Savor a sample of Marie Moss’s secret-ingredient spaghetti sauce, and you’ll know what her customers know: This lady was born to cook. She does for food what Mozart did for music. And she makes money doing it.
It all began some 50 years ago, when Marie’s grandmother hosted big dinners complete with veal cutlets, sausage, lasagna, you name it. “One of my earliest memories is of standing by the stove stirring the sauce,” Marie says.
She became a nurse and went to work in a hospital, but her cooking reputation went with her. When a nursing friend got engaged, she ran up to Marie and popped the question: “Will you do the cooking for my wedding?”
Marie wasn’t sure. At 26 years old, she had plenty of experience cooking for family and friends. But a formal sit-down dinner? For two hundred people?
She rushed to her nearest and best advisor. Mom liked the idea right away. “We can do it, we can do it,” Marie recalls her mother saying. A Mozart-caliber cook herself, Marie’s mom gave her daughter the needed nudge.
They did do it, side by side, working in a three-hour blur back in the day of no microwave, no Sterno, and no pre-cooking. The dinner was a huge success, and in the days that followed, Marie started cooking up an idea: a catering business.
She kept her full-time nursing job and built her business slowly by word of mouth. It didn’t take long — people like to talk about good food and great service, right? She catered more weddings, rehearsal dinners, baby showers, and wakes. Sometimes she’d do one job a month, sometimes more, depending on customer demand and her own work schedule. She’d often team up with her mom. For big jobs, they’d bring in some extra help. With the financial security of her regular job, she could be flexible.
It went on like that for 16 years until the security disappeared. Marie lost her job — but it didn’t mean disaster. She devoted more time to catering, brought in more business, and made up for much of the lost income. She averaged a job a week, which doesn’t sound like much to people who eat food more than they cook food. But that’s a lot of work!
Marie eventually went back to a full-time job, this time as a case manager for an insurance company. She works there currently. But her catering business is still cooking.
She loves most of her jobs — like the time she cooked the food for 235 guests at her niece’s wedding. “I was working in the kitchen when I heard, ‘Marie, they’re calling for you,’” she says. The bride wanted Marie to join everyone in the dining room. Marie dashed out while her niece made an announcement: “Ladies and gentlemen, this is my aunt who prepared all the food.” The guests gave the chef a grateful round of applause.
Other jobs build character — like when she cooked for 317 people at an eighth-grade graduation dinner. The feast was held in an old gymnasium, with an ill-equipped kitchen (two small ovens, a clogged sink, and cramped quarters) located on a different floor. Marie, her husband, and nine young helpers worked up some serious sweat getting the job done to Marie’s usual high standards.
“I’m very organized,” she says. “I delegate. When I have people helping me like I did that time, I say, ‘Don’t take offense.’” It works. She has catered hundreds of events during her 30 years as a caterer, and she can serve 300+ people in 30 minutes flat. The food is great too — just taste her godlike sausage and peppers.
MARIE’S ADVICE:
Let your trusted loved ones give you a push. Marie’s mother filled this role. She exuded confidence — and went a step further by offering to help. They teamed up on that first job and many that followed. If you need to borrow courage (and some help) from someone else in order to get started, do it and don’t look back. Who are likely candidates who can fill this role for you?
Make friends and family your first customers. At the hospital where she worked, Marie had a big network. So it’s no surprise that a nurse friend became her first catering customer. When you’re starting your own business, don’t keep it hidden. Take stock of your own social network: friends, family, work colleagues, long-lost contacts who can be found and reached on the Internet. As much as you can (if you have a “regular” job, we don’t want you to get fired!), shout it from the mountaintops. Don’t be pushy — just let them know you’re open for business.
Start small, but look for ways to get big. If she could do it over again, Marie says she would do more research (into building her own reception hall and obtaining contracts with existing halls), invest more money (in equipment), and take more risks. In other words, from the outset, she would be more growth-minded and action-oriented, exploring and taking practical steps to build the business bigger and faster. You should do the same with your own venture — whether it’s just an idea, just getting started, or well under way. Conduct some serious research, exert your creativity, get input from other people, and see where it leads. You just might find, for example, that you can reshape your service to reach a much bigger group of would-be customers. Or you might uncover an untapped marketing channel that is tailor-made for your product. If you always think small with your business, you’ll stay small, guaranteed. If you think big and plan big, there’s no guarantee you’ll get big — but you’ll sure as heck stack the odds in your favor.
