Catering Detroit: Dividing the Good and the Bad

By James "Catering" Nicholson

Certain businesses, while not recession proof are largely recession-resistant. These include manufacturing jobs that make diapers, peanut butter and sodas - and surprisingly, event catering. While people habitually cut back on expenses during lean times, they still get married, they still hold family reunions and businesses still hold catered conferences to try to drum up sales. This means catering - even in Detroit - can be a sound business to get into.

Catering Detroit is like any other business opportunity. You need to go into it with your eyes open and a business plan. Understand what your costs are, understand who your customers are and work out how much business you need to have to turn a profit.

One of the most attractive benefits of starting your own catering business is that it doesn't usually require a huge amount of capital. To the contrary, catering Detroit can mean nothing more than starting out as a personal chef, providing a certain number of ready-prepared meals to families. You'd be surprised and just how many people hire a personal chef in order to prepare their meals, simply because they find it makes sense economically.

Basically, one of the first things you'll need to do is to calculate how much money you will require in order to purchase all the necessary ingredients. Also, you may need to upgrade your kitchen slightly in order to allow you to accept larger orders. You'll also need to consider how you should go about attracting new clients. Lastly but not least, you'll need to pay attention to transport, in that you'll need to deliver meals while they're still warm, even if it means you need to purchase several warming trays.

Your first clients when catering Detroit will probably come from friends and family, or from checking out the newspapers for wedding announcements. Useful ways to market can include dropping off your business cards at bridal shops, or talking to your local high school or middle school about catering dances; you'll have to low-ball some of these initial estimates, but the aim here is to display your cooking and efficiency to a group of people who might use you for family functions.

As far as your prices are concerned, you should always try to follow the golden rule, in that the price of a meal should be approximately three times more than the cost of the ingredients you use. You should also familiarize yourself with the various restrictions you'll inevitably encounter, such as is the case with halal food for Muslims and kosher for the Jews. Remember, being in a position to cater for these groups gives you the upper hand, in that you'll be able to reach a much larger number of people.

Another thing which you can't afford to overlook when you cater Detroit, is the fact that even though very few people suffer from peanuts allergies, the general public seems to be bordering on paranoia with regards to peanuts. For this reason, you may want to consider avoiding ingredients which contain nuts, particularly if you're catering to students or school kids.

The bottom line is; there are several catering opportunities in Detroit, irrespective of whether or not you yourself intend becoming a caterer. In fact, several people run their own catering business without being caterers themselves. Whether you choose to hire people, or whether you choose to do everything yourself, your biggest goal should always be to make a lasting impression. Remember, word-of-mouth advertising is the most powerful advertising in the world, and catering Detroit is no exception to the rule. - 29886

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