Marilyn was very generous and I encourage everyone to benefit from her great advice:
This holiday season was one wild ride. After last year's shut down of corporate business we went into the 2010 Holiday Season not knowing what to expect. This was accentuated by the fact that both Christmas and New Year's fell on weekends. We knew from experience that meant we had lost a whole weekend in December.
We normally establish a minimum of $2,000 in food costs for Saturdays in December and New Year's Eve. This year we eliminated the minimum food cost and treated the Saturdays in December as normal business days.
The only events we booked early for December were Weddings which revolved around the holidays, a new trend that we had not anticipated. Corporate and social parties came in so late that we did not hire our contingency office and kitchen help.
When the inquiries came in we decided to stretch our resources and take virtually all the business available when we normally close a date at 10 parties per day. This involved working doubles, promoting Serving Staff to Supervisors, renting trucks and counting every piece of linen and skirting each weekend.
At the same time deliveries exploded and the kitchen staff worked overtime to meet the demand. New Year's Eve did not sell out due to several cancellations so celebrating Christmas and Weddings is acceptable but New Year's Eve is less so in a rocky economy. We made it work as we always do but there is no way we could have written the Business Plan for this one!
Marilyn Chapman
Wedding Event Coordinator
Delectables Fine Catering, Inc.
"The Bay Area's Most Prestigious Caterer"
969 Virginia Avenue, Inc.
Palm Harbor, FL 34683
E-mail: info@delectablescatering.com
http://www.delectablescatering.com
Phone: 727-781-1200
Fax: 727-789-3401
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