Start A Catering Service - Business Ideas

Pat Walls

•

Updated: November 2nd, 2022

Start A Catering Service

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

Catering has a ton of money-making potential. If you're interested in starting your own business, you may want to consider opening a catering company. There are a lot of reasons why you might want to go with this. You can choose who you work with and where your services will be offered. You don't have to worry about finding customers, as they will come to you.

You'll require some initial capital to purchase some equipment—namely, pots and pans for cooking, as well as plates, cups, and utensils for serving food. You may also want to invest in a small refrigerator or cooler for storing perishables.

For your catering business, you’ll also need to hire staff who will perform multiple operations for you such as cooking, serving, cleaning, etc.

In the beginning, you’ll need some contacts like your friends or family at whose family or corporate events you can serve. If you manage to offer quality services your clients will refer you to their acquaintances and your business can grow on word-of-mouth advertising. Also, you can consider investing in social media marketing to reach your local audience at a low cost & in a short time.

Starting a catering service requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.

If you're interested in how to sell catering service, or selling catering service online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

Key Stats

market size

$11.6B

starting costs

$18K

gross margin

90%

time to build

270 days

growth

Organic social media

business model

Subscriptions

time investment

Full time

Startup Costs

	Min Startup Costs	Max Startup Costs
Employee & Freelancer Expenses	$151	$252
Website Costs	$223	$7,015
Business Formation Fees	$600	$4,700
Vehicle Expenses	$0	$10,000
Retail Business Expenses	$1,250	$6,650
Advertising & Marketing Costs	$75	$3,986
Software Expenses	$162	$2,720
Office Space Expenses	$0	$100
Specific Industry Expenses	$0	$500
Total Startup Costs	$2,461	$35,923

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Case Studies

How We Started A $3MM/Year Catering Delivery Service

It’s lunchtime at the office. Everyone is hungry and anxious for a break...

• $250K/mo

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Successful Businesses

Business	URL	Rank
George Mason \|	gmu.edu	6,971
ezCater	ezcater.com	30,542
CaterNinja	caterninja.com	1,013,226
Catering Singapore	eatzcatering.com	1,790,590
cateringservices	cateringservices.co.in	5,311,785
Catering Services, MI, Caterers, Detroit, Michigan, Wedding Catering, MI, Party Catering, Novi, MI, Farmington Hills, Michigan, West Bloomfield, Livonia, MI, Troy, Ann Arbor, Graduation Catering, Brighton, MI, Metro Detroit, Dearborn, Southeastern Michigan, Full Service Lunch Catering Company, Companies, Catering Prices, Menu	garyscatering.com	5,407,513
30 Best Catering Companies in Dubai	cateringindubai.com	5,414,661
Spork Bytes	sporkbytes.com	5,534,118
La Casa Catering	lacasacatering.com	7,526,576

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Pros & Cons

Pros	Description
Little startup costs required	The cost to start a catering service costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 35,923.
Rewarding work	Starting a catering service can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.
High customer retention rates	Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.
Pick & choose the clients you work with	Catering Servicees have the ability to choose the clients they work with. You have the freedom to work with only a few loyal clients or with hundreds of clients!
Control of workload	With starting a catering service, you have the unique ability to choose how little or how much you want to work. You also have the freedom to decide which projects you want to work on, and can turn down the ones that do not interest you.
Gain exposure and experience	This career allows you to gain experience working for multiple different businesses - which will benefit your resume and also keep things interesting for you!

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Cons	Description
Motivation of employees	If you plan to have a sales/content team on board, finding creative ways to motivate them can be a challenge. It's important that you're able to offer great incentives and a good work environment for your employees.
Longer Sales Process	A catering service can be a big time and money investment for your customer, so it's important you plan and predict a longer conversion funnel and stay in communication with potential customers.
Work can be inconsistent	As a catering service, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have.
Lack of benefits	With a catering service, you are typically self-employed and responsible for finding your own insurance, which can be quite costly and time-consuming.
Taxes	As a catering service, you typically pay self-employment taxes which can be quite high. It's important to understand what you will be paying in taxes each year so you can determine if the work you're taking on is worth it.
No safety net	Typically, as a catering service, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times.

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Marketing Ideas

1

Direct Sales

Direct sales strategy implies a direct contact between a seller and a consumer without the involvement of any third party. Direct selling is popular in sectors where sellers communicate with their clientele personally. The sales technique occurs at non-store locations which include at home, work, or online.
For direct selling to succeed, hire a few (or many) salespeople to support the sales conversion process. It's critical that you assign them specific roles and responsibilities to nurture the client and provide excellent support.

Learn more about direct sales ➜
2

Word of mouth

Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

Learn more about word of mouth ➜
3

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.
Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.

Learn more about social media advertising ➜

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Key Stats

Startup Costs

Case Studies

Successful Businesses

6,971

30,542

1,013,226

1,790,590

5,311,785

5,407,513

5,414,661

5,534,118

7,526,576

Pros & Cons

Marketing Ideas

Direct Sales

Word of mouth

Social Media Advertising