I stumbled across this lovely little book a couple of weeks ago. At first I was disappointed that it was written in 2007. I normally only review "just released" books on Amazon. But I'm making an exception for this book because I want to have a record reminding me that it exists and is worthy of recommendation to my SCORE clients. I found the book to be both well organized and well written. It includes an introduction, 20 chapters and three appendices as follows:



0. Introduction

1. What is catering?

2. Understanding the catering industry

3. Required skills for a caterer

4. Getting started as a caterer

5. Researching your business opportunity

6. Developing a concept

7. Being a personal or private chef

8. Developing a catering menu

9. Pricing your services & menus

10. Developing a catering plan

11. Proposal writing

12. Marketing yourself

13. Marketing your business

14. Dealing with clients

15. Considerations as you grow

16. Partnering to grow your business

17. Catering challenges & equipment recommendations

18. Useful catering tips

19. Outsourcing

20. New trends in catering

A. Resources & suggested reading

B. Glossary

C. Personal chef client info form (LDA Form)



It would be so nice if there were more business books written using the Table of Contents for this book as a guide for startup guides on various small businesses. This book could easily be re-written for hair salons, landscaping companies, pizza shops, law offices, etc. It's really an outline for any startup and what should be considered when investigating, researching, and writing a sound business plan to use as a roadmap to success in starting a company.



The business plan provided in this book included the following 8 parts: (1) Exec Summary, (2) Mission Statement, (3) Biz Overview, (4) Market Analysis, (5) Competitive Analysis, (6) Marketing Plan, (7) Operations Plan, & (8) Financial Plan. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to start a small business. Read it and rewrite it for the company you want to start. 6 stars!



PS. I especially liked seeing the plug for SCORE-dot-org at page 126!