How Bad Is Your Catering Etiquette?
Mike Roman knew that he would have clients from all segments of the catering industry, and he was always careful to be inclusive. When Mike talked about phone etiquette, for…
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Are you a terrible manager?
Too Rushed In my last post I told you about the time that I had to travel out of state to attend my son’s college graduation. Since I had never…
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It’s Your Fault
One of the most frequent questions I’m asked is, “Why am I not doing more business? My catering volume seems to be stuck at (for example) $400,000 and no matter…
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Cold, Cold Feeling
Although cold-calling prospective customers isn’t fun, it works. During the early stage of our catering business, I personally identified possible new clients and simply asked if they had ever used…
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Member Viewpoints
I’m happy to report that we at The Corporate Caterer have received some great responses to my recent post about a very frustrating issue with party leftovers. Lisa Peters, Partner…
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Catering Fun – Yes, This Really Happened
In our early catering days, we were lucky enough to land a 1000-person casual buffet dinner event for our municipality’s city council. At that time, we were catering out of…
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Discounting Your Orders Can Keep the Big Ones Away
I’ve spoken before about the restaurateur’s mentality: “I can’t have too many customers; I need a line out to the street; the more the better--the busier the better; I don’t…
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Please Be Advised
This hand-lettered sign was on the door of a local smoothie outlet: PLEASE BE ADVISED: YOU GET WHAT YOU ORDER HERE IF YOU ORDER A SMOOTHIE AND THERE IS SOME…
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Good Times & Bad Times
Note this chart from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. My 2011 prediction that the then-very-poor labor market would eventually end has apparently been verified. As restaurant/catering veterans know, while this…
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Here’s Why Your Business Isn’t Growing?
Let’s face it. We as business owners are different, and for various reasons we decided to start our own companies: We worked for a similar business and thought we could…
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