Читать книгу Start & Run a Catering Business - George Erdosh - Страница 29

It is a great advantage to have solid marketing and selling skills when you own virtually any business, particularly if you are a sole proprietor. Unless you have few competitors and what you provide is much in demand, you have to sell your service.

If you live in a small town with few competing caterers and many social and corporate clients who need catering services, you may not need to spend so much time and money on marketing. If, through word-of-mouth and repeat clients, your business is operating at the level of your expectations, marketing is again optional. But these are rare cases.

You may or may not have the time to do marketing and selling while running a catering business alone. It depends on your volume and the other time requirements the business imposes on you. To properly market your business and sell your services you will need to put in at least 10 to 20 hours a week, possibly 30 to 40 hours if you want to do aggressive marketing. Can you sacrifice that much time from the catering side?

Many caterers who have all the essential skills to run a good catering business, but who also can sell and market, prefer to do the latter and delegate the catering end either partly or entirely. The choice is yours as long as you can find competent, reliable help. Good sales and marketing people are rare. It is often easier and cheaper to find a good catering and kitchen manager.

Networking is an important part of marketing. To be good at networking, you need self-confidence and social skills. If you have decided to hire a person to do your marketing, you can either do your own networking or delegate it to your marketing person. Many marketing people love networking and are good at it. Networking will bring in business both directly and through referrals.