In today’s episode, we’ll talk about the 7 Skills YOU NEED to develop to be a success in the Catering Industry :-
- Sales and Marketing Skills
– No wonder, everyone says its the No. 1 skill of an entrepreneur.
‘- You need to know that catering in a way is a B2B (Business to Business) trade where you have to deal with multiple stakeholders from Senior Corporate Executives, Event Planners, and nervous parents of to-be-married couples etc. You need to exude trust and reliability with the client
– a significant portion of their time is utilized in developing the business and you need to enjoy that since you will be the face of your organization. So, you must personally comfort and impress your client to close the deal! - Broad Understanding of Cooking & Cuisine
– Please don’t take me wrong? You don’t have to be a Chef or a Hotel Management graduate
– You need understand the cuisine you are service and also, be able to understand the taste and palate of your customers. You can’t sell Japanese Cusine or a sushi by not knowing what a nori sheet which is the black sheet used to wrap a sushi is, what wasabi or gari is? and so on and so forth
– With the knowledge of basics – you can exude confidence in front of your client. In stead of calling your chef every now and then might make you look like an amateur
– Lastly, the most important for new age millennials is the skill of Storytelling and you as a caterer need to learn that to be able to upsell to your customers. - Planning & Organization Skills
Have you heard this Quote – failing to plan is planning to fail
Planning is critical to any caterer. You need to have a checklist based mindset keeping separate checklists of Crockery, Food Indents, Staffing etc.
You need to understand that as a professional caterer, you can’t run out of the venue to buy the missing things every now and then.
Further, You need to plan the quantity of food well in advance starting from your starters, main course, desserts, beverages etc.
quality planning – that means you cant serve Michelin starred quality food for Corporate Catering Client because of the pricing constraint.
You must realize that Catering, unlike a restaurant, focuses only 30% on the food, rest the entire focus is dedicated on logistic planning of preparation, storage, transport, setup, service and winding up – that’s why your oranganization skill is vital - Ability to stay calm and perform during moments of stress
You need to realize Catering is a time-bound, high-stress job. You need to serve with a smile on your face. The client should never know about your stress. You need to understand that sometimes you want it or not, something can be wrong in the live event due to power failure, some issue at the kitchen or with service – you need to look relaxed, sometimes, the client is so overwhelmed managing his/her guests that the only person who can communicate about any issue is YOU? So refrain from showing any reaction and focus on the job. - Jugaad Innovation (which can be defined as the skill to handle crisis and resolve it)
While being calm during high moments of stress is a powerful skill. However, staying calm doesn’t mean inaction – if something is missing or stops working, you need to fix it, irrespective. Its the job of a professional caterer to ensure all deliverables promised to the client are delivered as per specification, however, in case of any screw-up or unplanned situation like rain or a hailstorm – its the extra mile you go out of your way to help in a crisis and how you solve goes a long way. Often these resolutions are impromptu and unplanned just to meet get past the event – that’s I call it “Jugaad Innovation” - Networking Skills
As I mentioned in Sales & Marketing, Catering in a way is a B2B trade where you are managing multiple stakeholders and a key driver of your long term success is not when you make a one time sale – but when you build and cultivate a repeat business from your clients. That’s the secret ingredient to long term success in the Catering business. Even In my book, I mentioned this quote, which says “You don’t need 10 clients on day one, instead you need 1 client who does 10 events in a month”- this quote became viral and I still hold by it. While you are doing sales and marketing to build the blocks of catering career, however, if you are not able to hold on to your existing clients, you will never be able to build a long term “financially independent” business in the long term. I would sight my example here, that even today – I get 65% of my business every year coming from my past relationships. So keep this in mind. - Basic Financial skills
By no means, I intend you should know the accountancy and corporate finance?
I’m referring to the ability to harvest a decent profit from your catering assignments. I always say the power of catering lies in you ability to decide your profit and then work out the numbers at the back, so having a broad understanding of cost control and p&l planning for event can help you run and understand the business better.
So these are the key skills you should inculcate to be a success in the catering business.
Summarizing –
- Sales & Marketing Skills
- Broad understanding of cooking and cuisine,
- Planning & Organization Skills
- Staying calm in a high-stress environment
- Jugaad innovation – referring to crisis resolution and handling,
- Networking & Relationship Management skills
- Basic Financial Skills
About Podcast Host – Manvir Singh Anand – A Catering Success Evangelist, An Event Hospitality Expert, Founder & CEO of Knight Gourmet (#1 Prefered Event Hospitality & Best Caterer in Delhi, Mumbai & Chennai) and an Author of the Best-selling book “Catering your way to financial independence”. I’m on a mission to build 100,000 self-employed professionals in the Food Service industry. Thank you so much for tuning in. If you enjoyed this podcast, please tag me on your instagram stories or linked in posts and I would be happy to give you a shoutout.