Becoming a personal chef 1

This is a great way for a chef to be self-employed. Private chefs have been around for a long time – you can’t really imagine people like Prince Charles making his own beans on toast – but these days personal chefs are becoming much more popular.

Personal chefs are not just for the very rich. They’re for busy people who don’t have the time or interest to shop, cook, and clean up afterwards. Just as personal trainers and life coaches provide busy professionals with personal services, so too do personal chefs.

Many people prefer to entertain at home because it’s cheaper and more comfortable than eating out in restaurants. And also these days busy professionals don’t want to have to rely on ready meals from supermarkets. They want tasty, healthy food specially prepared for them.

Personal chefs fulfil both of these functions. They can cater for dinner parties and other special events. They can also fill the freezer with tasty meals for the following week.

There are several ways to go about becoming a personal chef. You could go it alone and advertise your services locally to find clients, or you could sign up with a personal chef agency who will help to promote your services and help to find you clients.

One such agency is http://www.personalchef.uk.com, which was set up by Fay Olinsky. Fay was a personal chef herself but had more work than she could handle so she set up an agency to help meet her clients’ needs. Perhaps if you’re successful you might do the same in the future.

You need to start small and take it from there. Find a few clients to start with and if you do a good job it’s likely that their guests will want to hire you too. This way you can build up your business by word of mouth and personal recommendations.

As with running any business you will need to comply with the relevant laws and learn about many other aspects of running a business, such as budgeting and advertising.

Part 2: The red tape