Business and Finance Tips

Starting a small catering business can be a lot of fun. If you do it right, it can also make you a great deal of money. However, there are a lot of things that need to be done initially before you get carried away. If you don’t follow the right procedures, your whole business could wind up in jeopardy.

The first thing that every small catering business needs is a name and a business license. You will also want to determine how you will form your business entity such as an LLC, sole proprietorship, or corporation.

After that, you’ll want to get a tax ID number from the IRS. Be sure to look into which agencies handle the licensing in your state. You may be able to get some tips from other small business owners, since the process is similar for a lot of business owners.

One area where your small catering business may differ from other businesses is that you will need food service and liquor licenses.
The government takes food service very seriously and monitors the food quality, storage and preparation facility of every business where food service is involved.

Although a liquor license isn’t a requirement for a small catering business, it is a requirement for anyone who serves alcohol. Since most catered events involve alcohol, it would be in your best interest to get a liquor license. In fact, it could mean the difference between having a small catering business that flops and having one that thrives and grows into a large successful enterprise.

It is easy to become excited about the prospect of owning your own business, but remember that even a small catering business involves a lot of work. You may feel that you can juggle many tasks, but sometimes there just aren’t enough hands or enough hours in the day.

If you think about it, it really makes good business sense to hire some extra help, or at least line up some on-call helpers that you can bring in when you’re in a pinch. After all, larger events are going to require a lot more people to make things work efficiently.

Starting any business can be a strain on your wallet, so it will pay to remember this before you even begin. You may need to take out a loan. You can expect it to cost a few thousand dollars to get the right equipment and licensing, and insurance you will need.

Also, consider the costs of advertising and marketing, such as a graphic designer, newspaper or TV ads, or a company website and web master.

All of these things and more need to be considered before you ever try to get a small catering business off the ground.

Many small businesses today are using social media to promote their products and services. This can be a great tool but it also has some traps that you need to avoid.

Be careful what you post. You don’t want to alienate your potential customers by posting your thoughts on politics, religion or other topics that are sensitive to a specific group of people. Think of interacting on Facebook the same way you would interact with a stranger at a party. If what you are about to post is not something you would say to this person, then don’t use it in your newsfeed. Ask yourself “Is this something I would share with one of my customers?”

Be careful what photos you are sharing. Facebook is popular for its ability to share photos. Be careful what photos you share from your vacation or a social event. Also, don’t tag someone in a photo without their permission. Be especially careful with photos when alcohol is involved. It is easy to forget that when you post a photo to someone’s personal profile – it is public to all of their friends. Ask yourself, “would I want someone to post this about me?”

Double check your updates before you click on “Share.” It is easy to misunderstand or misinterpret what someone says online. When you use non-verbal communication, you are stripping 80% of the non-verbal communication from the post. This will increase the likelihood that you will be misunderstood. Keep these simple rules in mind:

Unless you can to highlight something, don’t use capital letters. This is considered yelling at someone. Remember that spelling is important. Many social media sites don’t have spell check ability. You may want to create your post in a word processor and then copy and paste it into our newsfeed. Always double check the spelling of someone’s name if used in your post. On this note, it is considered rude to point out someone else’s misspelled words. Remember this is a public forum and no one wants to look like they don’t know what they are doing.

Be careful who you associate with. Once you have connected with someone, if they are making you feel uncomfortable with what they are posting, break the connection. You are who you associate with and this holds true on Facebook and in real life. If you are uncomfortable with breaking the relationship, send them a private message explaining why what they are doing or saying is making you feel this way. They may be totally unaware that what they are doing is offensive.

Use social media to post business events not personal. Social media is a great way to get the word out about a business event and spread the word. However, intimate events such as dinner parties should be kept off social media. This is not the place to invite people to a baby shower or wedding. I recently had a business friend who invited me to an event at her home via Facebook. She caused quite a stir and hurt a lot of people when they were not invited to the event. So if it is not a public event, keep it off social media sites.

Every one of us has wants. All of us want things. A lot of people have things they want to achieve or do. Some wish to have some things, in order to own them. In other cases there is something you want to be or be able to do.

Maybe you have a burning desire to lose weight, as an illustration. A lot of us want that, and it’s really not too hard to accomplish once you fully understand how to. The next few paragraphs can assist you to reach your objective and lose weight. If you want to learn how, simply keep reading; learn how to lose weight in three simple and easy steps…

The initial step is to change the type of foods that you are eating. This is very important because if your diet is high in refined white flour then you are going to struggle to lose weight. In this first step, avoiding foods such as white bread, pasta and pastries could be very important.

You should accomplish this initial step correctly, thoroughly and well. Failing to do this very first step well would probably bring about frustration, because your body will be burning this as fuel instead of fat.

Your 2nd step is going to be cut out sugar. With this step you really need to avoid fizzy drinks and also alcohol. Your body treats sugar the same as refined white flour and will again burn this instead of fat. Sugar is hidden in so much of what we consume anyway so do your best to make sure you do not add to it through fizzy drinks and alcohol. .

Your 3rd and ultimate step will be to do some exercise. The reason this is very important is that it gets your metabolism going and starts your body off burning up fat. For this last step it’s going to be important that you avoid thinking you need to take out an expensive gym membership, brisk walking for half an hour a day would be a good place to start.

For the reasons given, it is best to be certain to follow every single step carefully. You really need to steer clear of the trouble spots that have been outlined. Avoid possible problems by carefully adopting the above suggestions.

You can lose weight and do it well, with maximum speed and ease. All that will be left to do is to celebrate your success!