Answers · Catering
Is a website worth it for catering?
Yes, if you sell to the owner directly. In catering the job runs $2,000 to $8,000 and does not repeat, so the site only has to bring you 1 job in its whole life to have paid for itself.
Updated · By Esel Solutions editorial team
The math, with your numbers and not mine
$299 to build and publish your website. You see your homepage free first and pay only if you want it online. Domain and hosting are included for 3 months. Then $39 a month with maintenance and changes, or $69 a month with Google Business Profile and SEO. Your homepage arrives within 24 hours; publication follows approval and receipt of missing material.
$299 to build and publish your website. You see your homepage free first and pay only if you want it online. Domain and hosting are included for 3 months. Then $39 a month with maintenance and changes, or $69 a month with Google Business Profile and SEO. Your homepage arrives within 24 hours; publication follows approval and receipt of missing material.
Put your own number over mine. Charge less and the job count goes up; charge more and it goes down. It still clears either way, and that is the whole point of it being one-time.
They do not come back, so volume is the game
In catering the same customer will not call you again for years, and it is worth saying because it changes the whole approach.
If they do not come back, everything rides on new ones coming in. And new ones do not come from loyalty. They come from showing up where they are already looking. That is not a luxury, that is the place Google sends people to.
The upside is that an event for a hundred people pays $2,000 to $8,000, so it does not take many for the math to close.
When the answer is no, and I mean it
You do not need to spend this if you only do corporate on annual contracts and never private events.
If that is you, a website fixes nothing, because being found is not your problem. Keep the money and come back when you want to grow, or when one of those steady accounts goes away.
We say this before taking your money, not after. Call us and if that turns out to be your situation, you will hear the same thing on the phone.
What actually makes the phone ring
A catering site that works is one where you can see the menu with a per-person price, which is what they came for without hunting for it.
The rest is decoration. With that in place the visitor calls. Without it they go to the next result, however good the design looks.
And watch the calendar
In catering the year is not flat: November through January, plus wedding season.
Which means you want the site up before the season, not in the middle of it. Google takes a few weeks to give something new a place, and those weeks are better spent while the phone is quiet.
Why it did not pay off for some people
When somebody says they paid for a page and it did nothing, it nearly always had a menu in a PDF you have to download before you can read it. It went live, it looked fine, and it never did the one thing it was there for, which in catering is getting people to ask you for an event for a hundred people.
The math cannot work out that way. What changes the outcome is the page carrying the menu with a per-person price, which is what they came for where it shows, and that is not about spending more: with an event for a hundred people at $2,000 to $8,000, that placement is what decides whether it pays, not the budget.
doubts
What people usually ask
What if I already have Facebook or Instagram for my catering business?
They help, but they are theirs and not yours, and they do not show up when someone searches Google ready to hire today. Most people end up with both: social for the work, a site so they get found and called.
Is there a monthly fee?
No. It is $299 once, hosting included. The only separate cost is the domain, about $12 a year, bought by you in your name.
What if I don't like it?
$299 to build and publish your website. You see your homepage free first and pay only if you want it online. Domain and hosting are included for 3 months. Then $39 a month with maintenance and changes, or $69 a month with Google Business Profile and SEO. Your homepage arrives within 24 hours; publication follows approval and receipt of missing material.