Becky Ellison – considered by many to be the best caterer in Monmouth area visited class and spoke last Thursday. She is our choice if you want the best food served and are willing to pay for it. She is the caterer of choice at the Monmouth Country Club for weddings and parties caterer – not necessarily fancy food and/or fancy decorations – just great food that tastes good. Becky was born and raised in Monmouth. She earned a WIU degree in home economics and minor in marketing.
She is married and had three kids. Becky started a day care center in her home to care for her three kids and 15 others. One of them included Alex Morgan who participates in our Entrepreneurism class.
She always loved cooking – it’s her passion – a passion that became a business
A friend’s caterer dropped out 30 days before the wedding – the friend begs – “help me out Becky; do this for me” – “I don’t know how” — “you can do this; I need you, please” – she and friends cater the wedding and end up staying up all night before the wedding working to it get ready – had immediate success.
Word spreads – “please do my wedding” – one wedding after another. Seasonal business.
Soon she was hiring someone to care for the kids in her day care so she could prepare food.
How did she decide to start the business? Her decision to start a catering business was subtle– she bought $200 worth of dishes at an auction in Macomb as her first official step. Her business is conducted out of her home – never sought any bank financing to grow.
She had struggles too. One big piece of her story – Warren County WAS one of the only counties in Illinois without a health department – so legally she could cook at home and sell serve the food.
“I did not choose my business, it choose me”
She has catered events from Springfield to Peoria to the Quad Cities – catered events as small as dinner parties for 15 people such as “the class of 1936” to weddings as large as 800.
Marketing-wise she relies on word of mouth advertising only – Becky takes the first paid contract on a specific date – if a later bigger offer comes in she honors her commitment and says “sorry I am booked” – its a costly decision to honor every contract but that her reputation is too important to tarnish.
It now employs four people in the part time business – all family members — she is in business with her mother – her mother keeps track of purchasing and cash flow. Becky meets each client personally, talks thru the event, type of event, number of guests, type of guests (males, females, farmers, business types, high school kids, etc – I have to know who I am serving in order to know what type of food to make, what would be appropriate, and how much to make).
Everything Becky makes is created from scratch, even when making it from scratch costs more – “if you want cheap food, don’t hire me.”
There are no set schedule of prices like most other caterers – Becky prefers to sit down with her clients. “They tell me what they want, and I will buy all the ingredients and cook it and serve it – you pay for the ingredients and then pay me that much and little more for my labor – I like to balance the bill at about 60% labor and 40% food but sometimes it is closer to 50%/50%. When the event is over, I offer all the extra food to client – I have no room or use for leftovers – How can I ever use so many leftovers, anyway?”
“I decided to not work for anyone that will not sit down with me and talk about what they want and what I can do – that process (step) prevents misunderstanding and unhappy customers – customer service is king for me – Tell me what you want, I will tell you what it costs. Then I will deliver what I promised and it will be excellent.”
One of the headaches of the business is its erratic hours and seasonality. This irregular stream of customers – sometimes 60 straight daysof events and then two weeks of nothing can drive other managers crazy when trying to line up help. It is hard for her to commit to full-time help since she never knows what the next week will bring.
She cooks about 300 days a year – sometimes three or four different events in one day – she already has booked two weddings for 2013 – wow!
Becky has felt the effects of the Recession. She has noticed that although she still get parties they payers or sponsors are skimping on the meals compared to pre-2007. However, she has many steady customers – weekly and monthly such as the Monmouth Rotary, banks, seed corn companies, corporate board meetings, and employee dinners. The changing business conditions has forced her to make some changes to her business model.
Two years ago she served 38,000 meals for Monsanto research farm south of town — That equated to $120,000 of sales. For 2010 Monsanto was down to $17,000 in sales. Becky said “The Monsanto corporate belt-tightening really hurt my business. ”
Two years ago the Warren County health department was established – so she can no longer cook at home and serve food – she organized a commercial kitchen and now she operates it separately from her home business. She entered into a leasing/sharing arrangement with Monmouth Country Club – Mike Connell and John Twomey – it is a new business model for both Becky and MCC – customers sign a contract with Becky for food & customers and sign a rental agreement with MCC at the same time – this new joint venture is an evolving business model for both sides – she catered and MCC rented to Monmouth College for the recent Presidential portfolio meeting for 25 faculty members and administration.
She serves food at MCC and at other venues with similar arrangements. Becky has no business plan — She learned by doing – followed her passion – but her future is uncertain “I will do the best I can for my customers, and if that leads me down a good path, I will follow it”.
