How would i go into the catering business?

How do I go about starting a catering business?

• I am hoping to start a catering business from home. How do I go about doing it? I can cook but what about all the other stuff???

• Answer:

  You have to learn "all the other stuff". The fact that you have asked this question suggests that you not only do you not know how to do "all the other stuff" but you don't even know what "all the other stuff" is. Your first job therefore is to find out what "all the other stuff" is. To find this out you must create a preliminary business plan. Research on the internet or at your bank for a standard template on how to prepare a business plan and prepare it. If done really well this plan will throw up all kinds of problems that you will have to resolve. These problems represent "all the other stuff" A good business plan will identify everything you need to make a business stand a fighting chance of working. Such a plan will consider what skills you require to successfully run your business. If you do not have the skills your plan requires then you must acquire those skills or alter your plan accordingly. For example, take bookkeeping. If you have a basic knowledge of bookkeeping fine, you can do it yourself. If you do not have a basic knowledge of bookkeeping then you have to either learn it or pay someone else to do it. If you decide to pay someone else, the money you pay out will eat into your profits and that will alter the balance of the financial part of your business plan. You have to decide which way you will do it. Apply this principle to "all the other stuff" until you have covered every possible contingency as specified by the template of your plan. That is the purpose of a business plan, to identify problems before you start the business, not afterwards when it will probably be too late. If you live in the UK and are unemployed the job centre will fall over themselves to help you and point you in the direction of the business advise and training that you will heighten your chances of success.