Need Some Advice.

[NascarFanTom19]

Hello everyone ~ This is my first post on this forum. Ive been part of other bbq forums and bbq Facebook pages. I wanted to join this forum because you all have a catering section. Here is my deal.

I have been perfecting my bbq for about 3 years now. Ive invested the time to take too bbq classes to try and learn more. I just got back from Myron Mixons cooking class and it was by far the best class Ive taken. Ive been serving my bbq at local events for about a year now and many of as me to cater their event. I had the City Mayor wanting me to cater their event and I turned it down as I did not think I was ready. I know how to cook the food but I don't know how to charge for my food.

I need some kind of formula. I've look at many bbq catering websites and its like they all charge different. They start out like $15 for 1 meat and two sides and you add x amount for each meat or side after that. But what confuses me is how they would change the amount of the meat as they add meats. For example if they were getting say 100 pounds of pulled pork for one meat and they wanted to add brisket or ribs how would I change the amount of pulled pork? Should I still give them 100 pounds of pulled pork or should it be less because I just added brisket. I know many do it this way. I just need to learn some basics so I can pit prices together and start offering catering. Ive built a catering website but I have not launched it yet due to not having prices.

A little lesson I learned ~ I had a customer call me and ash me for 100 pounds of pulled pork only so I thought this would be a easy first catering job so the price of the pork was $250 so I thought if I charge 3 times that it would be plenty. I called around at some bbq restaurants that charge by the pound and they were $14 a pound so as I thought $750 was a good price they were charging $1400. I always thought charging 3 times what it cost was good but it seems bbq places are charging a lot more.

Im in California ~ I do not have a restaurant but I do operate out of a professional kitchen just to give you a idea.

I want to add prices to my website and be educated on how to charge so I should like I know what Im talking about. I know when I do my street fairs I charge 3 times the cost but I know catering is much more. Any advice or some kind of formula. If I had a basic formula. I don't make enough money just doing street fairs and local events. I need to get my catering going. I need some help from. If you don't want to post on the thread because you don't want all to see please send me a message.

 

[landarc]

I saw that $14 a pound and thought, wow, that looks like CA pricing...and it is! Best of luck on your new venture.

IMO, the only proper way to price catering is to price per job, based upon what is expected. Obviously, if you want to publish prices, you can publish the prices for drop-off catering, in which case, you just price everything out at cost and add in your overhead and profit. There is no magic ratio, as everyone has a different set of expenses. For a brick and mortar, the 3X multiplier is a standard formula that has been proven to be close. But, to really make a go, you need to do the math. Understand each cost, don't forget labor and all the incidentals, those are what kills you.

Most places in California charge more because of the cost of real estate. You have to pay for that kitchen, the storage, costs for delivery of food, everything costs here. And don't forget the cost of insurance, licenses, training and serv-safe certification for all servers and food handlers. It all adds up.

 

[NascarFanTom19]

Ive seen people that charge $27 per person and that comes with 3 meats and 3 sides. Im sure each meats will have different cost. The other part I don't get is if they have 3 meats how much of each meat do they bring. Cooking the bbq was pretty easy. Learning this side of it has been challenging so far. But when people ask me what I charge I need to know what to say. It makes me look bad when I have no clue.

 

[landarc]

In terms of multiple meats, there are really just two way, provide all of the meat as if all are full meals, and charge accordingly, or reduce the projected portion sizes, and charge accordingly.

Of course, it is tricky, in that some folks will load up on only one meat, ignoring others, and sometimes one meat gets no love. That is where experience comes in to play. Especially with self-serve. It is very difficult to monitor a self-serve buffet and you will often run out of one meat before everyone gets a shot. Not much can be done there.

I like to figure 1/3 pound finished product per person, one meat
and 1/4 pound each per person finished product for two or more meats

 

[C Rocke]

Download the So Ezzy calculator from the Website here. Best tool I've used for purchasing, estimates, yield, and pricing.

 

[NascarFanTom19]

not sure where to see that essay calculator

 

[landarc]

Look for the post by SoEzzy at this link

 

[NascarFanTom19]

I think I found it in A google search when I type SOezzy calculator. I found it on the Yoders smoky mountain bbq website www.smokymtbarbecue.com

 

[HBMTN]

Basically you have to figure how much meat you are supplying and use the cost x 3 method as a reference to the minimum you should charge. This gets you in the ball park but there are other factors. Ground beef and brisket are fairly close to each other in cost but a hamburger takes 10 minutes to grill and brisket many hours (6-15). So if you simply used the cost x 3 method only you would make a lot more money serving hamburgers than you would brisket due to time involved. Make sense? Another factor is what will the market bare what what you have to offer. I think cost x 3 on pizza ingredients are probably less than $2 but Pizza Hut gets $20 a pop. I work off a factor of food cost in the 25-30%, staff labor no more than 10%, and cost of doing business of 15-20% so hopefully this leaves me 45% to invest back into my business and take a little profit. I'd like to squeeze more out of it but when I bring my prices up I don't get the bookings like I want so currently my market won't bare more.

