If you’re responsible for planning a company event, whether it’s for employees only or for clients and the public, you have a lot on your plate. You might think that you can save money by handling the food yourself, but you’ll end up investing a significant amount of time and taking on increased stress. Plus, trying to DIY corporate catering can actually end up costing more than hiring a professional. At Tucson Creative Catering, we offer full-service event planning and catering services. We make the entire process stress-free, simple, and straightforward. If you have been looking for tips on how to cater an office function yourself, keep reading to discover the hidden costs of DIY catering, and why hiring a corporate catering company in Tucson, AZ can actually save you money in the end.
Significant Investment in Time and Labor
If you don’t have experience catering for corporate events, you may not realize how much time and effort it actually takes. This is particularly risky for an employee who is also trying to manage their normal daily workload and tasks. Planning the catering menus, accommodating dietary restrictions and allergies, and sourcing ingredients and food can take hours every day. Plus, you’ll have to spend time outside of work cooking and preparing the dishes, and when the event comes, you’ll be in charge of setting everything up and running around trying to oversee last-minute tasks and put out fires rather than networking or socializing.
Stress of Trying to Find Solutions for Unforeseen Challenges
As with any other new job or major undertaking, you will encounter unforeseen challenges. You will also be under a lot of pressure and will have to adhere to an incredibly strict timeline. In addition to the extra time and labor associated with handling the job when everything is going smoothly, you will also need to be available at all hours to tackle unforeseen problems. Whether it’s a last-minute menu change, your boss deciding to invite extra guests, or finding out about a guest’s allergy, there are many potential challenges that can derail your plan.
Food Quality Issues
A corporate catering service has years or even decades of experience preparing large quantities of food, desserts, and beverages. They know exactly how to ensure consistency in quality and presentation, no matter what challenges they encounter. Trying to do it yourself could result in delays and problems that affect the quality of the food, which will thereby affect the happiness and satisfaction of guests. Depending upon your employer or industry, being responsible for poor food quality could affect your job.
Improper Food Handling and Safety Concerns
When catering food for employees or the public, you must adhere to stringent food handling and food safety regulations. If you don’t, you risk foodborne illnesses as well as financial and legal liabilities and damage to your reputation and the company’s. Improperly preparing, storing, transporting, and serving food can increase the risk of large-scale food poisoning. Likewise, managing the dietary restrictions and allergies of everyone on the guest list could result in serious and even life-threatening mistakes.
Limited Resources and Equipment
Corporate caterers prepare food in a large commercial kitchen that is outfitted with heavy-duty, professional-grade equipment that can handle huge quantities of food. If you are preparing food in your home kitchen, you may face space constraints and equipment limitations that affect your efficiency and the quality and safety of the food.
Poor Budgeting and Planning
Novice caterers tend to underestimate the amount of money that they will need to spend on ingredients, equipment, serving ware, rentals, and their own labor. This could result in you going way over budget or not having the money you need to pull off a successful event. You may also be more likely to prepare way more food than you actually need, resulting in excess food and supplies and wasted food and money.
If you’re responsible for a large company event, now is not the time to teach yourself how to be a caterer. Don’t risk your job, your company’s reputation, or your guests’ experience by attempting to DIY corporate catering. Tucson Creative Catering is a full-service corporate catering company in Tucson, AZ that has been in the industry for over 40 years. In addition to our unique catering menus that can be customized to meet the theme and occasion of any event, we also offer event planning services, party rentals, and more. Call us now or contact us online to schedule a consultation and discuss your event catering needs.