I want to start a catering business

[Chefpig]

I live in a seaside town which is deprived in places, however the nearest surrounding towns (2 miles away) are affluent.

I currently work in an office but cooking is a big passion of mine and something I'm excellent at.

I want to start a catering business. Does anyone have one? Is it possible to be a one-woman catering business?

My plan is initially cater for business lunches, picnics, maybe small birthday parties? I want a focus on fresh, local ingredients.

I'm aware that I will have to have my kitchen inspected and be certified in food hygiene.

Is this a pipe dream?

It's not necessarily a pipe dream, but I'd certainly be doing more research before jumping in.

It's likely to take you a couple of years to be able to earn a full time income, can you fund that?

Just because an area is affluent doesn't mean there is demand for that service, or a lack of others offering it. You'll need something to really set you apart from competitors.

The other thing that strikes me is your desire to only do small catering jobs, these won't be worth it in the long run and I can't imagine there are many people who would require catering for a picnic or a business lunch, when they can pop into a deli who would take care of that.

My plan is initially cater for business lunches, picnics, maybe small birthday parties

Nearly all supermarkets provide this and obviously their prices are quite competitive.

So I'd check those out and also check the local FB groups for competition.

Good luck ☘

They usually insist on your having a second sink installed.

Environmental Health Officers (EHOs) are primarily concerned with ensuring adequate procedures are in place to manage hygiene risks, especially in a domestic setting.

• Handwashing: A separate facility must be provided for handwashing, exclusively for that purpose. This must have hot and cold running water, soap, and hygienic hand-drying facilities (like disposable paper towels). If you have a sink-and-a-half, the smaller half could be designated for this, or in some cases, a sink in a downstairs bathroom might be acceptable if easily accessible.

Business Plan?
Make sure that thers is a market for what you are offering, when I was in Corporat we used Caterers like you describe but by the time I left one of us would just nip to the nearest decent supermarket instead.

Yes my friend runs this type of business. And seems to enjoy it.

But she is very experienced and doesn’t seem to advertise at all - word of mouth and referrals

I don’t believe she lives off the income. Her husband is a farmer so the lifestyle is flexible and he’s often roped in to help.

December is mental for her. Lots of parties and Christmas dinners.

And the summer with weddings - which are a huge huge amount of work.

Honestly no. You aren’t offering anything at all that’s new, unique or novel AND you want to do it from home? If you get a request for a buffet for even 60 people, you will need a huge amount of fridge space to store ingredients and cooked products, how will you rapid cook them before cooking? and how can you deliver and transport food? Do you have a van or do you propose just putting trays on the floor of your boot? ? I’ve got a tcross and often cater to family events as I used to run a kitchen but even I struggle with fridge space ( despite having an 5ft tall fridge and chest freezer) .

food hygiene and allergy standards are higher than ever and it’s a very very long journey to becoming compliant. You need to keep and record every single allergen risk in every single item. Great if you are buying pre-made cake /biscuits/whatever from a shop as it’s already done but every single time you alter a recipe even for a tsp of an ingredient you have to update your allergens. Record keeping, temperature checks, COSHH and chemical storage all need to be considered.

my sister runs a small conical kitchen and has 2 other paid part time members of staff doing 12 and 20 hours. She is full time. and around 6 volunteers. Takes in about £2k a week and that just about keeps them ticking over and the wages paid. Some weeks it doesn’t , some weeks it could be a bit more. She 100% couldn’t do it without volunteering staff. She spends around 12-16 hours a week on emails, paper work, allergens, ordering, maintenance and doing jobs to improve the ever tightening food/hygeine rating scores.

I get why you want to do it but you need a very unique idea that doesn’t already exist in your area. One that appeared on ours was handmade sourdough pizza. They do a great trade and moved from a catering van to a unit recently. That’s the only recent successful food business in my area. We have had multiple failed cake/pudding shops that look lovely but only do milkshakes and waffles with ice cream. Flopped, all of them. Smash burgers failed because, well, it’s just a burger innit and we already had 5-6 pizza/burger places. A catering van started Jamaican food bout he failed. We do have another Jamaican pop up in a local pub once a /2 months but that’s not really a full time business.

Rapid cool before refrigerating that should say.

I don’t think it’s a pipe dream, but I’d definitely start small and test the demand before making it your full-time income. Business lunches and smaller events seem like a good way to build a customer base and get referrals. I’d also think carefully about pricing, prep time, delivery, staffing and how you’ll handle larger orders as the business grows. The cooking is only one part of running a catering business.

Don’t. It’s incredibly hard work. You’re dealing with perishables. People don’t want to pay for the hours you’ll spend on it. Food costs are increasing. It’s exhausting. The admin / EHO / HMRC / staff……. Regulations re travel/transport/insurance is insane.

it was my dream too. Until I was in it.

I have only known one person do this but it was a while age and she had worked as a chef for years. She was successful, sold her business as a going concern. I do know a fair few people who have worked in restaurants, my parents used to own one and one of my nephews became a chef and had his own restaurant and my sister and her DH ran a pub for years that did great food, she was the cook. Working in any sort of catering environment is relentless. I also love cooking and I’m pretty good having been taught a lot by my parents and for that reason, that I love cooking I would never want to work in catering.

I looked in to having caterers for a get together of 30 this year when I saw the prices I just did it myself. Are you talking simple stuff sandwiches and quiches for lunches or the good stuff that requires some skill?

I wish you the very best if you go ahead with it and please do remember to get yourself critical illness insurance.

Lunchtime catering is dying out - the quality of what was being provided by delis and sandwich places has declined. Also attitudes have changed and the board no longer expects a fancy lunch, they want a working lunch. People are not prepared to pay for what catering entails so caterers increasingly rely on pre-prepared foods to cut their costs. One we used occasionally closed after over 20 years as business never recovered after the pandemic. We go to a supermarket to cater for meetings at work.

I know someone who set up a catering business a couple of years ago. She pretty much buys from Costco and repackages things into individual lunch boxes. That's not catering for anyone who enjoys the cooking part of it!

Being a private chef is likely to be more lucrative, but a lot of work. You'll be competing against people who have been to catering college, worked in restaurants and other areas of hospitality, etc. Very difficult to get established.

Is it Blackpool
Im thinking Lythem St Annes is affluent ?
If so there wull be an awful lot of competition.

Don't assume that people who live in 'an affluent area' will spend money with you. We had a restaurant in an affluent South coast city. Very few locals ate with us on a regular basis, mostly tourists for lunch and people who travelled for a special dinner. The locals spent most of their money on their expensive mortgage, school fees and train season ticket to get to work. So don't be fooled by how an area looks - you need to do robust research and build a solid business plan. Ideally you'll have at least a years salary in savings but don't expect to make any money for several years. (I know a private chef who earns big money but he's a proper chef with years in Michelin kitchens behind him and has industry leaders and celebrities amongst his clients but even he says it's much harder than it was.) Personally I wouldn't go back into hospitality especially when money is tight for all but the most wealthy.