Posted by Elizabeth Lira on February 26, 19100 at 19:53:37 :
In Reply to: turning down business posted by Howard Reeck on February 26, 19100 at 18:31:09 :
: im a small corporate caterer i've been in the biz for 12 years and have just started my own business been in operation for 9 mos. my problem is that recently i had afull serve omlette bar for 20 people(our speciality)
: and a lunch scheduled for the same day (no problem)
: 3 days proir to the event another client called to schedule a breakfast on the same day as the omlette bar and lunch i had to turn them down an dsaid i was booked solid for the day and that i was sorry and could not help them/ did i do the right thing and will they ever call again (this client spends about 40'000 a year on catering)
Do ya just hate that?!?$?%?^?!!!
It never fails that everyone wants ya on the same day at the same time. Drives me crazy (you can tell). I really appreciate your situation and after 5 years can only tell you that you (like me) need more professional staff.
There must be a way to find and develop staff that has similar dedication and desire as the owner/operator/manager. Is the only answer partnership? Cause I've been warned by many a partners not to go there.
In addition to providing full service catering to any and all, I also provide "staff only" for caterers and others needing only servers. I just bought airline tickets for a long weekend over Easter for a tiny vaca... and on Friday a client caterer walked in and said he had an event for 600 and needed staff. They prefer that we do ALL the front of house management and service.
I did not tell him sorry can't do it. I'm going to bite the bullet and put my staff to the test, he booked two other events the same day and this is the first of the three. If my staff blows it they could very well blow the other two plus what ever else may come. Pretty scarey for me!
I really believe that if your client goes to another caterer they will not necessarliy come back and I know that because when other caterers have told their clients to call me 'cause they are booked their client calls me back for their next event. So this makes me realize that for whatever reason my clients may very well do the same!
It's like we need to find a soul-mate catering pal that can come in and assist on these types of situations. Like another caterer in a town say 75-100 miles away or if your city is large enough in your town. Setup some type of "you help me I'll help you" so that there is always coverage. Naturally trust would be an issue....
Sorry for you. Hopefully whoever they called SUCKED and they'll be calling you back!