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Personal Chef Industry

Hello,

I'm seriously considering becoming a personal chef, I've done much studying, taken culinary classes, catered small events for friends and family and have a true & sincere passion for food. I'm just paralyzed by the fear of leaving my 6-figure corporate job. I know money can be a touchy subject, but if I pour my heart into this - about (very rough estimate) can I make in this business in 3 mos? 6 mos? a year? Any insight you all could share would be GREATLY appreciated.

Like any business in the food industry, don't go into this for the money. I know that's not what you are saying but you definitely need to be prepared to change your lifestyle in return for being happy at work. Unless you go commercial and hire employees you are very unlikely to see that 6-figure salary again in a very long time if ever. Having said that, IF you are going to enter the food industry -- especially as a career changer -- this is the ONLY way to go. The restaurant path is NOT for you -- trust me. If you actually want to cook for a living and make a decent amount of money doing it in less than 10 years, becoming a personal chef is really your only choice and a great one in my opinion.

Working very hard, probably much harder than you work now to be truthful, you can plan on clearing somewhere between $200 and $300 each day that you work. Working as many days as you would like to is the hard part but if you follow the marketing advice that comes with your training materials you'll get there eventually. Plan on 6 months to a year before you are drawing a regular salary. You might do better than that but be prepared regardless.

I was fast approaching that 6-figure mark when I left to go to cooking school five years ago. I have never looked back. I live in a smaller house, drive a used minivan instead of a Volvo, and can't spoil myself like I used to but I don't stare at a clock everyday waiting for 5:00 to roll around. Working for yourself is extremely hard but equally rewarding -- you should at least try it once before it's too late .

Good luck to you and I hope we see you "on the inside."

Mike Sodaro
Pinch of Thyme Personal Chefs
Downers Grove, IL
www.pinchofthyme.com
pinchofthyme@attbi.com

Hi Cara. It is very tough to leave a good steady income for the self employed "unknown income results". We have some chefs that started out fully booked, & others that did not get there business really going (steady) for a year.

Much will depend on the individual, & their areas of service. Marketing, determination, stamina, & just plain old hard work are the main components of being successful.

Some personal chefs, continued to work full time as they read & viewed the training materials, & some continued to work part-time (I did, for a while until I got my biz going really well). There is no shame in that.

My suggestion is, if you really want to go into this exciting industry, do not waste time. Get the training materials, sign up for a seminar (which will be most helpful) while you are still at your job. This will help with start up costs, & lessen any financial worries than if you just up & quit your job. But don't sit on this..this industry is exploding....be a part of it!!!

Jackie Alejo
TX Chapter President
Cooking For You!
cookingforyou@personalchef.com
www.cookingforyou.net

I agree with everything said so far of course! Give up six figures? I sure as heck wouldn't--but I would if I HATED that high paying job. The food world is a harsh world. Even as a PC, you have no real "steady" income. By this I mean if you don't work, you don't get paid. You're sick? Too bad. They cancel on you? Tough cookies. They decide they all of a sudden don't want the service after 3 months? Hard cheese. See what I mean? There are no medical benefits unless YOU pay for them. These are the downsides. The upsides? You're the boss. You're doing something you love. Your soul becomes the benefactor. I would seriously consider every possible avenue before quitting what sounds like an amazing job (six figures you will NEVER see....you'll be lucky to get 50K quite frankly...). Look before you leap!!

Hi Cara,

I have to jump in here because I did give up that 6 figure income and am not one bit sorry I did. As Mike said, you will not live the same as you are living now, but ask yourself the question...Do I really need to live like this? Could I be doing something I love and live on less? For me Cara, that 6 figure income did not bring me happiness, it bought me things. I was tired of being asked to compromise my ethics, I was tired of fighting the corporate world, and I was tired of others controlling my destiny.

I'm still in the process of opening and have begun phase three, which is my marketing plan. I strongly suggest you meet with either "Score" or your state's "Small Business Development Center", both of which are free. They will show you how to develop a business plan and you can do a profit and loss projection which will detail what you can make based on your business plan. As Jackie said, you should also get the training materials and attend an APCA seminar. As someone once told me "Fail to plan, then plan to fail".

Good luck to you, Cara, whatever you decide to do!

Carol

I was you, three, four years ago.

