It also takes teamwork.

Teamwork plays a critical role for your staff. Everybody from the sales team to the kitchen staff should have each others back. Team building activities are a way to have staff interact in ways outside of the typical day-to-day routine. They help nourish and promote the teamwork philosophy. Activities can range anywhere from simple fun games in a meeting, to events outside the office completely. Either way, you want to encourage the building of bonds between staff members.

Will everybody ultimately be best friends? Probably not, but perhaps getting to know somebody on a different level other than the functions of doing their jobs will shed some light on their behaviors – and why they do things they do.

Recently our entire staff went bowling on a Friday after work. The Developers & Support staff vs the Sales & Marketing team made for quite an interesting game! But at the end of the night, we all felt commonalities between us.

So be sure to plan team building activities with your staff. It’s really not just for Fortune 500 companies. The smallest of companies will absolutely benefit too.

For more specific team building ideas, along with some Do’s and Dont’s, click this link .

Please feel free to share some of the fun and interesting team building activities you have already done!

You could call it a PR stunt – a great way to gain exposure for the deli while capitalizing on some national news that is a big deal locally in the NY area. But naming items on the menu to endear a restaurant or catering business to the area where they are located is not new.

In fact there is a whole science to it. Check out this article on the Vanee website that reports on an experiment conducted by two University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers that gives explanation and direction on how to choose the best name for menu items.

Some businesses choose to have a menu item naming contest. Pita Pit utilized its Facebook page to let customers be involved in naming their latest item. Tactics like this allow customers to feel more engaged as well as generate buzz.

However you decide to name your menu items, making it sound mouthwatering and delicious is important. What creative ways have you named items on your menu?

It could be because smaller parties are often coordinated by people who are not event planners. Those events could be for families or small companies that don’t have a person who regularly coordinates events. There’s nothing wrong with that – it’s just that as caterers, we then have to remember to ask more questions and offer more advice. There are exceptions, but experienced event coordinators tend to know what they want and what questions to ask to get the desired effect. On the other hand, coordinators for smaller events may not know exactly what they want and don’t even know what the possibilities are. They don’t know what they don’t know. In those cases it’s best to ask for as much information as you can and guide them toward making good decisions early in the process. You’ll have to explain more about how things will work so they understand what information you’ll need to put on a great event.

You may have to ask questions about or give a lesson on:

• Portion sizes and how to estimate numbers of guests
• What exactly is included in your price (i.e. tips, table linens, tables/chairs, wait staff)
• How food should be served and the benefits of each – buffet, served, passed
• Menu choices and dietary restrictions. Do you offer a tasting, so the client knows exactly what smoked salmon mousse is?
• Is there a theme that the food could enhance in some way?

It’s better to put the time in up front, ask the questions and know the full picture in order to be prepared, rather than suffer last minute changes or unmet expectations. That means more work in the early stages, but hopefully less headaches later on. You don’t get to choose what types of events come your way, but hopefully if you are prepared, it won’t matter if it’s a large or small event because they will all be outstanding events that generate lots of applause!

There are directories out there whose sole purpose is to put your business in front of people looking for caterers. The benefits of partnering with a service like this are a) it’s a secondary way to get found, other than your own website, and b) if you don’t have the time or knowledge to get your website fully optimized for search engines to find you, you can let these sites essentially do it for you. They know how to get found and they can help funnel the traffic to you. Here are just a few to get you started.

Caterhub.com lets you create a page that includes your menu. From there potential clients can find you, place orders and even pay online. It is a full service site that offers a lot of great ways to connect with people searching for a caterer.

Partyspace.com is a relatively new website that began in the Philadelphia area and is quickly growing to new markets. It mainly focuses on weddings and special event planning.

Localcatering.com offers customers more than just finding a caterer – they also offer limos, DJs, florists, and more. The wider scope of this website may get your business in front of more potential clients.

These websites either charge a monthly rate or a fee for each lead they forward to you. Learn the details to be sure it’s a good fit for your budget.

