The Business of Catering would just like to say a Merry Christmas and a Happy and SAFE New Year to everyone. WE have truly been blessed the last year, in fact the last 4 years and we are really really grateful!

Of course everyone has some negatives in their lives and business but you cant harp on those and you cant get so up set about it either. I am a fine one to talk, I know! But a lot has happened to me on a personal level that its just taught me to let a lot of negative things go.

I hope that my new lessons in life will bring better energy and better Karma to our business. We all need better energy and karma don’t we?

So we are closing for the holidays from the 23rd December to the 9th January 2012. Our staff have worked hard and deserve a break before the New year comes running towards us (does’nt time fly now days).

However we are still on e-mail and cell if there happens to be an emergency that we can help with, keeping in mind that a lot of our suppliers are also closed.

See you next year!

Lee-Ann, Mark, Imran, Hermann and the TBC Team!

We got a call from ABSA bank last week asking if we were expecting a cheque of R16900. We were’nt so I asked the lady why does she ask. She said that there is a guy with 4 different cheques from different companies and he is trying deposit them all into different bank accounts.

Basically what happened is we got a last minute quote (Bell number 1) from a company for 40 people, they would’nt confirm via e-mail only via telephone (Bell number 2) and they hadn’t paid us our deposit to confirm the booking (Bell number 3) and where now trying to deposit a cheque that was far too much (Bell number 4) on the Friday – Event was on the Saturday (Bell number 5).

So what they do is they say that they have deposited your money but they put too much into your account, can you please refund them the balance of a few thousand rands. Some people will go and refund them the money not waiting for the cheque to clear and the cheque bounces, your money is gone so is the “company” that you were suppose to feed!!!

Luckily this didnt happen with us and thank goodness ABSA bank was smart enough to phone us to check with us if we were expecting any deposits for that amount.

People, please be aware and dont trust everyone. Trust is a good thing but not when you get screwed by the person or people you trusted!!!

Have a good weekend

From the TBC Team
Lee-Ann, Mark, Imran and Hermann

We have been looking for a new chef now for over a month to join The Business of Catering team to keep a focus on the kitchen in Diep River. When a new chef comes on board, they tend to have so much energy, idea’s and vision that it gets the whole team up and going and positive.

After a month of interviewing we have finally found Hermann who used to own his own Rent-A-Chef company but due to certain circumstances he has had to look for a permanent job. Fortunately for us he has found his way to TBC and is cooking up a storm in our kitchen, training staff, sorting out recipes, organizing the kitchen and much more.

By the happiness of our taste buds, he really knows his stuff and every time we hear him start to cook we have to wonder what next is going to come through our office door for us to eat and the anticipation is always rewarding as the food is awesome!!!

We just want to welcome Hermann Alberts to The Business of Catering and hope for many great dishes and brilliant functions to come!

The universe has really been good to us and we really appreciate it.

Lee-Ann, Mark and Imran

We have somehow lost Jacques Mulder as he has moved once again trying to avoid the law. The sheriff is looking for him to serve him an order and so there fore he never arrived for his court date in May 2011.

If anyone knows where this thief is – please send me his address and whereabouts so we can get the money back from him that he stole from us. You will remain anonymous.

thanks
Lee-Ann

We have been fortunate enough to get another nice catering job for a rig that docked in Saldanha. We started in the middle of March 2011 and were told that we would be finished after 2 months. We have had to feed up to 300 very hungry South African labour force 3 times a day for the last 5 months now.

Its been a very exciting venture and very full fulling in a lot of ways. We have gained more experience, gained more staff, gained more contacts and obviously gained a healthier bank balance which of course is a huge blessing especially in today’s times where a lot of big companies are folding. So Mark and I have really realized that we are blessed to have found our niche with The Business of Catering.

The last 5 months have been a lot of fun in more ways than one – the hours have been from 5am till 21h30 every day, 7 days a week for what is now the last 5 months. The rig is called The Celtic Sea and we were contracted by Dormac to cater for all their labour and management staff.

Our staff have been wonderful – especially our manager Imran Khaki who is “Penny wise and not pound foolish”, which of course has been a great help to us. Besides that he has been there for us through this whole deal and has dropped everything the minute we need him to take over or to do an extra shift for us. Now a days its very rare to find someone who is a good, loyal worker and we are once again blessed with our staff.

However even though we have gotten into the Rigs and Ship catering we are still doing our corporate and private catering for all our regular clients from our Diep River branch – 021 705 6169 – Office hours.

In a way we are glad to be finishing up with this job as its been long but we are also sad as it’s been great to meet more and new people and gain so much great experience for the future rigs and ships we will be doing work for.

Here’s to a great 2011 and 2012 for all of us.

Lee-Ann, Mark, Imran
And the rest of the TBC team.

So I have been getting quite a few reply’s and comments regarding this low down scum of a boy because you can’t call him a man as far as I am concerned. A man does’nt lie and take good hard earned money from good hard working people and not feel a thing about it.

All the reply’s and comments have been of how he has taken their money for a job that he is suppose to do but never does and never returns the money iether. He pleads poverty and he puts everything on his wife or girlfriends name so that when people do come knocking they can’t take anything because he does’nt have anything on his name to take.

We took his quadbike that he had but we didnt know that it had been financed so of course the finance company came knocking and we had to give it back as it legally was’nt his.

We have taken him to the lawyers and have now put a garnishing order against his salary so that he can pay us on a monthly basis until all our money is paid back. If he defaults on payment then he can go to jail, exactly where he belongs.

I urge everyone to do something about the money that Jacques Mulder has taken from you. People like him dont deserve to get away with it.

