Start a Pampered Chef Club: Creative Ideas!

[pamperedgirl3]

If people come up with menus and recipes it would be great if you'd share them. I'm willing to do a booklet up with 6 months worth of "pick and choose" recipes or seasonal/monthly recipes. So if you post the recipe and what month you think it would be good for I'll do a booklet up.

Anyone that implements this should let the rest of us know how it goes and what worked and what didn't.

Great idea!

 

[Chef Kearns]

A couple of years ago a friend of mine did this with her PC business. At first it went okay, but the ladies quickly burnt out. Unlike Scrapbooking there aren't new ideas each time. Our catalog is only 47 pages long not 400, so people do run out of things to buy. Doing it month to month is too much (just from watching someone else attempt this). It would be better to space it out every other month or every 3rd month. Especially since our catalog changes 2x a year.

It is a fablulous idea though. Much luck!

Okay...I just read page 2 of this thread. I can't remember who posted about their recruit, but she had great ideas on how to keep it fresh each month with a theme. Teaching them something like a cooking class should keep them interested. Great idea!

 

[its_me_susan]

Thanks! I think a cooking night sounds more fun to me. Plus it might be a great way to get customers/hosts for life, & recruit leads b/c you'd get to have so much one on one time with them. You'd become one of their friends! I have many people who tell me they like small shows better, so maybe I'd ask them if any of their friends would like to do something like this! Then no one would feel like they have to spend a bunch at a party unless they really want to, & they could start collections like Stoneware & get a piece a month.

Just want you ladies to know that around here Sur La Table charges $65 for a 90-min adult class. $35-45 for a kid's class. All they get is 10% off in the store, the samples and recipes. I have been thinking about charging a minimum of $30 each adult, $25 for 90-min for kid's class. If I do the adult class, there will be very little "shpeel" ~ if i'm selling a "cooking class" I want it to be short and sweet (let's face it, a $150 show earns us (at 27%) about $40.... not a big chunk of change for reserving a particular prime date that could be booked for a party. Unless you do it at your house, and offer more than one class the same day? <thinking out loud here >

 

[chef-kina]

Tasha I just got on to look at these, and they are wonderful!! Thank you so much for being such a huge help! Love them!

Oh and I don't remember who was saying it, but the ctmh catalog (scrapbooking) is only 95 pages, and that includes all the little details and what not. We can have new ideas every single month, we just gotta figure out how to work it!

Good luck to all who are gonna try this! I am very excited to get this started!

 

[lizcooks4u]

would love a copy too please

genious! I didnt even think about this! My sister is a CTMH cons. and she does a $25 for 6 club. What we do:

6 people sign up to be in the group. Every month you have to place a minimum $25 dollar order, before shipping and tax. Every month one person is the host, so she will get $25 in free products. Plus you can pretty much choose the month you want to be the host so you can get whatever stamp set is on special that month. My sis is able to mail our packages for $6 bucks or less via priority mail.

So here is what I would do.

Have my 6 open spots. Once everyone joins up, I would actually call it a $30 for 6 (knowing that most people will probably spend a bit more). Have a random drawing for who will be the host certain months. Put out an email to all of them, and tell them their month. If they want to trade months, fine by me. If they wanted direct shipping, I would let them know that I will cover $5 dollars of it, but the rest would be up to them. It would be a little more expensive for us to mail a stone, than it would be to send in the post. So moving on, I would do the "show" and then call the host to get her free stuff order and also let her know that she will be getting a 20% discount (if it hit $200, if not $15%) Yes it would be a small out of pocket for you, but in the end it makes a great way to take care of our customers. Does this all make sense? I have a flyer from my sis. I am gonna tweak it a little and then I will post it on here for everyone.

I sometimes have difficulties following all the way thru. Hope I can grasp this as it would be GREAT 4 ME 2; oh btw THANKS LEAH!!!

LIZ

 

[lizcooks4u]

me 2 HERE PLEASE

What a great idea. I like the 10 people for $20 or $25 min order for 12 months with 2 mystery host months. I'm thinking make the mystery months be "new product months" so the mystery host months would be september and march. Once everyone signs up draw names to get their "month" (or check birthdays?). Remember to book each show off of the previous so that each hostess gets the chance to order the host product the following month.

