Operations
How caterers stop quoting dead-end enquiries (and win more weddings)
7 July 20269 min readRead
Considered project
How caterers get clients: a 90-day plan
How your buyer buys: High price, long deliberation. The buyer decides on proof of past work.
A caterer has two buyers, and they look in different places. A couple planning a wedding starts with the venue. They ask the coordinator who to use, read the recommended supplier list, and browse Hitched and Bridebook with the date already fixed. They enquire with four or five caterers in one evening, so the first full reply frames every quote after it.
The office manager booking a Christmas party or a client lunch has less time and more at stake. They want a menu, a per-head price and a yes on the date, usually within the day. They go back to whoever did it well last year, which makes past clients and the venues you have already worked the shortest route to December.
So the order is: photos at every event, because food sells on sight. A reply within hours and a proposal within two days, with three menus at three prices. Then the venue lists and the trade partners who work the same rooms. The deadline messages in September and January turn a full peak into a full year.
Step zero
The free checklist, before the plan.
The checklist repairs what you already have: the phone, the profile, the booking path. This page is the plan for new work on top of it, and the two are different jobs.
The Caterer's DIY Growth Checklist
The free checklist for caterers: every repair to the phone, the profile and the booking path, as step-by-step actions. Sent by email.
Where they look
Where your customers actually look.
Hitched(opens in a new tab)
The largest UK wedding directory. Couples filter by region and read reviews, so a listing with real-event photos and a named venue in each review wins the shortlist.
Bridebook(opens in a new tab)
Couples plan the whole wedding in it, budget included. A profile with from-per-head prices gets shortlisted by the people who can afford you.
Venue recommended-supplier lists
The most valuable listing has no website. Send each venue you have catered photos of your food in their room, and ask what it takes to join the list.
Food hygiene ratings(opens in a new tab)
Corporate buyers check this before they book. Link your rating on every page and in every proposal, with your liability cover beside it.
Google Business Profile(opens in a new tab)
Wedding caterer and corporate catering searches with your town end here. Category Caterer, every service listed, and the event photos uploaded weekly.
Your year
When the phone rings, and when to start.
Weddings and garden parties run May to September, and December fills with office parties.
- Jan: quiet
- Feb: quiet, start the visibility work
- Mar
- Apr
- May: peak
- Jun: peak
- Jul: peak
- Aug: peak
- Sep: peak, start the visibility work
- Oct
- Nov
- Dec: peak
Amber months are the peak, grey months are quiet, and "start" marks the month the visibility work has to begin in.
- May to September peak: start by February, because local search takes about three months to move.
- December peak: start by September, because local search takes about three months to move.
The year has two peaks. Weddings and garden parties run May to September, and office parties fill December. Both are booked months ahead, so the visible work for summer has to be moving by February, and the push for December starts in September. In September, tell past corporate clients how many December dates are free. In January, tell last year's wedding enquirers how many summer Saturdays remain. January and February are quiet for events and busy for enquiries, which makes them the best weeks for venue visits, wedding fairs and the proposal template.
The 90-day plan
Four phases, in the order that pays back fastest.
Each step names its channel, its cost band from the technique register, the effort it takes, and how long until the first enquiry or booking.
Week 0
Photograph every job
At every event, photograph the plated food at the pass, the buffet before guests arrive and the team in service
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
Answer the phone, text back missed calls
Have missed calls text back asking for the event date, venue and guest count, and ring back before the day ends
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result within a week
Credentials a buyer can check
Link your food hygiene rating and state your liability cover on every page
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Month 1
Same-day quote, then follow up
Check the date, send a holding reply within hours and the proposal within 48 hours, then follow up on days 2, 5 and 12
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 3 weeks
In the kit and the bundleSharpen the offer
Put three menus at three per-head prices in every proposal
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Reminders, deposits, cancellation policy
Hold each date only once the deposit clears, and set the payment schedule out in writing
- Cost: £
- Low effort
- First result in 0 to 2 weeks
In the kitAsk every client for a review
Message the couple or organiser within a week of the event with your review link, and ask them to name the venue
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 4 to 12 weeks
In the bundle
Months 2 to 3
Gatekeeper partnerships
Send each venue you have catered photos of your food in their room, and ask how to join their recommended supplier list
- Cost: Free
- Medium effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
Reciprocal trade partners
Swap referrals with a photographer, a florist and a marquee company who work the same venues
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
A page per service and per town
A page each for weddings, corporate events, private parties and funerals, with their own menus, from-per-head prices and reviews
- Cost: ££
- Medium effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
In the bundle
Month 3 onward
Sharpen the offer
In September, tell past corporate clients how many December dates are free; in January, tell wedding enquirers how many summer Saturdays remain
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 4 weeks
Networking in person
Take tasting samples to wedding fairs and venue open days, and go to the business breakfasts where office managers book events
- Cost: £
- Medium effort
- First result in 8 to 16 weeks
Go back to old enquiries
Check last year's unbooked proposals against your calendar, and ask each organiser whether the event is still going ahead
- Cost: Free
- Low effort
- First result in 1 to 3 weeks
The cost of waiting
What doing nothing costs caterers.
The leaks below are the ones the caterers page already names. Put a figure on each, see what the fix gets back a month, and how many weeks the kit or the bundle takes to pay for itself.
Industry estimates, not client results
Industry-typical ranges for a small event caterer: weddings and corporate events in the low thousands, about three in ten quoted events booking, and a minority of clients coming back inside the year.
Every number below is prefilled from that estimate and editable. Put your own figures in and the leaks, gains and payback recalculate as you type.
Where it leaks
Drains close rate
Enquiries arrive with no date, no venue, no budget
- Leaking now
- £847 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £424 a month
- The fix
- Enquiry forms that qualify (about £375 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 3.8 weeks
Drains close rate
Quotes take hours and vanish into silence
- Leaking now
- £2,542 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £1,017 a month
- The fix
- Quote follow-up automation (about £700 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 3.0 weeks
Drains enquiries
Your best events live in a camera roll, not a gallery
- Leaking now
- £1,906 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £763 a month
- The fix
- Portfolio website (about £1,750 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 9.9 weeks
Drains enquiries
'Menus on request' makes every enquiry a mystery for both sides
- Leaking now
- £1,346 a month
- Gain from the fix
- £538 a month
- The fix
- Portfolio website (about £1,750 one-off)
- Pays back in
- 14.1 weeks
On these figures
£6,641 a month leaking
Fixing every leak above gets back about £2,741 a month, with each leak counted on its own against the same baseline.
- The Booked-Weekends System (£1,795)
- Pays back in 2.8 weeks
- The Caterer Growth Kit (£49)
- Pays back in under a week
Inside the 90-day window on these figures. Change any field above to test it against your own numbers for caterers.
What matters most
The levers that carry the most weight here.
Four steps carry the weight. Photographs at every event, because a caterer is chosen on the look of the plate. The same-day holding reply and the two-day proposal, because couples enquire with several caterers at once. Three menus at three per-head prices, because the question becomes which one rather than yes or no. And venue partnerships, because a place on a recommended supplier list sends bookings for years. Deposits and written terms run alongside.
See every lever for caterers in the registerReading for caterers
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