How to Improve Your Catering Business: 10 Practical Steps

The fastest way to improve a catering business is to bring order to how you work: one place for everything about an event, a standard brief, quote templates, fast replies to enquiries, clear team roles and checklists for packing and returns. Below are 10 steps in the order worth introducing them. You can start each one this week.

Most catering problems — a forgotten crate of glasses, a bartender at the wrong venue, a client sure you "agreed on 100 guests" — are not caused by bad food or bad drinks. They happen because information lives in five places at once.

How do you know it's time to fix your processes?

It's time if at least three of these sound familiar:

• you have to dig through messages to find the current quote;
• on event day the manager gets more than 10 calls from the team;
• at least once a season something important didn't make it to the venue: ice, the bar counter, an extension lead;
• you find out on Thursday who is working on Saturday;
• after the season nobody knows how much glassware was lost;
• Instagram enquiries sometimes go unanswered.

Each of the 10 steps below closes one or more of these gaps.

1. Keep everything for an event in one place

Every event needs a single record holding everything: client and contacts, date and times, venue with address and venue manager, guest count, quote, menu or drinks list, team, equipment list and a history of changes.

The test is simple: if your event manager is off sick, can a colleague understand what was promised to the client in five minutes? If the answer is "it's somewhere on her phone", step 1 isn't done.

What belongs in the event record:

• client and their role (payer, planner, on-site contact);
• venue: address, load-in time, parking, lift, water and power access;
• format and timeline: start, finish, key moments (speeches, cake, first dance);
• guests: number, children, vegetarians, allergies;
• the approved quote and all its versions;
• team and shifts;
• the equipment list for the job.

2. Take every enquiry with a standard brief

A standard brief is 10–12 questions you ask every client before you price anything. Without it, quotes are guesswork and you end up arguing about extras later.

A minimum brief for catering and mobile bars:

1. Date, start and finish time.
2. Venue and town (distance affects delivery).
3. Number of adults and children.
4. Format: standing reception, seated dinner, coffee break, bar.
5. Occasion: wedding, corporate event, birthday, conference.
6. Alcohol: whose, what kind, any restrictions.
7. Budget or a per-guest target.
8. Special requirements: allergies, halal, vegetarian.
9. What the venue already has: tables, crockery, bar counter, kitchen.
10. Who the on-site contact is on the day.

Send the brief as a short form or a list in a message. Clients happily answer specific questions and rarely answer "tell us more".

3. Quote from templates and packages

Quote templates and ready-made packages cut pricing time from an hour to 10–15 minutes and remove "forgot to add delivery" mistakes. In Latvia, mobile bars typically sell "all inclusive" per guest, excluding VAT (21%), with 2–3 price tiers by guest count, usually €29–50 per guest.

An example package grid:

Add clear extras: a champagne tower at around €5 per guest, a coffee station, a welcome wall at €60–140 per day. The package answers "how much will it cost" straight away, and extras raise the order value without haggling. More on pricing in how to write a catering quote.

Keep your costs inside the template too: food, drinks, staff, transport, hire. The client sees the price; you see whether a 25-guest event leaves anything after it's done.

4. Reply to enquiries within an hour

A fast reply is the cheapest way to win more bookings. Many caterers reply "within a few hours" or "in 1–2 working days", so answering within an hour already sets you apart.

A workable standard:

• first reply within 1 hour in working hours: "Got it, here are 3 questions so we can price it";
• quote within 24 hours;
• a nudge after 2–3 days if the client goes quiet.

Every enquiry — website, Instagram, WhatsApp, phone — should land in one list. Otherwise a DM gets buried within a day. How to set this up without hiring someone: how to respond to catering enquiries fast.

5. Get quotes approved in writing, not on the phone

Every change to an event should be confirmed in writing. "But we agreed 90 guests on the phone" is the classic source of disputes and lost money.

How to do it:

• send the client a link or PDF with the quote, showing the version and date;
• ask for explicit approval: an "approve" button or a reply saying "confirmed";
• when guests or menu change, issue a new quote version instead of editing in chat;
• lock the final guest count 5–7 days before the event.

Take a deposit once the quote is approved. Usually 30–50% to secure the date is enough to stop a client moving to someone else a week before the wedding.

6. Use tastings as part of the sale

Free tastings are standard in Latvia for weddings and larger corporate events, and they close deals better than any presentation. The trick is not letting them run forever.

Rules that work:

• tasting after a preliminary quote is agreed, not before;
• 3–5 menu items or 3–4 cocktails, not the whole list;
• 2–4 people from the client's side at most;
• right after the tasting: the final quote and an offer to book the date.

If a client wants a second tasting, make it paid and deduct it from the order.

7. Give the team clear roles and shifts

Everyone on an event should know three things in advance: where to be, when, and what exactly they do. If a bartender learns the venue address on the morning of the wedding, the problem isn't the bartender.

Core roles on site:

• event manager — client and venue contact, timeline;
• head bartender / head chef — quality, menu, on-the-spot decisions;
• bartenders and waiters — service;
• barback / runner — ice, glassware, clearing, cleanliness.

A rule of thumb for mobile bars: 1 bartender per 40–60 guests with a 5–7 cocktail menu, plus a barback from 80–100 guests. Example: 80 guests, 5 hours — 2 bartenders and 1 barback. Planning shifts and working with freelancers is covered in how to schedule bar staff shifts.

Shift confirmation must be explicit: the person said "yes", not "I think I mentioned it".

8. Use packing and return lists

The packing list is built from the event, not from memory. Guest count, cocktails and service style determine what goes in the van.

The minimum:

• packing: every glass crate, shakers, ice, bar counter, linen, extension leads — with quantities;
• departure: who loaded it and who checked;
• return: count after the event, write down breakages and losses straight away.

"Every glass out, every glass back" saves hundreds of euros per season. Losing 15 glasses at one wedding isn't a disaster; losing 15 at each of 30 weddings is. A ready list is in the catering event checklist.

9. Write an event-day timeline

An event-day timeline is a minute-by-minute schedule from loading the van to leaving the venue, shared with the whole team. It removes most "when are we…" phone calls.

Example for a wedding with 80 guests, bar open 18:00–23:00:

Send the timeline 1–2 days before and again on the morning. Include the venue manager's number.

10. Call the client afterwards and ask for a review

A call or message 1–3 days after the event is both service and marketing. Ask what they liked and what could be better, and ask for a Google or Instagram review while the memory is fresh.

A simple sequence:

1. Day 1–3: "Thank you — how was the evening? Anything we could do better?"
2. If the feedback is good, send the Google review link.
3. After 10–11 months: a note about the anniversary or next year's company party.

Repeat clients and referrals are the most reliable source of catering bookings. More in what to do after a catering event.

How to roll this out: one step a week

Don't try to introduce all 10 steps at once. A working order: week 1 — one event record and the brief; week 2 — quote templates; week 3 — roles and timeline; week 4 — packing and return lists. Steps 4, 5, 6 and 10 follow as you go.

If everything currently lives in spreadsheets and chats, start by moving your upcoming events into one place. How to do that without losing data: moving from Excel to a CRM.

How this works in Garnify

In Garnify, each deal holds one or more events with the client, venue, package-based quote, team and equipment list together. Clients approve the quote from a link in one click, bartenders get shift offers through a Telegram bot, and the warehouse builds the pick list from the event and checks every item back in. You can upload existing spreadsheets, PDFs or photos and Garnify sorts them into events and clients.