Caterer Global
Find website job vacancies in the world’s best hotels, restaurants, and cruise ships.
www.catererglobal.com

Catering Magazine
The only business to business magazine serving the professional catering industry. The magazine is useful for suppliers and manufacturers.
www.cateringmagazine.com

Catersource Magazine, Conference & Tradeshow
Get valuable catering advice from other professionals as well as news, education, and networking opportunities.
www.catersource.com

Culinary & Hotel Management Schools
Find a culinary school in your city or state.
www.gatewaygourmet.com

Event Planner
A great event planning resource. Add your own listing, and post to their employment message boards.
eventplanner.com

International Caterers Association
This non-profit organization can help you find a caterer, vendors, catering education, food education and more.
http://www.internationalcaterers.org

National Association of Catering Executives
The largest professional association dedicated to the catering industry NACE provides catering business information, resources, and special events news.
www.nace.net

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1. Starting a Catering Business

About the Catering Business

As a professional caterer you’ll find a wide range of catering opportunities for home-based entrepreneurs. Some home-based caterers start out cooking in their home kitchens. Starting out in your own kitchen can keep the initial costs relatively low and you can pass on the savings to your beginning customers. Starting as an in-home caterer does not require expensive equipment, or years of cooking training.

However, in many states it is illegal to sell food to the public that’s been prepared in your home kitchen. You’ll need to check with your state laws to determine if home preparation is allowed. A good way to get around the high startup costs of renting a commercial kitchen, is to use your local church kitchen. You can also try cutting costs by sharing kitchen rental expenses with other caterers. Many caterers opt to install a commercial kitchen in their homes. Installing a commercial kitchen will will mean you need to abide by certain zoning laws. Many caterers start out with their business in their spare time, and since the majority of special events requiring catering services take place in the evenings or on the weekends, it can become a great supplemental income.

Types of Catering Services

• Party food preparation
• In-home catering
• Wedding catering
• Mobile food services
• Event catering
• Specialty foods like cookies or muffins
• Hotel banquets
• Furnishing food for yachts and airlines
• Serving as an executive chef in someone’s home
• Corporate catering
• Gourmet catering

Advantages of Starting a Catering Business

If you love cooking and enjoy food than a catering business might be your calling. Catering to be a great occupation for someone who is creative, social, and enjoys pleasing other people. As a caterer you choose a schedule that’s right for you. Often your work will take place on the weekends or in the evenings, giving you time to work a regular day job, or do other things you enjoy.

Another great advantage of catering is the recognition you’ll receive. As a business in high standing you will develop a reputation around town which will help you generate good word of mouth business. Catering can also provide a very appealing income potential. Successful caterers who have been in business for several years, and have built up a network of clientele can expect to earn $70,000, to $100,000 a year.

Disadvantages of Catering

The catering business is tough in the sense that there is a good amount of stressful work and planning required to be a success. The food business has some of the highest rates of failures among any type of new business. As a caterer you will be required to generate new customer leads, meet with potential clients, and put together competitive bids. You will need to be able to handle crisis as they happen, and deal with many different types of people and their ever-changing demands.

Starting a new catering business often means you have to do the cooking, serving, cleanup, and billing. Sure you can hire people to do these things, however when starting out that is often impractical.

While some people feel that working weekends and evenings is the ideal work schedule, many people would rather have those times off, if this is you and you’ll find the hours of a catering business to be a disadvantage. In addition to catering can often be a seasonal occupation.

Skills Needed

Being a gourmet cook is not a requirement to operate a successful catering business it does help to have some experience cooking and with the hospitality industry. You should enjoy trying new recipes, and planning meals.

It’s helpful that you enjoy entertaining and have a love for social gatherings and are a personable friendly person. For your new business to take off you really need to have excellent people skills in order to please your customers and keep everyone happy.

Caterers should have working knowledge of cooking, food preparation, food storage, and sanitary working conditions. It’s helpful if you have experience as a manager and have peoper organizational skills. You’ll need to be well versed in creating contracts, and marketing your business.

Catering Home Business Information

Startup Costs – For a professional catering startup you’ll need a minimum of $10,000 on the low end and $50,000 on the high end. If you are starting in your own kitchen you can get started for as low as $1000.
Equipment Required – Pots, pans, utensils, serving equipment, tables, table cloths, linens, business insurance, license, legal fees, and kitchen rental.
(You can rent items initially to cut costs)
Home Based – Yes, can be operated from home
Online Work – No
Hours of Operation – Mostly evenings and weekends. Can be seasonal if focusing on parties (Nov-Jan) or weddings (June-July-August) Can be operated as a part-time business
Catering Rates – Price food at three or four times your cost to compensate for time and effort.
Potential Earnings - $30,000 to $100,000 a year
Catering Resource Links

Catering Resource Guides

Professional Caterers Handbook: How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Catering Business

If you want to specialize in a wedding catering business than this is the guide for you. This book comes with a cd-rom supplement and contains step-by-step instructions about bookkeeping, the pros and cons of professional equipment, and how to become profitable. This reference book is used and recommended by culinary schools.

Catering: A Guide to Managing a Successful Business Operation

Inside this book you’ll find out how to launch a catering enterprise, pricing your services for profit, hire and manage staff, set up your catering kitchen, marketing for your service, event planning, establishing your service, managing the dining experience and more.

Online Course

Starting a Catering Business Course Kit

If you are considering starting your own catering business you’ll definitely want to get your hands on this course. Inside you’ll discover what you need to open your new business, how to know what to charge, the secrets to attracting new clients, handling billing & accounting, cash management, proper record keeping, creating happy clients and growing your business.

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1. Catering Resource Links

To give you an idea of the profit potential, in 2008 in the US alone Amazon sold over $5.39 billion in products. Many past eBay sellers have moved on to selling on Amazon because of less hassles, fees, and effort.

Sell on Amazon Program

The Sell on Amazon program allows you to sell products and inventory from the Amazon.com website. The sell on Amazon program is different from the Amazon web store, which allows you to create and operate your own e-commerce website for selling products online. Both of these programs are managed from one account interface that’s called seller Central.

The sell on Amazon program works by first uploading your inventory to Amazon.com. They’re your potential customers can see your products, and upon purchase, you ship them off. Amazon collects the payment and as soon as the customer receives the product Amazon sends you your payment.

Amazon Webstore

The web store by Amazon allows you to set up your own e-commerce website for selling products online. Your web store can be customized to give you the look you want. Your Amazon web store allows you to sell products in the following categories:

Apparel, Automotive, Baby, Beauty supplies, Camera and Photo, Cell Phones & Accessories, Gourmet, Grocery, Jewelry & Watches, Computers, Electronics, Health & Personal Care, Home and Garden, Musical Instruments, Office Products, Shoes & Accessories, Software, Sports and Outdoors, Tools & Hardware, and Video Games.

Becoming a Amazon merchant will give you the opportunity to get instant credibility to your web store, and be able to use Amazon’s credit card processing, fraud protection, and be able to build an unlimited amount of storefronts.

The great thing about creating an Amazon web store is allows you to choose from millions of Amazon products and earn commissions from each sale to your web store generates.

Amazon business can be an excellent way to start a money making business from home. For more information about making money as Amazon merchant check out the Amazing Amazon Domination course.

• Find out how to become a top-notch seller on Amazon
• Get the insider’s guide to utilizing sellers tools
• Get the choosing products guide
• The wholesale sources you’ll need to find great products
• How to build free niche websites
• How to get more website traffic and visitors to your websites
• Learn how to sell used books CDs and movies from Amazon

Click here for more information about the Amazing Amazon Domination guide.

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1. Amazon Business
2. Amazon Affiliate

The main thing is that you focus on a specific niche market, rather than attempt to create a giant mall website. Since the majority of your website visitors will most likely come from the search engines, targeting a specific niche will give you the best opportunity to be seen.

That’s why I recommend targeting a specific market, or creating a website that revolves around solving a specific problem. For instance, if you enjoy mountain biking, the website around that subject might be a good idea. Rather than set up your website as a pure product review site, it’s a good idea to create informative content and from there link to products you recommend.

The main point is that you pick a market that has a big demand for information on the subject, and products that are currently selling on the Amazon website. Now mountain bike’s is especially a good choice because they range from the hundreds to thousands of dollars.

Rather than promoting inexpensive affiliate products, I always prefer to promote higher value products that earn substantially more income. That’s not to say you can’t make money from referring people to inexpensive products. However, you will need to generate substantially more website visitors and click-throughs to the Amazon site to make the same amount as you would from high value products since the commission you are paid depends on the value of the product.

Here are the steps you can use to start your own Amazon affiliate business online:

Find a Popular Market

I say find a popular market because I recommend going after a niche that has a variety of products and opportunities to market to them. You can visit the Amazon website and search by popularity to see what’s selling.

It’s a good idea to pick a topic that you like and know something about. Which I was running your own website you’re going to need content. Whether you write the content or you outsource and pay someone to do it for you is up to you. However, I find that being passionate about the topic helps keep you motivated and working toward your goals.

To really stand out you’re going to want to to select a market that is big enough but also provides you the opportunity to be unique. For instance, rather than creating a website dedicated to everything electronic. A better choice would be to select one of the smaller categories within electronics, such as cameras, car electronics, MP3 players, home audio, or televisions.

As previously mentioned another option is to focus your site around a problem people are having. An example of this could be anti-virus software, language learning programs, or mobility scooters. This type of site is good because it gives you the opportunity to create articles that talk about the problem and then link to product review pages that offers the solution.

Choose a Domain Name

Whenever I select a domain name for Amazon affiliate website I make sure that I include the main keyword I want to target within the website’s URL. An example of this is -www.mountainbikerheaven.com

I always try to get a .com domain name as I find those are the most professional looking. Many people like to use dashes within their domain name. However I prefer to try different variations including my keyword until I find a.com that works. A good tool for quickly finding domain names to use is available at – instantdomainsearch.com

Register Your Domain Name

Once you’ve got the perfect domain name you’ll need to register it in order to make it your own. This means that you own the rights to that domain. I use host gator as my register and have been very happy with them. To register a domain name costs from $7-$10 a year.

Purchase Web Hosting

After you’ve registered your domain name, you will need to purchase Web hosting so that your website can go live on the Internet. Web hosting is usually a monthly fee, and provides a place to upload your web files so people can view them. You can purchase decent web hosting on a monthly basis for around five bucks a month.

Create an Affiliate Website

If you want to promote Amazon products you’ll need a website. This can be the standard HTML type website, or a blog platform. I prefer using the free WordPress blog platform to create my Amazon affiliate websites.

The WordPress blog platform is a CMS, which stands for content management system. It comes with everything you need to create the structure of your website. The great thing about WordPress is there is an amazing amount of free customization available to give your site the look you want. In addition WordPress sites can be easily optimized so they show up in the search engines.

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1. Amazon Business
2. Make Money as an Amazon Merchant

This means there’s a massive amount of income potential for you, and the start-up costs can be very inexpensive.

There two ways to make money with an Amazon business and they are to make money as a merchant or as an affiliate marketer.

Make Money As An Amazon Merchant

The first is to become a merchant and sell products from the popular Amazon website. You do this by uploading your inventory to Amazon.com. The Amazon website works for you to promote your products and when the customers makes a purchase Amazon collects the money. After you ship the product Amazon sends the money to you.

You can even create an Amazon Web store for your e-commerce business and have all of your orders processed through Amazon’s payment system. You don’t need a merchant account, hosting, or separate shopping cart to get started. Through your Amazon Web store you can access millions of customers who are pre-registered to check out, as well as earn extra revenue by promoting additional Amazon products.

