Starting my own bbq business, have some questions.

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chumslam

Newbie
Original poster
Jul 13, 2014
14
10
Not sure if I am in the right area of the forum.

I am starting my own bbq business out of my home. I have a lot of people asking me to sell to them. I work in a restaurant and have met people there that appreciate bbq. I am not in any way competing with my restaurant as I will be doing this on my day off.

How do you attract customers, online? business cards? fliers?

Have you vacuum sealed and reheated bbq before?

How did you promote catering options?

And any other advice would be greatly appreciated, Thank you in advance!
 
Utilize Facebook, creating a page with lots of good pics of your food, offer specials around holidays and / or big events (New Years, Memorial Day, Labor Day, July 4, Super Bowl, etc.).  I offer a brisket (sliced and ready to serve), potato salad, beans and bread to feed 16-20 folks for $100....advertise in your local paper works decent, just not as good as Facebook or just plain ol' word of mouth.

As far as vac sealing and reheating, yep, all the time.  For most of the catering jobs that are brisket or pulled pork, I vac seal and reheat all the meat.  You can do this by just dropping the packages in boiling water, or place in a roaster pan with hot water for several hours ahead of time.  If you have yet to invest in a Cambro, do so, it will be almost as important to your business as your smoker is.
 
Should I go with the name brand cambro? Is it the best? And how long will it stay hot in the holder?
 
I've seen the Carlisle boxes as well, seem to be well constructed and have heard good things about them also.  Other than $, not much difference to me.  

I can't remember the actual temp drop per hour, but it does keep food hot for quite some time.  When cooking competitions, I'll put my brisket in there once it's finished, let it rest and pull it out typically 3 hours later to slice and turn in and it's still well above 160 IT.  Now this is also after I have vented the pan before it goes into the Cambro, so I'm losing some temp that way that the Cambro would probably hold on to.
 
Would the cambro allow me to sell hot sandwiches if i was out on the street? That way I wouldnt need an open flame.
 
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