Add up everything, divide by guests, then add your margin. The mistake nearly everyone makes is stopping after the food.
Count all six costs:
- Food per head
- Beverage
- Staff — real hours including setup, travel and pack down, not just service hours
- Rentals and hire
- Transport and fuel
- Disposables, packaging, and a share of your permits and insurance
A worked example for 80 guests: food at $9.40 a head is $752. Six staff for seven hours at $24 is $1,008 — already more than the food. Rentals $280, transport $90, disposables $60, permits $40. Total cost $2,230, which is $27.88 per head before you have earned anything.
Quote that job at $22 a head and you will work a fourteen-hour day and lose $470. This happens constantly, and the caterer usually does not realise until the invoices land weeks later.
- Then add margin. Catering should not run on thin margins — you are carrying equipment, insurance, liability, staff and cancellation risk. If a job comes in under about 25% margin, either raise the price, simplify the service style, or decline it.
- Quote three options rather than one. One price is a yes-or-no decision. Three — simple, signature, showcase — changes the question to which one, and most people choose the middle.