Click here to learn more about making money as an Amazon merchant

Make Money As An Amazon Affiliate

The second way to make money from an Amazon business is to operate as an affiliate. As an affiliate you promote products that are featured on the Amazon website and received a commission for each sale that is generated through your links.

Through the Amazon Associates program you can earn from 4% to 15% for each product sale generated through your promotional activity. You can set up a review type website based around a product niche and earn a great monthly income.

Click here to learn more about making money as an Amazon affiliate

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1. Make Money as an Amazon Merchant
2. Amazon Affiliate

Operating a bed and breakfast business can be a family affair that provides the opportunity for your whole family to work together. Becoming an innkeeper is also a great way to supplement your income while your property appreciates in value.

A bed and breakfast inn provides travelers with all the comforts of home, often for the same or less than a normal hotel room would cost. Operating your own bed and breakfast is the ideal occupation for anyone who loves being a host or hostess and inviting people into your home.

Best Locations for a Bed and Breakfast Business

Bed and breakfast locations that are close to tourist areas are generally the most popular. If you love decorating and keeping a beautiful home, live in a nice area, are close to tourists spots, the beach, scenic area, or other natural habitat, a bed and breakfast business might be right for you.

As a bed and breakfast business operator the more rooms you have available for occupancy the more money you can make. According to a national study conducted by the Professional Association of Innkeepers International, “profitability with fewer than six guest rooms is difficult.”However, if you live in an area with a warmer climate that is suitable for your round visitation, you may be able to get by with fewer rooms. Catering to business class customers is also another option. You can offer a more private and personal overnight accommodations to be able to charge a premium price.

Success Tips

To be successful as an operator of a bed and breakfast you will need to have a variety of skills. You will need to have a personable attitude since running a bed and breakfast depends heavily on your people skills. The skills most important our business planning, home decorating, housecleaning, and marketing.

One of the disadvantages associated with a bed and breakfast is that your income is directly associated and limited to the number of rooms in your home. In addition this business requires that you are often at home, where tied to your phone. You will also need to meet certain requirements, building codes, health and safety certifications, and local business standards.

Before you begin you’ll want to determine how many people you’d like to accommodate. You will want to check with your local zoning board after City Hall to find out the process for getting approved for a B&B in your area. Next you’ll want to check to see what other bed and breakfasts are charging in your area. Survey what your competitors are charging so you can get a feel for the going B&B lodging rate in your area.

If you’d like more information on starting a bed and breakfast check out this valuable guide .

Inside this detailed resource you’ll find out how to:

• Know what is required to start a B&B
• Determine room rates
• Set guest policies
• Handle housekeeping and maintenance
• Attract new clients
• Deal with billing and accounting
• Keep proper records
• Manage your cash flow
• Keep your customers happy and talking about you
• Grow your bed and breakfast business

For more information about starting a bed and breakfast visit this link.

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Often dog walkers will also offer additional services such as dog training, dog grooming, and dog boarding. However you can start by offering one service and working your way up as you go along.  The majority of the dog walkers work schedule usually takes place between the hours of 10 AM and 3 PM. However many dog walkers deal with puppy care and the three times a day routine. Starting a dog walking business is an excellent way to supplement your income will you pursue a dog training business as well.

Some interesting facts about dog ownership in the U.S from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association. 39% of American  households own a minimum of one dog. The majority of these dog owners  at 67%  own one dog. 24% of dog owners own two dogs and 9% own three or more.

How to Get Started With Dog Walking

To get started as a dog walker you want to be familiar with the basics of dog training and care. Many people when starting out began by working with walking the dogs of their friends and family. You can also check online and do a search for local dog walkers in your area to get a feel for what they’re charging and what services they are providing.

Dog walking can be a physically vigorous activity especially if you’re not familiar with the dog you are walking. If you’re walking more than one dog at a time you’ll need to make sure that the dogs are of like temperament and that they get along.