I now make a fraction of what I used to make. My friends that I used to go to the Islands with every year...now they go without us most years -- we're on the every four years plan. We drive Saturns now -- cheap to own, cheap to insure. And we'll own these cars until we drive them into the ground. We can't throw money at problems anymore and make them go away. Yeah, I waited until three burners on the stove went before I replaced it. And, yup, re-painting the house will have to wait until next year because of vet bills.

Many people, of course, live like this all of the time. But you and I don't/didn't. We just wrote a check and made it go away.

Can't do that now. But: I don't wear pantyhose. Ever. I don't have to commute to work. I haven't sat in a boring meeting in...well, years. No one's yelled at me. No colleague has stabbed me in the back. I don't work for a moron and morons don't work for me. I'm the only moron in the room.

My biggest work-related trauma is when Giant doesn't have broccoli. I take Fridays off most weeks and often have another day as well. I work when I want or need to. I never work nights or weekends. I don't have to stay late or come in early to "look good".

I sleep at night now. I overheard my husband say to a friend "She's a much nicer person now." Gulp. I'm almost never sick anymore. (I would've said never, but I just broke a three year wellness streak with a cold. Drat.)

I have time to spend with family and friends. I have time to actually volunteer instead of just writing a check. It's a hell of a lot more fulfilling, let me tell you.

And, frankly, it's a hell of a lot cheaper to live. No dry cleaning, way less gas/parking, etc. I no longer throw money at food because it's cheap/easy/there. I think I used to just dribble money on the way to work, because we seem to have more than I thought we would -- taxes, expenses -- we are living much better on less than I had budgeted while still making a lot. If you know what I mean.....

But all that freedom, control, etc., has got to jazz you up. I have a lot less money. I'm a much happier, healthier person. If you can't imagine that you could be happier with less money -- if the Target croquet set for $25 is an unacceptable substitution for the Eddie Bauer set for $150, then this ain't for you.

It Is owning your own business -- and if that doesn't excite you -- if the pluses don't outweight the minuses, this also ain't for you.

If you were slaving away at a dead-end job for peanuts, this is great money. For what you're making, you have to be willing to make sacrifices to do what you love. Or, the sacrifices have to seem like a bargain to get everything else.

Meredith
Whisk For Hire
Kensington, MD

Thanks so much for all of your responses. Your postings reflect much of what I'm mulling around, now. It's not so much a matter of deciding can I live with less, but rather getting things in order so I can do so (I'm selling my car now to get a cheaper one, I'm moving to a much smaller and less expensive apartment, etc.)

I appreciate the encouragement and the perspective, now it's up to me to make that leap! Thanks again.

Cara, You go girl!

I echo what Meredith so eloquently states (as usual).

I quit a "sure thing" last March, not exactly six figures, but for the amount of time I was putting in--it should have been. The gory details are no longer a part of my life.

A client of mine who . . . after watching me carry all my equipment in . . . cook all day . . . then clean up and carry it all back out looks at me and says . . .

"I'll bet you sleep well at night."

YUP!!

Carol - A Thought For Food

So, from what I'm reading, I wouldnt be foolish to quit a $50,000 a year job to be a PC??? This was my biggest question when I made the decision to check deeper into this industry.
I'm self employed now, and cant imagine working for someone at this point in my life. PLEASE tell me I can realistically make 45000 a year!!!!!!!! (Provided I work hard of course)

Cindi, anything is possible. But realistically, maybe not in the first year or two. I've know personal chefs that was booked to the max immeditately upon joining the APCA. One particular gal...who was older, marketed herself before getting her training materials. She was awesome.

Anyway, yes it is possible to clear $45,000 a year....but that would require about 15 cookdates (based on 5x4..at $350 each) per month. See, that would be about $63,000 per year. But you will want to take in account of, your expenses...like: taxes, business insurance, health insurance, equipment, food safety course costs, etc etc. You may even want to have money paid in to social security etc. Then it would net you maybe $45,000.

It can be done, but most people in the food industry, are not in it for the "big" bucks.

Now, admittedly, I'm a glass half-empty kind of person. I'm not even sure the glass was ever full to begin with...

It is possible to make $45-$50K a year as a personal chef. But, that would put you in a fairly small statistical group. Sounds like you're not afraid of working hard -- good, because in order to make that kind of money, you will have to work hard (not as hard as working in most restaurants, but harder than herding a chair, a phone and a computer monitor..)

More importantly, you will have to market your little fanny off. As important, you will have to be in a good demographic area for our business. You will also have to be lucky. Some people are, some people aren't.

