Today’s we’re focusing on how you can make money by setting up a catering business from home!

Where is the time going lately?  I can’t believe Saturday is here again already but as it is, it’s time for the next post in my ‘How to Make Money‘ series.

Today’s post is from the very lovely Fiona who blogs over at Savvy in Somerset and it’s all about setting up a Catering Business from home, which involves much more than I thought if I’m honest.  I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did.

For a lot of people being able work from home is the dream. Whether like me you want to be a writer, you’re super amazing at crafting or you want to do something simple like set up an ironing Business there are so many benefits to working from home – such as being able to work around children and child care.

Today I am going to talk about all the things you need consider before setting up a catering business from home. Having been a chef since I was sixteen it’s something I am often asked about and something I have spent a fair amount of time considering. While it’s something I’ve decided not to go ahead with for now, I’m hoping everything I have learned will help up others who are in the same position and maybe unsure of what steps they need to take next.

What sort of Catering Business do you want to set up?

There are many different types of catering businesses that you could set up to run from your home.

These could be:

• Cake Making and Decorating
• Catering for Small Buffets/Parties
• Catering for offices (such as sandwiches and soups delivered daily)
• Catering for Dinner Parties and Small events
• Making produce to sell, such as Jams and Chutneys or sweet things like Marshmallows and Fudge.

Some of these operations would be considered a much lower risk from a health and hygiene point of view than others which would make setting up a catering business from home easier as you could integrate them into a home kitchen. For example, making cakes; as these only use one raw ingredient they are considered low risk.

Food Safety Certificate

The first thing you will need to do is to acquire a level 2 Food Safety Certificate. If you’ve never done one before it might be a bit of a revelation! It covers all the basic requirements including food storage, cooking food safely and generally keeping food safe for the public to consume. These can be done online or at college on a day course. If you are struggling to find one neat you, ring the local environmental health office and they should be able to point you in the right direction. This training needs to be redone every three years. Anyone who will be helping with the catering and handling food will also need to do one of these certificates.

The course should also teach you about allergies, food labeling and use by dates.

While there are no other formal qualifications required it may be better for your business if you have something that shows you are skilled in your chosen area, such as an NVQ.

They may also be some equipment you need to buy to ensure your kitchen is safe – it may be worth factoring these into your business start up costs.

• Colour coded chopping boards (to minimise the risk of contamination)
• Probe and Probe Wipes
• Thermometers for your Fridge and Freezer
• Separate clingfilm and knives to use on raw food
• Antibacterial spray and blue roll (the use of clothes is discouraged)
• Labels with ingredients and allergens listed

Registering with the Council

The next step is to register with the local council at least 28 days before you intend to start trading. All councils operate differently and so you may get a visit immediately, you may get one sometime in the first few months. This inspection is where your star rating will come from. You may have seen this at food premises before – it’s a black and green sticker with a rating from zero to five.

Even if there are issues with your current level if hygiene the EHO’s are super helpful and will do everything they can to help you get things right. You can also ask for a re-inspection to take place if you feel you have made necessary improvements.

Many councils in England and Wales use the Safer Food Better Business pack which should help you monitor your actions and show what you are doing to keep food safe. It only takes a few minutes each day to fill in. The premises I currently work was inspected in June and we were awarded 5 Stars – paper work being up to date is a huge part of this mark.

A few things to consider when assessing whether your kitchen is up to standards:

• Is your kitchen in good repair? It doesn’t need to be stainless steel but it needs be clean and work surfaces need to be free from signs of serious damage and wear and tear.
• Are you able to make your kitchen pet free? Animals need to be out of the way when preparing food and ideally kept out of the kitchen at all times. They should not be fed or sleeping in the kitchen either.
• For larger operations, you will need two sinks – one for food and one for cleaning (a dishwasher can count for one of these)
• Fridges and Freezers– if being used for food for the catering business they should be temperature checked daily. All food past its use by date should be thrown away. If I was setting up my own catering business from home I would invest in separate fridge freezer just for food for the business.

That may sound like quite a big scary list of requirements but once you get your head around it it’s not too bad. A lot of things simply become habit after a while and you’ll find yourself doing them without even thinking about it.

If you are unsure about whether your home kitchen is suitable contact your local Environmental Health Officer – they should be more than happy to pop round and chat with you before making an official inspection.

Insurance, Transportation & Costings

In this situation, public liability insurance is an absolute must. If anything was to go wrong, for example someone claiming you’ve given them food poisoning and deciding to sue, you could be absolutely ruined if you’re not covered. Do your research, be thorough and make sure the insurance covers every eventuality.

Depending on the scale of your business you may also need to figure our how you are going transport food from location to another. High Risk Foods can only be left out of the fridge for a certain amount of time before they need to be thrown away so make sure you are within this period when transporting. If you are making very fragile items such as wedding cakes make sure you know how to transport them safely to the venue and can do emergency repairs if needed.

Accurately costing everything is the key to making a catering business successful. Don’t forget to factor in the cost of things like waste (in case a batch of cakes doesn’t rise or something burns), packaging and labels, the cost of extra gas and electric at home and most important of all a wage for all your hard work.

If you plan to sell home produce such as jams or cakes you may also need to factor in the cost of where you sell them. Local Fayres and Car Boot Sales often charge for stalls, more so for businesses than the general public.

People are often shocked at the price of homemade items, such as handmade birthday cakes and wedding cakes but when you consider what goes into making them – the skill and everything I’ve mentioned above that you need to think of when setting up a catering business from home and then keeping a business running, the price is usually more than justified.

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