Im catering a party for 45 people how much should I charge?

Question

They want the servings of each dish to cover the amount of guest. they want shrimp kabobs, teriyaki chicken kabobs, and beef kabobs with vegetables, Punch, Butter cookies, three sauces for the meats and seafood, so a sauce each, Fruit center piece, chocolate covered strawberries, and croissant turkey sandwhiches. they brought all the dishes for serving. So what should I charge.

Answer 1

$40 per person.

Or about 3 times the cost of the food

Answer 2

There are a few questions you need to answer first:

1. What size of shrimp are you using (the cost can vary depending on the size)?

2. How many cookies are you figuring per person?

3. How many gallons of fruit punch and what are you putting in it?

4. Is there anything else to drink?

5. How much of the items are you getting premade and what are you making from scratch (preparing yourself)?

Then you need to figure out what it will cost you per person to prepare everything.

Don't forget your time, travel time, serving dishes (chafers, sterno, utensils, prep pans etc).

Take the total cost and divide it by the amount of people. This will give you your per person cost. (Your price needs to be a minumum to cover you bottom line, plus 18% service charge ( or what ever is acceptable in your area, it may be higher in your area (20%) and tax (what ever you state tax it on food (in AZ its 8.5%). This will give you a minimal profit and/or will cover you cost if you need to pay someone to help serve, clean up, run the buffet, things like that. This way will not have any out of pocket expense.

Usually it's anywhere between 20 - 50% mark up. This will guarantee you a profit. What you can do is take you per person price and times it by 1.2830 and this will give you your inclusive price (cost + 18% + 8.5% = pp inclusive). Yes your service charge should be taxed. All hotels do you so you need to too!

I hope this helps!

Answer 3

Why are you catering if you don't know what you're doing? The food service business isn't one to be taken lightly. It is hard work and takes talent and know how. I suggest you go work for one before you try to be one. However a general rule of thumb is that your food cost should be 1/3 of the food price. Have you taken into consideration the serving of the food? What about the set-up and take down? Who's doing the dishes and where? Do you need waitstaff, tables, chairs linen etc.etc. ? Next time do your homework BEFORE you accept the job. I'm sorry if this is not the answer you were looking for but that's where the know how comes into play. Good Luck!

Answer 4

Its hard to say what you should charge with just the information that you have stated. Is it a plated meal, is it buffet style, are this the entree or just appetizer? but go cost your food cost estimate you labor hours and then put that together then decide what you would like your profit to be. Then you should sit down with you client and write up a contract with a menu for the event and the estimated cost. that way everybody is agreement about the event and no hidden surprises.

Answer 5

35 or 40

Answer 6

the cost of the food ,,are you buying it ??? if the food is paid for then just charge the going rate for your time per how ever many hours you are working a house cleaner charges 20.50 per hour to amny variations here to figure it if its for friends then go cheaper ,if the food cost is included then take the cost of the food and round it up by the 10 dollar if its 3900 then charge 4000,,and then you time by how long it takes you from the meal planning time to phone time and recipes that you have to find prep ,serving and cleanup time at 22 per hour i would guess 160 not including food (rough guestamate)

Answer 7

Three times the cost of the food.

Answer 8

you must have an idea about the price of the food and the time you need to prepare it...multiply the whole by 2 and then you would get your price...if they want to know the price per person then divide the total by 45

Answer 9

the answer is simple. How much profit do u want? lets say the cost is $40/pax and u want $500 for profit. so just charge $2300
for party mate! its work for me, but make sure the price is reasonable.

Answer 10

Call a couple of different caterers and read the specs off to them and take it from there.