You think inflation is eating your profit. Chicken, salmon, produce, linen rentals... every cost creeps up.
But the real bleed isn’t your supplier invoice. It’s inside your process.
Margins disappear where information breaks down. Where your team moves fast but without visibility. Where “just get it done” becomes “just gave it away.”
Let’s break down the three biggest holes. They don’t look dramatic on a P&L. But they drain six figures while you’re too busy plating hors d’oeuvres to notice.
Hole 1: Guesswork Proposals
It starts with a win. A client asks for a 250-guest wedding. The sales team wants to lock it down quickly. They copy an old spreadsheet, adjust the guest count, and estimate labor. Proposal sent. Contract signed.
But hidden inside is the first leak.
The pricing doesn’t reflect reality. Why? Because the sheet didn’t include:
- Labor bumps for plated versus buffet
- Rentals requested casually on a discovery call
- Updated input costs that changed weeks ago
- Small but material differences in setup timing
On paper, you booked the job. In execution, you’re under water.
This isn’t an isolated error. It’s systematic. Every assumption compounds across dozens of proposals per month. Small gaps, repeated at scale, translate into a six-figure leak.
Your team isn’t being careless. They’re working without a clean view of actual costs. They’re quoting with partial information. The client says yes... but you’re left paying for miscalculation.
Hole 2: Kitchen Blind Spots
Now the signed proposal hits the kitchen.
Except the kitchen doesn’t see the same version the client signed. They see fragments. Notes from sales. A thread about allergies. A quick message about adjusted timing.
The chef tries to piece it together.
What happens next is predictable:
- Over-ordering proteins and produce “just in case”
- Buying backup supplies for unclear menu items
- Waste from prepping items never confirmed
- Under-ordering something critical and running to retail stores mid-event
This isn’t really about food. It’s about visibility.
The sales team promised. The client requested. The kitchen didn’t see it. And because no one trusts the information flow, they pad orders. Or improvise.
The result is product in the trash and emergency receipts in the drawer. Multiply that across every weekend and it’s thousands of dollars burned for no reason other than a broken line between sales and operations.
You don’t have a food cost problem. You have an information problem that wears a chef’s coat.
Hole 3: Free Work Piled High
Clients love to ask for “one more thing.”
- Ten vegan plates added late
- An hour of bar service extended
- Extra decor installed “because you’re already here”
Your team, wired for service, says yes. They make it happen. The event runs smoothly. The client’s thrilled.
But unless that change is captured and billed, you just gave away profit.
Here’s the pattern:
- Client asks → team agrees
- Adjustment executed → invoice never updated
- Materials bought, labor delivered → revenue $0
You’ve essentially trained clients to expect favors for free. And your team thinks they’re doing right by the brand. Which they are. But if no one tracks it, your generosity costs you tens of thousands annually.
This isn’t about refusing clients. It’s about equating value delivered with value captured. If you prep extra meals or extend staff, it should appear on the invoice every time. Otherwise, you’re comping without consent.
One Root Cause
Guesswork proposals. Kitchen blind spots. Scope creep giveaways.
These look different. But they share a single root: fragmented information.
Pricing in spreadsheets. Notes buried in emails. Invoices updated manually. None of it connected.
Your business isn’t leaking because you lack talent. It’s leaking because the left hand doesn’t know what the right hand promised.
And that’s not sustainable for a $2M operation. It’s catastrophic at $10M.
The Cure: One Source of Truth
You don’t need more reminders. More meetings. Or another “final-final.xlsx” sitting on someone’s desktop.
You need one connected system.
That’s why Curate exists. To close the gaps. To stop the leaks. To replace guesswork with visibility.
With Curate in place:
- Proposals stop guessing. Pricing pulls from real inputs—recipes, labor benchmarks, and actual fees. Sales can move fast without burning margin.
- Kitchens stop scrambling. Once the proposal is signed, prep sheets and order lists are generated instantly. No more wasted produce or frantic retail runs.
- Free work stops being free. Last-minute changes are logged in the same system. Invoices update immediately. Service is still excellent... but it’s compensated.
From Survival to Scale
The difference between a shaky 5% margin and a healthy 20% isn’t your supplier contract. It’s your system.
Margins vanish when proposals are disconnected from ops. They vanish when kitchens prep from memory. They vanish when client changes never hit the invoice.
The solution isn’t heroics. It’s infrastructure.
Curate plugs the leaks. It gives you one clean thread from quote to invoice. One path everyone can see. One version that updates as the client evolves.
You can keep blaming salmon prices. Or you can fix the actual disease: broken flow of information.
If you’re ready to stop the leaks and reclaim your margins, it’s time.
See how high-volume caterers are scaling without bleeding profit.