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Lynne
I've just recently completed the process, from a "jumpin through the hoops" perspective anyway. I just recently got my final inspection and got my health dept. license to do business. I am currently doing fundraising events for my church, and working on a website. This was my plan to ease into the catering. My first advice would be to work on a business plan. I spent six months on one. It will help you define and clarify your goals and help you keep on track to meet them. You can find business plan software on the net, some sites offer free versions. If you have specific questions, that would help. I'm a newbie at the pro stuff but am happy to answer any questions that I can. Many, far more qualified than I frequent this forum and I'm sure they will check in. As EZ Goin said, try the pro forum. Probably get more response there. Good luck!

Jack
quote:
Originally posted by lynne:
Anyone recommend a good site for getting started? Thanks


Yup. This one. Moved your post to the Pros forum. There are YEARS worth of posts about starting a BBQ business.

I would do just what EZ said, develop a business plan. Converting from your friends wanting it all the time to making money needs to be looked into. And the Health Dept is #1, they don't like people cooking out of their houses.

Have a read and you'll get lots of good info.

And ask away in this forum, we have a number of people who've gone through just what you're doing.
There are a lot of good threads, but I have fond memories of of posts from "prisonchef" and "2greyhounds", a married couple from Florida. Look at their posts and you'll see a progression from new trailer, to inspections and permits, to running what I think was destined to be a successful business. They stopped posting a few years ago, but I think they were headed for a good run.

If anybody knows what happened to them, How about speaking up. I'd like to know how they're doing.
quote:
Originally posted by lynne:
Hi there, does anyone have any tidbits on starting your own mobile bbq catering business? After so many bbq parties here at home, we've decided to take it on the road, but having a slow time getting started. Anyone recommend a good site for getting started? Thanks


Hi, Lynne. Here's something I've posted before:

Should I go pro? That question is always answered by the following question: do I have a demand for my product from a large enough customer base to cover the overhead and make me a large enough profit to live on?

The answer to that second question is not something I, nor anyone else, can answer for you. The answer is found in marketing surveys, a business plan, and the form your business will take: ie concession, mail-order, storefront.

After spending years thinking about opening a bbq joint, I decided to see if there was even any interest from my potential customer base. I did a quick and dirty marketing survey. I took the phone book and made 100 random calls. I would skip every ten pages, and choose the 15th name on that page. Skip ten pages, choose the 15th name... etc. I would call and introduce myself as a local person interested in starting a new food business. I asked three questions:

1. Which type of restaurant would they like to see most A. hamburger, B. chinese, C. italian, D. pit-smoked barbecue, E. mexican, F. a Denny's-style. If the person answered anything other than barbecue, I thanked them and concluded the call. If they answered "barbecue", then I would proceed asking the next two questions.

2. What would your preferred menu item be: A. BBQ pork, B. BBQ beef brisket, C. BBQ ribs, D. BBQ chicken, E. Other?

3. What style of restaurant would you like to see: A. formal dining, B. casual dining, C. take out with informal inside seating, D. take-out only, E. take-out and delivery.

Sixty-one of those responding highly favored a barbecue joint. It probably helped that at that time, there were none in the entire two-county area. This was encouraging, so I decided that if I seriously wanted to pursue this any further, I needed some sort of process to help me decide if I had what it takes to open a restaurant.

For me, I used the process of constructing a business plan to determine whether or not I would proceed forward with the decision to open my store. It took me about a year, and made me delve into aspects of being a business owner that I didn't even know that I was clueless about. Writing the business plan helped tremendously in clarifying what I needed to do in order to strengthen my weaknesses. It gave me the clarity of knowing what I needed to do in order to get my business off the ground.

A business plan will force you to know:

1. Where your customers are.

2. What your customers want and need.

3. How much it will cost you to produce the product you want to sell. The cost of goods is not just about how much you pay for the food to make your product.

4. How you plan to attract customers and enlarge your customer base. Just how many new customers will it take per day in order to make the money you need to cover costs and profit? A good business will keep customers coming back; those are your Regulars. However, most of your Regulars will only eat out once in a while, not every day. Sure, you will have some that may come in a couple of times a week, but not everyone will. Most won't. And even your regulars may want something to eat, periodically, other than your bbq. They simply won't show up each day.

