Are you still guessing what to charge for your personal chef services, also known as weekly in-home meal prep services?  One pricing mistake can be costing you money, hard-earned money that you’re working for. And if you’re doing it weekly, it can add up to thousands of dollars without you even realizing it. 

One of the most common questions I get is, “What do I charge for personal chef services? What do I charge for weekly in-home meal prep services?” So today, we’re breaking down pricing in a way that actually makes sense for personal chefs. So if you’re feeling nervous every time you talk to someone about your pricing, this video is for you. 

Hey there. If we haven’t met before, I’m Chef Shelley. I’ve had a successful personal chef business for 20 years, and when I’m not cooking for my own clients, I help passionate cooks like you start your own personal chef business so you can get paid to cook on your own terms without killing yourself working restaurant hours for someone else, because you can absolutely get paid to do what you love, cook on your own terms 

So today I’m talking about the challenges of pricing personal chef services, also known as weekly in-home meal prep services. We’re gonna talk about mistakes people make and the wrong pricing structures to use, and practical pricing things for you to consider   

The biggest one I always see is people underpricing,  and this happens for a lot of different reasons. They underprice because they’re afraid they won’t get the client or they won’t get clients at all. They drop their price when they’re talking to clients. Um, they don’t understand the business model. 

They don’t think about their service in terms of true value and result for the client. They’re just thinking about the food that they’re preparing or the time that it takes them. Or v- it’s something that they would not be able to afford, so they really struggle with pricing it at the value the service really is worth.  

Another mistake is copying other personal chefs’ prices  without considering anything about yourself and your own business, not having any idea why that personal chef priced or how well that personal chef is even doing. So if creating your pricing for your personal chef services, also known as weekly in-home meal prep services, feels overwhelming,   you can get my free personal chef services pricing worksheet. 

There’s a link right below this video, and it’ll just help you dial in all the things that you need to consider so that you can choose a pricing for your service and move on to the fun part,  which is actually having a paying client that is paying you to cook.  

So another huge mistake I see personal chefs make is hourly pricing.  

There are so many reasons I hate hourly pricing for personal chef services.

The first thing I hate about it is I am a very fast and efficient cook. And when I have had a client for a long amount of time, I learn their kitchen better, their likes and dislikes better, and I get faster over time for them to a certain point also. So should I be paying g- should I be getting paid less than a brand-new personal chef who is very slow? 

That makes no sense at all. Or the same thing, if I’m cooking a very simple menu for a client, like spaghetti and meatballs and chicken tenders, ’cause they have little kids, should I be getting paid less for that than another client who might have more complicated dishes? But I’m still doing all the planning, all the shopping, all the cleanup, all the other things, right? 

So that is just two reasons why I don’t like hourly pricing. Also, it keeps the client focused on the time instead of what they’re really getting, and this is a much deeper conversation for another video. It dives deep into you knowing what the results are for the client, and that’s how you should be getting your clients, because it’s much easier than saying, “I cook, I clean, your fridge is full of food.” 

Talking about what it is that your client really wants, whether they hate to cook, whether they don’t have time, whether they’re tired of DoorDashing, whether they feel guilty because of their kids, whether they have a health issue they need to go on, whether they’re just fancy and they like good food and they want a personal chef. 

Knowing what it is that they really want, instead of focusing on the time. At the end of the day, it doesn’t matter to the right client if it’s going to take you three hours or four hours as long as they’re getting what they want. The client shouldn’t be thinking about, oh, you’re sitting down and taking a break, or you’re having a drink of water, or you tell them it’s gonna take three hours and then it ends up taking four, or you finish early so you make less money. 

The client never knows how much they’re gonna pay. You n- never know how much you’re gonna make. It’s all just a hot mess. Price based on value for the client. 

So let’s talk about what that actually looks like. Personal chef services, also known as weekly in-home meal prep services, I recommend that you price a flat rate plus a grocery reimbursement.  You do not wanna have food costs inside your profit. That just makes for, again, a hot mess of you never know how much you’re going to make, and a client who’s getting chicken tenders and spaghetti and meatballs shouldn’t be paying the same as a client who’s getting beef tenderloin and wild caught scallops, right? 

So flat rate plus grocery reimbursement. And when you’re thinking about what to charge for your flat rate cook day, you should be taking into consideration things like geography. Clients or personal chefs in New York City can charge more than personal chefs in John Day, Oregon. Also, think about your experience. 

Coming into it, a chef who has 20 years of restaurant experience, or private chef experience, or some other type of professional cooking hospitality insurance is going to be able to charge more than someone who’s just starting this for the first time 

And if you want to get more details about what you should take into consideration when you’re choosing your pricing, get that pricing worksheet that I talked about linked below. You can download it. It’s free, and it’ll help you walk through a lot of those things so that you can make your decision.   

You know, pricing is one of those areas where personal chefs can really get hung up and really affect their confidence about what they’re doing and everything. But honestly, it does not have to be that complicated. The most important things to remember are your pricing shouldn’t be based on your fear or whether you can afford a personal chef or stay out of your potential client’s wallet what you think they can afford or not. 

It shouldn’t be based on what other personal chefs charge, and it shouldn’t be based solely on how many hours you’re gonna be spending working on any given cook day. Your clients are not hiring you because of the number of hours it takes you to shop, cook, and package meals. They’re hiring you because you’re solving a problem for them, whether it’s saving them time, reducing stress, making their lives more convenient, helping them with a health issue, helping the mom feel good about what she’s feeding her kids. There are deeper powerful reasons that people hire personal chefs. 

So we talked about some of the common pricing mistakes, why hourly pricing can totally limit how much money you can make, and how to think about pricing your personal chef services in a way that is better for you and better for your clients.

And as you continue building your personal chef business too, remember, pricing is something that can change over time. If your pricing right now gives you a heart attack and you don’t have the confidence to say it to potential clients, drop your price. Start lower. Get clients, then raise your price. You don’t need a perfect number. 

There is no perfect number, right? Especially not on day one of your business. You just need a pricing structure that allows you to serve clients, make good profit, and that is a flat rate plus grocery reimbursement. 

And again, if you want help coming up with your specific number,  just download my personal chef services pricing worksheet linked right below. It’ll walk you through the process and help you get more confident in the number that you choose. 

If you want to dive deeper into pricing strategy for personal chefs on those profitable weekly meal prep services, watch this next video, The Number One Strategy For Pricing Profitable Meal Prep Services. 

I’ll show you how to price in a way that makes sure you’re making money every time. 

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