At the centre of every large event, successful wedding, or birthday party, there is food to supplement the amazing memories you will make with friends and family.
Here are five steps to maximising your customer reach, creating the best food, and ultimately becoming the best catering business around.
One of the first hurdle failings of many fledgling catering companies is over-complicating their menu.
Many customers will appreciate the simple classics made excellently, and for this reason, egg mayonnaise and cheese and onion sandwiches can go down a treat, as much as any new-fangled creations you might have dreamed up.
Although, there is a market for these too, so always work closely with your client to ensure your menu suits the event!
Knowing what your customers want from your service is the most valuable piece of knowledge you could own as a business.
You can encourage customers to fill in an anonymous online survey using websites like SurveyMonkey. This will allow you to draw conclusions from honest feedback, and put it into action.
You could ask them questions about pricing, set menus, sandwich fillings, anything that you would like an opinion on.
Your logo is one of your biggest selling points, so ensuring that you have one that represents the spirit and value of your business will help you on the road to success.
The key to a successful logo is to keep the design simple and uncrowded, with thematic colours and a clear reference to the company name.
To create a professional looking logo yourself, you can use apps like Canva to design a logo by using a template, or create one from scratch.
It may be a good idea to allow customers to sample your food before they order it, if possible. For this reason, having a high street presence can put you at an advantage for inviting customers to sample your menu and choose their favourite products for their occasion.
This can help customers to feel that they are getting value for money, and can assess the quality of your produce for themselves. This means that they are much more likely to invest their money into your business if they’re reassured of the high quality.
You can demonstrate the presentation of the food, discuss the origins of the ingredients, and answer any questions from customers. This may also be useful for gatherings with a high number of food intolerances, allergies and other special dietary requirements.
If you are catering for large-scale events, you may want to consider investing in recruitment software to help you hire waiters and waitresses.
Software like Oleeo is specially designed to help you source high quality staff quickly through the use of artificial intelligence and candidate screening.
Do you know any tips for setting up a successful catering company? Leave your answer in the comments below!