And you will need to be able to afford to NOT make that kind of money for a couple of years. The more time you can give yourself, the more likely you are going to be able to reach that goal. And hey, you could be one of the five percent who makes it there in a year or two. But don't come crying to me if you're one of the 95%!

That's tough love, but I'm a firm believe in budgeting for reality and being pleasantly surpised when things work out better.

If you HAVE to make $45K -- mortgage, child-support and college funds ride on your success, this may not be a good idea for you. If you can realistically say -- well, I can get by on $25K for a year or so, put a hold on savings while I get the business established, skip vacation or go really cheap, not eat out so much, etc., on my way to my goal -- then you've got a good chance.

On the other hand, if you're like some friends of mine, who think that they're being penurious by buying a "down-market" car like a Nissan Maxima every two years instead of a really cool sports car or SUV -- and think that pinching pennies means 2 weeks in a B&B in New Orleans instead of going to the Islands....er, maybe not.

Even once you get going -- you can have a really great year one year, then due to economy, war, snipers, the way the wind is blowing, suddenly you're scrambling a bit to keep your schedule full. You'll need to have the kind of lifestyle that can adjust to that.

People who go into this business with a very clear sense of what they need to make to survive, and have a realistic time frame for reaching their goals and are willing to do what needs to be done to get to that goal -- marketing, hard work, flexibility, contingency plans -- are going to be the ones who make it long term --and reach that monetary goal.

But if you're laboring under unrealistic deadlines -- I have to be making $45K in one year from start of business -- your chances of success are not great. It's relatively easy to make it to the $25-$30K mark in a year or two, given a decent demographic, medium effort in marketing, decent luck, hard but not excessive work. To take it beyond, you need to add time to the recipe, plus more to the other categories.

Thanks, y'all...

I, too, am considering changing careers and saying goodbye to a decent "secure" job...as if those really and truly exist here in Austin...

Reading all the pros and cons from people in the biz is a big reason why I just signed up to begin the PC Training....

So....Phase I begins...

Do you really think, with the economy the way it is, that people are willing to shell out the money for a PC? Right now I own a dessert catering business, mostly wedding cakes and decorated cakes, and juggle that with a part-time job. I'm interested in going the PC route, but would like it to be enough that I could quit my part-time job. any thoughts?

Hi everyone. I've been reading all these messages and I guess I'm coming into this from a different angle. I don't have a six figure salary to give up. In fact, right now I have 2 p/t jobs that barely bring me $25,000 per year. Luckily, my husband makes a decent salary and he's very supportive of my decision to become a PC. I don't expect to become wealthy from this but making $45,000 sounds attractive. My motivation comes from loving to cook and bake, getting many compliments on my skills, and most of all the desire to control my future. It's very frustrating to work 2 jobs and have nothing to show for it.

I resigned from my corporate job almost 2 1/2 years ago and do not have any regrets. I took a leap of faith (after purchasing a new home)and when the dotcom bust went down and then we were hit by 911. Money is NOT MORE important than your mental and physical health.

I will never forgot that experience-but I held onto my sit and took the ride! Being out of work in January 2001-I fortunately found a couple of business's in my old field (computer education) and turn them into clients- and also had the help with my husband having a full-time job. I spent the first year learning about this business-reading training materials, on the forums and testing recipes and marketing. I did not get my business off the ground until one year later and have been working about 15-17 days a month since January. I have been lucky so far with steady loyal clients but nothing is guarantee. I also took a part-time job at William Sonoma during the holidays and up until February this year.

Believe me it was scary at times and still is to see the amount of money it takes to start-up a business and run it.

I'm at the point now that I know what is involved in making this business work (lots of time, energy and $$$) and I really love this work-love that I can be creative everyday-don't have to sit in boring corporate meetings with a bunch of stiffs-and lost 10 pounds working my little fanny off (it really is little now!)and I'm alot happier.
I do not even make a 1/3 of what I use to-but it's rewarding to know that I am the one who is responsible for making this business work and it's exiting to see that I already made twice as much as last year and if it keeps up-I could double that- to me that's exciting. You have to be realistic and give yourself time to learn this business. If you have a healthy savings account or an husband/wife/partner who can pay the bills while you develop this business-that will help definetly.

But like the other chefs say-you can't go into this pc business thinking your going to make big bucks-unless you go commerical and hire people and then you will have a whole other set of challenges. I'm starting to look at that to see if that's going to work for me.