I'll have to work on a flyer for this.

ME TOO HERE PLEASE. LOVE TO SEE THIS FLYER, I work from 2-10:30 but sometimes stay till midnite, OTHER job, but didn't go to bed until 6:30 a today and got up by 10:30 and other than tired of sitting up at a computer, for most of waking hrs between work/home .....

anyways, this would surely guarantee our back to back 200.00 months too.

I don't always see the whole picture but would love the flyers

Liz

 

[lizcooks4u]

I love your quote! live well.....

I just had the same idea yesterday! I got invited to a scrapbooking fun night with my CTMH consultant and I thought it would be fun and profitable to do the same thing with PC. I hadn't thought of charging for it though. I may have to rethink my plan. I was thinking of maybe doing a Bring $25 and cook two family meals for the week kind of thing where they could take home two prepared meals to heat up. We could prepare them using the PC tools. That way they pay for the food and get to use the tools, and hopefully like them enough to buy something.

I know it's going to tell me I didn't type enough....

 

[lizcooks4u]

U R Great

Ok, gang while I'm working on making this pretty I thought you all could read the text for the 2 different clubs. This one is for the monthly catalog club. So what do you think of the wording? What would you change? What do you feel when you read this? Does it make you excited?

A great new way to get Pampered Chef delivered to your door every month!

I’m looking for 10 people to join a monthly Pampered Club. Each month you order a minimum of $25 in product and I’ll rotate the host benefits so that everyone is host once. If you have favorite pantry items this is a great way to get them every month.

In March and September The Pampered Chef® releases their new products and we will do a cooking show. At the show I’ll teach you a seasonal recipe, tell you about our new products, give out new catalogs and order forms, and pick our “mystery host” of the month. If you can’t attend the show simply place an order with me as usual

This will be a catalog show during January, February, April, June, July, August, October, November, and December. You place your order on the website (show name is Pampered Club), call me with your order, or drop your order in the mail. All orders must be received by the x of the month.

I’ll let you know the start date what month you are host. I’ll also be booking each show off of the previous so you will have an opportunity to buy host specials two months in a row and remember you get 10% off of all your orders for 12 months following your Host party.

I too love it, but also like the suggestion made by other poster about whether or not it's a show or catalog. I don't think I"d ask the Hostess to front the $ 15.00 if they're already paying to belong to club, or is it they're only paying the $ xx.xx min for the show. I know it's to ea. our own, but I'd like to be consistent with ya all

thx

 

[lizcooks4u]

what would everyone think of this???

Ok here are the word documents and in the next post I'll attach the PDF files. What do you think?

As far as the food costs go, maybe get the 10 or however many participate for that month to all chip in for the food??? That way it's a smaller amt and everyone who comes will benefit as everyone is going home with food too??

Or am I just making things too complicated????

I definately will have to get my new house in order, but my kitchen isn't the best as it's way too small I just bought this cute house, and with the deal I got on it need to live in it for 9 yrs before leaving or I owe huge int. amts. My int. is locked in @ 4.99 for 30 yrs.

Also what will be done if we get an overwhelming response, just more of the same on different nights/days?

Thx

 

[lizcooks4u]

Great work...I would be willing...

If people come up with menus and recipes it would be great if you'd share them. I'm willing to do a booklet up with 6 months worth of "pick and choose" recipes or seasonal/monthly recipes. So if you post the recipe and what month you think it would be good for I'll do a booklet up.

Anyone that implements this should let the rest of us know how it goes and what worked and what didn't.

to kick in $$ send you money via Pay pal, for a little book???

 

[mommyhugz1978]

These are all awsome ideas keep them coming !!

 

[tlennhoff]

As far as the food costs go, maybe get the 10 or however many participate for that month to all chip in for the food??? That way it's a smaller amt and everyone who comes will benefit as everyone is going home with food too??

Or am I just making things too complicated????

I definately will have to get my new house in order, but my kitchen isn't the best as it's way too small I just bought this cute house, and with the deal I got on it need to live in it for 9 yrs before leaving or I owe huge int. amts. My int. is locked in @ 4.99 for 30 yrs.

