I'm curious...how will you go about getting your first personal chef client? 

I went about it the old fashioned way. I started telling absolutely everyone I knew that I was a personal chef until eventually, someone replied, "oh, my mom needs someone like you" and next thing I knew, I was cooking for a family of four. 

It still works, ya know! Start telling everyone you know that you're a personal chef. I mean, you're probably doing it for your family right now, right?!

With the right amount of confidence behind your elevator pitch, you can do this. Everyone has to start somewhere and everyone has a first day of business. What do you think about starting to share it tomorrow?

Learn more about all aspects of the Personal Chef Business in the comprehensive course Personal Chef Business in 10 Weeks >>

Best Wishes & Much Success to You, Virginia Stockwell

When you look around at other successful personal chefs you currently follow and look up to...

They ALL have a branded marketing personality that accurately showcase their cooking services.

If you're not hearing praise from your own marketing, then obviously... you're not attracting your ideal clients!

THE #1 MISTAKE STRUGGLING PERSONAL CHEFS KEEP MAKING:

When Personal Chefs struggle because they have no idea how to attract leads into their business, they often give up before even starting.

They think that sharing their "open for business" page on Facebook and posting daily Instagram photos of latest creations will attract new clients. They then get frustrated because nobody is calling about their services.

If you're doing this, you're wasting time marketing to the wrong audience and in a way that is not going to attract your ideal client.

Or worse! Mistake #2...

When struggling Personal Chefs don’t see the leads they're hoping for, they pay for boos...

Have you ever sat back and thought about whether or not you personally possess the qualities needed to be an entrepreneur?

The very nature of being an entrepreneur is that we have to be willing to try things without knowing whether or not it’s going to work. Does that fit your personality? Are you hesitant to take any action at all because you’re afraid you’re going to make a mistake? 

I can share with you that being afraid of making a mistake is the biggest mistake you could make.

Indecision is still a decision. It’s a decision to do nothing. And nothing is what guarantees failure. You have to be willing to have the courage to try new things. You have to be willing to have the courage to be curious.

If you try it out and it doesn’t work, it doesn’t mean you suck as a human. It doesn’t mean that you’re a failure. It means that you’re really good at testing out new things. If you want to be more than just an average person, you will continually try out new things m...

Personal chefs do not price their services by the hour. Pricing is typically based on the service provided, the client experience, and the overall value rather than time alone. Understanding how to price personal chef services correctly is what determines whether your business is sustainable long term.

How are you currently pricing your cooking services, Chef?

Common Mistakes When Pricing Personal Chef Services

Personal chefs do not price like restaurant chefs.

Clients are paying for groceries separately. Food is not purchased in bulk. You are not operating out of a commercial kitchen.

Because of this, hourly pricing often leads to undercharging and inconsistent income.

What Are You Basing Your Pricing On?

Take a look at how you are currently setting your prices:

• Based on the competition
• Based on demand
• Based on your own budget

If you are using any of these alone, you are likely not pricing your services in a way that supports your business long term.

The Psychology Beh...

Happy New Year! Okay, it may not be January 1st, but...

It's the time for fresh starts, new ideas, innovation and makeovers. You signed up to learn more about becoming a personal chef.

It's time to get out of the research phase and into taking action.

Take a step back right now and ask yourself if you've progressed (or started) your personal chef business in the past 365 days?

• What have you done to propel your business forward?
• What are you missing in your business?
• What have you done to fill that missing gap?
• Are you trying the same things over and over, hoping for a different result?

Based on a survey over the span of two months, these are some of the responses received from the question, "What's your main struggle in starting or progressing in your personal chef business?"

• "Finding clients" 
• "Marketing"
• "Advertising"
• "Marketing and getting clients"
• "Making connections to offer my services"
• "Getting clients"
• "Building clientele"
• "Clients"
• "Bookin
...

Have you ever said to yourself...

“I wish I had more confidence. It's then that I will be able to start/progress in my personal chef business.”

Confidence is not something you can buy.

It’s not something you can get at the store. It’s something from within. Confidence is the internal state that you can feel in the present moment based on your relationship with the future.

Think about a time when didn’t have confidence. You were probably telling yourself inside how much you were freaking out and felt like you didn't know what you were doing (even though you probably did know what you were doing).

It’s because your attention was on the fear of an uncertain future. This caused a lack of confidence in the present moment. Your thoughts about the future created present emotions.

“I’m going to go on my first dinner party event. I’m freaking out.

• What if I mess it up?
• What if I burn dinner?
• What if I look dumb?
• What if I don’t have the food ready on time?”

W...

I want you to imagine getting a brand new job. This is a job you worked for many years to finally get hired. Finally, you landed that position. Then, within two weeks after getting that job, you just know. You just know that this job is not for you. Has that happened to you?

That’s exactly what happened to me. I had worked so hard in school, eight years of college to be exact, to graduate with a Doctor of Chiropractic. That degree cost me six figures in student loans.

Around my last year of school, I began to realize that others around me were more excited about practicing than me.

I couldn't wait to finish clinic each afternoon so I could hang out with people who didn't talk about chiropractic. I wanted to escape, but I couldn't.

I imagined that going this far and graduating without a degree would be worse than graduating with the degree and having even more student loans. I continued my studies, graduated, and went to work at a private office.

I thought that I ...

You may be trying to decide if you should begin a business of meal prep or dinner parties. After years of experience, I can share with you that running a meal prep business always comes out a winner.

Dinner parties are usually special occasion one-time-only clients. Meal prep clients, on the other hand, are often scheduled every single week or every other week. Once you have regular meal prep clients, you have a steady income, a stable business and spend less time marketing for new clients.

As well, once you get to know the diets of your regular clients, you can quickly and easily put together a weekly menu for them. Meanwhile, dinner parties take much more effort creating unique menus and proposals for each event along with spending time marketing constantly to get new clients.

You could of course offer small events and dinner parties as a supplement to your personal chef business, but it’s the regular, weekly meal prep clients that will keep your business economically ...

At least once a week, I'll receive a request to share the contents of my kitchen equipment box. These are the tools that I bring to each meal prep cook session. My dinner party box is essentially the same with the addition of Saran wrap, paper towels, foil and plastic baggies. 

Before your first cook session at a new client's home, you'll have a consultation and part of that visit is checking out the client's kitchen. You'll open up the cupboards to see what kinds of pans they own as well as their utensil drawers and meal packaging containers. 

About 50% of the time, the kitchen is beautifully stocked with new All Clad pans and a variety of barely used kitchen utensils. The other half of the time, however, the client has pans from 1950 and a spatula that looks like it's been to war. 

For this reason, I do pack and bring to every cook session, regardless of the home, a standard kitchen equipment box, click here. There's no point in packing a different box for each home...

I've been asked many times what containers are best for meal prep and truly, hands down my favorite are Pyrex glass containers. 

They're durable, don't leach chemicals into the food, can be microwaved or frozen, and don't change color permanently when acidic foods like spaghetti sauce is added. Here are my favs: 

7-cup Pyrex bowls 

2-cup Pyrex bowls 

1-cup Pyrex bowls 

See all my fav kitchen equipment here >> 

Best Wishes & Much Success to You, Virginia Stockwell 

Check out all the ways I can help you here >>