wealth for himself via export business opportunities in Nigeria.

This business is not only very profitable (about 25-100% ROI); it also has a short transaction cycle of about 6-8weeks. It is a very good plan B, and it could therefore constitute a very good option in your exit strategy as an employee.

  • Providing special information

Do you know that you can make a lot of money by just providing special information on small pamphlets? You don’t even need to be the owner of that information; all you need to do is to contact people who have the information.

Nigerians need information on how to operate their GSM phone, sports, they want to live long and healthier life, and they want to make money. If you can provide this information on small pamphlets, you will definitely make a lot of money.

So what are you waiting for, your ultimate aim of providing a unique service to Nigerians may be lying in this money spinning service business ideas listed above.