Also what will be done if we get an overwhelming response, just more of the same on different nights/days?

Thx

Yes I'd split the cost among everyone - when I have the recipes from you all I'll use peapod or some such online grocery store to do approximate pricing on each recipe and what that would be divided by either 6 or 10 people and then I'll update the flyers with the average "monthly cost" or maybe we should figure out what that average is and eat the difference on any months when it is over that.

If I got an overwhelming response I'd do several clubs on different nights.

 

[tlennhoff]

to kick in $$ send you money via Pay pal, for a little book???

I'll do the booklet in PDF and Word format so everyone can take it to their local copy place and do it up in any way they would like as well as modify as appropriate.

 

[tlennhoff]

Ok here is a sample idea for the Cooking Club Recipe Booklet. This only contains one recipe right now, I need your help coming up with 11 to 23 more. I figured the cost by using peapod (online supermarket). The excel file I used for the cost figuring is in the zip file () as we cannot upload excel spreadsheets.

So what do you think?

Please, I need good PC recipes for freezing and reheating.

For the flyers I did see http://chefsuccess.com/showpost.php?p=91497&postcount=23 and http://chefsuccess.com/showpost.php?p=91498&postcount=24 . Note that I've added the 6 month flyers. We now have 6 month or year-long plans.

As ideas continue to come in I'll update or create new files and post links for where to find them. Please give me feedback on changes you'd like to see in the current flyers or new flyers with a "twist".

 

[memphisbarbie]

This is too funny. I am joining a Stampin Up club using the same concept of the CMs. I was also thinking today about ways to apply it to Pampered Chef.
I agree I think it would be hard to have people commit to 12 months and to make a purchase $30 every month. I like the idea of the make and takes and also the theme shows.

Thanks everyone I always enjoy reading your posts.

Barbara

 

[tlennhoff]

Bumping with a request for recipes that freeze and reheat well. I'm new and do not own any of the cookbooks.

 

[tlennhoff]

Ok, I've gotten a couple of recipes and updated the booklet http://chefsuccess.com/showpost.php?p=91809&postcount=44 thanks to Soothenrelax.

When you give me recipes try to include the number of servings, ingredients, directions, and any hints/tips you have for freezing/reheating it (what temperature for how long) or alternative ingredients.

I am not going to do the pricing on recipes until we have at least 12 recipes. Right now we are up to 4.

Remember that these should be recipes that we can use to teach classes on how to make quick meals that can easily be frozen and that the kids could even take out to reheat if given good instructions.

 

[mom2leelee]

This is a GREAT idea! I am always looking for new ways to broaden my business. My only concern is that my house is like a little cracker box. My sister has offered her house for parties. Any suggestions on how to word that on the flyers??

 

[tlennhoff]

I'd simply make it location to be determined. Some people have talked about rotating it to the "host of the month", others to another location, I wouldn't spend too much time on the wording unless you are putting the flyer in the newspaper in which case you will want something much less wordy and more professional than I did. For location you could put city/town and state with "contact me for more details".

 

[chefann]

My only concern is that my house is like a little cracker box. My sister has offered her house for parties. Any suggestions on how to word that on the flyers??

Is there a school/house of worship/community center near you that you could use? Then there would be ample parking (especially since Murphy's Law of driveways says that the person who's blocked in by 3 people will be the one who needs to leave first), a larger kitchen/workspaces, and would remove any discomfort people feel about going to a house owned by someone they don't know.

 

[love2cook05]

I've been brainstorming this cooking club thing for a while now...since I was invited to a Stampin' Up club. My husband and I were really trying to figure out how it could work...and it's pretty much been hit on here. But here are some ideas for themes...in case anyone is interested or needs some ideas. If you don't like my 'name' you can change it...but this will give you some ideas on what you could do to make it fun and different.
Appealing Appetizers
Completely Chocolate
Decadent Desserts
Elegant Eating (recipes for this could easily come from the Fall/Winter 2006 SB or the Cooking for Two)
Family Favorites
Hot & Healthy
Irresistible Italian
Kids in the Kitchen
Mexican Madness
Super Salads

Just some thoughts.

