Catering ~ By Pound VS Per Person

I hated cooking more than 3 meats for any customer because you can't outguess what they will load up on and neglect. When you thing that people should be filled up with 6-8 ounces of meat plus the same in sides how can you break down 5 option unless you serve it and limit everyone to a taste of each. Then you know some won't want all 5 but which ones? If they will tell you how many pounds they want of each meat and each side and they will handle serving you could charge by the pound and drop it off. Them they can deal with being long or short of everything.

It makes sense if you only cook one meat it will be cheaper than
5 meats. I'd like to know what would best seller, 2nd best, and so forth,
in a given area.
You could then proportion meat.
And get skewered - you KNOW something will be short.

In my line of work, some of the best jobs have been the ones I refused to take.

It's been a while, but I used to do pork butt (usually adding in a little chicken for the non pork eaters) catering once in a while with my dad years ago. We didn't have a flat per person rate. Normally, he'd ask how many people were coming and work up a quote from there. You have to make a few bucks to make it worth hauling all your gear over and setting up, which can be spread thinner over a larger number of people, vs. showing up just to cook for the bare minimum crowd at a fixed per head price.

Long story short... he'd put it all on paper and be up front about it. We'd recommend 1 pound uncooked weight per person, make a worksheet with the labor, meat, sides and consumables, and leave it at that. His philosophy was that anyone who would give you a hard time over a reasonable and up front labor charge wasn't someone to do business with (this wasn't a primary business, it was more of a hobby).

Another thing that was immensely helpful was having a picture of what a pound of meat looks like cooked. People have a hard time visualizing that. Show them what you're selling, and give them the option of buying more or less per person. The average person who's hiring out their BBQ has no clue what a pound of chopped pork even looks like. We've had people ask for 2 pounds, then see the picture and change their minds. We've had people ask for one pound, then see the picture and opt for two (one guy liked to give all the guests takeaway plates). In any case, whether you're pricing by the pound or by the head, a visual aid is the best advice I can give in my (very limited) experience. It avoids any misunderstandings as to exactly what they're paying for, and people appreciate that. Consider it your portfolio.

-Drew

I've got a spreadsheet I built a few years ago to figure cost, catch weights, cooking loss...
It is based on 1/3 lb serving size and you can change anything on it for your needs and current costs. I'm not sure how to link the excel file to this post tho...if someone can help me with that or if you want it I'll be glad to email it to you.

I love BBQ'n & I love spreadsheets!

Colt