Expanding to Catering

[GoldenSpoon]

My business is finally running the way I want it to, and now I'm looking towards expanding into catering to increase my bottom line. I know that Square can do a certain amount of things to help me with catering, such as the mobile app and phone/card reader. Does Square have other tools to help me run a catering business, such as a CRM, job scheduling, etc?

Thank you!

[Chad]

Hello @GoldenSpoon! Congratulations on expanding your business! 

Square can help with a number of things when it comes to running a business. I think you might be interested in Square Marketing!  This service allows you to reach your customers with updates and promotions via email! 

I feel like when you say job scheduling, you're referring to having a calendar for scheduling your upcoming catering events? If I'm off please let me know! That way I can suggest something that works best for you! 🙂

[Stella]

I have an existing cafe and we are starting to do catering.  What is available thru square to help me keep track of upcoming catering events?  I have started using the invoice functionality and that is working well, but I was wondering if there was a way to book a catering event and then possible sync it to a google or iCalendar or at least send reminders to a work email when the event is coming up?  My biggest fear is a forgotten event!  What are my options via Square?

[Helen]

Hi @Stella! Apologies for this late reply. Have you considered Square Appointments? It's free for individuals to use (there is a fee if you manage staff calendars with it), you can sync a personal Google calendar, you can set up a free online booking site, and you can view/manage your Appointments calendar from the app or from an online Dashabord.

However, at this time there isn't a way to set up reminders about upcoming appointments as the owner - reminders are currently only sent to clients by email/SMS. 

I'm adding @ACAcatering here, who is one of the Community SuperSellers and has a catering business! Do you have time to share any tips to share with Stella? 

[ACAcatering]

Apologies for the late reply.  If you're catering, then you know it's the busy season.  We do not use anything from Square to keep track of our catering jobs.  I run the business side of our catering business.  As soon as we are contacted about catering, and the event is confirmed, I automatically put it on our synced calendar.  Our cook/baker (my mom) watches the calendar and compares the events with the invoices.  

[Helen]

Thank you very much @ACAcatering, sounds like you're busy indeed so I appreciate it!