” Everything starts with the customer”
No matter how you cut it, the purpose of every business is to serve its customers. Without a steady stream of customers no business would ever succeed. However, the trick is to find the ideal personal chef client. Have you ever heard of the 80/20 rule of business? It means that eighty percent of your problems will come from twenty percent of your customers. Dealing with these few clients , who are likely not worth the drama in the first place, takes up so much of your precious time and energy. In my post Expectation and Communication I talk about the importance of managing client expectations. At the root of most problems is the disconnect between what you provide and what the client is expecting. However if the clients expectations are unrealistic or just not aligned with what you do, the client will never be satisfied, ie let the problems begin!
Defining the Ideal Personal Chef Client
Defining the ideal personal chef client for your business is a very important, but often overlooked step. In the early stages of business saying no or walking away from clients is extremely difficult because you obviously need customers and the revenue they bring to grow. Think about this, the time and effort it takes to sell your services is going to be the same no matter what. If you have a well defined ideal personal chef client and you focus on selling to them the results will be exponential. This is one of the reasons why defining your ideal personal chef client is so important.
Here is an exercise to help you determine your ideal personal chef client. Grab a sheet of paper and answer the following questions. As you answer the questions really think about how it relates to your personal chef service.
- What is their lifestyle? (busy professional, busy family, health conscious, traveler etc)
- What is their income level? (Personal Chef is a luxury for most so income is a factor)
- What type of activities do they enjoy? ( exercising, yoga, spa days, self care, etc)
- Where do they live? ( maybe you don’t want to work in a certain part of your metro area)
- What do they value? ( material things, experiences, time etc)
Remember this is not a real persona just a framework for the definition of your ideal client. Once we define the ideal client our next step is to find them. In my next post we’ll talk about finding the ideal client. Until then if you want to dig even deeper check out the Personal Chef 101 Course.
Chef Christina