 

[NascarFanTom19]

Basically you have to figure how much meat you are supplying and use the cost x 3 method as a reference to the minimum you should charge. This gets you in the ball park but there are other factors. Ground beef and brisket are fairly close to each other in cost but a hamburger takes 10 minutes to grill and brisket many hours (6-15). So if you simply used the cost x 3 method only you would make a lot more money serving hamburgers than you would brisket due to time involved. Make sense? Another factor is what will the market bare what what you have to offer. I think cost x 3 on pizza ingredients are probably less than $2 but Pizza Hut gets $20 a pop. I work off a factor of food cost in the 25-30%, staff labor no more than 10%, and cost of doing business of 15-20% so hopefully this leaves me 45% to invest back into my business and take a little profit. I'd like to squeeze more out of it but when I bring my prices up I don't get the bookings like I want so currently my market won't bare more.

I notice you have a Lang 84. Have you found your maximum number of people you can cater for on that pit. I have the same bbq. I bought mine with no grill and ended up expanding it and making a grill. I would upload a picture but I don't know how.

 

[bizznessman]

I think I found it in A google search when I type SOezzy calculator. I found it on the Yoders smoky mountain bbq website www.smokymtbarbecue.com

Now named The BBQ Catering Planner

LINKY

 

[Husker21]

Ha! I was just crunching some numbers today. That calculator is sweet!

Great advice being thrown out by multiple people.

 

[HBMTN]

I notice you have a Lang 84. Have you found your maximum number of people you can cater for on that pit. I have the same bbq. I bought mine with no grill and ended up expanding it and making a grill. I would upload a picture but I don't know how.

A lot of it depends n your menu. Where you run into problems is cooking sides. As far as meats only I could cook two loads in a night cooking hot and fast if I wanted to. I find that having hot holding and cooking sides to be the bigger issues. I also have a custom pit that I built about the size of a Lang 60 plus an FEC120. On the Lang alone I could feed about 650 people doing say pulled pork, baked beans and a cold side like cole slaw. I stuffed it one time with whole packer briskets and I can tell you it will hold 312lbs but that was packed for a charity and could not get a extra hotdog in there if I tried.

 

[TailGateJoecom]

Hello everyone ~ This is my first post on this forum. Ive been part of other bbq forums and bbq Facebook pages. I wanted to join this forum because you all have a catering section. Here is my deal.

I have been perfecting my bbq for about 3 years now. Ive invested the time to take too bbq classes to try and learn more. I just got back from Myron Mixons cooking class and it was by far the best class Ive taken. Ive been serving my bbq at local events for about a year now and many of as me to cater their event. I had the City Mayor wanting me to cater their event and I turned it down as I did not think I was ready. I know how to cook the food but I don't know how to charge for my food.

I need some kind of formula. I've look at many bbq catering websites and its like they all charge different. They start out like $15 for 1 meat and two sides and you add x amount for each meat or side after that. But what confuses me is how they would change the amount of the meat as they add meats. For example if they were getting say 100 pounds of pulled pork for one meat and they wanted to add brisket or ribs how would I change the amount of pulled pork? Should I still give them 100 pounds of pulled pork or should it be less because I just added brisket. I know many do it this way. I just need to learn some basics so I can pit prices together and start offering catering. Ive built a catering website but I have not launched it yet due to not having prices.

A little lesson I learned ~ I had a customer call me and ash me for 100 pounds of pulled pork only so I thought this would be a easy first catering job so the price of the pork was $250 so I thought if I charge 3 times that it would be plenty. I called around at some bbq restaurants that charge by the pound and they were $14 a pound so as I thought $750 was a good price they were charging $1400. I always thought charging 3 times what it cost was good but it seems bbq places are charging a lot more.

Im in California ~ I do not have a restaurant but I do operate out of a professional kitchen just to give you a idea.

I want to add prices to my website and be educated on how to charge so I should like I know what Im talking about. I know when I do my street fairs I charge 3 times the cost but I know catering is much more. Any advice or some kind of formula. If I had a basic formula. I don't make enough money just doing street fairs and local events. I need to get my catering going. I need some help from. If you don't want to post on the thread because you don't want all to see please send me a message.

When a client asks for 100lbs, they want 100lbs of COOKED product. Is your price of $250 based on 100lbs? If not, to get to 100 cooked would be about 200 raw. So 200x2.50 = 500 x 3 = $1,500. Also, was there any rub or sauce used?