About 90 days ago I decided to become a Pampered Chef consultant.  Technically, according to the Pampered Chef handbook we’re not allowed to blog about the Pampered Chef, but today I was reading a couple of blog posts like this one and I decided to go ahead and write a blog about why I decided to do Pampered Chef, what it’s really like, and what you can truly expect if you become a Pampered Chef representative.

The Decision to Join Pampered Chef

First, let me talk about the decision to join Pampered Chef.  I hosted a party at my house because I wanted the pizza stone because I was constantly burning the bottoms of cookies and pizza’s that Zack and I were making.  The pros of being a Pampered Chef host include free product and we were hoping to do enough in sales to get the pizza stone for free.  However, at the party, something strange happened – I ended up selling the products WITH the Pampered Chef consultant that was doing my show.

Later that night, while Zack and I were making our wishlist of Pampered Chef items we wanted, he suggested that I actually become a Pampered Chef consultant.  Part of the reason was because the start up kit included most of the items we wanted at a huge discount and the other reason was he thought it would be good for me to get out there and have a hobby, which Pampered Chef would provide.

We spent the evening talking about it, and the next day, I signed up to become a Pampered Chef Consultant.  I used the rest of my show credits to get other things which would help my business and that I could use in the kitchen.

Life as a Pampered Chef Consultant

The first thing I’m going to tell you is to throw everything out you’ve heard about Pampered Chef being an awesome stay at home business for you.  Most people don’t have the drive to make Pampered Chef their sole income and also, most of the areas which would support something like that are already saturated with Pampered Chef representatives.  Also, if you’re in an area that is currently economically depressed, Pampered Chef probably will be harder for you than it will be for someone in a bigger city setting where people will probably more expendable cash.   (Although not impossible!)  Also, to stay an active consultant, you have to submit $150 in new commissionable sales every month. Now that I’ve told you that, let me get into a real review of the rest of my experience as a Pampered Chef representative.

Keep in mind while reading this review – I have a career outside of Pampered Chef – so I am not actually relying on the Pampered Chef money to pay my bills.   This is an important fact because it doesn’t bother me if I go inactive for not booking a show in a specific month because losing my lifetime sales doesn’t affect me.

Because I’m mainly using Pampered Chef as a supplemental income, this means that I can spend the amount of time on Pampered Chef as I see fit every week.  For instance, in my specific group and upline, there are monthly meetings, weekly phone calls, and various other events.  For the most part, I don’t attend these because I have other stuff that is going on that I prioritize higher than Pampered Chef.  (The nice thing about my upline however is that I get emailed all the weekly notes so I get to review the items covered at my own leisure.)

Also, because I use it as a supplemental income, if I book shows that’s great, but if I don’t – it’s no biggie.  I don’t need to spend a lot of time out there promoting the brand, because honestly, the brand promotes itself.  For instance, at the beginning of every month, I post whatever the host specials for that month are on facebook and linked in and suggest that people book shows for me that month.  That is the extent of my advertising and I’ve gotten at least two shows every month that I’ve done this.  (Pretty nifty eh?)  So twice a month, I go out to someones house – cook and hang out for two to four hours and I get paid 20% of the commissionable sales for that show.

Because of my rather relaxed attitude towards Pampered Chef, I’m pulling in only about $150 – $200 a month in Pampered Chef commission.  That’s definitely not enough money to pay my bills, right?  Think about it this way – that’s your electric bill, or your phone bill, or a night out on the town.  It’s extra money that you didn’t have before.  (And by the time you do your taxes, you’ve got enough in gas / food write offs that you barely pay any tax on that.)

On top of all of this, I get Pampered Chef Dollars for the shows that I book and that helps me buy all the products I want.  As someone who spends a significant amount of time in the kitchen cooking and experimenting with recipes, the Pampered Chef products make me 100 times happier when I’m cooking because of their quality.  The fact that I get these products at either a fairly good discount, or free because of my Pampered Chef Dollars makes the whole Pampered Chef consultant thing that much better.

Finally – I have something really awesome going on that I don’t see a lot of other people doing in the Pampered Chef community, and that is that one of my best friends April is currently a representative for Arbonne – and because of that we have created a unique brand of sales in which we do joint shows.  For instance this weekend April and I packed up in the car and drove to south of Fredricksburg and did a joint show.  It was a lot of fun to be around a new place and new people and to be doing it with one of my best friends where we aren’t in competition with each other.

Summary

I love Pampered Chef.  I love their product and I love the opportunity they provide me to not only get their products at a discount, but make a little money on the side as well.  It’s possible in the future I might try to make this my actual career – but for me right now it is the perfect hobby which combines my love of cooking and baking, with my love of people and my desire for a hobby not to cost me an arm and a leg.  In short, all the reasons why Zack thought Pampered Chef would be something great for me – it was.  I think it’s one of the smartest things I’ve done in the past year.

If you’re looking to become a Pampered Chef representative and have any more questions, feel free to email me at stephanie.dorman@gmail.com and I’d be happy to answer them.  (Or lets be honest, if you want to place an order for something or book a show – even if I’m not in your area, I can help you find someone local to you!)

And yes, before any of you comment, I know it says in the Pampered Chef hand book that the first rule of Pampered Chef is not to talk about Pampered Chef (on your blog) but with all the misinformation I was seeing on other sites, I felt compelled to defend the company and the opportunity they provide as it’s been a great experience for me so far.

Stephanie is a 27 year old living outside of Washington, DC.

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