You want to get the dog owner’s permission to take them off the leash to a dog park. Just remember that many states have dog leash laws and dog should only be removed from the leash when in properly marked areas. Even then many dog parks have a three dog limit.

It’s a good idea to keep a daily dog walking report describing your activities and diet for the day. You want to record where you went, what you and the dog did, what the dog ate, and any other notable moments.

Marketing Your Dog Walking Business

Building up your dog walking clientele can take a little time. Many times this business runs by word-of-mouth, and once you get going your business will begin to take off on its own. After a while you may begin to get more business than you can handle.To get going you may consider creating a joint venture partnership with other local businesses. for instance agreeing to promote a veterinarian, dog groomer, pet store or other pet related business in exchange for them doing the same can be very effective. Creating a web presence and posting a local Google business listing is a free technique that works great.

At that time you may want to think about advertising for dog walking job help. There are professional pet sitting organizations like the PSI or pet sitters international that can help you learn more about the industry.

Click the following link for more information about how to get into the pet sitting business here.

For more information about starting a dog walking business check out the Dog Walkers Start Up Guide. It will show you how to create your own lucrative dog walking business in 12 easy steps.

Inside this dog walking book you’ll discover:

• How to determine the number of clients you’ll need to meet your financial goals using case studies and formulas that work.
• How to create an online Internet presence to promote your new dog walking business.
• How to create a professional marketing packet that inspires confidence
• Professional dog walking advertising strategies
• What pet services will help you beat your competition

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Americans are crazy about their pets. In the U.S pets are even more popular than children and there are almost as many pets as people in the United States. Since pet owners work and travel it makes sense that they will constantly need services to care for their pets. Pet sitters can take care of these pets along with many other household duties including watering plants bring in the mail taking out the trash and other household duties.

Is a Pet Sitting Business for You?

If you enjoy working with people and animals the pet sitting business may be ideal for you. Most pet sitters to be successful need to be in operation around seven days a week at city and the serious business that no one should enter lightly and requires dedication and hard work and the ability to deal with problems as they arise.

Your income potential as a pet sitter really depends on the amount of services you provide. If you are checking up on a daily basis you could charge a small fee per visit. However many pet sitters take on other duties such as picking up trash bring in the mail walking or playing with the pets etc. The average pet sitter can expect to earn from $120-$200 a day minus you’re traveling expenses. If you specialize in dog sitting you can also offer in-home grooming services dog training classes and dog walking.

Where Pet Sitting Works Best

Pet sitting works best in high density areas like big cities if you live in a rural area you may have to travel a bit more. Those in more populated areas may be able to service approximately 8 to 12 clients per day based on how our visits and travel time. Your primary market will be working class singles career couples and people who regularly travel. In addition retired people or traveling business people are likely candidates to target for your pet services. You can also pursue new residents to the community who do not have family nearby who may need assistance.

There are several different ways to approach the business of that city

• you could actually live in the home of the pet owner while they are away
• you could open your own home to take care of pets while the client is way
• you could operate your pet sitting business as an agency a referral service to match potential clients to pet sitters
• you can make daily stops at a customer’s home to take care of the pets

Marketing Your Pet Business

A great way to get business as a new pet sitter is through free classified ads in Craigslist or your local newspaper. You may also want to start a referral relationship with other local businesses in your area such as pet stores veterinarian’s or pet groomers. Creating a website presents and a local Google listing for your business is also a great idea.

There are couple great courses available on how to start a pet sitting business. There is a DVD course that shows you everything you need to know about starting a pet sitting business.

You’ll get info on how to attract new clients, and how to manage her time, how to get new pet sitting customers, how to determine if the market exists in your area, and what mistakes to avoid.

Check out the Pet Sitting Business DVD by My Pet Business

There also an excellent book called how to open and operate a financially successful pet sitting business.

