We were lucky to catch up with Joanne Thomas recently and have shared our conversation below.
Joanne, appreciate you joining us today. How did you scale up? What were the strategies, tactics, meaningful moments, twists/turns, obstacles, mistakes along the way? The world needs to hear more realistic, actionable stories about this critical part of the business building journey. Tell us your scaling up story – bring us along so we can understand what it was like making the decisions you had, implementing the strategies/tactics etc.
As a single woman and mother of three sons, it has always been financially challenging for us, to say the least. I have gone above and beyond working for other companies while I was pursuing my educational goals for culinary arts. After completing school, I started “Serenity Catering” a part time catering business. I went on to get my BAS in Restaurant Management and I worked for various entities and was always underappreciated and underpaid. It was very frustrating being the only one with a degree and not being recognized for my achievements or compensated for them as I should have been. My last employer was a university, where I worked as an Executive Chef for a couple of years and then the pandemic hit. I lost my job and decided to rebrand my part-time hobby into Serenity Soul Corporation, where I am the CEO. I wanted to be in control of my financial security as much as possible and not be worried about being laid off. I scaled my business from catering for family and friends and my annual holiday bake shop to an online store and more. I developed and created a retail collection of Spice Blends, Gourmet Butters, Fry Batters, Vegan Dressing, and I wrote and self-published two cookbooks, available on Amazon. I offered virtual cooking classes in the pandemic to give people the opportunity to have restaurant quality meals while quarantined and taught them how to prepare it. I introduced my Travel Chef services, where I travel to offer catering services to my customers and when I say travel, I’ve been from Illinois to California to Bali cooking and preparing meals for families, birthday’s, CEO’s and more. I love giving my customers Private Chef Dinner experiences, preparing meals in the comfort of their homes. Food is universal, and with the many challenges we all face daily, this is my opportunity to put a smile on someone’s face by way of food. I am also showing my sons that no matter what challenges life may throw at you, you are in control as to how you respond to them. Being able to become my own boss has been an amazing example for my sons and other Entrepreneurs as well as those that I mentor.
Great, appreciate you sharing that with us. Before we ask you to share more of your insights, can you take a moment to introduce yourself and how you got to where you are today to our readers.
I started cooking at the age of six with my easy bake oven. I mimicked my mom in the kitchen and repeated everything she did. I also learned from our upstairs neighbor who made everything from scratch which is where I was introduced to yeast and began preparing baked goods as well. I was taught to batch cooking while in the Marine Corps and the discipline and customer service from the corps carried over into my life today. I always loved entertaining people who came to visit my home and grew up in a home where my mom always hosted family functions. Hospitality was natural for me and after the corps; while working for the state of Illinois, I always found a reason to “celebrate” host a party to feed my family and friends. One associate stated, you should go to culinary school, and the light bulb moment happened for me, and I signed up immediately. I completed and received multiple certificates, two associate degrees in restaurant management and culinary arts and went on to complete my bachelor’s degree in culinary management.
I am proud of my business because of the goals that I have been able to achieve as a solo business entrepreneur. I didn’t think that after three years I’d be where I am now. I have successfully stayed in business, although it has been challenging in many ways, I have increased my sales each year. I have gone from one gourmet butter to now having 7 gourmet butters and vegan butters, five spice blends, three fry batters, one salad dressing and two self-published cookbooks. I have reached out to local tv stations and have secured three segments, one on WGN Daytime Chicago and two on Midday News Lunchbreak. I have graced the cover of Citizen Newspaper talking about my business and brand. I was a featured Chef on the Culinary Stage at the Black Women’s Expo Chicago 2023, and I will be the featured Chef at the Great Food Expo Chicago 2024. As an International Travel Chef, I prepared Easter dinner for a group of 16 CEOs in Bali, Indonesia in 2023. I was featured on multiple podcasts and radio interviews in Chicago and for 102.3 Amazing in Houston Texas. Every time I set my mind on achieving a goal, I am persistent until I complete it. I have so many things that I want to do and where I want to take the business, but I am extremely proud of myself for rolling up my sleeves and getting the work done that I have accomplished thus far. And with all of that, my biggest accomplishment is the returning customers that patronize my business consistently. The customers that are pleased with my products and services. The customers that write me rave reviews and recommend me to their family and friends.
What sets me apart from other Private Chefs is that my menus are custom curated for each client whether it’s a private dinner for two or a wedding for two hundred. You can’t go to my website and see a list and pick from there, that’s not personal enough for me. I want each and every person to feel special, during our mandatory consultation we discuss many details, and we create their menu together. This gives them that intimate feeling of exclusivity. My clients have told me that I take the worry away from them.
What I want people to know about me is that I am genuine. I know that hospitality is my gift and I pray that every customer is left with not just a full belly but unforgettable memories of how I made them feel in their presence. This is not just something that I do, this is what I was created to do.
Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?
To be a successful businesswoman/man or the average millionaire, it has been said that we must have multiple streams of income, specifically at least seven streams of income. I pride myself on maintaining that number and more if possible. For my business, the streams come in many forms.
1. Private Chef Services – where I offer course dinners in the comfort of my customers’ home.
2. Travel Chef Services – where customers hire me for a select amount of time in another state or country and I provide
meals while they’re on vacation.
3. Catering – I offer catering services for corporate events, weddings, celebrations and more.
4. Online Retail Store – customers can shop 24/7 on my website.
5. Farmers Markets – I am a regular at the local markets in McHenry County area of Illinois.
6. Cooking Class – I offer group and private cooking classes to organizations and individuals.
7. Vending Events – You can find me at the Essence Festival in New Orleans, the Black Women’s Expo in Chicago, and the
Great Food Expo in Chicago as well as other local events.
8. Chef Pop-Ups – I offer services to the Huntley American Legion and other establishments where I show up as a Chef for
the day and provide restaurant service to the customers.
9. Subscription Box – I have a monthly subscription box of kitchen gadgets, recipes, and free product samples.
Can you talk to us about manufacturing? How’d you figure it all out? We’d love to hear the story.
Manufacturing products is a project within itself. There’s a lot of research that goes into successfully completing this. I suggest doing a SWOT analysis, finding your target audience, looking at trends, etc. For the culinary industry, we must make sure that our licensing allows us the opportunity to do so. For me, I had to find platforms to help me create my nutritional facts label. I hired a graphic designer to help me create my branding and ensure that my marketing is consistent across the board. I had to test various products and how they looked esthetically for the image that I wanted to portray. For my butters, I had to test them in multiple jars and make sure they held up in the freezer for storage before shipping to my customer. For the labels, I had to test them as well to make sure they were water resistant and can stand the condensation from going from freezer to cooler once arriving to my customer. Because I prepared my products for not just my customers but also for the grocery stores, I had to purchase UPC codes for each product, this was critical for my graphic designer to have when creating my labels. Then testing the UPC codes to make sure that once scanned it was accurate. And all of this was just for the butters. We have spices, fry batters and dressings that this process had to be done for.
For now, my team and I are still manufacturing everything ourselves, but trust and believe this will be done with a manufacturer sooner than later. I definitely see that in our future.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.ChefJoanneThomas.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/chefjoannethomas
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/chefjoannethomas
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/n/chefjoannethomas
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@chefjoannethomas
Image Credits
Chef Joanne Thomas