Working ON Your Business & Setting Your Vision

Introduction

You may have built a profitable event catering company, but if every menu change, staffing decision, client complaint, and delivery problem still comes to you, you do not yet own a business. You own a demanding job with a kitchen attached to it. Growth comes when you stop being the only person who can make the operation work. You must move from working IN the catering business to working ON it by building systems, developing leaders, and setting a clear direction for the company.

In event catering, this shift is especially important because the work happens under hard deadlines. A wedding cannot be delayed because the owner is stuck in traffic. A corporate lunch cannot wait while you approve every substitute ingredient. Your team needs clear rules, trained supervisors, and a shared standard for service. Your job as the owner is to build that operating system before the next busy season arrives.

The Shift: From Operator to Owner

Working IN the business means you are doing the daily production and service work yourself. You may be answering every inquiry, writing every proposal, checking every prep list, loading vans, managing the buffet, solving staff no-shows, or calling the rental company during an event. These tasks may feel productive, but they keep the company dependent on your personal effort.

Working ON the business means improving the machine that delivers events. You create a standard menu costing process, write a final event review checklist, train an event captain, set rules for overtime approval, and review sales and profit numbers each week. You decide which types of events the company wants more of, such as weekday corporate lunches, premium weddings, or nonprofit galas. You also create clear limits so the team can make routine decisions without waiting for you.

Start by tracking where your time goes for two weeks. Mark each hour as event execution, administration, team leadership, sales, or business improvement. Then choose one recurring owner task to transfer. The transfer is not complete when you tell someone to do it. It is complete when the person has a written process, practice, a quality standard, and authority to act.

Defining Your Vision and Core Values

When you step away from daily event work, your team needs a clear replacement for your personal judgment. That replacement is your vision and your core values.

Your vision explains what the catering company is building. It might be, “Become the most trusted full-service caterer for professional nonprofit galas in our region.” A useful vision helps you choose which leads to pursue, which equipment to buy, and which staff skills to develop.

Core values are practical rules for behavior and decisions. For example, “No surprises for the client” means the team confirms guest counts, access times, dietary needs, and final charges before event day. “Leave the venue better than we found it” sets a clear cleanup standard. “Protect the food and the guest experience” tells an event captain to replace a damaged chafing dish or remake a compromised platter instead of hiding the problem.

Use these values in hiring, training, event debriefs, and performance reviews. If a value cannot guide a real decision, rewrite it until it can. Your team should be able to use the values when a client asks for a last-minute change or a delivery arrives late.

Real-World Example

Imagine an owner of a busy catering company who still attends nearly every wedding and personally approves every staffing plan. The company has strong reviews, but the owner cannot take a vacation or pursue larger venue partnerships. The owner chooses a clear vision: to become the preferred caterer for high-end weddings at five local venues.

The owner then defines three working values: “Confirm everything,” “Serve calmly under pressure,” and “Finish stronger than we started.” An event captain receives a written run-of-show, staffing rules, escalation limits, and a cleanup checklist. The owner reviews the event scorecard the next morning instead of managing the reception in person. Within several months, the company can run more events without the owner present, and the owner has time to build venue relationships, improve margins, and train future leaders.