No Food For You
It costs too much.
I love cooking for people. That is why I left a highly paid job with upward mobility to make $5.50 an hour chopping cabbage. I really, truly adore it. That is also why, since having my first child, I have tried multiple business models attempting to cook for other people for profit. I've tried catering, cooking classes, and being a personal chef. I also created my own rather unique business model that I called Chef Share.
I never had a lack of customers. People found me through word of mouth. I never advertised, but always had more work than I could manage. And I loved it. I loved the work. I loved feeding my customers. I loved helping their families eat better than they would have without me. It provided me with great personal satisfaction. Even now, two months after ceasing all Chef Wylie operations, I have to field 3-5 calls or emails every single day from people asking me to cook for them. It breaks my heart to say no. But I have to say no. This is why.
Taxes
Unlike many other teensy businesses, I track every cent and pay taxes on every cent. As a sole proprietor LLC, I pay both ends of employment taxes like social security. My effective tax rate on profits is just over 50%.
Labor
It's just me. I don't have any employees. I do all the planning, shopping, prepping, cooking, packing, dishwashing, and cleanup. It is a LOT of work even for a small event. The reason my food is good is because I don't cut corners. I make pretty much everything from scratch. It is very labor intensive and time consuming.
Ingredients
Another reason my food is good, and therefore popular, is because I use the same ingredients for my customers that I would for my own family- fresh, high quality, organic whenever possible. It's expensive, but that's a big reason why the food is good. It makes a huge difference.
Childcare
My kids are at ages where I cannot even take them to do the shopping with me. Trust me, it doesn't work. So for all that time-consuming labor I have to pay someone else to watch my kids. That runs between $12-$18 an hour depending on who is available to watch them.
Profit/Loss Example. Actually Just Loss.
As an example of how my business works, here is my profit/loss model for a pretty standard luncheon: I'll quote 20 guests at $25 per person for a total of $500 for the host. The cost of food is usually roughly 50% of the total cost, so the raw food alone costs me $250. That's a $250 gross profit. Not bad, you might think. But I pay 50% of that in taxes, so we are down to $125 net profit. Such an event would usually take me 25-30 hours of work. Even assuming I do some of that work after my kids are in bed at night and I only hire a babysitter for 15 of those working hours, the babysitter would cost me $225. Tada! I've lost $100 cooking for this party.
Of all the business models I have tried, Chef Share was probably my favorite and tended to lose the least amount of money. A typical Chef Share menu would sell $1000 of food. Once again, half of that would be taken up by food costs. The containers are not cheap either. Containers, packaging, labeling, etc would cost another $100 per week. So my gross profit was $400. I paid $200 in taxes, leaving $200 in net profit. A Chef Share menu like this would be 35-40 hours of work. In order to pull it off, I had the kids with babysitters for 20 hours and would typically only sleep for 2-3 hours a night to get the remaining work done. Those babysitting hours would cost me $300 (20 hours x $15/hour = $300). So my loss was roughly $100 per Chef Share menu.
Yes, I could raise my prices. But in order to make it worth my while financially speaking, I'd have to raise my prices more than I am comfortable charging. If I charge rockstar premiums for my food, I'll just put more pressure on myself, and if all of the food isn't 100% perfection I'll feel terrible. Raising my prices would just lead to me working more all-nighters and ending up with a nervous breakdown.
I dearly hope that I can return to cooking for you when my children are older, in school full time, and better able to fend for themselves while mom is busy. I miss you. I miss cooking for you, but for now, my answer is no.
Sincerely,
Chef Wylie
I love cooking for people. That is why I left a highly paid job with upward mobility to make $5.50 an hour chopping cabbage. I really, truly adore it. That is also why, since having my first child, I have tried multiple business models attempting to cook for other people for profit. I've tried catering, cooking classes, and being a personal chef. I also created my own rather unique business model that I called Chef Share.
I never had a lack of customers. People found me through word of mouth. I never advertised, but always had more work than I could manage. And I loved it. I loved the work. I loved feeding my customers. I loved helping their families eat better than they would have without me. It provided me with great personal satisfaction. Even now, two months after ceasing all Chef Wylie operations, I have to field 3-5 calls or emails every single day from people asking me to cook for them. It breaks my heart to say no. But I have to say no. This is why.
Taxes
Unlike many other teensy businesses, I track every cent and pay taxes on every cent. As a sole proprietor LLC, I pay both ends of employment taxes like social security. My effective tax rate on profits is just over 50%.
Labor
It's just me. I don't have any employees. I do all the planning, shopping, prepping, cooking, packing, dishwashing, and cleanup. It is a LOT of work even for a small event. The reason my food is good is because I don't cut corners. I make pretty much everything from scratch. It is very labor intensive and time consuming.
Ingredients
Another reason my food is good, and therefore popular, is because I use the same ingredients for my customers that I would for my own family- fresh, high quality, organic whenever possible. It's expensive, but that's a big reason why the food is good. It makes a huge difference.
Childcare
My kids are at ages where I cannot even take them to do the shopping with me. Trust me, it doesn't work. So for all that time-consuming labor I have to pay someone else to watch my kids. That runs between $12-$18 an hour depending on who is available to watch them.
Profit/Loss Example. Actually Just Loss.
As an example of how my business works, here is my profit/loss model for a pretty standard luncheon: I'll quote 20 guests at $25 per person for a total of $500 for the host. The cost of food is usually roughly 50% of the total cost, so the raw food alone costs me $250. That's a $250 gross profit. Not bad, you might think. But I pay 50% of that in taxes, so we are down to $125 net profit. Such an event would usually take me 25-30 hours of work. Even assuming I do some of that work after my kids are in bed at night and I only hire a babysitter for 15 of those working hours, the babysitter would cost me $225. Tada! I've lost $100 cooking for this party.
Of all the business models I have tried, Chef Share was probably my favorite and tended to lose the least amount of money. A typical Chef Share menu would sell $1000 of food. Once again, half of that would be taken up by food costs. The containers are not cheap either. Containers, packaging, labeling, etc would cost another $100 per week. So my gross profit was $400. I paid $200 in taxes, leaving $200 in net profit. A Chef Share menu like this would be 35-40 hours of work. In order to pull it off, I had the kids with babysitters for 20 hours and would typically only sleep for 2-3 hours a night to get the remaining work done. Those babysitting hours would cost me $300 (20 hours x $15/hour = $300). So my loss was roughly $100 per Chef Share menu.
Yes, I could raise my prices. But in order to make it worth my while financially speaking, I'd have to raise my prices more than I am comfortable charging. If I charge rockstar premiums for my food, I'll just put more pressure on myself, and if all of the food isn't 100% perfection I'll feel terrible. Raising my prices would just lead to me working more all-nighters and ending up with a nervous breakdown.
I dearly hope that I can return to cooking for you when my children are older, in school full time, and better able to fend for themselves while mom is busy. I miss you. I miss cooking for you, but for now, my answer is no.
Sincerely,
Chef Wylie
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