Are you ready to start your own catering company? Discover the benefits and steps you need to accomplish for a successful catering business by using one of our Catering Plan Templates. At Template.net, we offer you unlimited choices of high-quality and printable templates that will guide you in making a top-notch catering business plan. We assure you that our templates are ready-made that is 100% customizable through your favorite programs such as Google Docs, Microsoft Word, and Apple Pages, PDF for an easy editing experience. Do not waste any more time and start making the best out of it by downloading our premium templates now!
What Is a Catering Plan?
The catering industry is one of the few nearly recession-proof businesses in the United States since it saw a spike of 1.8 percent annually from 2010 through 2015. Even though the economy is bad, individuals will still hold baby showers, funerals, weddings, parties and graduations from high school.
People would usually hire event planners to take care of everything including food catering. Some hotels and restaurants would explore the catering industry, however, there will be individuals who would run a catering business. These individuals would need to have a catering plan before they could start their own catering company. Just like the business plan, a catering plan plays an essential role in starting a business. This will allow interested investors to see what you offer and how you plan to stand out from the competition in the catering industry.
How to Create an Impressive Catering Plan
You will need to invest a lot of time and effort into creating an impressive catering plan. You can either download a ready-made template or start from a blank page. If you have decided to make your own, then just follow the guide below to how and what you should include in your catering plan.
1. Executive Summary
In this section of the catering plan, it gives a short introduction or overview of your catering business. It summarizes the key points of the business plan to save time and prepare the reader for the whole content. It can also describe the customer focus of your catering service. It briefly describes if the business would do a corporate catering, wedding catering, or a plain event catering.
You can also state that you can coordinate with an event planner or party planner. Always keep in mind to use a simple and formal language.
2. Company Overview
The company overview would usually follow the executive summary of any business plan. This is typically the shortest section of the business plan. It will simply point out your catering business' history, management team, location (address), legal structure and ownership, and the mission statement.
3. Products and Services
The products and services section of the strategic or action plan should discuss the catering products and services of your business. It should explain why they are needed in the industry and how the products and services would compete with similar businesses. This section would describe the products or services of your catering business and how it will be priced. Whether your business is home-based or a restaurant who caters, make sure to highlight the features of your business to set you apart from competitors.
4. Execution
This section is somewhat a how-to guide of your catering business. It will review business goals and track tasks to make sure that your catering business is on track, on time, and on budget. The tasks are important details that will ensure your execution reaches the business goals. It is usually only used by you and your team but there will be circumstances when the tasks are shared with the investors.
5. Operational Plan
The operational plan section would lay out the details of your business' day to day or seasonal operations. It should describe the actual necessities of your business' operations, such as the location, facilities, and equipment. This section can provide information about the inventory, suppliers, and manufacturing processes.
6. Financial Plan
The final section of your catering plan outlines the catering business's assets, expenses, and liabilities. The financial plan will determine whether your catering business is feasible. You may need to use graphs and tables in this section.