Catering Business Plan

A catering and private chef business plan with an editable 36-month model and up to 17 playbooks for pricing per head, booking through venues, and carrying the business through the winter trough.

This bundle is built for an off-premise catering company that also runs a personal chef business as one of its lines, producing out of a licensed commercial or shared commissary kitchen. Event and corporate catering are the revenue anchor; private-chef sessions are the third line, used to fill quiet weekdays and the off-season. If you came looking for a catering business plan, this is one. If you came looking for a private chef business plan, read it as a catering business with a private-chef service inside it, because that is how the plan and the model treat the book. Full-service events are priced per guest, commonly $40–$120 a head; corporate and drop-off orders per head, commonly $12–$30 with order minimums; personal-chef work per session, commonly $300–$600 for a batch of household meals before groceries.

On profitability, the model is specific about where the money is made. Direct cost (food, per-event servers, prep cooks and captain, rentals passed through, disposables) runs about 55% of revenue, for a blended gross margin near 45%. That blend covers three different economics: full-service events at roughly 40–50%, drop-off and corporate at 50–60%, and personal chef at 55–65% because the owner performs the labor. A worked 100-guest wedding at $85 a head grosses $8,500 and leaves $3,900 of gross profit, a 45.9% margin, before the owner's own time. In the personal-chef line the money is in the service fee: a $500 weekly session covering five household dinners bills about $150 of groceries at cost as a separate line.

The base case opens at ~$8,000 of monthly revenue, ramps over nine months to a ~$28,000 steady-state run-rate, then grows about 1.5% a month. Fixed non-labor overhead (commissary membership, insurance, software, vehicle, admin) is $3,500 a month, and a part-time non-event lead adds $2,400. The owner draws $4,000 a month, carried below net income as a cash use rather than an expense, so operating profit is read before the owner is paid. At steady state, monthly gross profit of roughly $12,600 covers the ~$5,900 of overhead, the ~$537 equipment-loan payment and the draw. The model computes the break-even month and the cash low point from your own inputs.

Startup cost stays modest because the kitchen is rented rather than built. Commissary time runs roughly $15–$35 an hour or $1,000–$2,500 a month for regular access, which turns a six-figure build-out into a variable cost. A realistic owner-operator launch lands around $15,000–$45,000 (planning ranges; verify against local quotes). The largest swing items are transport and hot/cold holding gear at $3,000–$8,000 and a used cargo or refrigerated van at $5,000–$25,000 if you buy one rather than start with your own vehicle. The base case funds the launch with $18,000 of opening cash plus a $25,000 equipment loan at 10.5% over 60 months; a self-funded launch sets the loan to zero.

Licensing is set by your state and county health department and varies, so the bundle treats it as a map of common requirements as of January 2026, to verify locally. Catering is generally done from a licensed commercial or commissary kitchen under a catering or food-establishment permit, and a home kitchen is not legal for catering in essentially all states; home cottage-food production is deliberately outside this bundle. At least one certified food protection manager (ServSafe Manager or a state-approved equivalent) is typically required, with food-handler cards for staff. Add business registration, a sales-tax permit (prepared food is generally taxable), a separate permit path if you serve alcohol, and general liability, product liability and commercial auto insurance, typically $1,500–$4,000 in the first year. Whether to form an LLC is an entity and tax decision the bookkeeping playbook routes to your accountant; the plan does not assume one.

The year has a shape, and the model carries it month by month: about 1.4× run-rate from April through June for weddings, 1.3× in November and December for holiday and corporate parties, and 0.6× in January and February. At the $28,000 run-rate that is roughly $39,000 in a peak month and $17,000 in January, near break-even after fixed costs and debt service. The playbooks are built around the consequence: a caterer can be profitable for the year and still run out of money in February. Deposits taken before food is bought, a final headcount locked about 72 hours out, and a reserve banked from the peak carry the trough, while corporate accounts and standing personal-chef clients keep weekdays and winter from going empty.