How to Price Catering Events Per Head
Catering is an incredibly high-overhead business. If you incorrectly guess your ingredient costs or forget to account for the four hours of kitchen prep time, a massive 200-person wedding can actually lose you money. The ToolBizz Catering Pricing Calculator ensures you factor in both food costs and staff labor before calculating a profitable price per head.
Accounting for Staff Labor
Many new catering companies only price based on food costs. You must include the hourly wages of your prep cooks, transport team, dishwashers, and serving staff. Input the total cumulative man-hours into the 'Hours of Labor' field, and assign it an average hourly wage to instantly calculate your true overhead.
Collecting the Catering Deposit
Never buy wholesale ingredients for an event without a 50% cash deposit. The moment a client agrees to your calculated per-head price, generate a Professional Invoice and send it. If you are serving alcohol or selling packaged retail goods, verify if you need to charge tax using the Sales Tax Calculator.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
While restaurant net margins are notoriously tight (3-5%), catering companies typically operate with much better margins due to exact headcounts and no food waste. A highly-optimized catering business should target a 10% to 15% net profit margin.
Food costs fluctuate weekly. Keep precise track of your receipts from restaurant supply stores using our Expense Tracker Tool to ensure your base costs are always accurate before you quote the next event.