This paperback guide will share with you the basic concepts of starting your own pet sitting service. Inside this book you’ll learn the basics of accounting and bookkeeping procedures as well as thousands of great pet sitting tips and useful guidelines. The book also comes with sample business plans you can use for your own business to help you get started as quickly as possible.

Check out How to Open and Operate a Financially Successful Pet Sitting Business

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A good way to ensure children are engaged and excited in your care is to offer a wide variety of activities. By offering them choices and giving them the freedom to select the activities that interest them you will help them to learn to help themselves. Providing choice when it comes to fun and educational activities will provide the child with an positive environment to learn and explore in. This will help them become more confidant and willing to learn in your care.

Children should have both structured and unstructured time for learning and play time. You will want to present activities so that they stimulate the child’s interest while also providing opportunities to learn. As mentioned earlier the activities will depend on the age of the child and their interest.

Here’s a list of fun child care activities for Pre-K and Kindergarten children:

Playdoh – Kids love playdoh and it can be used for a wide variety of fun games like teaching math or creating art.

Photograph Fun - Pictures can be used to develop self-esteem and a positive self image. Try having them create self-image stick puppets, picture dolls etc for great inexpensive fun.

Finger painting – Besides being a lot of fun for kids, finger painting can also be a great learning experience. It can help develop fine motor skills and can be used as a learning game by having children spell out numbers or letters.

Touchy Feely Bag – Also known as discovery bag it can be used to have children guess what a letter or number is by touch.

Discovery bottle – Take a see-through empty one liter bottle and fill it with sand and items that children can find by looking and cross off a piece of paper like a scavenger hunt.

Music Instruments – Kids love making music and many musical instruments can be purchased very inexpensively. Tambourines, bells, rain shakers, rhythm sticks and other instruments can be used for easy musical fun.

Alphabet and Number Games – Card games featuring numbers and letters can be used to help children learn and can be purchased cheaply at mant big box stores like Walmart or Target.

Magnet Fun and Games – You can have the children do a variety of fun and educational activities with magnets letters and numbers. They can be purchased at stores like Ace, Lowes, or Home Depot.

Pocket Chart Matching Games – These can be very useful for early childhood development. An big favorite is the card matching games, or matching different sets together.

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Visit Daycare Authority for step-by-step information about how to start a daycare from home right now.

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1. Structure Your Daycare

Structuring your daycare

Creating a policy where you explain the normal routine is good to help the children create useful habits and routines. Actions like having the children hang up their coats when they come in, taking off their shoes and put them in their cubby when they come inside, or washing their plates off when they are done using them creates great habits. These habits not only make things easier for you they also help build self esteem and independence.

Setting up things so that children can reach what they need when they need them can help make things easier. Items like cups, extra clothing, toys, crayons can help free up your time. You should encourage older children to help teach younger children how to do things as well. Activities and tasks like tying shoes, buttoning up jackets, working with crafts can be taught to smaller children by the older ones giving them a sense of responsibility and pride.

You can allow the children in your care to make suggestions about how they can participate in ways to make learning and activities fun while they are in your care. By providing structured activities for children you can avoid boredom and potential disruptive behavior before it starts.

To make sure your daycare structure works to your benefit:

• Create an assortment of fun, age appropriate activities
• Purchase a variety of age appropriate toys
• Have outdoor activities
• Help encourage kids to clean up after themselves, put things away put away toys after use
• Prepare easy meals that do not take a lot of time
• Look for fun field trips in your area
• Know your exact hours of operation
• Have the pick-up and drop-off times firmly noted in your daycare policy
• Assign child pick-up authorization
• Know how you handle illneses
• Implement educational games, stories, and activities
• Plan effective daily sequences and routines
• Set nap time, snack time, lunch time etc.
• Inform parents of your child care structure and daycare schedule
• Have a bulletin board or calendar posted so you can be aware of the day’s activities
• Let parents know what you and the kids are doing (parents love it will you keep them informed)

Back to Home Daycare

Visit Daycare Authority for step-by-step information about how to start a daycare from home right now.

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2. Child Care Legal Structure