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Re: Catering - for beginners -- turning pro (for $) (9/10/2000 12:58:12 PM by Elizabeth)

We take our raw food costs and multiply by 3.5. This will give you about a 30-35% food cost with all your paper and foil and stuff. You'll spend another 30-35% of your selling price on labor. You'll spend another 5% on rent and utilities for a catering kitchen, and another 5% on marketing and advertising and printing costs for your menus and things. Then there's insurance and paying the accountant and the lawyer; this added "stuff" comprises about 10% of our selling price. If you're very lucky, you'll end up with 10% to put in your own pocket. Don't ever forget to figure for your meat shrinkage. A 10-12# brisket only yields up 4# of usable meat; an 8# pork butt yields up 3.5-4# of usable meat. We charge $5.99 for a "small" meal of 1, 2, or 3 meats and two sides. We allow 1/5# of meat per person (5 guests to a pound), and 1/2 cup of each of two sides for a total of 1 cup total sides per person. We charge $6.99 for a "medium" sized meal of 1, 2, or 3 meats and two sides. The medium meal allows for 1/4# of meat per person (4 guests to a pound) and sides. We charge $7.99 for the "large" meal of 1, 2, or 3 meats and two sides. The large meal allows for 1/3# of meat per person (3 guests to a pound) and sides. On the small meal, we allow for 1.25 buns per guest, medium is 1.5 buns per guest, large is 1.75 buns per guest. Sauce is 1/2 cup of sauce per pound of meat. Be sure you're doing all the meat weights with post-cook weights. We've never charged different for how many meats they want because it's the total amount of meat that affects your costs, not how many meats you include. Which meal people should get depends upon who's eating and what time of day and what type of event. Men eat more than women; people eat more at dinner than at lunch; people eat more at social events than at business events. We also have rib meals; 1/2 rack babies and sides and cornbread for each guest is $12.99 per guest. Same meal with spares is $11.99 per guest. We also offer a combo of the little meal with 3 ribs added per guest. This is $9.50 for babies and $8.99 for spares. Don't overlook chicken; bone-in, skin-on quartered chickens have a very low food cost and a very high "oooh aaah" factor from the client and his/her guests. We charge $8.99 for a chicken dinner with two sides, and we figure two chicken quarters (equivalent to 1/2 a whole bird) per guest. It's our highest profit meal. Be sure to use good quality disposables (plates, flatware, napkins) because barbeque doesn't work so well with the cheap stuff. Think about some of the extra "fluff" that doesn't cost hardly anything but makes the client go ooh and aah because it increases the look of what they're getting: trays of butter mints, wetnaps, pickles, toothpicks, tellicherry peppers, etc. Catering can be the best of times, it can be the worst of times. NOTHING beats having a crowd of people openly worshipping your food, but nothing beats the sinking feeling as you return to your kitchen and realize you've got at least 5 hours of clean-up and dishwashing to do! It can be a fun and profitable sideline to your day job, or you can turn it into a company. But do keep your eye on the business aspects of what you're doing: the bookkeeping is critical and so are profits. And always remember that 95% of mom & pop food business fail...you must keep this always in your mind and commit yourself to being in the 5% that succeed.

Replies to this message

Re: Catering - for beginners -- turning pro (for $) (9/10/2000 1:36:44 PM by smokin okie)
wow, thanks Elizabeth. Lots of info.  Guess my best idea is still the best one, and that is to get adopted by someone who already has a successful business... LOL.  Really, thanks <more>

Re: Catering - for beginners -- turning pro (for $) (9/10/2000 6:22:50 PM by BlueSmoke)
Elizabeth: do you use "canned" software on a day-to-day basis for bookkeeping, inventory control, etc.? What are your thoughts and recommendations?

Re: Catering - for beginners -- turning pro (for $) (9/10/2000 6:48:49 PM by Fast Eddy)
How many # of butts or briskets will you cook this year?

Re: Catering - for beginners -- turning pro (for $) (9/11/2000 12:22:15 AM by Ken-K)
Massive quantity of info!  And.........how's that book of yours coming along? (You know, the one that was suggested on this Forum a while back.)  

Elizabeth, what happens when... (9/11/2000 7:26:05 AM by BBQ Jones)
you get a "cheap" customer who orders the small meal to feed their construction crew? How do you handle a situation like that? Also, do you inlude paying yourselves in your labor costs?  Th <more>

Elizabeth, please take this the right way.... (9/11/2000 9:35:25 AM by Rickstir)
U da MAN!  

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