It may be that you have been working in catering as an employee for a time and would like to open your own business. Or perhaps you have always wanted to be in the food industry, with catering at the front of the aspirational list. You could, of course, be starting out from a totally different non-catering direction, but with a passion for food, as well as wanting to be your own boss. Whatever your background, you’ll need to consider what your first step to get into the business will be. There are four tried and tested ways to become a caterer:

Starting Your Own Business From Scratch

Many small caterers have started from scratch. Peter’s experience is very much in keeping with those who start from nothing. You may decide to open your own business after several successes organising and cooking for large functions for family, friends or fundraising events. Or you may have worked in catering and decide you can do better, as in Peter’s case.

Party Ingredients has risen to cater for the Queen Mother’s 100th birthday celebrations at the City of London’s Guildhall, 10 Downing Street, state banquets, weddings, charity events and private parties. Peter is very much a hands-on employer who cooks at one of his restaurants as well as running the business.

Most caterers start part time from their kitchens on a very small scale. There are, however, lots of things to prepare. For example, you will need ample refrigeration and separate storage space amongst other things. You will have to check with your local environmental health officer who will need to inspect your kitchen for health and safety reasons, and you must register your premises with the environmental health service at your local authority at least 28 days before opening. You must get liability insurance too as you could to be sued if food poisoning or an accident occurs.

There is more information on the dos and don’ts and must-haves as set down by the Food Safety Agency in Chapter 4.

The growth of the small caterer is by word of mouth but marketing is of vital importance too. Gone are the days when you could just hope for client referral to make a decent living in anything, including catering. See Chapter 6 for lots of information about marketing.

Going down this home route has many advantages: it keeps overheads to a minimum, works around family life, and still, hopefully, gives you time for your own interests. You will be able to assess if this is the business for you after a period of time. If not, just pull out gracefully with little investment and expense apart from perhaps bruised pride.

You may decide you like cooking and serving food professionally, organising the party, and enjoy the interaction with clients. If you find that you are in demand and that your stamina and family aren’t suffering, you could be on to a winning career.

Making Your Business Unique

Of course, home catering covers all sorts of food preparation. If, for example, your forte is cake-making, you could market it well. But does it have a unique selling point? It has to stand out from the crowded cake market to be a success.

This applies to any product. It must be good enough to give you a reasonable profit margin, taking into account all your other costs such as your ingredients, packaging, overheads (lighting, gas, electricity, phone calls, labelling, cleaning materials, petrol). And don’t forget to factor in your own, very precious, time too.

Take a leaf out of Ursula’s book. She decided to branch out by selling ready-made meals at farmers’ markets, making home-made terrines, pates, dips and other specialities using local produce. Keeping up with trends and reinventing a business is an excellent way to keep it fresh, alive and exciting. Find your own unique selling point to make the grade. Look at what is happening locally or nationally and adapt the best ideas to suit your business.