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.

Reputation is one of the most consideration that the lenders, such as bank will take a look when you are about to apply for a credit for your company. The credit score becomes one of the important considerations to grant you the credit or business loan that you apply.

That reason is basically more than enough to encourage you to buy the aged corporations to start your business. The very advantage that you are likely to get is the reputation and credit score that may increase your bargaining position to get the loan from your company. If you want to find aged corporations for sale, you can simply visit AgedCorporations2Go.com. The website is the leading company that provides you the selection of aged shelf corporations with the lowest price guarantee. You only need to spend 30 second to fill the online form to get the instant quote generating the cheapest aged corporations.

The website provides the option to get the aged corporations with credit to make you at ease finding the company with the best price and reputation to start your business. There are many other benefits that you can get from purchasing the aged shelf corporation from the website such as the free IRS company registration. You are also able to join their broker program to establish the win-win solution partnership with the company and get the multiple benefits from the aged corporations for sale that you have successfully brokered.

I love the end of the financial year and that is not because I spent so many years at the Treasury Department! In January we set New Year’s resolutions but we often set them without clear indicators of success. If this is you, consider that money is one very tangible indicator of success – it is by no means the only indicator, but it is an easy one to measure. Where you are financially is a direct result of where you are emotionally, physically and spiritually.

Mid year is when we are gently encouraged by the tax department/IRS to take stock of our financial situation – what we earned, what we saved, what we invested and where we are now. Accept this gift by the tax dept/IRS and rather than looking at it as a chore, use it for something wonderful – taking stock of your life and not just your income!

How does this work? I suggest this financial year, when you do your tax, take the next step.

1. Stop and closely look at where you are financially.
2. Consider – how am I directly and personally contributing to this by my attitude, skills or approach.
3. Consider what beliefs you may be carrying that are directly creating this financial outcome.
4. Our top 5 personal values are where we focus our money, time and energy. If your family is important to you, then you will spend your time and money on them in preference to other things. If you are not happy with where you are spending your money and your time, what needs to change?
5. Stop and work out your personal and financial goals for the coming financial year using on the “Goals that Work” article to guide you.
6. Write down your goals on your diary or calendar and review them monthly when you review your personal financial situation.

Personal Attitude, Skills and Approach DOES Matter

But I own a business, you may say. How does my personal attitude, skills or approach impact on my business earnings? Up to 80% of any business success is directly attributable to the management team. They are human like all of us, so have strengths and weaknesses. If you are part of the management team or the owner, your individual strengths or weaknesses reflect in your business. For example:

o You may be a great visionary, with amazing dreams. However, you may not be good with the day to day detail of bills/invoices and internal administrative processes. You create grand plans for expansion while the current business slowly falls apart at the foundations due to poor internal controls.

o You may be great at the day to day business of the business, but have no spark for the future. You will never reach the full potential of the business.

o You may be great at delivering outcomes, but a terrible manager of people. Your business will see high turnover, low morale and people not performing to their potential – all at a cost to the profitability of the business .

o You may create fantastic products, but not be a great communicator or not be willing to stand up and be “visible” to stakeholders, so your products gather dust or new clients are slow to come into the business.

This also applies if you work for other people. Even if you are a paid employee, you still also work for a company called “Me Inc”. How successful Me Inc is, depends on you and your attitude, skills or approach to your job.

o You may be great at initiating projects, but not so great at following through on the details or completing the task. Where else do you fail to complete in your life?

o You may be happy to go to work, doing your 8 hours and just getting paid, and living only for weekends. You are only going through the motions, not living your passion or your dream. Weekends are only 2 days out of 7 – what a hard, dry life for the most part!

o You may get things done, but no one in the team likes you or wants to work with you, so you get the projects that no-one likes or you only work on your own.

So, if you want to change your outcomes, you may need to change your personal attitude, skills and approach.

Beliefs

Your financial situation also is linked to your personal beliefs. If you believe it is better to give than receive, money will go out faster than come in. If you believe that to be spiritual you need to be poor – guess what you create.

To check out some of your beliefs on wealth – write down as many things you can think of in relation to the following:

Rich people are ….

Rich people never ….

Rich people always …

Money can’t …

Next go through each one and see if this is true 100% of the time. Counter all negative beliefs with at least 3 situations where this has not held true in your life or in the life of others.

Finally work out belief you want to adopt in relation to wealth and then convert it to an affirmation and use it regularly this financial year to shift your beliefs.