Tale of Two Raws

Actually today they feel better, but yesterday…well, let’s not dwell on the negative. Why all this whining? We catered a function the other night and it was something I had never done before, and my not so youthful body let me know this was not tops on it list for fun thing to do. But my mind was all over it, I had fun!

We shared this all raw event with another raw business in Sarasota - Veggie Magic, and it turned out to be a successful collaboration, with all participants pleased. Even the guests, who, once they realized meat wasn’t going to be served got into the food and made ohh and ahh and yum comments, even though they didn’t have much of a clue what they were eating!

Having only been on the receiving end of a catered event, what surprised me most was the amount of schlepping involved. We had one van and two cars carrying stuff that we had to load and unload, then unpack and repack. An amazing amount of work. I have a much greater appreciation for people who frequently do this.

From a business viewpoint catering is an excellent way to strut your stuff, get your name recognized and make some money. At this gathering we got paid, but there have been several occasions we decided to comp (that means we don’t get paid) a shindig when the likelyhood of future paying jobs and/or name recognition is high.

So far it’s paid off, however our bookkeeper told us a story of a guy going out of business because he gave away so much stuff it ate into his bottom line. So be careful. It’s easy to be generous; a little salad here, a wrap there, oh, and how about bartering. But keep records and after six months, do what we are going to do when that time arrives, crunch the numbers and see if you have gotten the business you hoped for.

I’m going to upload some photos as soon as I can figure out how to do it!!