How to Significantly Increase Sales with a Restaurant Catering Business

Are you running a successful restaurant business but would like to see more profit? Do people often ask if you would be willing to provide food for their parties? If the answer is yes, it is time to take advantage of people’s interest in your delicious food and open up a restaurant catering business.

It will take some effort to expand your restaurant into catering, but when you count your money at the end of each month, it will be worth it.

In this article, we provide a short, yet informative guide on adding catering to your restaurant, complete with actionable tips on how to succeed.

What Is a Restaurant Catering Business?

A catering business has the main goal of supplying food (and oftentimes service) for a variety of events. While a restaurant offers on-site service (with the possibility of online ordering), expanding into restaurant catering will get you to also focus on off-site service.

Catering will come with new challenges such as a new menu that must be more responsive to clients’ preferences, new supplies and equipment, and a different work schedule to accommodate events.

What Are the Types of Restaurant Catering?

If you are ready to increase your sales, you must first choose the restaurant catering business model that works best for you. Here are your options:

• “Drop-off” catering: this is practically a big online order. You prepare all the dishes in advance, either in separate containers or in big ones to share and deliver to the client. Your main customers are going to be professional businesses who order large quantities to cover lunch or meetings for their companies;
• Buffet catering: this can involve both hot and cold dishes and you will need supplies to transport and present them to the clients. The service will be minimal, you either only set up the buffet or serve the meals from there;
• Full-service catering: the most time-consuming type of catering, where you are practically offering restaurant-quality service, just at a different location. Depending on the size of the event, you will need extra employees to offer the best experience.

5 Steps for Adding Catering to Your Restaurant

There are many side business ideas to increase the revenue at your restaurant, such as adding a food truck or a new location. Expanding with a restaurant catering business may be one of the fastest and easiest if you follow the next steps:

1. Look into the necessary permits

The good news is that you are not starting from zero. Because you already own a restaurant, you surely have some of the necessary permits such as a liquor license, food handler permits, and employer identification number.

But to open a catering business, you will need additional ones to remain legal and avoid potential fines. Check your local regulations as they differ by area. You may need:

• General Business License
• Caterer Permit
• Catering Business Insurance

2. Retrain employees or hire new ones

While catering involves almost the same responsibilities as working in a restaurant such as preparing food and serving it, the details are different. The working hours are not constant, they vary wildly, and employees must be able to prepare a bigger volume of food in a very short time.

Your employees will be the backbone of your new restaurant catering business, so you must ensure they are equipped with the knowledge to succeed at their jobs. Check out these tips:

• Train existing employees: both the kitchen staff and the front-of-the-house team members, so they know how to handle their new tasks;
• Give them incentives: reward employees every time an event goes flawlessly to encourage them to give their best for every occasion;
• Hire new staff: don’t overload your employees because they become unhappy with their jobs and leave. Instead, hire additional staff to handle your bigger events.

Read more: How to Motivate Restaurant Employees and Increase Retention

3. Update your menu

Clients may choose your restaurant for catering because they love the food they previously had at your place, but event meals will have to be a bit different to appease a larger audience. Here are a few ideas to update your menu with:

• Create big platters: especially if you are focusing more on drop-off catering, people want to feel like they got a good value for their money. For example, you can create a platter that can serve 6-8 people with different mains and sides. You can also have platters with just desserts, sides, or mains;
• Have smaller servings: for buffet style catering, smaller portions are appreciated because it gives clients the opportunity to try a couple of different dishes without producing food waste;
• Add items that can be transported easily: if you don’t have a kitchen at the event where you can finish preparing your menu items, you need to ensure the taste and quality of the food are the same when it leaves the kitchen and when it arrives at the client. Invest in containers that can keep food cold or hot for longer periods;

4. Stock up on equipment

You are used to running a restaurant and have the necessary equipment to run a business at the location. At most, you have supplies to package online orders. But, to open a restaurant catering business, you will need to invest in a variety of new supplies and equipment, such as:

• Cooking and Holding equipment for on-the-go
• Serving equipment
• Table settings
• Display and décor
• Transport supplies
• Disposable catering supplies

5. Monitor your sales

Getting more catering orders is a great sign, but you should also know how much money you are spending and what you are left with at the end of the month. That’s why you need access to restaurant analytics.

You can get valuable data about your catering business by using the Reports module from GloriaFood. For example, you can find out:

• Number of new and returning customers
• The best-selling dishes
• The worst-selling dishes
• The number and value of orders

Tips to Make Your Restaurant Catering Service Stand out

Opening a restaurant catering business can be a challenge if you have a lot of competition in your area. But you can outshine them and persuade customers to choose your place over others by doing the following:

1. Make it easy to order

Placing big orders by phone can easily lead to misunderstandings and bad reviews. While you should provide a contact number to establish further details, make it easy for clients to order your catering services online.

With GloriaFood, you can set up multiple locations, so you can add a different menu for your restaurant catering business. You will enjoy countless benefits:

• An overview of your orders in one place (including the online ordering system for your restaurant);
• Easy way to confirm orders with the order-accepting app;
• Ability to add promotions to attract more clients;
• An easily customizable menu that is different from the online ordering one and can be changed countless times, free of charge.

Read more: Restaurant Menu Planning: How to Optimize Your Menu to Sell More

2. Cater to specific diets and allergies

If you want to appeal to a larger audience, you need to offer diet-specific menu items, such as vegan, vegetarian, and halal. You should also consider people at the event may suffer from allergies and create some menu items that are gluten-free, dairy-free, egg-free, etc.

You can do so easily with the menu creator from GloriaFood. It will take you seconds to mark an item as “Hot, Vegan, Vegetarian, Gluten-free, Halal, Nut-free, Dairy-free or Raw” and list the allergens in a dish.

3. Go above and beyond with marketing

After you launch your restaurant catering business, you need to get the word out about it. After all, how will people know they can hire you for their events if you don’t let them know? Here are a few things your marketing strategy must have:

• An announcement on your website: this is your online location that people visit to find more information about your restaurant. Therefore, it makes sense that you promote your catering business there;
• Update your Google Business Profile: to mention you now offer restaurant catering services and a link to your new menu for more details;
• Post on social media: let your fans know that they can enjoy your delicious food at their private events in just a few clicks. Include pictures and instructions to make it clear;
• Consider paid ads: on social media and Google to reach the proper audience that is interested in catering services but hasn’t heard of your restaurant before.

Read more: 10 Tips to Devise an Innovative Marketing Strategy for Your Online Food Business

4. Start upselling

Upselling is a tried-and-tested technique that restaurants have been using on location for a long time. It can also easily be used online as long as you provide clients with added value for a higher price.

The easiest way to upsell is to offer clients add-ons to your pre-set menus. For example, sourdough bread for the spreads or boozy desserts to get a party started.

Read more: 10 Restaurant Upselling Techniques to Increase Daily Profits

Final Words

If your restaurant is doing well and clients appreciate your food, take advantage of your fame, and expand with a restaurant catering business. Rely on efficient technology and motivated employees to make it a success.