How do you charge for your time?

[noBS]

How do you guys charge for your time spent onsite?

Do you charge by the hour for the 5-14 hours your there watching your smoker?

Include it in the price per person?

P.S. How much do you mark up your food x3, x4?
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Stumps Clone on Trailer
WSM

[Pit Boss]

I have never priced a catered job that I didn't give a per head or total price. I don't complicate my invoices with things like per hour this, per hour that, rental for this piece of equipment, etc. When I figure you a price it's going to come across as simple as I can make it.

Most restaurants mark up their prices by a minimum of 300%. I typically go as high as 400% on normal fare. I think most caterers go over and above 500% according to the prices I see floating around on web sites and such.
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Somewhere in Kenya...a village is missing their idiot.

[Pit Boss]

As a good guideline I would figure between 300-400% of food cost. In a restaurant situation that would cover your food, payroll, expenses, and profit...but we're talking about catering and most folks expect to pay more than this figure sooo........then figure the hours you'll spend prepping and cooking. Figure your time and the time for any employees you may require. Then divide all of that by the number of people you're preparing for. That would be your per person price.

Pork for 100. Say our food cost is $200 (it's just a fictitious number). I can do this job by myself and I spend 20 hours in prep, cooking, and serving time. I personally work for $30 per hour ($600).

$200 x 3 = $600

$600 + $600 = $1200

$1200 / 100 = $12 per person

This is in no way an actual situation, but it gives you an idea. There are plenty more ways to figures pricing than this particular method. I'm sure some of the catering gurus will kick in with their experience.
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Somewhere in Kenya...a village is missing their idiot.

[Harry Nutczak]

The industry standard is based in what is commonly referred to as your "Foodcost percentage" But not everyone uses that for their pricing structure. I find it the most accurate and fair way of pricing for both the client and the caterer.

As cape got into, he said a guy could marks up his cost of the food by 300%-400%, what this means is to take the cost of the food needed to feed the group, and multiply that cost by "3" or "4". (33.3% or 25% cost respectively) to come up with a sub-total, divide that by the number of guests you are feeding, and that is your per-person price.

Now in some cases where your not an actual caterer (like this one) the person you are cooking for may want to buy and provide the food to be cooked (not really an allowable practice for caterers for many reasons) You can either figure a fair lump sum that you want to be paid to cook said food, or you could estimate the cost of that food and multiply that cost by a multiplier to come up with a fair amount to charge.
lets say someone says, "hey, I got this case of ribs I want you to cook for me, what would you charge me?" you know it will take at least 6 hours with set-up & break-down, you feel your time is worth $20.00/Hr so you charge $120.00 and your fuel costs and if you both feel it is a fair price, you do it and everyone is happy.

I do not use any one number as a multiplier to figure our pricing, but instead use a few different ones according to the labor involved to serve that food. If I have an item that takes many many hours to cook, or requires ton;s of prep work, I use a larger multiplier to compensate for the extra work. if it is a quick "take it out of the package, quick cook item" I can get away with using a smaller multiplier because very little labor is involved to make the item and that time does .

Some of my menu items might be around an 18% cost, other items may be about a 40% cost of my total charging price.

Setting prices on a cost percentage work out well for regional differences too.
As an example lets say I was hired to cook a bunch of lobsters and I was in Montana, Lobster prices are higher in Montana than they will be on the eastern seaboard. So if I was in Maine and lobsters only cost me $5.00 each and I wanted a 33.3% foodcost percentage (multiply my cost by "3") I would charge a price of $15.00 per each lobster.
But in Montana those same lobsters might cost me $12.00 each, Using the same cost percentage I would need to charge $36.00 for each lobster. I would recognize higher costs in Montana, but I would also recognize higher profits because of it because they lobsters take the same amount of time to cook, but because of their higher price, I also get a higher percentage of that price. In Maine i would have seen a profit of $10.00 each (before expenses) but in Montana I would have seen $24.00 profit per each.

None of the things I listed are my actual percentages, They are strictly laid out to make a cost percentage pricing strategy easier to understand and why most every food-service professional uses that pricing structure.

IMO the worst thing anyone could do is just pull a random number out of the air and say "Well, that seems about the correct price, Right?" you really need to know your cost to serve the item before a customer price should be considered.

I would be glad to do the math for you through PM's if you give me a little more background on the event, and your cost of the items you plan on serving. I will also explain the hows and whys, and how to come up with the correct choice of a multiplier to use for each item based on labor involved..
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Just remember that the toes you may step on during your climb to the top will also be attached to the a$$es you'll be forced to kiss on your way back down!

[marvsbbq]

Harry, help me out here..... Let's take an 8 ounce serving of Salmon with 2 sides of Caesar salad (cost of $.21 per serving) and green beans (canned with added onion and bacon bits with a cost of $.15 per serving)

What would be the "right" price to charge for this in a catering situation???

[noBS]

Hey guys

Let me start off by saying thanks for all the replies.

I totally understand food cost, labour cost etc... I have run $4,000,000/year kitchens before and have years of training with all this boring Sh%t.

I just wanted to know how you prepare your invoices really.

