A catering business plan sets out what kind of events you'll cater, what a guest costs and what you charge, where you'll cook, who works the events, and the first year month by month. Catering has a shape most food businesses don't: revenue comes in lumps, an event at a time, while the kitchen, the van and the chef cost the same every month. In the example below, a caterer working from a commissary kitchen reaches 800 buffet guests and 500 drop-off guests a month by month 11 and ends the year about $39,100 ahead, but hiring a full-time chef from day one means four months of losses and cash about $12,200 down by month 4, twice its $6,000 of working cash. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the projection, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the business in a paragraph: the events, the customers, the kitchen, the goals.
- Cost a guest: food, disposables, serving staff or delivery.
- Price per guest for buffets and drop-off trays, and add deposits and minimums.
- Decide what's fixed from day one, like a chef's salary, and what's paid per event.
- Plan the kitchen, the van, the equipment and the records.
- Project 12 months, and make sure the working cash covers the low point.
- TaroStack scales recipes to each event's guest count and plans what to buy. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, adds catering. Its description reads:
Windward Roots Catering cooks island-style buffets and drop-off trays for offices, schools and family celebrations on Oʻahu, from a licensed commissary kitchen. We serve buffets with our own staff and deliver drop-off trays ready to eat, with kalua pork, shoyu chicken, taro rolls and butter mochi at the center of every menu. In the first year we plan to serve about 1,300 guests a month by month 11, from repeat office clients and two or three events a week.
Part 2: what a guest costs
| Per guest | Buffet | Drop-off trays |
|---|---|---|
| Food | $8.20 | $6.40 |
| Disposables or packaging | $0.80 | $0.60 |
| Serving staff, or delivery | $2.50 | $0.50 |
| Variable cost | $11.50 | $7.50 |
Food is 29% of a $28 buffet, and it stays there only if portions are planned per guest and what comes back is recorded. How food cost is judged is in what is a good food cost percentage.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Service | Price per guest | Variable cost | Contribution | Guests a month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Buffet, served | $28.00 | $11.50 | $16.50 | 800 |
| Drop-off trays | $18.00 | $7.50 | $10.50 | 500 |
Eight hundred buffet guests is about two events of 100 a week. Add a minimum guest count, a deposit to hold the date, and a final count a few days before, so the food bought matches the guests who come.
Part 4: operations
| Area | In the plan |
|---|---|
| Kitchen | A commissary membership, hours a week, cold and dry storage |
| People | A chef from when, servers per event, who drives |
| Equipment | Chafing dishes, hotel pans, carriers, linens; what you own and what you rent |
| Van | Insulated carriers and a loan or lease |
| Menus | Recipes scaled per guest; portions and a buffer |
| Records | A pack list and count-back per event; temperatures; allergens per dish |
Every line of an event's pack list, and the count back afterwards, is in catering inventory checklist.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach 100% by month 11, against $7,200 of fixed costs a month: the commissary membership and a freezer shelf, the van, insurance, a full-time chef, marketing, software and card fees, and equipment storage.
| Month | Buffet guests | Drop-off guests | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 120 | 75 | $4,710 | −$4,433 | −$4,433 |
| 2 | 160 | 100 | $6,280 | −$3,510 | −$7,943 |
| 3 | 200 | 125 | $7,850 | −$2,588 | −$10,530 |
| 4 | 240 | 150 | $9,420 | −$1,665 | −$12,195 |
| 5 | 320 | 200 | $12,560 | $180 | −$12,015 |
| 6 | 400 | 250 | $15,700 | $2,025 | −$9,990 |
| 7 | 480 | 300 | $18,840 | $3,870 | −$6,120 |
| 8 | 560 | 350 | $21,980 | $5,715 | −$405 |
| 9 | 640 | 400 | $25,120 | $7,560 | $7,155 |
| 10 | 720 | 450 | $28,260 | $9,405 | $16,560 |
| 11 | 800 | 500 | $31,400 | $11,250 | $27,810 |
| 12 | 800 | 500 | $31,400 | $11,250 | $39,060 |
The chef's $4,500 a month is most of the early losses. Three changes belong in the plan: pay the cooking per event until month 5 and hire the chef then; take 50% deposits when events are booked, which brings cash in weeks before the event; or raise about $13,000 of working cash instead of $6,000. The projection counts sales when the event happens, so deposits make the real cash curve better than the table.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Chafing dishes, hotel pans and serving gear | $2,500 |
| Insulated carriers | $800 |
| Van down payment | $3,000 |
| Linens | $400 |
| Permits and licenses | $600 |
| Food safety certification | $200 |
| Website and photos | $800 |
| Tasting events | $500 |
| Launch marketing | $500 |
| Working cash | $6,000 |
| Total to start | $15,300 |
What a commissary kitchen costs, membership against hourly, is in commissary kitchen cost.
Get the template
Download the catering business plan template. Type your services with their price per guest, variable cost and guests a month at full speed, your fixed costs and startup budget, and how fast bookings will come; it works out each month's sales, profit and cash, the first month with a profit, the lowest cash point, and whether your working cash covers it. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
The plan's $8.20 of food per guest is an average. Each event is different: a 120-guest lunch, a 60-guest dinner and four office trays in one week, sharing a walk-in and a pork order placed on Tuesday for a guest count that changed on Thursday. The spreadsheet can't say what each event really cost, what to buy for next week, or what came back unused.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack turns each event into what to make and what to buy, from the menu and the guest count.
Menus, scaled to the event. Each dish is a recipe, with sub-recipes for sauces and marinades and units converted: buy pork by the case, cook by the pound. An event is a sales order for its date, with the dishes and portions on it, and planning, on Standard, works out what to make and what to buy, and by when, across every event, counting what's already in the walk-in.
Every event, costed. Food made for an event is recorded as a batch, taking ingredients off stock from the lots used at what you paid, so you see what the event's food really cost against the $8.20 in the plan. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the office client whose orders always run lean is visible.
And the stock stays right. Disposables and chafing fuel are items with reorder points, shown in days of cover. Counting works on a phone with no signal, and food that comes back unused is recorded with its reason, so the losses report shows what over-catering costs.
| The plan's line | In the spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Food per guest | $8.20, an average | Every event, at what you paid |
| What to buy next week | Added up by hand | Planning across every event |
| What came back unused | Not recorded | Losses by reason |
| Which clients pay best | Unknown | Margins by customer |
Counts, lots, the reorder list, sales orders, recipes, batches and margins are on every plan, from $49 a month; planning is on Standard at $99. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.