If you are a caterer or chef, you probably started your business because you love to cook and create masterpiece food dishes. But, just like any small business you need to generate leads to make money.

This article is a step-by-step guide to generating catering sales leads online via search engines.

Follow these easy steps to generating catering leads:

If you do not yet have one, create a website for your catering business. You can hire a website designer to create a professional looking catering website for under $100.

Create a list of keywords that you think people are searching for online when they are looking to hire chefs or caterers. I’ve created a sample list of good keywords below.

Sign up for a PPC campaign with internet search engines. PPC is short for pay-per-click. The way PPC works is you choose a list of keywords and register it with internet search engines. Every time someone searches your keyword, a link to your website will be shown alongside the sponsored results section of the search results. You pay only when someone clicks on your link. But don't worry, it costs just pennies per click. They really are low-cost sales leads. The most popular PPC program is Google’s AdWords program.

It really is that easy to generate catering sales leads and you can generate as many leads as you want, depending on how many keywords you choose.

As promised, here is a sample list of good keywords to generate catering and chef sales leads:

New York catering services

Cleveland barbecue cookout

Las Vegas wedding reception catering

Toronto catering trucks

Boston event planning

Los Angeles personal chef

Seattle Banquet caterer

Chicago food feast preparation

Nashville gourmet food preparation

French cuisine

Miami restaurant banquet rooms

Phoenix professional chef

Albuquerque pastry cook

Philadelphia catering equipment

Of course, substitute any of the cities listed above with the city that you do business in.

If you are a chef or caterer and are looking for free advertising for your small business, Tino Buntic invites you to create a TradePals profile to receive qualified sales leads without cold calling. TradePals provides free sales leads to business professionals across North America, including catering sales leads.

Tino recommends reading The Paupered Chef blog by Nick Kindelsperger and Blake Royer, two freelance writers that love to cook.