How To Get A New Personal Chef Client

I may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.

This article is for established Personal Chefs who are trying to get new Personal Chef Clients.

I started working as a Personal Chef in 2005. My wife and I got our very first Personal Chef client by bribing a friend to let us cook for him. From there we grew one client at a time, and below are the tools we used to get new clients.

P.S. If you want to read about how we got our very first Personal Chef Clients this is the article you want.
~Stacey

3 Ways To Get New Personal Chef Clients

These are the three most reliable strategies that we used to get new personal chef clients after we started our Personal Chef Business.

Since these methods to get new personal chef clients worked for us, you should have high hopes they can work for you too.

I’m sorting these based upon effectiveness, with effectiveness defined as cost vs success. And cost includes financial investment + time + difficulty.

#1 – Get New Clients By Offering Refural Bonuses To Existing Personal Chef Clients

This method of getting new personal chef clients is really easy and it’s the most effective method that we’ve used in our own Personal Chef Business and now in Our Meal Prep Delivery Business.

We simply offered our existing clients a 30% discount on their next cook-day if someone they referred booked a cook-day with us.

This was an easy win for both our existing client and for us.

Our profit margin for each personal chef cook-day was between 50% and 66%, so even at a 30% discount we were still making money on the existing clients’ cook-day and we’ll make even more on the new client’s cook-day.

Everyone wins!

#2 – Talk At Local Clubs To Find New Personal Chef Clients

This takes an investment of more time, but you can reach a number of people in a single session. On the plus side, there is little cost except for your time and maybe some food samples to share.

I’m sure you’re asking yourself how you are going to get invited to speak in front of local groups but it’s a lot easier than you are imagining right now.

Local clubs and groups are always looking to fill their meeting agendas, and there is usually some poor soul who has been tasked with finding speakers to be the featured portion of their monthly meeting program.

You are not going to be begging for a speaking engagement, you’re going to be the hero who makes their volunteer job easier!

In a moment we’ll talk about how you can find these meetings, but first let’s start with a list of the kinds of groups you are looking for.

Types Of Local Groups Looking For Speakers

Women’s Clubs
Service Clubs (e.g. Optimist Clubs, Lion’s Club, etc…)
Small Business Groups
Neighborhood Associations
Church Groups
Companies With Health initiatives
Fitness Clubs
Diet Businesses
Senior Centers
Parents Groups
Senior Services Agencies

I’m sure there are many more, but these are just the ones I can come up with off the top of my head. Heck, I’ve spoken in front of nearly every one of these groups at least once in the last fifteen years!

How Do You Find Specific Groups To Speak To?

The hardest one to find is the first one.

Once you speak to one group, there is going to be someone in that group who asks you if you’d talk to another group they are in.

From there it just snowballs and you’ll soon be begging out of offers to speak.

Use these three methods to find the first speaking engagement to get more Personal Chef clients:

Ask Clients, Friends, and Family if they belong to a group that is looking for speakers. Don’t be afraid to ask your friends on social media.
Call local clubs and let them know that you’re available to be a speaker, but don’t tell them you are there to pimp your business. Instead, offer to speak about healthy eating or about why whole foods are important. Pimping your business with be a side-effect of a good presentation.
Look on Facebook for local clubs and events, and contact them.

One last tip: Don’t go in just to talk about your business!

Instead, come up with two or three standard presentations that you can offer clubs. Each focused on a food topic that would be interesting to various types of groups.

Talking about your business will be a side benefit of an interesting topic that engages your audience.

Ideas For Personal Chef Speaking Topics

The Importance Of Whole Foods
Sugar Is The Devil
Eat Like Your Grandma Did For A Better Life
Eating Local: Why and How
Things Restaurants Do That Are Not Healthy For You
You Can’t Out Exercise Your Diet – Eating For Weight Loss
The Keto Diet – What It Is and Why It’s So Popular
Did The Low Fat Diet Cause The Obesity Epidemic?

That should get the creative juices flowing. Just find a few that interest you and fits your business plan and start to outline them.

The first time you give a talk, it won’t be perfect, but it will get better and better. After a few times, you’ll be able to effortlessly give your ‘canned’ Personal Chef expertise talks.

#3 – Social Media Advertising To Find New Personal Chef Customers

Now we are spending money, but we are saving time.

I encourage you to start with Facebook advertising when advertising for new Personal Chef Clients.

The reason you should start with Facebook advertising is that they allow you to really target who is going to see your ads so you’re not spending money to show ads to people who have no chance of being new Personal Chef clients.

If you have an active Personal Chef Business Page On Facebook, you can target friends of your followers which means that you’ll have a built in advocate / testimonial for potential new customers.

You can also target people who look like your existing clients.

You can limit your ad audience to your local area, to income level, to age, interests, and more.

Facebook ads are the most effective and efficient paid advertising method to get more Personal Chef Clients.

The second place you should go to for paid advertising is Google Ads.

In Google Ads you can put your message in front of people who are searching for very specific things.

If you are a Personal Chef trying to get new clients, you’re going to be targeting the search phrases similar to the ones below.

Personal Chef Keywords For Google Ads

Personal Chefs In My City, My State
Best Personal Chef In My City, My State
Healthy Meals In My City, My State
Weight Loss In My City, My State

Google Ads is the primary way that we advertise our Meal Prep Delivery Business (we don’t offer Personal Chef Services anymore). It’s very powerful and efficient, however the learning curve is not insignificant.

Gain the basic marketing skills with Facebook, then move to Google.

P.S. If you are interested in a more detailed online adverting guide for your food business, please let me know in the comments below, and be sure to subscribe to my email list.

These are the three main methods that we used to grow our Personal Chef business, and I know they’ll work for you too.

I really encourage you to start with #1 and work your way to #3.

#3 cost money, and until you are making money a poorly ran paid advertising campaign could become a debt curse instead of a blessing.

Debit is slavery. Spend time, not money, when you are in the early stages of growing your new Personal Chef Business.

~Stacey