Catering Proposal Template
As a caterer, you’re flat out organizing events, preparing food, delivering treats, and presenting your creations to your clients.
Free Catering Proposal Templates to Help You Save More Time
As a caterer, you’re flat out organizing events, preparing food, delivering treats, and presenting your creations to your clients.
Ideally, you want to spend most of your time getting paid for what you do best, catering!
That’s why we’ve created a professionally designed catering proposal template (PDF and Word) to help you save more time when taking on new clients.
What’s in this template?
- • Services provided
- • Event timelines and milestones
- • Indemnity and insurance
Download our free catering proposal template
What is a catering proposal?
A catering proposal is a pitch to prospective clients providing information about your catering services, your fees, as well as the terms and conditions of your offerings.
Caterers can pitch their services in a variety of mediums, including email, in-person, on a call, text message, presentation or our favorite, or a document.
Quite often, you’ll use a combination of these channels to communicate your value to potential clients and win catering jobs.
DISCLAIMER: We are not lawyers or a law firm and we do not provide legal, business or tax advice. We recommend you consult a lawyer or other appropriate professional before using any templates or agreements from this website.
Download our Catering Proposal Template (Free Example)
We’ve worked with professional proofreaders and legal experts to design a simple proposal template for you to download, edit, save, and send to prospects. Our template is 100% free for you to use.
Click below to get a copy of our catering proposal template
Why you need to go beyond quoting clients and develop a killer catering proposal
When you start a catering business, you effectively become a marketer and salesperson. You tap into your networks, social media, your website, maybe even paid advertising just to make people aware of the fantastic food you can prepare for clients.
Once you do the hard work of attracting interest to your services (well done!), the next thing clients are going to want to know is your price.
It may sound like a casual on the surface, but the question, “how much will it cost?” means an opportunity for you to go above and beyond to show your value and win the business.
When your competitors are blurbing out seemingly random figures in an attempt to get business desperately, you take the time to show your value through a professional-looking catering proposal.
Furthermore, a proposal will give clarity to your catering business. Capturing all the ways in which you deliver your services, how you work, and getting testimonials as proof you know what you’re doing are all tools to help you be a better caterer.
Download our free Catering
Proposal Template
We’ve worked with professional proofreaders and legal experts to design a simple proposal template for you to download, edit, save, and send to prospects. Our template is 100% free for you to use.
Click below to get a copy of our catering proposal template
Best practices for creating a winning business proposal for catering services
While a professional catering proposal template is the foundation of your pitch, there’s a lot that needs to happen to give you the best chance of securing the work.
Let’s start from when a potential client first enquires about your services. You’re going to receive varying levels of detail depending on the type of person reaching out to you, from a one-liner to an essay of what the job entails.
Also, keep in mind that your inquiry may come from a third-party event planner who will likely have experience working with caterers.
At this point, it’s your job to find out as much as you can about the job so you can match your offerings with precisely what the clients’ needs for catering.
The key to a successful proposal is relevance. Below are some questions you can ask clients to create a highly personalized pitch.
What type of event do you need catering for?
This is the most obvious question to ask about a catering job. You want to quickly understand if this is a corporate setting, a wedding, a party, or any other types of events.
Understanding the type of event will also help to get a feel for the kinds of people attending, which you can reference in your proposal.
When is the event?
You want to make sure you and your team have open availability at the time of the event.
Do you have any venues in mind?
Many clients don’t realize that the venue they’ve hired also offers catering services, which can sometimes create a conflict with third-party caterers.
You also need the information to check if the venue has a kitchen or food prep area for you to work in.
How many people will be attending the event?
The basis of your quote is going to come down to how much food and drink prep you need to do. So getting a headcount is essential information to add to your catering proposal.
What type of food and drinks?
Is the client after a particular type of cuisine? Or are there any special dietary requirements?
If you offer bar service, you need to get an idea of what type of drinks the client wants to provide at their event.
What's the style of the event?
Quite often, events have unique themes, especially weddings and parties. This could play a role in how you dress your team or what food and beverage package you offer to help your client fulfill their vision for the event.
Use questions to find out what would make your client successful, then incorporate the answers in your proposal to blow your prospective clients away.
Frequently Asked Questions
FAQ
Yes, in our template, we’ve included samples of both a proposal and a contract for your use.
Whether you’re offering on-site or off-site catering, there’s no shortage of services you can provide clients with.
You could do catering for weddings (including engagements, bucks), corporate events (Christmas parties, meetings, fun days), openings, birthdays, social events, and much more.
You could do catering for weddings (including engagements, bucks), corporate events (Christmas parties, meetings, fun days), openings, birthdays, social events, and much more.
Yes, absolutely, and we want you too. Again, the key to a winning proposal is making it relevant to your potential client. As every client has different needs, we suggest you modify our template to personalize your pitch.
document preview
Catering Proposal
Catering Proposal
Prepared by
________________________
________________________
________________________
Prepared for
________________________
________________________
________________________
Date ______________
Dear ______________
I am delighted to submit our food service catering proposal for your event ____________________ on ____________________.
Our mission is to ensure that your event is celebrated with delicious food.
Our Company has ____________________ years history of providing catering services. We have established not only a brand name but a reputation in the market. We have been providing fine dining services since _______________________, with a vast range and variety of foods and drinks. With us, you can be confident in a professional event and an everlasting smile on your guests’ faces.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any inquiries about our services or the quote and terms of payment.
Contacts us at
_____________________
_____________________
_____________________
We look forward in serving you!
Sincerely yours,
Name: _____________________
Title: _____________________
Appetizers
| Appetizers | Quantity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Main Course
| Main Course | Quantity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Soup
| Soup | Quantity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Rentals
| Rental | Quantity | Amount |
|---|---|---|
Payment Terms
| Amount in Percent | Description |
|---|---|
| % | Down payment |
| % | Payment upon completion of the services |
Thank you and sincerely yours
_________________________________
Related Proposals and Templates
Download our free Catering
Proposal Template
We’ve worked with professional proofreaders and legal experts to design a simple proposal template for you to download, edit, save, and send to prospects. Our template is 100% free for you to use.
Click below to get a copy of our catering proposal template