This is the best job I ever had and knowing that I came this far to make it happen is a dream come true! APCA and all it's wonderful members really help me launch this business-membership is worth every penny.

Life is very short and the way our world has become-do want you love to do! You'll have no regrets!

Donna

Holy Smokes - I'm only making 12,000 a year now! Not counting my Army retirement pay of 1400.00 a month! So I'll be able to make it easily - I'm already living cheap!! The benefits of owning a business - just think, you never have to ask a boss if you can go ahead and do what you know needs to be done-far outweigh the $$$. You'll always have problems, but they will be your own! Cakelady, I'd ask around in your area and see if there is interestin a PC service. People are already wasting money on eating out, ordering in, and buying groceries that they mean to cook but which spoil before they can!

Wow.......all you guys are inspiring me! I've been kicking this idea around for some time now. Everyone tells me I am a great creative cook and that I should do something with it. Maybe being a PC is the place for me.

Questions: are the course materials really worth it since I just learned about them? Are there formula's in them so you can make income projections? Also.....it seems to me that a number of the things that a PC does (like experimenting with recipes, entertaining friends to display skills and get references etc could be considered as work related and become tax deductions.

Any comments or thoughts would be appreciated?

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your question. I'm glad you found us recently.

The APCA training materials have been carefully designed and polished over the last 10 years to provide the information you need to start up and operate a successful personal chef business.

They cover the "BUSINESS of Doing Business as a Personal Chef"(c), not cooking lessons, and are specifically focused on what you need to do to avoid falling into all of the pits out there when you do not where you are going or how you are going to get there.
They contain the systems, techniques, forms and computer software that makes it possible for you to get your business up and operating successfully in short order.
They've been priced appropriately without billing you for any filler or fluff that you do not need, and it does indeed answer questions like yours about what IS and IS NOT tax deductible.

Best wishes, to you, and thanks for your question.
We're here to help when you're ready to start up.
Candy Wallace

To Cara, Matt, Cindi and all who responded to these posts. I joined the APCA last Sept. I always knew I wanted to do something in the culinary arts - it's where I shine. However, My family has this thing about eating 3X a day - can't break them of the habit. I have been doing home health care for the elderly on/off for the past 12-15 yrs. In between I've had some pretty "fill-in-the-blank #@$%%$" office jobs that got me nowhere emotionally. I guess my point is, is that do not think that you cannot gradually "morph" into this business. I've gone from 5 days/wk Home Health Aide cases to 3 days a week, and working on my business the rest of the week. (Let's face it, when your clients are in their 90's, you're not talking job security anyway!! ) I do get some satisfaction out of caring for the elderly because of my caregiving "genes" but those "genes" have translated into my cooking skills. I look at this new venture of my life as another beginning to living my passion. Everything we do is just a phase of our life here on earth. It's God's message to us to live the life He intended for us, giving us the lessons we need to learn. Everything will be done

To all newbies who replied to this post: Don't think it all has to be decided and executed all at once. This does not have to be an all or nothing life decision. I have been doing Home Health Care for the elderly on/off for the past 12-15 yrs. with subservient office jobs in-between - won't even go there!! The elderly job is much more "soul satisfying". However, my passion is cooking. There is nothing that says that I or you can't gradually "morph" into this profession. Let's face it, while I'm "finding myself", my family still has this little quirk about eating 3X day - can't break them of the habit! I've gone from 5 days a week cases to 3 days/wk working on building my business the other days. Making a total switch and life altering decison is too awesome for most people to make. Do it gradually. I joined this association last Sept., do not have a client yet, BUT I never gave myself a "cut-off" date to make it work. I believe in Divine Intervention and it'll all come together when the Man Upstairs intended it to. Knowing that, I know that whatever I do is nothing more than a pathway or "means to an end" and I can march forward toward my true passion. It'll all happen and come together when it's meant to be. Don't give yourself unrealistic deadlines and timelines. I have found that when you "surrender" your life over instead of trying to control it all the time, things happen more positively and when they are supposed to happen. My advice is to "go with the flow". Ask to downsize what you're doing and don't give it up entirely. Give your life time to get used to the changes and your transition will be more peaceful and satisfying. Take care of yourself, too, in the meantime. Smell the roses, get a pedicure - don't sweat it!! It'll happen.. After you let go of control, it begins to happen. As I write this, I am waiting for a return Phone call from yet another referral....

Take care! It'll happen and your questions will be answered all in good time...