Transcript
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Speaker: [00:00:00] If you are thinking about posting to social media, starting to pass out flyers, getting business cards printed, basically telling everyone you know that you’re starting your personal chef business. Wait! Do not do any of that yet, because if you haven’t done this one thing. All that marketing work is going to fall flat and then leave you wondering why no one’s reaching out to you.
Today I am going to show you what the one most important thing is and how it completely changes the way that potential clients respond to you. Hey there, I’m Chef Shelly. I’ve had a successful personal chef business for over 19 years, and when I’m not cooking for my own clients. I help passionate cooks, home cooks and burnt out pros build a business that gives them freedom, income, and joy, doing what they love, cooking, without having to have a commercial kitchen, without culinary school if you don’t have it, and without working nights, weekends, and holidays. And you can do all this [00:01:00] without having to guess and figure it out every step of the way.
So this is one of the biggest mistakes I see new chefs make. They start marketing before they’re actually ready to take clients, so let’s fix that. I get it. You’re excited. You are ready to get the word out. So you start posting your food on Instagram and you tell your friends you’re meal prepping for hire.
Maybe you’ve even gone so far as to run a Facebook ad or signed up on Thumbtack, but then crickets. Nothing happens. Sometimes your mom will like one of your food photos, maybe you even had a friend ask about pricing and then tell you it’s too expensive, but you’re not getting anyone to book you. And it’s frustrating, right?
But here’s the thing, marketing doesn’t work when your business isn’t ready. And if someone says, “that sounds great, how does it [00:02:00] work?” and you don’t immediately have a clear, compelling answer they’re going to walk away.
Marketing brings people to you, but if you’re not ready to catch ’em, then you’re just wasting your efforts.
So what’s the one thing you need to do before starting your marketing?
You need to get clear on what you’re offering. Your offer is the foundation of everything. It answers the questions: What exactly do you do? Who do you do it for? How doesn’t work? And how do you charge?
Because when someone’s interested, they’re not just thinking, “oh, their food looks good.”
They’re thinking, “could this help me? Is it worth it? Can I trust them?” If you can’t explain your services clearly and confidently, they’re not going to buy no matter how good your food looks. Let me show you the difference.
Here’s a [00:03:00] weak offer, which is what most people start with.
“I’m doing meal prep. DM me for info, I’ll cook clean and you’ll have meals in your fridge.” Things like that.
This is what a strong offer sounds like. “Are you tired of scrambling for dinner every night after a crushing day at work, only to end up getting DoorDash takeout again, and it doesn’t even taste that good. If you’re swamped with work with zero time or desire to deal with dinner and you want real home-cooked food, I’ve got you.
Once a week I will come to your home. Prep a fridge full of fresh, ready to eat meals that you choose. Tailored exactly to your taste and schedule. No planning. No decision fatigue. No stress. You get your time back, your evenings back, and at dinner. You’re actually looking forward to starting at three 50 a week plus groceries. Want the details, drop a “yes chef” in the comments and I will DM you more info.”
See the difference? And [00:04:00] it’s not just that the first one was really short and the second one was really long. The strong offer answers: who it’s for, what they get, when it happens, maybe even what it costs and how to say yes or move forward when that’s what your marketing is pointing to. People will take action.
If you are wanting to market on social media and you want to learn how to do posts exactly like that, you can get instant access to my workshop “Recipe for Social” on how to get clients, posting on Instagram and Facebook. It’s the strategy, template, and more. I’ll drop a link below in the description.
If you don’t want to use social, you certainly don’t have to. I have students who do all sorts of different things to get clients. Anything will work if you’re doing it right. Anyway, back to this. Here are the three things that I always tell my students you have to do before you start marketing.
You need to have a clear, focused service. I don’t [00:05:00] offer everything. When someone asks what you do, don’t say, I can do meal prep and catering and classes and kitchen reorganization and meal planning, and too much. Pick one. Whether you want to do personal chef services, AKA meal prep services, or small catering events, or whatever. Be specific.
Then know your pricing and process. Know what you charge, what’s included, how you get paid.
Bonus: have a simple client intake process like a food questionnaire. Know exactly what you’re going to do with when you meet with them and everything.
And then a confident offer message. Practice saying what you do for who and why it helps.
Once those three things are in place, now you’re ready to get your marketing out there.
Because when someone says, tell me more, you won’t freeze. You’ll say, [00:06:00] great. This is how it works. That is what’s going to get you clients. So just to recap. Don’t market your personal chef services until you’ve got this all figured out. When you built a strong offer, that means getting clear on your service, your pricing and what the client can expect.
When your foundation of these things is solid, then your marketing will actually work because people will know exactly how it can help them.
If you want help building that foundation and you’re starting out trying to figure out your services and you want to do meal prep services, also known as personal chef services, i’ve got a free guide you can get called How to Do Meal Prep Services for Clients. It walks you through the exact steps and then you’ll know how to do the service with confidence and clarity even if you’re just starting out. Drop the word “meal prep” and I’ll send you the link or I’ll put a link below in the description too.
Don’t forget to [00:07:00] subscribe if you found this helpful. I put out new video every week to help you grow a personal chef business that you love that’s actually profitable because I’m telling you, the clients are out there and they’re hungry for what you’re cooking.
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