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Money Saving Tips For Corporate Catering Biloxi Execs Will Love

By Deborah Young


If you are going to be a professional caterer you have to get used to bidding on jobs. You will also have to come up with some creative ideas to establish yourself in the market and build your client base. This is especially true when your new company consists mostly of yourself, with a few friends willing to help serve when you need them. With some careful thought, you can intrigue executives and win bids for corporate catering Biloxi competitors wanted for themselves.

Listening to your clients and discovering exactly what they want to achieve with their business events, is very important. The marketing director may be anxious to impress a superior for instance. If you can offer suggestions to keep her project under budget without sacrificing quality, you will have an interested potential client. A simple suggestion is to fore go the obligatory cocktail hour and formal sit down dinner and replace it with an elegant cocktail reception complete with chef attended action stations.

Limiting the bar is another easy way to hold down the budget. You can create a great atmosphere by offering unusual beers or beers developed at local microbreweries. Little known wines, that are getting good reviews from wine connoisseurs, will have guests feeling privileged instead of limited. Specialty drinks will add to the fun.

You can suggest ways to control food portions to the marketing director. Exotic food stations and buffets are great, but when guests serve themselves they tend to pile food onto their plates. A sit down dinner requires more staff, china, and cutlery, but you will make up for it with less food consumption. Servers offering guest hors d'oeuvres during cocktail hours will cost less than pre-dinner buffets.

If it seems appropriate, you could offer some suggestions for choosing venues. Your client may not have considered all the added expenses recurred when the venue doesn't offer a fully equipped kitchen. The caterer has to bring in equipment and extra staff to compensate. The client can also save money when venues allow the catering company to pick up during business hours instead of immediately after the event.

Steak and lobster may be the marketing director's first choice when it comes to the menu selection because these are items commonly served. If she is open to suggestions, you could offer different ideas, like braised meats accompanied by local fruits and vegetables. If appropriate, an ethnic menu will get the guests talking and engaged.

One easy way to cut down on the cost, that no one will ever notice, is to opt for one style of china and glassware for each dinner course. You don't have to spend a lot of extra money on special glasses for the bar either. Standard glasses make a lot more sense.

Succeeding in the catering business can be tricky. You will have plenty of talented competition vying for the most prestigious jobs. In order to build your client base, you have to be attentive to the needs of your customers and deliver the best food and service in the business.




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