A single office that orders lunch for 20 people twice a week at $13 a head is worth $520 a week, or about $2,250 a month, for as long as you keep them happy. Two of those accounts are a better business than 30 one-off event orders. So the plan for corporate catering is simple: find the people who book food for their company and offer them a standing order.
Maribel runs a six-person kitchen that mostly does weddings and graduation parties. Her weekday capacity sits mostly idle. She wants three recurring corporate accounts within 90 days. Here's how she'd go about it.
Who books office catering and how often
In most companies, food is booked by one of three people: an office manager (for the weekly team lunch and the all-hands), an executive assistant (for leadership meetings and client visits), or an event or HR coordinator (for training days and holiday parties). In a company of 30 people, it's usually the office manager. In a company of 300, it's often split.
Frequency matters more than the budget. Law firms, clinics, agencies and tech offices schedule recurring meetings with food. Manufacturers and warehouses order for shift celebrations and safety days. Real estate offices order for open houses and agent meetings. Your best accounts are the ones with a calendar that repeats, because you can predict your prep and staffing. If you run a young company yourself and want help with this kind of outreach, the startups page shows what Rocketship does for small teams.
Build a list of offices near your kitchen
Distance is your edge. A delivery within 10 minutes arrives hot and costs you little in gas and time. Draw a 5-mile circle around the kitchen and search the map for the types of offices above: law firms, dental and medical clinics, architects, accountants, insurance agencies, small tech and marketing companies, co-working spaces. Copy the name, address, phone and website of 80 to 100 of them into a sheet.
Then find the person. Look on the company's About or Team page for an office manager, operations manager or executive assistant. Many small firms list one. If not, call the front desk and say: "Hi, who arranges catering or lunches for the team?" Receptionists usually know, and they'll tell you. How to find office managers and facility managers covers more places to look. Aim for a sheet of 60 named people before you send anything.
The first email: a standing lunch, not a menu
Most caterers send a PDF menu to a stranger. It gets deleted. An office manager doesn't want a menu. She wants one less thing to organize on Tuesday. Pitch a specific, easy-to-say-yes-to arrangement:
Subject: Tuesday team lunch for Brightline Architects?
Hi Carla, I run Maribel's Kitchen, about eight minutes from your office on Elm Avenue. We deliver hot team lunches (two entrees, a salad and a vegetarian option) for $13 a head, labeled for allergies, set up by 11:45. For offices that book a standing weekly order we skip the delivery fee and rotate the menu so nobody sees the same lunch twice in a month. Could I drop off a free lunch for four of you next week so you can judge? Maribel Santos, 502 Elm Avenue.
If this isn't something you handle, a quick "not me" is all I need.
It names a price, a time, an arrangement and a small, low-risk next step. Include your physical address and an easy way to opt out, since CAN-SPAM requires both. Send 20 to 50 a day from one inbox, and track opens and replies in your sheet. If you're curious whether it's worth doing your own outreach at all, should founders do their own cold outreach gives a straight answer.
Tasting visits that turn into contracts
When someone says yes to a tasting, treat it as a job interview. Bring lunch for four to six people, not the whole office. Arrive 10 minutes early, set up cleanly, label everything, and include a small card with your price per head and what a standing order includes. Ask the office manager what the team likes, what they didn't love about previous caterers, and who else has to approve a recurring expense.
Send a thank-you the same afternoon, plus a proposal: "Tuesday and Thursday, 20 people, $13 a head, first month at a 10% discount, which makes it $11.70 a head." Math the manager can check in a minute: 20 people times $11.70 times 2 days is $468 a week. Offer a trial month and a simple way to adjust headcount. Most offices are happy to start small and grow.
Follow-up timed to the event calendar
Not everyone says yes in week one. Corporate calendars have predictable pressure points: the first week of a quarter, a client visit, holiday parties in October and November, the end of a fiscal year, a big hire starting. Note them in your sheet and follow up two to three weeks ahead. "Hi Carla, I know Brightline usually has a client review in early June. If it would help to have lunch handled, I can hold a slot for you." That's useful, not pushy.
This is where most small catering businesses fall behind. The initial email goes out, then nothing, even though the second and third touches are what get answered. Rocketship's AI worker does the follow-up step on its own: you describe the buyer in plain English (for example, "office managers at law firms and clinics within 5 miles of Elm Avenue"), it finds them by name with verified contact details, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the tasting on your calendar.
Pricing a recurring order
Price per head, not per tray, and put a minimum on it, because a price that works for 20 people may lose money on a party of six. Set a floor headcount (say 12) and a cut-off time for changes (10 a.m. the day before). Add a fee for deliveries outside your radius. Work out your cost per plate including labor and packaging, and keep at least a 30% margin after delivery. A discount for a standing order is reasonable. A discount to win a first meal isn't, since it just trains the client to expect it.
Repeat accounts are also easier on your kitchen. Prepping 40 identical-ish lunches twice a week is far less chaotic than one-off weddings, and you can buy ingredients in bulk. A catering business built on three or four standing accounts can fill the weekdays between events without more advertising. Once the first accounts are running, describe, then count helps you work out which kind of office to target next, and new companies moving into your delivery radius are worth watching. How to find new businesses in your area to sell to shows where those announcements appear.
Corporate catering rewards the caterer who is easy to book and reliable on a Tuesday. Rocketship finds the buyers, emails them from your own Gmail, follows up, and books the meeting on its own. Plans that get you customers start at $24.99 a month (Launch), and every monthly plan starts with a 7-day free trial, card required. Answering your existing number is included; a dedicated line is $5 a month.