Those passionate about parties or cooking can now realize their dream of working from home at something they enjoy. Denise Vivaldo shares her experiences and advice on all the essentials and more, including estimating start-up costs and pricing services, finding clients, outfitting one’s kitchen, and honing food presentation skills.
Do you enjoy cooking for others? Is your buffet table a work of art? Are your parties the best in the neighborhood? Then catering may be a great career for you! It's all here-from getting licenses and choosing the perfect name to developing menus and getting the word out. Seasoned food expert and caterer Joyce Weinberg covers all aspects of the catering business and shares her secrets to success with you, including how to: Choose a specialty-fancy fundraisers, company and family picnics, or romantic weddings; Learn the ropes before you start your business; Create a marketing plan that gets your company noticed by all the right people; Find clients and generate repeat customers. The Everything Guide to Starting and Running a Catering Business is all you need to make your passion your profession!
Catering continues to be an expanding industry. The author is an experienced chef with extensive knowledge of the hospitality industry. She has updated information and expanded on the role of social media.
Bring Your Fresh Ideas to Market and Profit Fueled by growing consumer demand for new tastes, cleaner ingredients, health benefits, and more convenient ways to shop and eat, the business of specialty food is taking off at full speed. This step-by-step guide arms entrepreneurial foodies like yourself with an industry overview of market trends, useful research for your marketing plan, and insight from practicing specialty food business owners. Determine your key growth drivers, opportunities, and how you can differentiate from other food businesses. Discover how to: Find the right avenue for your specialty food business: home-based, retail shop, production, wholesale, or distribution Create a solid business plan, get funded, and get the essential equipment Get the right licenses, codes, permits, insurance for your operations Gain a competitive edge using market and product research Find a profitable location, partnerships, and in-store shelf space Promote your business, products, and services online and offline Attract new and loyal customers using social media platforms to build your community of foodie fans. Manage daily operations, costs, and employees Plus, get valuable resource lists, sample business plans, checklists, and worksheets
Describes different ways to enter the catering business, identifies essential skills and knowledge, and offers advice on equipment, food quality, staff, marketing, pricing, and contracts.
Are you one of the many people who dream of making a profit selling your own homemade foods? Now, with this one-of-a-kind, easy-to-follow guide, you can realize your home-based food business dreams! With over 30 years' experience, author Mimi Shotland Fix takes you step-by-step through the process of starting and running a food business.Whether you've always envisioned yourself with a home-based food business, need a second source of income or want to stay at home and be your own boss, Start & Run a Home-Based Food Business offers dozens of tips, examples and advice for you to run a profitable business from your own kitchen! The bonus download kit features resources and forms in PDF and MS Word formats. This includes: lists of books, websites and trade magazines, national and regional suppliers, sample contracts, invoices and accounting forms, tried-and-true recipes, and more!
Drive your food truck business to success While food trucks may not be the new kid on the block anymore, it's a segment that continues to swell—and there's still plenty of room for growth. If you have your sights set on taking your culinary prowess on the road, Running a Food Truck For Dummies, 2nd Edition helps you find your food niche, follow important rules of conducting business, outfit your moving kitchen, meet safety and sanitation requirements, and so much more. Gone are the days of food trucks offering unappealing prepackaged meals, snacks, and coffee. In today's flourishing food service industry, they're more like restaurants on wheels, offering eager curbside patrons everything from gourmet tacos and Korean BBQ to gluten-free pastries and healthy vegan fare. Whether you're the owner or operator of an existing food truck business looking to up the ante or a chef, foodie, or gourmand interested in starting your own mobile restaurant endeavor, Running a Food Truck For Dummies has you covered. Create a food truck business plan to set yourself up for success Stay profitable by avoiding the most common operating mistakes Harness public relations and social media to build your following Grow from one truck to multiple trucks, restaurants, or a food truck franchise Packed with the latest information on legislation and ordinances, securing loans, and marketing to the all-important Millennials, this one-stop guide helps you cook up a well-done food truck venture in no time!
Start Your Own Food Truck Business and Satisfy Your Hunger for Success At over a billion dollars, the mobile food industry is enjoying more publicity and notoriety than ever before. Catering to a new generation of foodies looking for quick and unique specialties, the mobile food business is booming with new opportunities for eager entrepreneurs like you. From gourmet food to all-American basics and hot dog wagons to bustaurants, our experts give you the delicious details behind starting and running a successful mobile food business. This guide covers: Six of the hottest mobile food options: food carts, concession trailers, kiosks, standard and gourmet trucks, mobile catering, and bustaurants Identifying the perfect foodie niche and customer base Creating menu items that save time, money, and space in the kitchen Finding a profitable location, time and time again Attracting new and loyal customers with social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter Managing daily operations, costs, and setting prices Licenses, codes, regulations, parking, and other considerations Plus, gain recipes, shopping lists, favorite equipment buys and more from practicing food truck entrepreneurs. From choosing a vehicle to franchising and everything in between, learn what you need to know to get your business moving toward success!
James Beard Award–winning journalists expose food industry secrets in “the Kitchen Confidential of the big-ticket catering world” (New York Times). Hotbox reveals the real-life drama behind cavernous event spaces and soaring white tents, where cooking conditions have more in common with a mobile army hospital than a restaurant. Award-winning food writers the Lee brothers steeped themselves in the catering business for four years, learning the culture from the inside out. It’s a realm where you find eccentric characters, working in extreme conditions, who must produce magical events and instantly adapt when, for instance, the host’s toast runs a half-hour too long, a hail storm erupts, or a rolling rack of hundreds of ice cream desserts goes wheels-up. Whether they’re dashing through black-tie fundraisers or celebrity-spotting at a Hamptons cookout, the Lee brothers guide you on a romp from the inner circle—the elite team of chefs using little more than their wits and Sterno to turn out lamb shanks for eight hundred—to the outer reaches of the industries that facilitate the most dazzling galas. You’ll never attend a party—or entertain on your own—in the same way after reading this book. “Lively . . . [with] just the right combination of sophistication and self-deprecation [to] show us what really goes on behind the scenes.” —The Wall Street Journal “An absorbing, immersive, appetizing tale, written with sharp intelligence and style.” —Susan Orlean, New York Times–bestselling author of The Library Book “Brilliant, gleeful . . . full of tips and secrets.” —Bill Buford, national bestselling author of Heat “[A] captivating tell-all.” —Publishers Weekly
In this invaluable reference, The Culinary Institute of America provides all the information that caterers and would-be caterers need to set up and run a successful catering business of any kind. From launching the business, establishing pricing, setting up a kitchen, staffing, and marketing to planning events, organizing service, preparing food, managing the dining room and beverages, and developing menus, it provides detailed guidance on every aspect of the catering business, showing operators how to troubleshoot and creatively solve problems. Illustrated throughout with 50 photographs and 30 black-and-white illustrations, Catering is an indispensable guide for anyone who wants to succeed in this highly competitive field.
