Become A Personal Chef - Business Ideas

Pat Walls

•

Updated: September 15th, 2022

Become A Personal Chef

Please note that the data provided in this article are estimates and may vary depending on various factors, and should not be considered as perfect or definitive.

If you’re looking for a career that allows you to work within your own schedule, look no further. Becoming a personal chef means setting your own hours, planning your own schedule, and taking on as much or as little work as you want.

Not everyone has the time to prepare meals for themselves. If you love cooking, you can start a personal chef business in your area and earn a good income from the side gig. The side hustle can fit into your schedule easily, and you can offer delivery and pick-up or curbside options to ensure more people are buying your services.

Personal chefs can work at various locations, including their client’s homes or restaurant kitchens. They may have regular clients who call on them to prepare meals for them weekly, or they may get called in to prepare meals for special occasions such as birthdays, anniversaries, and holidays.

Becoming a personal chef requires a great deal of effort, dedication, and most importantly passion.

If you're interested in how to sell cooking, or selling cooking online, you can use this page as a guide for everything you'll need to know.

Key Stats

market size

$8.05T

starting costs

$17.8K

gross margin

80%

time to build

60 days

Startup Costs

	Min Startup Costs	Max Startup Costs
Office Space Expenses	$0	$6,900
Business Formation Fees	$600	$3,200
Equipment & Supply Expenses	$63	$200
Retail Business Expenses	$0	$7,200
Inventory Expenses	$300	$5,000
Vehicle Expenses	$0	$10,000
Training & Education Expenses	$0	$1,000
Advertising & Marketing Costs	$0	$1,200
Software Expenses	$0	$200
Website Costs	$13	$215
Food Business Expenses	$25	$500

See all startup costs ➜

Case Studies

I Built A Resource Site For Chefs Like Me That Generates $60K Of Extra Income

I am David Buchanan, a professional chef, and owner of Chefs-Resources.c...

• $5K/mo

See all success stories ➜

Successful Businesses

Business	URL	Rank
Thomas Keller Restaurant Group	thomaskeller.com	171,770
Chefs Resources	chefs-resources.com	457,980
Hire A Chef	hireachef.com	578,978
Boston Chefs	bostonchefs.com	584,920
Miummium	miummium.com	684,688
amycaseycooks	amycaseycooks.com	976,090
Convivial Catering	convivialcatering.com	981,557
Chefs for Seniors	chefsforseniors.com	1,203,985
Table at Home	tableathome.com	1,444,058
Personal Chef Service located in Memphis, Shelby County and Western Fayette County, Tennessee including Collierville, Germantown, Cordova, Bartlett, Arlington and Lakeland.	athoughtforfood.com	1,527,231
Kosher Private Chef	kosherprivatechef.com	1,578,739

See all businesses ➜

Pros & Cons

Pros	Description
Ability to start your business from home	It's not necessary to have a physical storefront or office space to get your business started. You can do everything from the comfort of your own home, at least in the beginning!
Little startup costs required	The cost to start a personal chef costs significantly less money than most businesses, ranging anywhere from 62 to 35,615.
Rewarding work	Starting a personal chef can be really rewarding work. After all, you are solving an immediate issue for your customer and you're working on something you truly care about.
No overhead costs	To get your personal chef started, there are no costs associated with overhead, storage, packaging, etc. This will save you a lot of time and money!
High customer retention rates	Once a customer invests in your product, they've invested their time and energy to utilize your product/service which is highly valuable to them. Typically, your product or service becomes indispensable to your customer.
High margins	The gross margins for your personal chef are typically around 80%, which is considerably high and allows you to grow your business and manage costs easily.

See all pros ➜

Cons	Description
Crowded Space	Competition is high when it comes to your personal chef, so it's important that you spend a good amount of time analyzing the market and understanding where the demand lies.
Work can be inconsistent	As a personal chef, the amount of work assigned to you and schedule tends to be more inconsistent, which may make your income less stable. It's important to set boundaries and budget accordingly based on the amount of work you plan to have.
Isolation	Often times, as a personal chef, you typically work alone and do not have much face-to-face interaction with other team members.
No safety net	Typically, as a personal chef, you do not receive a consistent pay-check and instead earn money based on your transactions each month. During the slow periods, you typically take away less since the job is based on commission. It's important to budget accordingly for the slow times.
Niche Market	A niche business is not necessarily a bad thing, in fact, it can be the key to your success. However, it can be more challenging and time consuming to find the perfect niche market and target audience.
You may need to charge sales tax	If you are selling your products in various states, you may be required to charge sales tax. Although this may not impact your financials specifically, it can be a headache to create a process and procedure for this. To learn more about sales tax, check out this article

See all cons ➜

Marketing Ideas

1

Word of mouth

Word of mouth is when a consumers reflects their interest in a company’s product or service in their daily dialogues.
Therefore, word of mouth advertising is essentially a free advertising triggered by the customers experience.
According to Nielsen, 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.
Therefore, in today’s hyper-connected world, a single recommendation through a word of mouth can have a huge impact to your business.

Learn more about word of mouth ➜
2

Social Media Advertising

Social media advertising is the use of social media platforms to connect with your audience with the objective to build your brand, increase sales, and drive website traffic.
According to Oberlo, approximately 48% of the global population use social media, and the number is ever-growing.
Therefore, social media allows brands access to cost-effective advertising by enabling them to interact with a large audience.

Learn more about social media advertising ➜
3

Pay Per Click Advertising

Pay-per-click (PPC) is a performance-based marketing method that allows you to show specific ads for services or products oriented to a very defined target, with the goal that the user visits your website or landing page.

See all marketing ideas ➜

Key Stats

Startup Costs

Case Studies

Successful Businesses

171,770

457,980

578,978

584,920

684,688

976,090

981,557

1,203,985

1,444,058

1,527,231

1,578,739

Pros & Cons

Marketing Ideas

Word of mouth

Social Media Advertising

Pay Per Click Advertising