Catering Chef Cooks Up Private Meals

This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.

[Music]

You know what is embarrassing? A couple of months ago, I forget exactly when it was, at some point, a couple of weeks ago maybe. At some point I told this embarrassing story of sending a launch email, like an email for a product launch, and then walking away for several days without realizing I had sent the wrong link in the email. Well, you know what else is embarrassing? As an author, I go on podcasts, interviews, and other interviews all the time, and people ask for book recommendations.

And sometimes I can't think of a single book. Like I said, it's embarrassing. I'm like, they're like, "What have you been reading lately?" And I really do read two or three books a week on average, but sometimes when people are like, "What are you reading lately?" I can't think of a single book. And they're like, "What's a book that's influenced you?" And all of a sudden my mind just completely goes blank. So maybe the lesson is for myself and perhaps you, make a list of answers to questions that you might be asked.

'Cause I never wanna have another interview where someone's like, "What's your book recommendations?" And I'm like, "Got nothing for you, sorry about that." Well, that's my lesson, as I said. In today's story, welcome to Side Hustle School, by the way. My name is Chris Guillebeau, so glad you're here. In today's story, a catering chef learns to offer an in-home restaurant experience. When he does that, he proves that knife guys don't always finish last.

His side hustle eventually conflicts with his day job and he has to make a choice. We're calling it Catering Chef Cooks Up Private Meals. The story is coming up in just 30 seconds after this quick message from our sponsor. [Music]

Chris Spear always wanted to be a chef. He grew up with an interest in cooking and at 16 began working in kitchens.

From there, he went to college and earned a degree in culinary arts. After graduation, he entered the industry, working as a chef for a catering company. To say that Chris loves cooking would be an understatement, but that's only the appetizer to this side hustle story. The main event is that Chris was a hardworking, diligent employee who took great pride in the food he prepared for customers. And yet, several years into his career, he started looking for something more, something to make a little extra money that was hopefully food related.

Turns out it was the job itself that would lead to this possibility. You see, his company catered large events for dozens or hundreds of people. Sometimes though, they were asked to do smaller private functions for only a few people, often in the customer's own home. Instead of turning down the business, which wasn't in their wheelhouse, they offered Chris the opportunity to take on these morsels and he loved it. Preparing a meal for someone on a special occasion in their home tapped into his love of food in a profound way.

A few years later, he moved to a new company, but the private chef concept simmered in his mind. Eventually he realized thinking of an idea but not acting was like writing a recipe and never preparing it. That's when he decided to go from the frying pan into the fire, at least, you know, proverbially speaking. He began by calling and emailing everyone he knew to let them know his plan. Soon, he had a bite, also known as his first customer.

To keep costs down, Chris asked that customer if he could use their kitchen equipment to cook dinner. Chris would provide all the food, prepare and serve it. They were happy to oblige and soon he was cooking up a one of a kind experience. At a price of $75 a person, he walked away from that night $800 richer. That was all the validation he needed to know his idea wasn't half baked.

So Chris took $500 from his savings and bought his own cooking equipment and crockery. He went to places like Ikea and even Goodwill, where a little money goes a long way. Having his own equipment would make it a Michelin star experience for his customers, or at least it would seem more professional. On top of that, he knew that bringing his own supplies meant he could justify charging more. He also whipped up a brand name, Perfect Little Bites.

A few more customers came in from friends and neighbors and he began charging up to $150 per person. That added some spice to his profit margins. By now, social media was taking off. So Chris put a lot of effort into building a profile. He shared pictures of his meals and tagged other chefs or linked to his posts in Facebook groups.

This combination of marketing and networking turned out to be the perfect recipe to keep clients coming. Often through referrals from other chefs who had requests for home cooked meals but were too busy. After a few years of this, Chris had bitten off more than he could chew. And a lack of time became his biggest problem. He had it good at his day job.

With four weeks paid vacation per year, he was also able to take every other weekend off, unlike many other chefs. But the problem was he wasn't really taking many of those days off because Perfect Little Bites was booming. Simply put, he was overcooked. He'd been working a full-time job and building his side hustle for over five years. It was time to quit the day job and go all in.

With more free time to pay attention to his business, business grew. There've been some down periods, but Chris propped them up with lucrative months. On average, he takes home around $60,000 per year. He also has plenty of time to actually take off. For dessert, Chris is now working on a consultancy.

He calls Chefs Without Restaurants, where he aims to coach hopeful chefs on how to start their own private cooking business. He's already earning an additional $500 per month with that. So it might not be long before it becomes a permanent addition to the menu. [Music]

Chris's new site is chefswithoutrestaurants.com. We're gonna link it up in the show notes, of course.

And if you are a chef or cook and you're interested in doing some kind of private experience, here is Chris's advice for you. He says, "Just ask any of your friends and family "who wants to have a dinner in their home. "Go try it out, see if you like it "and see how feasible it is for you to do." Again, there's almost no overhead, no capital expenses. So do it one time and see if you like it. I think that's good advice for lots of things in life.

Do it one time and see if you like it. If you do, great, do it more. If not, okay, you learn something. All right, inspiration is good, but inspiration with action is so much better. Thank you so much for joining me today.

The show notes are at sidehustleschool.com/1557, 1557. Tomorrow is a very special day. It's the birthday of the money tree. My new book is one year old. Tell you a bit more of the story about that tomorrow.

For now, I wish you a wonderful day wherever you are in the world. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is "Side Hustle School." [Music]

From the "Onward Project."