Maintaining Profitability: A Candid Conversation
Many caterers use the terms costing and pricing interchangeably – but while the two are related, there are different strategies to use for each. Link here to listen to the recent Candid Conversations by Catersource featuring Carl Sacks, catering industry financial guru explaining the relationship between these two key factors in maintaining profitability. Don’t miss […]
Lessons Learned in Hospitality – Part 2
In Part 1 of “Lessons Learned in 25 Years” in hospitality, I shared with you what my employees and coaches have taught me about leadership and management of teams. Here then is Part 2 – a look at what I’ve learned from working with the public and some great customers over the years. Make it […]
Life In a Catering Kitchen
Over my years in the catering trade, my clients would often ask “What’s your secret to putting out great tasting cuisine?” So let me share some of my kitchen catering secrets with all of you catering professionals, owners, managers, chefs and cooks. The foundation to excellence always comes BACK TO BASICS – whether it’s in […]
How Engaged Are Your Staffers?
First of all, what is employee engagement? Second of all, why should we care? And lastly, if we decide we care, then what? These are good questions that every caterer with employees should be able to answer. So let’s start with the first one…. What is employee engagement? Our friends at Wikipedia say: An “engaged […]
Catering – An Opportunity for Restaurateurs
The catering/banquet market is measured using a number of different yardsticks, but most arrive at approximately the same conclusion – the catering revenue pool represents approximately 6% to 8% of overall foodservice revenue in the US. This includes most types of catering including retail, hotel, restaurant private dining, off premise and on premise. It also […]
What Your Training Manual is Missing
Sales training is essential to building a cohesive team that knows how to turn a lead into a client. However, one-on-one training can be extremely taxing on resources — your time, especially. While you should always be open for questions, an employee training manual eliminates a vast majority of the “How do I…” questions and provides […]
Technology Evolution and the Catering Industry
Because of the complexity of full service catering, and the number of moving parts involved, catering has been a target of opportunity for many technology developers over the years. Back in the very early pre-Windows PC era, there were companies developing floppy disc based ordering systems for corporate delivery caterers, and the earliest catering management […]
Learning When To Say No
As practically every caterer knows, taking advantage of opportunities as they present themselves is crucial to catering success. But there is another side of this particular coin – that of learning to decline a risky opportunity and even walk away from an existing piece of business that is detracting from the overall success of the […]
An Outsider’s Look At Your Catering Business
What we do as consultants is getting caterers out of their comfort zones, and into their challenge zones. We all like to think that we’re very good at what we do. I know that I think so and I’ve been catering now for over 50 years in various capacities. In my own business, as well […]
