Holiday Catering Preparation Homework

It’s finally here. For the holidays, you’ve been helping so many people celebrate over the past month. Congratulations on successfully helping others celebrate this holiday season with your exceptional food that helped make their event that much more enjoyable! Now, it’s time to take a break and focus on you.

This week is a great time to reflect on your last year. Remembering the highs (and lows) of the year can help you determine your goals for the New Year catering in 2015. Take advantage of the knowledge you have from this past year and use it for catering preparation to strengthen and grow your business. Here are a few things to ask yourself as you prepare for the New Year:

Think back on the best events of the year.
○ What type of event was it?
○ What was it about that event that you loved?
○ Are there more events like that one you could book for the upcoming year?

Now think about some of your less enjoyable events.
○ What made them not as great as others?
○ What type of event was it?
○ Was it the style of food requested?
○ Was it something about your own process that made it more difficult?

Is there are cooking style you saw at a conference, on television, or at a restaurant that you wanted to try out but never got around to?

Did you attend an event for someone else and see a process or décor style you wanted to try in your own catering?

Was there a convention you wanted to attend last year but didn’t get the chance to, such as Catersource in Las Vegas?

Think back on this year’s events and ask yourself some reflective questions. Write down your goals for the upcoming year. Maybe you’d like to get more weddings in your event mix or maybe you’d like to try more private dinner parties. Are you new to the catering world or did you find yourself scattered during a lot of events? Your goal for the year might be to implement an organizational system, whether that is procedures for your staff or finding a software program like Total Party Planner that helps keep you organized. With a new year comes new opportunities.

We know thinking about the new year ahead may seem more stressful than relaxing and all you want to do is sit down and finally eat one of the dozens of cookies you’ve had to make for everyone else. Before you know it, though, the New Year will be here. Try not to become overwhelmed with planning for 2015. There’s no need to determine the best plan for execution and redesign your entire business plan over Christmas dinner. Just taking a few moments over the holidays to think about what you enjoyed and disliked from 2014 and determine goals for 2015 can put you ahead of the game when you do return to the full swing of work in January.

No matter what you’re celebrating this week – Festivus, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or your own special holiday – use this time to re-energize yourself and prepare for the New Year.  From all of us here at Total Party Planner, Happy Holidays!