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Recently our catering company placed a very small online ad for part-time help. Much to our amazement, we were inundated with resumes and phone calls. Yes! Resumes from bank supervisors, teachers, society mavens, etc., etc. We had made it clear in the ad that we were looking for someone to do the basic grunt work of cleaning up, delivering, shopping and chopping.

We had to schedule two long days of interviews. As we sat behind our desk and watched the parade of candidates march through, we began taking bets on how quickly the phrase, "I've always wanted to start my own catering company," would flow from their lips. They came in starry eyed with dreams of Martha Stewart and Rachel Ray, as well as visions of perfect wedding receptions infused with the special touches only they could add. Boy, did we have a reality check for them!

Don't get me wrong, to paraphrase an old Saturday Night Live cast member, "Catering has been berry, berry good to me!" However, there are SO many things I wish I had known before I walked out of my door with that first tray of samples.

LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION

Starting a catering business from your home kitchen is becoming virtually impossible. Although Health Department regulations vary from state to state and even from county to county, overall they are becoming more and more stringent. New Health Department regulations in our state require that all catering businesses run from the home provide a secondary commercial kitchen with a separate entrance. The food prepared for the business cannot be prepared in the family kitchen and visa versa. There has to be a very clear and separate area where members of the household - that means pets too - cannot access. Most at home caterers choose to convert their garages into commercial kitchens enabling them to segregate their living space from their business space.

Here's the challenge with this scenario. If you live in a subdivision with a homeowner's association, there is most likely a provision in the by laws that states that any such business has to be approved by the board. In addition, the remodeling of a space to the standards of a commercial kitchen can be extremely expensive and could adversely affect your property value.

Never fear, a solution is here! When we faced all these issues, we knew we did not want to work from home or open a retail storefront. Since the failure rate of a new food establishment hovers around 98%, caution was our key. Our goal was to let the business drive the

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