You’re ready to begin your personal chef business. You have all the culinary skills needed, but something is stalling you.

It’s the 200 questions running around in your mind!

• How do I go about pricing my services?
• How do I know who in my community is ready, willing and able to hire me for my services?
• How do I choose a business name that screams success?
• How do I go about getting a business license?
• Where do I find clients?

Back in 2012 when I started my personal chef business, I Googled for hours, months on end trying to find these answers. There’s just nothing out there that gives definitive answers.

I had to learn it all myself through trial and error. I made so many mistakes and don’t want to see you making those same business errors. I strive to share everything I've learned over the years.

How much can I make as a personal chef?

Start-up costs run about $500 to $1,000. There are very few businesses with such a...

When I first started my personal chef business, I had no idea what I was doing as I had no mentor to answer my questions. I couldn't find any help online to basic questions, like what should I wear to meal prep sessions in client homes?

I knew that it had to be some sort of uniform, meaning that I would wear the same style at every cook session. I chose a black t-shirt and jeans. Looking back, wearing street clothes was not showcasing my business in a professional way.

Attending a Chamber of Commerce networking event, I saw many of the members wearing polo shirts with a logo. "What a great idea," I thought. It seems so obvious that a professional shirt with company logo would be part of a uniform, but truly when first starting a business, you don't know what you don't know.

I researched and learned that company shirts are rather inexpensive and printed clothing could include an apron as well.

If you're looking for a brand recommendation, I really like the quality of Chef...

I'll often receive emails from aspiring personal chefs asking if I have recommendations of where they can get a loan to begin their personal chef business.

Truthfully, this perplexes me. I'm unsure of what they think the costs are going to be to run a service business like this.

For a break down of costs, check out the start-up costs of a personal chef business >>

You can truly start up your personal chef business for about $500. You don't have to quit your current job. In fact, you shouldn't quit your current job since it's paying the bills. 

The personal chef business is not one day you decide you're going to do this then the next day you have a full schedule of clients. It takes time to build relationships and gain new clients into your schedule. 

You'll start off with one client at a time while continuing to work your current job. If your current position just doesn't allow any days of the week off, you will...

When entering the personal chef space, you may have a perception of what life will be like.

Let's plot that against what personal chef life really is...

You imagine a life of meal prep and dinner parties.

Reality is that you'll spend just as much time going to and from the grocery store and your client's home than actual cooking. You'll also spend a lot of time at your desk planning before the actual execution of an event or meal prep. There's also bookkeeping and marketing tasks that are always needing your attention.

If you're not organized and have a good judgment of time, your business could get chaotic quickly.

You may factor in 15 to 30 minutes for cleanup at the END of your cook session.

Truth is that whatever time you've estimated for cleanup...double that and that's how long it takes. Oh yes and what about when you arrive in a client's kitchen and they left chaotically that morning so the remnants of dinner last night and breakfast this morning are all...

A taco walks into a bar and the bartender says, “we don’t serve tacos here.” And the taco says, “that’s okay, I’m just here for a margarita.”

That was the premise behind the book that I wrote, “A Taco Walks into a Bar.” This is my cookbook. This is a taco walking into a bar. You get it?

I’m going to show you how to make your own cookbook. You can do this in just nine steps. It’s not going to cost you a dime. You can seriously make a book, a cookbook, for yourself for free and publish it and have your friends purchase it on Amazon, Kindle or paperback. This is completely printed on Amazon. An author copy costs me about $2.45. I’m charging about $20 for this one and I get about $10 royalty.

So, let me tell you about the nine steps. Step 1 of course is to pick your subject. You know, what are you writing the cookbook about? Is it about chicken? Is it about Chinese food? Is it about keto diets? Pick your style and...

Fear and self-doubt are unquestionably the two most common roadblocks to success in life including what holds many back from starting their personal chef business.

When coming face to face with fear and self-doubt, you could choose to either:

• Be held hostage to your current life just because it's comfortable; OR
• Courageously face your fears, take risks, and live life to its fullest

Everyone experiences fear and self-doubt to a  different degree: 

• An inability to realistically assess your competence and skills, "What if I put out the word about my new business and nobody is interested?"
• Attributing your success to external factors, "I only got this far because my friend gave me my last job."
• Berating your performance, "They were just being polite when they said they liked my chicken dish."
• Fear that you won't live up to expectations, "What if I start my personal chef business and my clients don't like the food I make them?"...

As a personal brand, you already know that the biggest thing that's going to cause people to buy from you is connection.

In other words, if people don't feel a connection with you, they're not likely going to invest in you and your services.

The reality is that online video is the most effective medium for creating that connection. It's why we feel so connected with celebrities and follow them on social media. 

90% of communication is non-verbal, so people are connecting with all of you, not just your voice, tone and pitch but your whole presence. Your energy.

If you're refusing to do video like many struggling personal chefs, you're basically trying to start a business while hiding from people. Without video, you won't have that real connection. 

The people you follow and look up to have truly shown who they are. They have connected with you on an intimate level through the power of video.

It's time to overcome your fear of...

Do you find yourself constantly researching, gathering information on the personal chef business?

Is gathering information becoming a hobby instead of what you know you should be doing...implementing the information?

There is a turning point in starting absolutely any business when it's time to shift from information to implementation, but how do you know when it's time?

Implementation over Information

There are a myriad of different kinds of personalities when jumping into a new business venture. 

• The analyst will need to gather absolutely all the facts possible, spending hours and hours online. 
• The perfectionist will need to ensure every item on their checklist is complete, possibly too much time.
• The risk taker will dive right in and may not do any research at all, so may appear sloppy.
• The collaborator will need to have a buddy ready to take the business risk with them because they're uncomfortable taking the risk on their own.
• The know-it-all...

How do I price my services?

Many personal chefs don't launch their business because they are looking for a scientific formula to answer this question. The truth is that pricing personal service is more psychology than science.

More details about pricing are available here, but this post is about the employee mindset (charging by the hour) in your personal chef business. 

WHY do you think charging by the hour is the way to go?

It's likely you've been an employee of a business your entire life. You may not know any other way! You're currently being paid $20 an hour so your goal when opening your personal chef business may be $25 an hour. 

Truthfully, that's exactly what I had thought when starting my own personal chef business. Charging by the job didn't even occur me. This is because I had always been employee and didn't know any better.

I was stuck in employee mindset versus business owner mindset.

Employee mindset is working as hard...

Do you often hear this statement?

"You need to niche to bring customers to your business."

What does that really mean?

The dictionary calls a niche, "distinct segment of the market" and yes, that summarizes it, but just somewhat.

As a personal chef, you can't cook all things for all people. Which business do you think receives more new client requests?

1. JoAnne's Personal Chef Services specializes in making your Atlanta bachelorette party an evening with friends that will always be remembered as one of the best events of your life.
2. JoAnne's Personal Chef Services offers meal prep, dinner parties and cooking classes for those in Atlanta, Georgia.

Another way to look at it is by asking yourself what you would do if you were having marriage problems. Which company would you call?

1. Sam's Marriage Counseling, serving the Kirkland, Washington neighborhoods
2. Sam's Counseling service helping Kirkland residents with issues of grief, marriage, depression and...