Every business owner looks for ways to save money, and the catering industry is no exception.  This is a business with a lot of overhead and a lot of potential for loss due to food waste, labor, liability and more.  The good news is that there are numerous things you can do to save money depending on whether or not you’re a home based or restaurant operation.

Catering Equipment Tips – Save on Energy Use

The Subway restaurant chain recently switched all over their light bulbs over to more efficient bulbs across more than 1800 franchise locations.  By doing so, they were saving approximately $22 per bulb per year.  This adds up to a lot of savings for your business if you change your bulbs over, and turn off the ones you’re not using.

Catering Equipment Tips – Mind the Dishes

Unless you’re washing all of those catering dishes and chafing dishes by hand, you’re probably relying on a commercial dishwasher.  Load that thing to the max for each load, otherwise you’re losing money on the water as well as the detergents you use to clean your dishes.  You’ll also save on the energy it takes to operate the dishwasher.  That’s money you can use to purchase a few new pieces of catering equipment.

Catering Equipment Tips – Soak it Up

No matter what you do, you will end up with dried, caked on food that you have to get off of your catering equipment.  Rather than flushing it with hot water or scraping at it, just let it soak and go do another task or send your crew off for another job.  The hot soak will loosen the food.  Less wasted water, no wasted labor.

Catering Equipment Tips – Turn the Thermostat Down

If you own the venue or restaurant, turn the thermostate down to 68.  If it’s just you and a few others, you might notice the nip but when you fill the location with warm bodies, no one will notice.  You can lower heating bills by as much as 10-15% by turning down the thermostat by a few degrees.

Catering Equipment Tips – Trim your Menu

You’ve got a lot of foods you love, and you like having a lot to offer your clients, but it’s costing you a lot of money to maintain your inventory for all those dishes – and you’ve likely got regular waste because of it.  Add menu items that share ingredients, and trim items from the menu that don’t sell as well.

Catering Equipment Tips – Market Online

Direct response marketing and other forms of traditional marketing can be effective, but they’re also costly.  Marketing online can be free if you do it yourself, or you can opt for an affordable marketing company – either way you’re still saving big.  You can use social media, blogging, email marketing and more to bring back repeat business and land new customers.

Catering Equipment Tips – Get Better Equipment

With cheaper catering equipment, you’re looking at more frequent replacement and maintenance.  It can also affect the opinion customers have of you if your catering equipment is old.  It can hurt repeat business and turn off referrals.  Invest in premium catering equipment and chafing dish sets that look better, last longer and require a lot less maintenance.