I contacted a charity event and donated a one time service as a silent auction entry. I then bought a ticket to the event and placed a business card holder with my business cards next to my donated service. It sold very high so I was pleased to help with that charity and was able to deduct it and my ticket on my taxes. But most importantly I got 7 regular clients from people who picked up my business card. It was that easy. I chose to take the tax deduction instead of using funds from my advertising budget.
2k views and no comments? wow. Thank you for the helpful advice, I’m a private chef looking into becoming a personal chef to spend more time with my family. Keep doing what you’re doing 💪🏼
I'm in the process of learning how to open my own takeout business from home (I'm in California) and I'm thinking about the personal chef route. it would be a huge drop in income from my career as a technical writer, but it beats unemployment and at least I'd be doing something that I love. Something to consider.
Things to consider: Doing takeout from home is very different from personal chef services. Making a decent profit with takeout is based on volume because you’re selling food. With personal chef services, you’re working 1-on-1 with a client and cooking just for them so it’s a premium service which has a much higher price. Just depends on what your goals are as far as how much you want to work, market, and make.
@@ChefShelleyB You're totally right, but everything you've talked about, especially the marketing, applies to takeout. My biggest problem is getting clients, but maybe I need to network more. Trouble is, I'm not sure exactly who to talk to.
I know for home takeout businesses they put a cap on how much you’re allowed to make before you need to go to leasing at commercial kitchen. And of course, I don’t know how much you’re making as a technical writer. But I do know that if you are doing full-time personal chef services and catering, you can make well over six figures. Something to consider.
This vid was what I needed. I'm a chef working for 9 years wanting to move into being a personal chef. How much of the commercial kitchens knowledge can be transferred into it?
It depends if you want to be a business of 1, or your long term plan is to have a commercial kitchen with chefs under you. If you're going to be a solo-preneur traditional personal chef, there's not much specifically that transfers other than cooking, but I'm sure you've learned discipline etc. There's no staff, inventory, overhead, etc
You need to know how to setup your business, how to cook, how to do what services you're going to offer, and how to get clients. You should work on your cooking first.
You don't have to pay for an LLC every year. Whether you need a business license at all depends on where you live check with city/county. You can do anything you want, just depends on if you're will to take the consequences if there are any.
Good question! Of course most salads do not stay good for 7 days if that's what you're asking. Some clients freeze, some eat them quickly, some get 2 services a week. It all depends on what the clients wants/needs.
Do you mean work for a biz that sends out personal chefs? For me it’s worth a little bit of paperwork to get 100% of the profit. From what I’ve seen, they don’t pay very much.
@@ChefShelleyB thanks for the advice. I think I probably will go in that direction but I was hoping to fast track the process. I’ll just have to do a bit more digging