ABQ Pizza Parties is taking its dough on the road

Randy Siner | NMBW

Hartman

Vital Stats:

A couple of years ago, Jennifer Hartman was looking for a new endeavor.

Hartman owns Alli’s Cafe, which operates snack bars at the Hewlett-Packard   and Sitel   campuses in Albuquerque. She wanted to branch out and build on her food industry experience.

In “Pizza Today” magazine, she saw an ad for a company that throws pizza parties at customer sites, providing everything from the ingredients to the ovens.

She went to Arizona to learn from the owner, purchased the intellectual property to start a similar operation, and ABQ Pizza Parties was born in early 2010.

It was scary starting a business during the recession, she said, but she thought the price would be right for people on a budget.

For kids’ parties, she charges $4.99 a person; for adults, $5.99. All-you-can-eat salad, pizza and dessert runs $7.50 a head.

Hartman handles all planning, setup and cleanup. Having a catering company supply food for an event would likely cost at least $10 to $12 per person, she said.

She spent her first couple of months throwing free pizza parties at schools and other organizations to build awareness for her business. Her clientele is mostly kids’ groups, including Little League baseball teams and the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. She also markets to adult groups, such as retirement communities.

The best part of the job, she said, is seeing kids get excited about her product.

“They all have contests to see how many pieces of pizza they can eat,” she said. “They’ll say, ‘I ate 12 pieces of pizza.’”

She spent about $4,000 to $5,000 to start the business. That included buying inventory and specially modified ovens from the Arizona pizza-party owner. Savings, gifts and income from Alli’s Cafe helped finance the startup.

Hartman can serve as many as 150 people in an hour at her parties. Her ovens run on household current. Each can cook one pizza in three to five minutes. For a 150-person party, eight ovens can get the job done. She offers seven types of pizzas, plus dessert pizza.

With all those variables, being prepared is a must. She makes a checklist of what she needs to take to every party.

And she learned the importance of asking “all the right questions before the party, so I make sure I can meet their needs when I get there.”

That means inquiring about any special requests or dietary restrictions. ABQ Pizza Parties’ crust is premade, and gluten-free crust is among the options.

Before starting Alli’s Cafe, Hartman was a stay-at-home mom who home schooled her children for 20 years. She realized once she got into the food industry that she could handle making the food, but there was a lot she needed to learn about the other aspects of running a business. So she is working with a business coach and accountant to beef up her finance skills. She also joined networking group Synergy and the Albuquerque Hispano Chamber of Commerce   .

Hartman works about 60 hours a week, and has turned over much of the day-to-day management of Alli’s Cafe to one of her employees so she can focus on ABQ Pizza Parties. She has three staffers who help out at both businesses.

Her best resource for finding new employees is referrals from her staff, she said. They make good recommendations, because “they don’t want to work with someone who won’t pull their weight.”

She’s tried radio and print advertising, but said results were disappointing. Her best business generators, she said, are referrals and word-of-mouth.

Michelle Mals contacted Hartman while soliciting donations for the University of New Mexico   Parent Association. Hartman donated two pizza parties worth $250 for an auction. Mals bought one of the parties for her son, who’s in a group of 30 UNM students in a B.A./M.D. program and getting ready to go to medical school.

“They were super-impressed,” Mals said. “There was a dessert pizza that everyone thought was the bomb — they’re still talking about it. Sometimes kids are sort of jaded, but this group of kids all said they would consider having a similar party.”

Hartman recently held a party for more than 50 children ranging in age from 6 to 11 at a city-run summer recreational program. The kids loved watching Hartman make the pizzas, and even shot video, said Joselyn Nelson, a city employee who works with the summer rec program.

Nelson liked that ABQ Pizza Parties offered a set price list and took care of delivery, setup and cleanup.

“That makes it really convenient for programs like ours,” she said.

Hartman’s operation also includes the capability to do omelet parties for breakfast gatherings. She’s doing omelets only by request for now, because she wanted to start out focused on getting the pizza right.

ABQ Pizza Parties pulled in $20,000 to $25,000 in revenue in 2010. Hartman does about 10 to 15 parties a month, and hopes to reach 30 parties a month by next year.

“My dream is to franchise it,” she said. “It is something anybody can do anywhere across the country. I really want to make it successful so I can go on and do some kind of franchising.”

And if you’re wondering, Hartman eats what she bakes. Her favorite flavor? Pepperoni with jalapeño.

Strategies:

1. Make an investment to generate word-of-mouth. Hartman spent her first couple of months in business giving free pizza parties to get the word out.

2. Ask customers lots of questions before an event, so you’ll be fully prepared when you get there.

3. When you need to hire, ask your employees to recommend potential hires.