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Does it ever go away?

medic92

medic92

is one Smokin' Farker
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We catered a wedding this evening, pulled pork, brisket, mac & cheese, slaw. We added a snack bar with buffalo ranch chicken dip, fresh fruit, vegetable trays and a trail mix bar. Everything went great and they enjoyed the food.


After it was over, I had the same feeling I've had with every catering job. "Wow, I can't believe we got away with it!" As if we're just playing at doing this and I'm surprised we pulled it off again. It's weird.
 
Ha! I know the feeling exactly. Relief, exhaustion, and proudness(not sure that’s a word) wrapped into one feeing.
 
It does not, and the reason is the longer you do it the bigger the jobs get and the more you take on and the pressure is just builds from there. You will look back at what amazes you today about 5 years from now and laugh because you'll think man I could knock that out in my sleep now.
 
HBMTN said:
It does not, and the reason is the longer you do it the bigger the jobs get and the more you take on and the pressure is just builds from there. You will look back at what amazes you today about 5 years from now and laugh because you'll think man I could knock that out in my sleep now.
Click to expand...


This one was more relaxed than the first few because we've got the timing down and we actually write down a schedule and timeline for what we're doing.


Every wedding I've ever attended or been in has had a disaster of some sort that's the talk of the wedding and every anniversary afterwards. At my wedding the flowers weren't wrapped against the cold and were wilted and dead for the wedding. 13 years later we still talk about it.


My biggest fear and what drives me to be as perfect as possible for these events is the fear of being the wedding disaster. "Everything went great but the caterers screwed everything up!" I don't ever want to be the disaster.
 
That's exactly how you gain a reputation. Sounds like your well on the way to a very successful business. :-D
 
I been catering for about 3 years now. And I have been progressively busier each year. My feeling after EVERY job is "Man I hope I didn't screw that up." I am relieved when it is over, but I also deal with a sense of dread hoping it all went well.

I do a lot of local social media marketing and get a lot of referrals from the reviews that people write about us on the local community pages. It amazes me how almost everyone I cater goes online to review me. I've been lucky to get great reviews and that has help to expand my business. But whenever I am done with a party I wait for that review to pop up and the dread doesn't go away until I see it. I KNOW the stuff was really good, but I still worry! Only after I get one of those positive reviews do I relax and then get that sense of accomplishment.

I also send follow up emails after the party to see how they liked everything. I seriously have not had a negative response or review...yet I worry.

I've heard how some of the best athletes are driven more by the fear of losing then the desire to win. I guess that is kind of what drives me.
 
SwineGuy said:
I been catering for about 3 years now. And I have been progressively busier each year. My feeling after EVERY job is "Man I hope I didn't screw that up." I am relieved when it is over, but I also deal with a sense of dread hoping it all went well.

I do a lot of local social media marketing and get a lot of referrals from the reviews that people write about us on the local community pages. It amazes me how almost everyone I cater goes online to review me. I've been lucky to get great reviews and that has help to expand my business. But whenever I am done with a party I wait for that review to pop up and the dread doesn't go away until I see it. I KNOW the stuff was really good, but I still worry! Only after I get one of those positive reviews do I relax and then get that sense of accomplishment.

I also send follow up emails after the party to see how they liked everything. I seriously have not had a negative response or review...yet I worry.

I've heard how some of the best athletes are driven more by the fear of losing then the desire to win. I guess that is kind of what drives me.
Click to expand...


That's the same way we are. We send thank you cards out after every job and if we don't hear anything positive we just assume everything was terrible.

We've been really well-received in our small town. Our Facebook page has 71 reviews. 70 5-star reviews and one 4-star review who still swears she meant to hit five stars. Whenever she comes to the trailer I holler at my wife to get the four-star meat out for her.
 
medic92 said:
We catered a wedding this evening, pulled pork, brisket, mac & cheese, slaw. We added a snack bar with buffalo ranch chicken dip, fresh fruit, vegetable trays and a trail mix bar. Everything went great and they enjoyed the food.


After it was over, I had the same feeling I've had with every catering job. "Wow, I can't believe we got away with it!" As if we're just playing at doing this and I'm surprised we pulled it off again. It's weird.
Click to expand...

In your situation, no. When you cook all your meat in the oven, with liquid smoke, and sell it as authentic BBQ - you'll always have that "I can't believe I got away with it" feeling..

Congrats on pulling it off, though..
 
Last edited:
"We send thank you cards out after every job and if we don't hear anything positive we just assume everything was terrible."

Remember, people almost always share a negative review before they would share a positive one. If you don't hear anything, they were probably very happy.
 
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