We recently connected with Pam Fitzgerald and have shared our conversation below.

Pam, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s start with what makes profitability in your industry a challenge – what would you say is the biggest challenge?

The continued rising food costs had been a huge challenge for me as the owner of a catering company. When I look back to what I was paying for goods a couple years ago and what I am paying now it is mind blowing. Couples reach out to us a year sometimes two in advance and quoting food has been a huge challenge along with labor, gas and all other utilities. We want to give the best price and service as possible but we also need to remain profitable to stay in business. It has been and continues to be one of the biggest challenges we have faced.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My family’s and my love for cooking and serving folks led me to where I am today as the owner of a catering company. Thankfully I have a very understanding husband that is an amazing fur dad to our two dogs when I am working insanely long hours.

When I tell people that my company caters mostly weddings they say that sounds fun and it is, but they also do not understand the amount of work it takes. When you step into the wedding industry you give up your weekends and that sometimes is not easy but necessary to be successful in the wedding industry. During our peak wedding seasons that run April- June and August- November I typically take little to no days off. That is not for everyone but to remain on top of things and be there for my clients it’s what I feel is necessary. Not only do we provide the food for a wedding or event but we also do a number of other details. We organize rental orders, set tablescapes, set decor, full bar services, desserts, flip venues, move chairs and tables. The list goes on and on.
There are hours and hours of planning, list, diagrams, emails, and phone calls to make sure everything goes as smoothly possible. I make sure that the week of the wedding or event my couples and clients have full access to me and my personal cell so I can be there for them whatever may arise.

I would say to potential clients that when they meet me and my staff they will find a fun yet professional group of people that will go above and beyond to make their day the best it can be. Gosh we will even hop on the dance floor if we get the chance! We also will not be the cheapest catering company but we will work our hardest for you and we strive for perfection every-time. We want the food to be as pleasing to the eye as it is the pallet and we aim for this at every event.

A fun fact most people wouldn’t know is I have a huge love for dogs and I joke on a regular basis that my retired job will be a doggy daycare! With that love for dogs it’s important to me to donate to rescue organizations and help out where I can to make life a little easier for out four legged friends and the rescue groups that work tirelessly to save them.

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Where do you think you get most of your clients from?

Besides word of mouth from past clients I would say Instagram has been one of the best tools for couples finding us. We get a tremendous amount of out of town couples that reach out and say I found you on instagram or I saw you post that you were at my venue. I think that visual of the food and the pretty table settings really helps potential clients see the kind of work you do.

Can you tell us about what’s worked well for you in terms of growing your clientele?

It takes a long time to build up a good clientele and it’s not easy to start from scratch trying to get people to give you a chance. I always have tried to treat every event like it was the only one we had. Attention to detail, communication, being timely and showing up with a beautiful yet tasty display of food and beverage with a friendly staff. Consistency and good customer relations is the key to keeping your clients coming back.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.takeout250.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/takeout250
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/takeout250