Catering Business Plan Tips

By Steve Sutherland

There are so many reasons why a business plan is an essential part of starting up and managing a catering business. A well written plan allows you to get a clear idea of where you want to take the business and how you are going to get there. It is a useful report that the owner of the business can use to prove the viability of his plan to him or herself as well as other concerned parties.

Done properly, a plan can be useful in promoting your interests. However, if you mess it up you will be taking unnecessary personal risks with your startup funds and you will lose credibility in the eyes of your readers.

In the follow article I have set out a number of catering business plan tips. Together, these tips and ideas make up some of the most important characteristics of an effective business plan.

1) A Pleasure to Read

A business plan should be easy to read. While you will have to use a certain number of financial and accounting terms, you should try to keep the language as simple as possible. Make sure that the plan is written in a style that keeps the readers attention. Divide the work into different sections under different titles. Use sub-sections as much as possible rather than cramming too much under one heading.

2) Spelling and Grammar

Read over your business plan carefully several times and make sure that everything is correct. If there are too many mistakes in the document you may come across as being less than professional in the eyes of your readers. Check spelling, grammar, punctuation and other areas for accuracy. Have someone with an excellent command of the English language read over the plan several times and edit it for you.

3) Layout and Navigation Tips

Your plan must have a layout that allows readers to go through it in a logical sequence. Most plans follow a sequence that starts off with an executive summary and works through other common areas before finishing up with the financial data. You can find many standard business plan templates online and some of these are specifically for catering companies. While they vary to some extent in terms of layout and headings there are some universally accepted conventions that readers will expect so you don't want to go and re-create the wheel.

Make sure that readers can navigate the report by including a contents page at the beginning. They must be able to quickly skip to a section of the report that interests them quickly if need be. Use short paragraphs and consider including graphs, diagrams or spreadsheets if these are the best ways to get the information across to the reader.

4) Neat Presentation

Aim to impress when it comes to the finished product. Your business plan should be printed on quality paper and it should be bound or displayed in a folder. Quality presentation can influence opinions to a greater extent than you would imagine.

5) References and Information Sources

When you write your business plan you will be making many assumptions about a variety of factors. Wherever possible you should back up your ideas with evidence. This could be in the form of census data, newspaper articles, website references and other kinds supporting data. Most business plans include an appendix at the end with copies of such documents or lists of information sources.

6) Adding up the Numbers

A good business plan will include accurate financial figures as well as well-written sections that describe various aspects of the business. Make sure that all relevant accounting and financial figures are included and that they all add up. You should double check with a calculator if necessary.

7) Thorough and Complete

Make sure that your business plan includes everything that the people reading it would expect to find. If you leave out any important aspects of the business it may be embarrassing to have to supply them to readers a later date.

8) The Right Length

How long should a catering business plan be? How detailed do you have to get? If anything, business plans are getting shorter over recent years as interested parties want to take in all of the relevant information that matters in the shortest time possible.

The size of the business that you are proposing will be one of the factors that determine an appropriate business plan length. Most catering businesses start out pretty small and can therefore get away with plans that are fairly brief. If you are starting out with only a small team then you should be able to get away with a business plan of between ten and twelve pages.

Your plan essentially has to be long enough to convey all of the information in a manner that is easy for the reader to take in. Do a final edit before you publish the plan and remove any 'fluff' that you feel is not really necessary.

Catering Business Plan Samples

Free Catering Business Plan Template

Why You Need to Write a Catering Company Business Plan