How Much Should I Charge?

[~Wingnut~]

Hi all!

I am a school cook and have just been asked by the school I work for to cater for private functions within the school.
I am a total fish out of water here and just needed a bit of advice and help. I have sat down and gone on Tescos and roughly bought what I think would be enough for 16 people (thats how many the first 3 private functions will be catering for). Just your usual buffet type foods. I think £50 will be more than enough to cover the costs (works out at £3.13 per head) and I am giving myself good leeway there to spend a little bit more if I should need to.

I have been told to think about how much to charge for my time! The food they want me to serve really just requires cutting up and presenting nicely, making sandwiches etc so in all I think it is only going to take me an hour and a half maximum but then that will depend on how many I am catering for.

How much should I charge without them thinking I am taking the mickey? I have to go buy this food (or it maybe ordered on Tescos and delivered to the school) come in on an evening the night before or early that morning to make and do the finishing touches. As a school cook I'm on £8.64 (I think or there abouts) but obviously my roles and duties are different to this.

Any help or advice will be really gratefully received, like I say this is totally new to me but I want to make a good impression with what I go back to them with.

Many thanx :)

[joggerjayne]

£8 a head?

16 x 8 = £128 ?

[joggerjayne]

Obviously more if you think they would pay more.

[ck1]

£10 per head would be fairly standard for something like that

[~Wingnut~]

Hi JJ & ck1, thank you for your replies :)

I think the school are going to be charging £15 per head for the rent of the meeting room with lunch/tea coffee & biscuits provided and they said they wanted to at least make a little bit of profit. My problem is how much do I charge them for my time. Is £8.64 (which is what I'm on as a cook) too much or am I selling myself short?

[chrissa1]

I'm going to a Reunion Lunch at my old school. It is a hot and cold buffet and I am being charged £16. If that helps.

[chelle7272]

I would increase your rate as this is different work. Depending how many hours you will be doing, see how much you can charge and still leave them a profit after food and room rent.

[ck1]

As a private job you should definitely be charging more that your standard salary, have to work out your profit and make sure it's worth your time. You have to do the shopping aswell which costs you in time and fuel etc

[~Wingnut~]

Thanx chrissa :)
They really just want me to do a simple spread that can be prepared in the morning (before 9am) or night before as when it would be needed I would be in my role as school cook, so paid by a different company and I don't want to cause a conflict of interest. When I do these buffets the school are employing me only so thats why everything needs to be seperate and worked out and done out of my school working hours. Tbh I'm just confused by it all as it would mean another fridge, plates, serving dishes, cutlery. Everytime I think about it I think of something else that I would need to do or get lol worse thing is ive got the first one at the beginning of Oct and only just been asked about this!

Hope you enjoy your reunion Chrissa :)

[joggerjayne]

I think you might be selling yourself a bit short. It sounds like you're doing quite a lot of work.

[Rosetta]

Dont forget to take into account the time you will spend on clearing up afterwards

[chelle7272]

Surely you could use their equipment, the school are surely responsible for providing that for you anyway if employing you to cater only?

[~Wingnut~]

Thanx Chelle and ck1:)

I really think it would only take me an hour or so to make sandwiches, cut up quiches etc and present them nicely but yeah the shopping etc. I need to be paid for and now ive just thought aboyt the washing up because I would have to have finished my cooks job before doing that so would be there longer. Blimey the list keeps growing! Even school said they thought of it as just providing food but now we've discussed it they realise theres so much more to consider! Such as no room to put another blooming fridge! Lol

[chelle7272]

Depending how muich space you need how about cool boxes / bags instead of the second fridge?

[~Wingnut~]

You beat me to the washing up there Rosetta! :) what else am I going to suddenly think of!

Im good at selling myself short JJ, I like to do a good job to keep everyone happy but end up losing out myself one way or another. Must stop doing that! :)

Yeah your right there Michelle, its just I have to think of everything I will need so school can go get it, if I think of it after I can see myself having to sort it out/go buy. Plus its keeping all this extra stuff somewhere! Lol hardly any room as it is! I also don't want my bosses getting peeved because this could have been done thru them which would have been fine because then I would have just done it alongside my cooking but the school want to cut them out and directly pay me to do it.

[~Wingnut~]

From a food hygiene point of view the food will need to be stored in a controlled temp because of how long it will be from preparing to serving, its too much of a long time. Plus it is finding the space for them. I think I will have to push for the fridge and some serious re-jigging of the kitchen is going to have to be done!

[Prudie]

I regularly order finger buffets from local suppliers and they charge between £6 and £7.50 a head (nothing flashy like prawns!). That includes prep time and utensils and collecting the dirty trays. You don't want to price yourself out of the running.

[bednobs]

don't forget if you are self employed (which it sounds like you will be) you'll need to pay your own tax/ni too

[~Wingnut~]

Thanx Prudie, thats something to go on, cheers :)

You must be a mind reader Bednobs! I was just thinking about all that whilst making a cup of tea! Am going to speak to the school, its thrown up more questions than answers lol!

Thanx everyone :)

[Sycamore3House]

You need to make yourself 65-70% Gross Profit. Before any labour has been taken into consideration. Your cost of goods being £30 to £35.
I did a buffet last weekend for 40 people. I received £100. The cost of the ingredients was £32. They had sandwiches, quiche, sausage rolls, chicken nuggets & crisps. Depending on how much you charge you vary the amounts of sandwiches and other items. Buffet maybe for 40 but only do 30 sandwiches or quiche for 20.
Shop around for your ingredients. Iceland & Lidl's do cheap but tasty stuff for buffets. The cheap loaves of bread are sometimes not economical as the slices at the ends are not good. Hovis or warburtons are good. 9 sandwiches from a medium sliced loaf.
Another consideration is if the buffet is for men only they will eat more than if it was only women. If you have noting left that is a good buffet.

[~Wingnut~]

Thats brilliant thanx sycamore3house! Lots to think about! :)