How to Start a Home Catering Business

Many of us dream of earning a living doing something in which we get to use the full potential of our skills, knowledge and creativity. For many people, a catering business is the perfect fit for that dream. But how do you start a home catering business? This article will discuss some of the qualities, skills and abilities necessary to start a home catering business.

Owning a home catering business gives you the opportunity to make money doing something you love. You will be your own boss, and can set up and run your business the way you want to. The trade off for changing from employee to self employed is you will be working longer hours; and for caterers that often means working holidays and weekends.

What skills are necessary to start a successful catering home business? Most important is a passionate flair for cooking and a culinary arts background. Party planning experience for a variety of social and business events is also a must. While some clients will hire you to prepare and serve food, some will want assistance in organizing the entire party or event. It also helps to have an eye for decorating and the ability to incorporate a party theme into all aspects of an event.

When catering a formal event, you and your still will need to understand fine dining etiquette and protocol. Although there are similarities in how the various type of events are run, each event will have its own time line. This means you will need to understand how to coordinate food service around event activities, such as speeches or presentations.

Flexibility, excellent communications skills and the ability to work with a wide range of people are the most important skills for any caterer. Making your client happy is the foremost important goal of any catering job. In return for doing an excellent job, your client will be more than willing to recommend you to others or to hire you for future events.

As the owner of a catering business, your clients will be private individuals as well as event planners. When you set up your business, you will need to decide if you will specialize in specific types of events, such as weddings, or specialize in specific types of foods such as kosher or vegetarian. Will you work by yourself and hire free lance staff on an as need basis or will you have business partners? No matter what size company you wish to run, tasks such as marketing, sales, food preparation and service, staffing and client management are part of your routine business activities.

Other items to consider when you have a home based catering business is what are your office hours for managing administrative tasks such as returning phone calls, marketing and billing. Catering businesses require cooks, food servers, delivery and set-up staff, an accountant, an attorney and someone to manage daily administrative functions such as scheduling client meetings, basic bookkeeping, and keeping everyone on schedule.