Posted by Meg Wittenmyer on October 26, 1999 at 18:12:16 :
In Reply to: CHARGE for EVERYTHING posted by Carl (the famous, not) on October 23, 1999 at 11:21:56 :
: Make SURE you list every little service on your bid. And just mark it as "included" or "no charge" It is always good to throw in some "no charge" verbage. even though it is built in, it makes the client aware that everything has an importance or cost. I haven't thought of this, Carl, but it seems very smart, business-wise. Thanks. : By the way, how do you charge for a party for 2, or even 8? I have some thoughts, but let me hear how you do it. Funny enough, we do it the way I saw some discussion of smaller parties on this list last week (in a way). We have a minimum charge per person, regardless of size. That charge is higher the fewer people we have. BUT, we provide a much more elegant, (I hesitate to say higher quality) higher end of both product and service. Since it is our specialty, we come in and set up the table to be a true work of art with candle sticks, flowers, etc. Also, we like to think our menus are of the type found in upscale restaurants, creative and not necessarily the type which normally lends itself to catering large parties (i.e., not a good choice for a party of oh...say 20). Back to your question... when we explain about our minimum charge for parties under 20 and what we provide as a service, we have seen little resistance to price. If they are calling us, they usually want a really nice, romantic dinner, or are having a special dinner party, so they expect to pay a little more. Of course, if they are ordering dishes that require really expensive ingredients, we tend to fall back on the 3x + service charge formula. What are your ideas? I'd be very interested to hear. BTW, thanks Gord for letting me know *someone* was out there. :) It's been nice to see some responses to my question. Meg