1st big catering job

Well I have my first big catering job tomorrow. Cooking for the wifes bank. 140 people and I'm in charge of pulled pork sandwhichs, beans, and the homeade sauce. We charged for a drop off service including chafing dishes but I think I'm gonna go ahead and serve for free to kind of get my name out there with the other bank branches. Hopefully will be able to get a christmas catering job out of at least one of them. Hopefully it all goes well.

Best of luck! Put on a great show for them!

I made a decision about my catering that I don't drop off food. I want to be there to serve and supervise the handling of my product as well as to put my name out to all the people attending that I care about the product and can answer questions about future jobs. Everyone is different but that is how I do it as I believe that the hour or so to serve will be worth the time in the long run. I want to set myself apart from the other BBQ guys in the area who will drop and run. I want to meet the ownership and become their BBQ caterer because of my product and attention to detail not because I am the cheapest price, besides that, when they set up and serve themselves what extra value have you brought them? I believe that you don't want to be just another BBQ caterer or you will end up just another BBQ caterer.

Have not done any catering, but plenty background in business to business sales.
Make sure to not go empty handed. Print out a miniflyer, like 4 or 6 to a page, instead business cards if you do not have them made up already. Make sure your name, not just business name is on them somewhere. Lots of folks overlook the opportunity to market with their name/brand out of the gate because they are so focused on the cooking/service part. Just a helpful FYI..

Smiter Q said:

Have not done any catering, but plenty background in business to business sales.
Make sure to not go empty handed. Print out a miniflyer, like 4 or 6 to a page, instead business cards if you do not have them made up already. Make sure your name, not just business name is on them somewhere. Lots of folks overlook the opportunity to market with their name/brand out of the gate because they are so focused on the cooking/service part. Just a helpful FYI..

Click to expand...

Exactly. After 30 years in the insurance business it all comes down to marketing to get the business and service to keep the business.

Well all the event turned out great. They only ended up with 85 people instead of the 140 but are paying for all 140. We got our name out there to several people. We have catered one of the bank branches before and they loved it. Everyone said they loved the food and got great reviews over our new sauce that I debuted Saturday night. Lets hope that this continues and I can get many more jobs like this to get things going in the right direction. Sorry the camera was out of batteries so no pics unfortuneatly. I know my neighbors were hungry all day though because I kept having them come over asking for samples