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When I started my personal chef business four years ago, I'd come from a decade in the foodservice and hospitality industry. Being self employed meant I didn't have a steady paycheck coming in any more and I needed to make sure I cornered the market in my business. Because my business was so personal in nature, marketing in traditional ways (such as advertising in the newspaper) was not going to work. Word of mouth is often the best marketing in any field, but especially where you are looking for individualized service. How then to get the word out? The answer, I found, was to become an expert!

I was fortunate that there were no other personal chefs in my area when I started my business. Being first automatically gave me recognition.

Writing a newsletter was similarly instrumental. The newsletter I wrote was not so much about the great things I was offering but rather things that pertained to my business (ie. recipes, goings on in the community, fellow entrepreneurs). Because it was more informational than "hard sell" I had many people request to be added to my mailing list. While not all of these people became my clients, many passed it on. Strangers would meet me and say, "Oh, I've read your newsletter!"

Having professional looking web presence is essential. I know some personal chefs with very "cutesy" websites and while I understand that they think dancing pineapples are cute, they do not convey professional or expert.

Writing for a magazine or publishing your own work is helpful. There are literally hundreds of magazines out there and many take articles in your field!

Television presence seems to put you over the top. I've appeared as a guest chef on my local television's lunch show 5 times and I'm now considered a regular! Because of this, I'm instantly an expert.

It may seem like these recommendations are a lot of work but once you're established as an expert, it's not that hard to maintain that. Similarly, once you're an expert, you're consulted often - which gets you quoted in a magazine or newspaper, which you can then add to your website, which gets you more web hits, which gets more people taking - and so on!

Learn more about this author, Keitha Fisher.
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