Don’t Be ‘Had at Hello:’ How to Price Catering to Be Profitable

You have such an advantage over the chains when it comes to off-site catering. Why? It’s simple. As an independent restaurant owner, you do not have to follow what the corporate office dictates. You can go beyond the “same old same old” and make decisions based on what your customers want.

Take advantage of this and make your catering rock, but do it so that you can be profitable. 

I have owned a catering company for more than 20 years, and I have made the mistake of catering events with large gross sales dollars but low-to-no net profits. I had to learn the hard way that profits start with the pricing of the menu. If the menu is priced wrong, you lose money before you deposit the event-booking fee in the bank.  

Pricing a menu profitably starts with taking the wholesale cost of the food for the menu and multiplying by three times or more. Many caterers stop at that step. All of the rest of the “costs” for the event such as labor, guest utensils and plates, ice, etc…