In catering (not BBQ) I break it all down, everything separate. Food, decor, flowers, labor (onsite) etc... what we would do is food cost x 3 that covers the food, rent, prep labour etc...

Then any on site hours get charged to the client. Start at 5 end at 10, 5 hours x $30 = $150/ per chef

I think what I'm trying to ask is ..... ok two things

Do you cook your meat onsite from raw?

If so ....

Do you just work your onsite hours into the cost of food per person?

P.S. I'm not trying to sound cocky with the running of the $4,000,000 kitchen and all that I just dont want you guys to waste your time with all the typing of info I already have.

I really appreciate all the help I get from you guys. Keep it coming !!!
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Stumps Clone on Trailer
WSM

[BBQMAN]

I charge per person, per plate, per the menu ordered.

Pricing is (somewhat) dictated by what my competitors charge. The sky is not the limit in my area.

My on-line prices are good for parties of 75 or more, with an explanation of smaller party pricing (which is a niche' business for us, and is more costly).

I do not charge "per hour" unless it is for another proffesional raunt that does not have smoker capabilties. Then I charge for my time, and equipment (both come together I am NOT a rental company).

I charge "per hour" for the clients that want an extended serving time beyond my usual, or for those that want a clean-up crew.
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BBQMAN
"I Turned A Hobby Into A Business".
Providing "IMHO" Since 2005.

[Pit Boss]

[Harry Nutczak]

[noBS]

I knew it, even though I explained myself someone would have a smart ass comment about my past experience. Just wanted to know how you incorporate your time onsite and didnt want to waste peoples time. I understand I have received great answers and I said I really appreciate it already. I also appreciate you taking the time to answer cape-fisherman, I just don't understand why you would point out what you did and the fact that its"newbie". Just seems like you are trying to be a bit of a smart ass or you just don't believe my past experience. If thats the case I can email you multiple articles written about me or previous articles I have written for your late night reading pleasure.

Let me know where I should email it to.

Thanks to everyone again for your replies and anyone else who adds to this thread.

[Pit Boss]

Sorry you feel that way.
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Somewhere in Kenya...a village is missing their idiot.

[BBQMAN]

I'm not seeing where Jay went out of line here noBS.

Like myself, Jay would expect that people that have your level of knowledge would be aware of the basics (as you clearly have shown by offering up your credentials).

Unlike fine dining, this is BBQ, and thus I'm sure you will have some questions.

I still learn things from time to time myself!

Speaking of experience, nothing beats some OJT. Go to work at a BBQ joint for a while (if there is one in your area).

If you are looking for how we price things, use the search function and read away. There are as many different methods as different people that particpate here.

And, there are a number of us that use the same pricing structure and methods to come up with what our time is worth.

Just my two pennies worth.
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BBQMAN
"I Turned A Hobby Into A Business".
Providing "IMHO" Since 2005.

[marvsbbq]

[marvsbbq]

NoBS..... In the running of your $4M a year kitchens, did you not do ANY catering during ANY of your previous experiences?? I know MOST restaurants do at least SOME catering so I would have to assume the "person running the kitchen" would know what to charge for staff time.

Now on the other hand, if you have never done any catering what so ever, then your questions are fair questions and we (most of us anyway) will try to answer the best we can for OUR business needs/wants.....with NO BS given..

[Pit Boss]

Marve, in another post NoBS says he's done bbq events up to 2,000 people.

[noBS]

This is getting funny. So to clear things up, yes I have catered events, many many events. None of those events had anything to do with southern bbq. Thats why I asked how you charge for your time onsite because unlike in regular catering, bbq requires alot more onsite time. Which in catering cost the client the most.

The reason I asked how much you mark up your food is because I wanted to know if you just shot for a low food cost and used that to offset your time spent onsite or if you just charged directly by the hour with a 30% FC. Didn't think I was asking a newbie question?

Man I love forums !!
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Stumps Clone on Trailer
WSM

[Grnmtn BBQ Chef]

I charge for my time... all the time I am working on a party whether it is prep time travel or on site. Add that to my caculated food % profit margine and then divide it into cost per head. I need to either pay for my time or those I hire to do it whether it is watching the cooker roll smoke or carving on the line. So my client pays for it as well. I do an itemized billing structure, broke down to a price per head to make it easier for the client.
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Eat hearty and live life to the fullest..... Chef Brian

Meadow Creek PR72T modified adding a 2nd Meadow Creek PR 60 this week and 2 well loved Red Rivers going into retirement

[dietzy]

noBS, to give you a straight answer I charge per person. To give you a little background, I have been catering legitimitely for 2 1/2 yrs. As you know or have seen there are many different ways to do things. This works for me.


Rob

[Jerk Pit Master]

My onsite or offsite cooking time is included in the price of the food. In addition, I'll typically charge a $100 onsite cooking fee and a higher mileage rate to cover the increased cost of onsite cooking. My cooking time remains the same whether I cook onsite or offsite.

My onsite serving time is charged to the client at $20-$25 per hour per server, 4hrs minimum.

Sounds like some of us are lucky enough to get double billing, i.e., cost percentage food pricing, plus labor.

[Jerk Pit Master]