Every event needs to be special. It needs to excite and inform, and leave attendees inspired. This is especially important for an event targeted towards people starting their own business. They’re taking a risk and are looking for both ideas and a confidence boost. If you’re looking to motivate entrepreneurs, you should consider booking one of our celebrity chef restaurateurs. Chefs work hard for their fame, and it takes more than an expert palate to start and run a successful restaurant – it takes savvy business sense. When you hire celebrity chef restaurateurs, they can talk your audience through the phases of a starting business as well as anyone.
The Product:
For every entrepreneur, the most important element in running a business has to do with the product. If the product isn’t any good, it won’t sell, no matter how genius a marketing plan may be. Coming up with a product that people want is key. Chefs also know this. They look at the food people want to eat, think about the food they cook, and they put it all together. What do people want, and how can the desired food be made better than anyone else? That’s a question a celebrity chef can answer. It’s easy to identify a successful restaurant because it has staying power, and it’s always full. The restaurant business is incredibly volatile and subject to real estate ebbs and flows. If restaurants don’t bring in diners, they’re going to have a tough time with overhead. What brings in diners? A good product, above all else, which is something your audience is going to want to know all about.
Being Unique:
The product doesn’t just have to be good – it has to be unique. Has it been done before? This is the question all entrepreneurs face, including celebrity chefs. How to take food and make it different, interesting, and something people talk about. This is where business innovation is crucial. Think fusion establishments, like Greg Gourdet’s Departure, a pan-Asian fusion restaurant with a health-focused twist. Or chefs who turn cooking upside down, like Marcel Vigneron does with his molecular gastronomy technique, where science is used to cook in a whole new way. Celebrity chef Giorind Armstrong owns two 8 Oz. Burger Bar locations, which puts a spin on the standard burger joint – allowing the guest make their burger unique. What could be more original? Or think of the total culinary experience Michael Mina offers down in St. Petersburg, Florida with his Locale Market and Restaurant where guests can buy produce and ingridients to take home. Creativity is key. This is the best part for many chefs, and your audience is sure to have fun listening while their creative juices get flowing.
Starting the Business:
If only ideas came with a cash advance. No such luck. Chefs, like entrepreneurs, must find the money to start their businesses. Chefs can speak to the funding aspect particularly well. Loans, grants, campaigns, fundraising events; these facets are all imperative for both the restaurateur and entrepreneur startup.
Of course, it doesn’t stop with getting the cash. How the money is spent is equally as important. Staffing, purchasing equipment, and then, of course, the real estate is crucial. If your audience entrepreneurs are going to have a storefront, a celebrity restaurateur is the perfect person to speak to about how to find a good location that gets enough foot traffic, but is also affordable. Chef Tiffani Faison has her unique fine dining BBQ restaurant, Sweet Cheeks Q, near Fenway Park in Boston. The location isn’t in the actual ballpark, keeping its higher stature, but there’s a good chance baseball fans would love Sweet Cheeks Q before or after the game. Other times, chefs can make the location work on their own. Chef Richard Blais’ popular restaurant The Spence in Atlanta is nautical themed, though Atlanta isn’t a coastal city.
Positioning the Product:
Who’s coming for dinner? Who’s buying your audience’s products? How do you get people to come through the doors? Establishing an effective marketing strategy is imperative for any business. Celebrity chefs often use their own face as branding. But they don’t just put their portrait on a menu (although some do) – they’re on cooking shows, they have lines of frying pans, they do events, like yours, to keep fresh and current. Chef Cat Cora is not only a restaurateur, she’s a television personality and she’s worked at Bon Appetite magazine as their executive chef. She even has a tablet app where you can learn to cook her recipes. Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has multiple restaurants and bars, a housewares line, and even master classes on cooking. Successful celebrity chefs look for all possible ways to build their brand. Your audience will love their thoughts on marketing.
Handling Erratic Income:
In the early stages of a new business, money fluctuates in gushes and lulls. A restaurant is no different, even long after it’s established. Some nights the restaurant has a packed house, other nights there’s only a diner or two coming in. Time of year, time of day, and a lot of factors that are out of the chef’s control have a big impact on financial flow. Listening to a chef talk about how they handle the financial aspects can be useful, especially since the typical chef isn’t a financial guru. They’ll speak practically and in layman’s terms.
Driving the Ship:
All entrepreneurs know that keeping a new business afloat is challenging. It’s imperative to stay on top of trends. Keeping your product new and relevant is crucial to your company’s success. When you hire celebrity chef restaurateurs, they can speak to ways they ensure people return for the same dish over and over again. They can also address how they change up the menu or ambiance to keep things fresh. Veteran stars like Wolfgang Puck, David Chang, and Jamie Oliver are experts at constantly driving business forward.
Those famous celebrity chefs for hire are great, but it’s also not a bad idea to hire celebrity chef restaurateurs who are rising stars a little closer to the process of growing a business. Alex Stupak or Ashley Christensen are younger chefs, but are already established with several successful restaurants under their belts. Unsure which type of chef is right for your event? With our help, we’ll find the right chef who can inspire your audience to dream, but dream wisely.
One of the toughest industries out there is the restaurant business. But our celebrity chefs started from the bottom and successfully worked their way up. With that said, all chefs take a different approach, so your style of event will help us determine which speaker is right for your crowd. We can even pair your event with several different chefs who can offer different strategies and perspectives for a variety of business models. With hundreds of personalities and restaurateurs on roster, Celebrity Chef Network’s team can help you hire celebrity chef restaurateurs who fit the bill for your unique event. Give us a call to talk about what you’d like to achieve, and we’ll pair you with a successful restaurateur to motivate your budding entrepreneurs.