If you're like me, the only reason you enter the kitchen is to raid the refrigerator. You view the oven as something that magically creates the meals you enjoy. But you have no real idea how it works. Thankfully, not everyone is like me. If you actually like to cook you probably understand the need for quality cookware. This is the idea behind Pampered Chef. In this review we'll discuss how you can take your passion for all things cooking and make money with it. And no you don't actually have to be a chef to do it. But let's dive in.
What is Pampered Chef?
Pampered Chef, which can be found at pamperedchef.com, is a company that specializes in creating and selling cookware and kitchen accessories. The business was first established in 1980 by Doris Christopher. She began by selling her products to friends and neighbors from her basement. Since its humble beginnings, the company has seen a good amount of growth and success. In 2002 Pampered Chef was picked up by a firm by the name of Berkshire Hathaway which is owned by Warren Buffett. In 2014 the current CEO, Tracey Britt Cool, was appointed to run Pampered Chef, making the business what it is today.
What Are The Pampered Chef Products?
They offer hundreds of products for the kitchen. With everything from cookbooks to stoneware, there is something for everyone. At the lower end of the price scale, there are accessories like a citrus peeler for $1.75 and a pan scraper set for $3.75. With a higher price tag, there are quality products like a forged steak knife set for $112.00 and a covered roaster for $103.00. If you love to cook this company has you covered.
What is The Compensation Plan?
Similar to many other commission based sales companies, Pampered chef uses a multi-level marketing ( MLM ) structure. There are several ways to make money starting with the most obvious, selling products. From there you are able to form your own team which can increase your earnings.
Commission:
- $1-$749 sales in a month earns you 21% commission
- $750-$1249 sales in a month earns you 22% commission
- $1250-$2499 sales in a month earns you 23% commission
- $2500-$3999 sales in a month earns you 24% commission
- $4000 and above sales will earn you 25% commission
Extras
– