GUIDES
Guides for caterers and mobile bars
Practical, no fluff: quotes, pricing, per-guest maths, the team, logistics and clients.
How to Improve Your Catering Business: 10 Practical Steps
You improve a catering business by fixing operations before marketing. Keep everything for each event in one place, take every enquiry with a standard brief, quote from templates, reply fast, give the team clear roles and close every event with a return check and a follow-up call.
ReadHow to Get More Catering Clients: 7 Channels That Work
More catering clients come not from expensive ads but from seven simple channels: a short enquiry form on your website, Instagram, Google Business Profile, partnerships with venues and wedding planners, repeat clients and referrals, reviews, and replying to every enquiry within an hour.
Read12 Catering Business Mistakes That Cost You Money and Clients
Catering businesses rarely lose clients and money in the kitchen; they lose them in organisation: slow replies, no written brief, verbal changes, forgotten equipment, team confusion, no deposit or minimum order, lost glassware and no follow-up after the event.
ReadHow to Start a Mobile Bar Business: Where to Begin
The easiest way to start a mobile bar is a narrow concept and a short menu of 5–7 cocktails. You need a portable bar, basic bar tools, glassware at 1.5–2 glasses per guest, per-guest pricing with 2–3 tiers, 2–3 reliable freelance bartenders and venue partnerships; in Latvia, legal questions go to Uzņēmumu reģistrs, VID and PVD.
ReadHow Much Does Mobile Bar Hire Cost in Latvia?
Mobile bar hire in Latvia typically costs €29–50 per guest excluding VAT on an all-inclusive basis, with 2–3 price tiers by guest count. The price covers drinks, bartenders, bar counter, ice, glassware and delivery, while extras such as a champagne tower, coffee station or photo wall are charged separately.
ReadHow to Write a Catering Quote the Client Approves Quickly
A catering quote gets approved quickly when the client sees the total and per-guest price within a minute, knows exactly what is and is not included, and can pick options without emailing you. Add a validity date and deposit terms, and send a link rather than a PDF attachment.
ReadBar Catering Packages: How to Build Silver and Gold and Price Tiers by Guest Count
A mobile bar usually needs two or three packages (Silver, Gold, sometimes Platinum) and two or three price tiers by guest count, for example €36, €33 and €30 per guest. Packages should differ in menu and service, not just brands; the minimum is typically 20 guests, and a champagne tower, coffee station or extra hours are sold as add-ons.
ReadOpen Bar, Bar Tab, Drink Tokens or Cash Bar: Which Payment Model to Choose
For weddings and most corporate events an all-inclusive open bar priced per guest works best: the client knows the budget up front and the bar carries the volume risk. Pay per consumption suits cautious clients with unpredictable drinking, drink tokens cap the budget at large events, and a cash bar where guests pay suits public events.
ReadHow much alcohol per guest: wedding and corporate event calculator
Plan 2 drinks per drinking guest in the first hour and roughly 1 per hour after that, so a 5-hour wedding or corporate event needs about 6 drinks per guest. Split those drinks by category, convert them to bottles and add a 10–15% buffer.
ReadHow much ice, glassware and bar supplies do you need for an event?
Plan 0.5 kg of ice per guest for a bar without cocktails, 1 kg for a cocktail bar and up to 1.5 kg outdoors in summer, plus separate ice for chilling bottles. For each glass type you use, plan 1.25–2 glasses per guest depending on whether you can wash on site, and add 5–10% for breakage.
ReadHow to plan a wedding bar and what to ask the couple
To plan a wedding bar, take a brief from the couple (guests, bar hours, what they drink, budget), check the venue (power, water, ice, washing, access times), set the menu and timeline, and staff 1 bartender per 50–70 guests for a simple bar or per 40–50 for a cocktail bar.
ReadHow to create a cocktail menu for an event
For an event, build a menu of 5–8 cocktails across different bases and flavours (sparkling, sour, refreshing, spirit-forward), with 1–2 alcohol-free drinks, each made in 45 seconds or less. Work out the cost per serve in advance and batch the most popular drinks.
ReadHow to run a bar team at events without chaos in group chats
Plan one bartender per 50–70 guests for a simple drinks menu and one per 30–40 for cocktails, and add a barback from about 80 guests. Offer shifts in writing, get an explicit confirmation, and keep all event details in one place instead of a dozen group chats.
ReadOff-site event checklist: from booking to getting the glasses back
An off-site event runs calmly when every phase has its own list: booking and deposit, details two weeks out, team and purchasing two days out, loading from a pick list, setup and service on site, closing, equipment return and follow-up. Below is a ready-to-use checklist for all eight phases.
ReadHow to stop losing glasses and equipment at off-site events
Glasses go missing where nobody counts them. Build a pick list from the menu and guest count, count equipment when loading, at closing and back at the warehouse, record breakage straight away and include damage in the client's final invoice.
ReadEvent day timeline for bar and catering
If guests arrive at 5 pm, the bar loads at around 11:30, the team is on site at 13:30, the bar is ready by 16:15 and welcome drinks are poured from 16:45. Peaks are the first hour and 20:00–23:00, last orders go 30 minutes before close, and breakdown takes about an hour.
ReadMoving from Excel and Google Sheets to a CRM: when and how
A catering business should move from Excel or Google Sheets to a CRM once it runs more than 8–10 events a month, three or more people work on them, and booking details live in several places. You don't need to migrate everything: active bookings, clients and packages can be moved in one evening.
ReadExcel, a general CRM or catering software: what should you run your catering business on?
Spreadsheets suit a small caterer starting out, general CRMs such as HubSpot or Pipedrive handle sales well but don't know about events, shifts or inventory, and catering and event software covers the whole booking cycle. The right choice depends on your volume, team size and where the chaos currently is.
ReadHow to respond to catering enquiries quickly and stop losing clients
To stop losing clients, reply to catering enquiries within an hour during working hours, give a per-guest ballpark price straight away and ask only the questions you still need answered. If the client goes quiet, follow up after 2 days and again after 5–7 days, and close every lost enquiry with a reason.
ReadHow to get bookings from event agencies, venues and wedding planners
To win bookings from event agencies, venues and wedding planners, give them a clear trade price list, answer their enquiries faster than direct ones and keep them updated on every booking. Agree up front whether you pay commission or offer net rates, and never let a partner's client see a lower price than the one the partner quoted.
ReadThe after-event follow-up call: how to get reviews and repeat bookings
The best time to call a client after an event is 1–3 days later, while the memory is fresh and the invoice is still open. A short five-question call gives you honest feedback, a Google or Facebook review and a reason to get back in touch in a year.
Read
Run your next event on Garnify.
2 months with everything on, on your own events. We set it up with you in LV, EN or RU.