You need to have a plan to continually grow your customer base. If you plan on just "word of mouth", then I hope you have a fat wad of cash sitting in your reserve account.

Marketing is not just advertising; advertising is only one tool that you use to market your product. Marketing is about letting folks know what your business is and why they need your product. Marketing can be as simple as visiting surrounding businesses with a sample of your product and a stack of business cards. Or it can be as elaborate as a high-powered marketing firm can make it. A good business plan will incorporate a marketing plan. Marketing can be inexpensive and still be incredibly effective; call it guerilla marketing.

What good marketing needs, however, is something that is always in short supply when you run your own business: time. And without taking the time you need for marketing, you cripple your chances of success from the get-go. A good business plan will help you understand how you are going to fit marketing into the whole of your business.

5. What you want your operation to look like. For instance, my business plan helped me to figure out that I didn't want to deal with front of the house staff and scheduling ie waitresses. So I focused on how to make customer counter service a smooth, pleasant, and efficient experience for the guest.

6. What equipment do you need to get up and running? This includes hard equipment like sinks, dishwashers, pits & smokers, prep tables, prep equipment, cold storage, hot holding and cold holding, etc. It also includes consumables like paper towels, cups, take-out containers, straws, food-handling gloves, etc. The plan will make you understand your inventory needs, plans for maintaining equipment, and all the nit-picky details that can bust a budget.

7. Who are the wholesale suppliers that you will want to deal with to get the best prices on your inventory items.

8. What amount of start-up funds do you need? A business plan will make you honestly think through, evaluate, and intimately understand several types of budgeting processes that you need to know. It will force you to account for every nickle that you will need to spend, and give you the tools you need to keep you from blindly throwing money into the wind. Without that kind of disciplined approach, you can run out of money before you are even half-way through opening up your business.

You need to know what your line item budget is for your equipment, for your remodeling or construction, for your initial inventory, for your monthly expenditures, and for the OTHER STUFF: government fees, permit charges, inspection costs, taxes, surcharges, attorneys, bookeepers, software, pencils, calculators, file cabinets, advertising, phone bill, utilities, and on and on.

A business plan, done properly, is a lot of work; but it is not wasted work, nor is it useless make-work. A business plan is the only way to answer the question "should I go pro?"

In my mind, if someone is unwilling to put in the work to plan and think things through in a disciplined and thoughtful manner the way a business plan forces one to do, then they should forget about opening their own business. The dedication to succeed simply isn't there.

I thought I would hate doing my plan; but I actually enjoyed it. And it answered my question about whether or not I should open my own business.

I made good use of the Small Business Administration's website. I also used Entrepreneur Magazine's website. Both have a lot of resources for planning and running a small business. They also have information on how to do a business plan.

I used Business Plan Pro to help me get started doing my business plan. I found that it helped me format the plan and progress with its writing in a logical way. You don't need to buy software to do a business plan, but it is something to consider if you are stuck on how to get started. I'm sure there are any number of programs out there.

If you have access to a college, they may have a small business counseling program. You can also check out these sites online:
http://www.toolkit.com/small_business_guide/index.aspx#abrn01

http://www.entrepreneur.com/bizstartups/index.html

http://www.sba.gov/smallbusinessplanner/plan/index.html

Good luck with your decision, I wish you the best.
I have found business plan pro to be confusing. Any forecasting numbers are wild guesses at best. That was the hardest part was doing the number part with working within the wizards format of business plan pro. I prefer looking for or finding expert. Sit down with them and take notes. They are plenty of them to help you out there. There are also SCORE mentors which is a branch of the SBA. They have experts that consult for free. See if they have a person that can mentor you in the restaurant business. Be very leery of SBA loans because they tell you who, what, where, and when to spend money. You may borrow it but they control it.

I personally would focus on the permits and find the hidden cost of doing business. There are a lot more issues for running a business then just cooking food. I have two business that I built from scratch and went the SBA the first time and I will never go that route again. It increased my expenses by almost 100%.

Look for used item when you start. They are the best for startups and save you lots of money. Just my two cents

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