Check these sites out and let us know your thoughts. Do you currently partner with a directory like these? Share them here with your experiences.

Have you updated your menu to include the latest in wedding fare? Check out these great ideas for trendy menu options to offer brides.

Some brides just really want that special dish that can only be served from their favorite food truck. Did I say food truck? Yes! Some brides are doing it, so be prepared if the brides says she is considering it.

But sticking to the basics and remembering why you got into this business to begin with is always a helpful way to keep things in perspective when it starts to get crazy. This article talks about the basics and may be a good reminder of things to consider.

If you offer catering for smaller events, don’t forget to remind the bride that you can also handle events like the bridesmaids luncheon, rehearsal dinners and post wedding parties. It’s even a good reminder to place at the bottom of your proposal! Best of luck this wedding season!

Food Safety and Hygiene:
For any restaurant or catering business, hygiene of staff is critical. What procedures do you have in place to ensure a clean, healthy environment? This article from QSR describes one way to eliminate the paper and track tasks electronically.

E-Menu:
The E-menu featured in this YouTube video is a cool way to order from a customers’ perspective. While not suitable for every restaurant or caterer, it is definitely interesting.

Other Restaurant Technologies:
This article from Restaurant Owner includes information on everything from POS solutions to web-based staff training and restaurant security. Check it out to learn about additional technologies out there.

I’m also curious to hear what your latest technology purchase was. Have you come across anything recently that made you think “That could really help us be more efficient?” Please share them with us in the comment section below.

Tell us about your business.

Located in metro Atlanta, Post Exchange Catering has been dazzling corporate clients since 1993. Whether it is a catered breakfast, meeting luncheon, corporate picnic, or customized box lunches, we pride ourselves in delivering dining solutions with professional on time performance. As metro Atlanta’s corporate catering specialists, we guarantee quality food and exceptional customer service. Our operation is Monday through Friday with an emphasis on breakfast and lunch events.

What brought you to begin using Total Party Planner?

Our original process was one that we pieced together using spreadsheets, databases, and Quickbooks. With our old system we were tied to the office computer and only one of us could work on the information at a time. While this process worked for many years, we reached a point where the procedures needed to be standardized to facilitate our growth. We also found that while most recipes had been written and stored in a manual, the employees failed to use them as access was difficult during production time. After sampling many online options, the team at Total Party Planner made our choice pretty easy. No one spent as much time teaching me or letting me bombard them with questions like the TPP team did.

What is your favorite program feature in Total Party Planner?

Picking a favorite feature is almost like asking me to choose a favorite son or daughter. There are many excellent features to choose from. Probably the one that helps my business the most is the recipe feature. This has helped us become more standardized and helped my staff be able to work in any station in the kitchen because the recipe and method are spelled out for them. I also like the event production sheets. These reports are the map we all read to see where our day is taking us.

How has Total Party Planner helped your business?

Total Party Planner has streamlined our data entry and made our events more consistent beginning to end. While we spent a large amount of time setting up Total Party Planner the return on the investment was quickly recouped. It is comforting to know I can access anything pertaining to my business in one location.

What sets your company apart from others in your area?

Post Exchange Catering is unique as for the 19 years we have been in business our focus is on the corporate market exclusively. No nights, No weekends with few exceptions. Our staff is family focused and we will never ask them to work Sundays.

What do customers expect when doing business with you?

We will always provide good food with service that is unmatched. Our customers appreciate that we offer: online ordering, a 24 hour catering hotline, an awesome customer rewards program, and donate to a featured charity each month.

What advice would you give a new caterer?

“Say what you do then do what you say”. It is no more basic than that. Also, seek out a mentor, go to Catersource each year, and join the International Caterers Association (ICA). I have found that caterers as a whole are a sharing bunch. We love to share our successful ideas and our pitfalls that new caterers can avoid. Oh, and of course I would suggest “before you take your first order, spend time setting up Total Party Planner”.

