Starting a business in a recession can be a difficult thing to do, particularly with the lack of credit around and businesses going bust every five minutes. If you’ve been working at a catering or restaurant business then you may feel like now is the time to strike out on your own and attempt to build your own empire.

The Nationwide Caterers Association can assist in making sure that pricing and labelling is right in your catering business. It is a requirement that the price of your food and drink is clearly displayed in the same place that it is ordered.

It is a good idea to use a set mark-up against all the food and drink that you are offering. While you might want to use special offers and discounts to promote certain things, it can be useful to have a standard mark-up so you know precisely when you have sold enough goods to cover your cost-base.

Look at how busy your restaurant, café or catering business is and work out how much work you need to do every day, week and month. Ensure that there is realistic scope for making a significant amount of money from your business, and work out how you can make better use of your time.

Find out what the quietest times are and try to promote those times with special offers, discounts or membership benefits. You can afford to spend a bit more on a customer if he or she will return, but it’s important that your overall costs are more effectively managed.

Payment options are important in any business, but arguably none more that than restaurant and catering businesses. If people can’t pay for meals on plastic then you could lose them as customers altogether, so being able to process credit and debit card transactions is a must for these businesses in hospitality.

Mobile credit and debit card processing is ideal, as it allows staff and customers to move around the establishment with the card, perhaps to the table for authorisation from the customer. Transactions are fast, so they can be processed just as quickly as cash sales. The robust and lightweight design of the processing unit means that you don’t need to worry about maintenance or training. They also have a long battery life and free up phone lines for reservations and orders. Mobile credit and debit card processing units can even be used offsite, for example upon delivery of a takeaway order.

This article was produced by Cardsave for the National Caterers Association. Cardsave specialise in providing wireless card machines for caterers and restaurants.