I also want to mention that he is working for a Robert who ownes Intempo Trailers. He only works there and does not have any “shares” in the business.

Good luck and if you come right or have any news please let us know.

So I haven’t written in ages – why? Well besides the normal “work has been busy” excuse, we actually have been busy and we have moved and we are STILL trying to get our money back from the idiot Jacques Mulder aka Carello Trailers. Besides that, we had a problem with our blog – we kept on getting spam, junk mail, spam, junk mail and more spam and junk mail! You have no idea how much spam we got that it was driving us utterly and completely mad! Thank goodness our brilliant Webmaster Shalene sorted it out for us.

But firstly lets talk about our move because I must admit I don’t have the energy to talk about Mr Idiot (Jacques Mulder) at this point.

So we eventually found a stunning place for our kitchen. 10 times bigger than our “old” smaller kitchen. We have so much space at first we didn’t know what to do with it all but have no fear we worked it all out and we are using our new massive kitchen.

We still have some finishing touches to do like shelves and extractor fans etc but its all good and looking forward to seeing what our kitchen looks like completely finished.

For those of you who haven’t received our new physical and postal address and telephone numbers, here they are:

Physical address:

The Business of Catering

Unit A12

Prime Park

Mocke Road

Diep River

Postal Address:

The Business of Catering

P.O. Box 86

Muizenberg

7950

Telephone number: 021 705 6169

Fax number: 021 706 3756

Thanks for reading!

Lee-Ann, Mark and Imran

So the world cup is literally around the corner and everyone is starting to feel the world cup fever!  Everyone has this weird anxiousness about the world cup because no one is sure how its all going to turn out.

Besides the actual soccer games that will be played, we are all waiting in antisipation to see if we will make millions in our business, renting out our houses, making merchandise, selling houses etc.  You cant help but wonder if the World cup is going to bring some light to the many South African’s who are struggling at the moment. If it does bring some “silver linging”, especially to our pockets, in this winter then thats great and I hope that when you/we receive that many will give and basically “make the circle bigger” kind of thing.

I am usually a positive person, I always look for the light at the end of the tunnel but sometimes I have to wonder if we are all expecting too much from this infamous World Cup.  A lot of people are expecting to make millions and for their sake I hope they do because eventually and hopefully that money will be circulated back into South Africa. But I just have to wonder about those who took out loans last year in the middle of our economic recession to last till this year and the world cup hoping to make all that loaned money and more back.

I want to be positive and I am really happy that South Africa has been given this oppurtunity to host the World Cup and potentially make some money. I just hope that a lot of us have realized that the World Cup is a huge gamble, we might make money and win and we might not make money and therefore loose. In the end I hope there arent too many people dissapointed and ruined trying to hold onto a “we might make millions” hope.

Here’s to everyone out there who has put a lot on the line and to new beginnings and to making that circle bigger and sharing our wealth with each other so that in the end wether Bafana Bafana win or not, at least we all do!

So its the end of the tax year and our accountants is asking all sorts of new information from me and wanting all our slips and receipts so that they can get all their figures correct.

Wow, what a mission it has been. If you have ever owned any form of coffee shop, restaurant, catering busines etc you will know that you go through a lot of staff as they all come and go on a monthly, if not daily basis.  I had to do our IRP 5′s and put in everyone who worked for us in the last year with their I.D numbers, their bank accounts and their home address.  When most of your staff dont even have a valid address this kind of makes it difficult, even more difficult is when they have fallen off the face of the earth and you cant get hold of them for their I.D. numbers.

Needless to say going through 12 months of bank statements and finding every single staff payment was not a small task but I finally got it done and handed it in today! Shoo what a load off my shoulders. Now lets just hope the tax man doesnt find any fault with it iether.

Did you know that from now onwards every worker has to have a tax number even if they earn under the taxable amount. If someone works more than 24hrs a month, they have to get UIF deducted and have a tax number.  Now think of the Spur or a KFC who go through hundreds of staff a month who only work a few days or a couple of weeks. They have to collect every single staff’s members details and keep this for a year to hand in to SARS for the end of the tax year. Not an easy or quick job.

Owning your own business is great, but the amount of work, time and effort is huge and one does not realize this when starting your own business. In the end it can be greatly rewarding but make no mistake its hard work!

Yet Mark and I are quite happy with it all!

I never thought the time would come when The Business of Catering would have to look for bigger premises for our kitchen but the time has arrived!!!  Over the last 2 years we have bought so much and grown that we are now getting cramped in our 60 square meter fully kitted out garage.

So we have been looking in the areas from Steenberg/Retreat to about Plumstead.  Not as easy as it seemed.   There are plenty of places but we are only looking for about 100 – 150square meters and some parking space.  If the kitchen becomes too big then things become too far away from you and you spend half your time running from one end of the kitchen to the other just for a knife or bread board. So we can’t go too big but just big enough to not have to move again.

 Another problem we have is that we don’t want to move into a place that gets sold and we get told to move out after a year.  That’s the disadvantage of having a landlord and the advantage of owning. So my goal is to hopefully find a place we can start renting but will be able to afford if they want to sell one day.

Then there is the whole issue of business rights, the place has to have business rights due to us being a catering business, we need the place to also be up to standards with the Health department.  No wooden floors, only tile or concrete, Sufficient ventilation, drainage, a secure place to put our gas bottles outside and then lets not get started on fire precautions. The list is long and the things on the list have to be done properly as we get checked on and its just the proper way to do business in the end isn’t it?

So the search is on to find the perfect venue – wish me luck as it really isn’t that easy!