Along with being challenging, catering can also be an extremely competitive business right? Your probably not at home having meaningful discussions with a direct competitor about food costs and business trends. This is not true in Vegas… you will interact with hundreds of other business men and women in which competition is not an issue.

The educational conference is a learning experience like no other. You will take away useful knowledge and skills from the 4 days of seminar’s taught by industry experts. Mike Roman, founder of Catersource and catering guru, guarantees it. The main selling point for Catersource is continued growth of your business with success along the way.

Don’t let the glitz and glamour of Vegas take away from the value of the show. It is not a non-stop party. You are there to learn and study. Sure, there is a lot of fun to be had too, but the daytime class schedule is designed to maximize your education. Even the night time special events are meant for learning. They are a great way to show all the new trends for the year “live and tangible”. I know I personally have never been short of amazed over the years at the creativity on display.

The tradeshow portion of the conference is also a great way to see new products in the industry. It is a buying show, so be prepared to be offered some amazing deals from the vendors!

Lastly, but certainly not all inclusive in this blog article, are the tabletop contests, chef challenges, and unbelievable raffle prizes. For full detail about the show, or to register online, visit the Catersource website .

If you are planning on attending, please stop by booth #649 at the tradeshow and say hi to the Total Party Planner catering software team. We would love to meet you!

Some questions to ponder as you enter this reflective sojourn may be: Could we have been more efficient? Could we have done more business? Should we have taken less business? Did we take profitable business? What am I not going to do this year? Do I need help? Did I manage well?

Even if you aren’t a strong numbers person, take some time to review some reports on your business to determine how successful you were. It’s not always the bottom line that tells the story. There may be hidden trends in your business that you don’t see unless you really look at the numbers and think about what they mean. If you’re a Total Party Planner customer, some of our automated reports can help you. Some key end of year reports to review are

• Menu Item Popularity – what sold well and what did not.
• Profit Summary – what types of events were the most successful.
• Sales Forecasting by Client - who were our biggest clients. Take some time to send a thank you note if you have not already.
• Sales by Referral – who brought you the most business. Don’t forget those thank-you cards too!
• Inventory Cost Changes – can we save money with better purchasing?
• Lost Revenue by Cancellation Reason - are we consistently losing events to a competitor? Are prices too high?
• Accounts Receivable – ensure your receivables are up to date. Check this report weekly if not daily.

The important thing to remember when doing this kind of exercise, is that once you have concluded what you need to focus on this year, write it down. Then tell someone about it. This helps make it become more real. The plan isn’t going to unfold by itself, so set yourself up for success this year. I know you can do it! Good luck!

The biggest hurdle often times is just getting started. Sometimes it’s best to schedule time – just an hour or so – and commit to creating an email list and writing a few short stories. It may be useful to think about people in your circle of friends or family who could help. Do you know someone good at data entry who could help import your contact list? Or, maybe you know someone who likes to write and can assist with creating stories?

Even if you don’t have anyone to help, most emailing programs are fairly user friendly and they make it easy to learn how to get started. Pick a template that compliments your business (colors, themes, number of stories), and just start plugging in what you want people to know about your business. Be sure to include links back to your website and ways to connect with you. More specifically, include a “call to action.” Ask them to come out and try a specific dish, or book now for great wedding specials. The best part is that when you send out your newsletter to customers, it’s easy for them to forward to friends and that leads to more referrals for you.

If you get stuck and don’t know what to include, check out your own in-box. What emails have you gotten recently that caught your attention? Reading what others are doing can spark an idea that can be related to your own business. Creating a data bank of ideas that you want to include is a great way to always have a list to refer to in case you get stuck. Start a folder within your email box to keep emails that you like, as reference.

Make 2012 the year that you reach out for more business. If you can carve out an hour or two each week to manage your list and write some short items, customers will stay connected and forward your emails, leading to more referrals. At Total Party Planner we want this to be the year you really prosper!

Ready to start? Use this link to sign up for a free 60 day trial of Constant Contact today.