4 things you have to do to charge premium prices
[00:00:00] Having a personal chef is having a premium service. When I first started my personal chef business, I really struggled with pricing. I was worried about pricing too high and not being able to get clients, so I underpriced. I was uncomfortable with pricing higher because I couldn’t afford to have someone come cook for me for that, so how can I charge prices like that?
Over the years, and I’ve had a personal chef business for over 15 years, I finally come to terms with charging a premium price for what is. a premium service. Hey there, Chef Shelly here. If you’re just watching my videos for the first time, I’ve had a successful personal chef business, as I just said, for over 15 years.
And when I’m not cooking for my own clients, I help passionate cooks just like you start your own personal chef business. [00:01:00] And you can do it without having the crappy schedule and toxic work environment like in a restaurant. You can do it without spending tens of thousands of dollars on culinary school.
So misconception people have about a personal chef business is they think because they’re providing food to a client that it compares somehow to like mail order subscriptions and stuff like that. But I’m telling you that having a personal chef is not the same as getting hello fresh delivered. In the mail in a cardboard box or having a rotisserie chicken from Costco, right there.
It’s kind of like there’s a difference between having a housekeeper or house cleaner who comes for a few hours and vacuums and wipe down your counters. Then having a house manager who comes from a company [00:02:00] that’s licensed and bonded has been through a background check, has references, they handle everything in the home from deep cleaning to laundry.
I mean, don’t get me wrong, those are both totally valuable services, they’re just different levels. Okay, so the first thing that I realized I needed to do was to be really clear about what I was the best at and what I wanted to do for my services. And when I say being the best at it, that doesn’t mean I was doing something that nobody else did.
That doesn’t mean that I was doing micro gastronomy or classic French cooking or anything. It meant knowing what my cooking passion was, my specialty, and It doesn’t matter as long as you know what it is. It can be family kid friendly American comfort food. You just really need to be able how to explain that to someone in a [00:03:00] super compelling way and then know your services.
If you just blurt out to someone who’s talking to you about your business, like a million different things that you can do for someone, it can be really hard for them to latch on to what would appeal to them and what would really be something they’re interested in. So when you’re starting out. Don’t only talk about one or two services.
Pick meal prep and small caterings or caterings and cooking classes. It just makes it so much easier. Okay? So get your specialty, your niche dialed in so you can communicate it clearly. The second thing I did, and I still do, and this is… So important in your business. I provide a premium experience. Again, my specialty is just really solid family food.
[00:04:00] Nothing crazy fancy. A premium experience doesn’t mean, like I said over the top, fancy. It means exceptional service and professionalism. So think about… How to charge premium prices, how to get the kind of people who, for whom price isn’t like how I dropped a home in there for whom price isn’t the main factor, right?
It’s about being professional, showing them when they. first meet you or even just contact you, that you will treat them like gold. And that doesn’t mean kissing their ass. That means looking professional, being organized, being clear in your communication, being considerate, being on time for calls, for emails, for your interview, doing what you’re going to do when you say you’re going to do it.
Not being late, not being frazzled, being confident and. [00:05:00] Being consistent, okay? You need to consistently be professional from the moment people encounter you through communicating with them, getting hired, and every cooking experience. I always even go to networking events in a chef’s coat with business cards ready to go.
Imagine if you meet someone, you know, what’s your first impression? They’re unorganized, they never have business cards, or they, like, pull a business card out of their pocket and it’s stained and crumpled and bent. If they’re always running late, right? It doesn’t make you want to hire them. You figure if they’re showing up for that way in their business to get clients, how on earth are they going to treat you better if you are their client?
But again, you can’t just show up like a pro in the interview and then when it comes time to cook for them, show up late, show up in like sloppy sweatpants and a tank top, cooking with [00:06:00] your hair down and all over the place, right? Because then they’ll hire you, but they will not keep you. Finally, the biggest, most important way to get premium clients is having that confidence.
To charge premium prices, if you don’t have the confidence that you can charge those prices, that the service that you provide is worth that price and that people will happily pay that price if you don’t have the confidence, it’s going to be so much more challenging for you. You have to set your premium price ahead of time and have the confidence to tell people.
About your services and your pricing, listen, there will always be people who cannot afford your services. And that’s whether you’re charging 200 for meal prep or 600 for meal prep. They are [00:07:00] just not a good fit for hiring a personal chef right now, right? And there are a lot more people who would love to have a personal chef than who are actually going to commit to hiring a personal chef.
So one last thought, when it comes to that confidence, just because you might not be able to afford your prices doesn’t mean the right clients can’t. You have to understand, it goes back to the Hello Fresh and Costco rotisserie chicken. They’re not paying for food. They’re not buying dinner. They’re investing in getting their time, in getting their health, in getting a premium service that they feel is important to their quality of life.
So if you want to have a personal chef business where you’re getting paid what to do what you love, premium prices. Download my [00:08:00] guide right by this video on how to do weekly meal prep services for clients. There’s a link right by this because i’m telling you the clients are out there and they are hungry for what you’re cooking
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