 

[tlennhoff]

What a great way to sell cookbooks as part of the monthly purchases. I'll have to borrow my director's cookbooks to work on those projects. Keep the ideas and recipes coming and I'll keep updating documents or adding new ones.

 

[mommyhugz1978]

Well their are many differnt ways that you can come up with differnt ideas yes our catalog has 47 pages....versus a think scrapbooking idea book. BUT everyone can always use differnt ideas to cook differnt recipies, fun holiday themes, your always gaureented a night out, and everyone has an opportunity to host a show, and reep the benefits for that month!!!Their are many things that we can do as consultants to help boost our business.

A couple of years ago a friend of mine did this with her PC business. At first it went okay, but the ladies quickly burnt out. Unlike Scrapbooking there aren't new ideas each time. Our catalog is only 47 pages long not 400, so people do run out of things to buy. Doing it month to month is too much (just from watching someone else attempt this). It would be better to space it out every other month or every 3rd month. Especially since our catalog changes 2x a year.

It is a fablulous idea though. Much luck!

Okay...I just read page 2 of this thread. I can't remember who posted about their recruit, but she had great ideas on how to keep it fresh each month with a theme. Teaching them something like a cooking class should keep them interested. Great idea!

 

[tlennhoff]

I just sent this email to the test kitchen. I'll let you know what I hear back.

Hi, I wondered if you could help me out. I and a few other consultants have talked about doing "make and take cooking clubs" that would meet monthly. We are trying to come up with 24 recipes that would be good frozen and reheated (or frozen prior to baking). I wondered if you could help with this by suggesting good recipes for this. Also do any of our recipes have freeze and reheating suggestions?

I am a new consultant and do not have many cookbooks yet but do have access to them.

Thank you in advance for any help you can give me.

 

[quiverfull7]

I wonder how long before you hear anything back. I have someone who feels she has an easy 5 or 6 friends who will want to do this so I'm hoping for lots of choices. I used to be on a one a month cooking meal loop... I'll have to search my files for what I gleaned from there as well. Thanks for all you work on this.

 

[tlennhoff]

I wonder how long before you hear anything back. I have someone who feels she has an easy 5 or 6 friends who will want to do this so I'm hoping for lots of choices. I used to be on a one a month cooking meal loop... I'll have to search my files for what I gleaned from there as well. Thanks for all you work on this.

It would be great if you can find those recipes and share. I'll also go through some books I have for freezing suggestions.

 

[photochef]

I was part of a Stampin' Up thing similar to what everyone is talking about called Stamper's 12. It was 12 months long.
My opinion 12 months is too long. I would do 6 months at a time.
1. You don't have to get 12 people to committ to spending that much money/month.
2. Life changes fast and you don't know your financial situation 12 months down the road.
3. New products come out every six months. You could kick off the group/club with the new products.
4. If you have more than 6 people, for every 6 people you could have another show.
5. You wouldn't have to come up with as many ideas for different shows.

Also, the club I was in, you didn't have to have a show.
You could just use the orders from the club and pick your free products
do a catalogue show and get outside orders on your own (if you wanted more free products)
do a party and invite friends outside the club so everyone can enjoy and again get more free products.

I apologize if someone has already suggested any of these, there are a lot of pages to this thread.

 

[KirstenAnne]

Dinner ClubMight want to spin it a little and call it a Dinner Club and the First round of themes could be Tastes from around the world
First meeting- Appetizers from the Orient- January
Second meeting-Irish Stews for Lunch dishes- March
Third meeting-Sweet and simple Italian desserts-May
Fourth meeting-American Pies all the way-July
Fifth meeting-Viva Mexico for main dishes
Sixth meeting- All the worlds a stage cookie walk!

Ok Maybe I have to much time on my hands this am and it may sound corny but I might go along something along these lines for my shows next year

Have a great day everyone!

 

[tlennhoff]

Great ideas all. I like the dinner around the world idea - sounds like a different flyer is needed.

 

[pmprdprettyinsnj]

Diner's Club FlyerHow about something like this with a little letter explaining the club idea first.

Flora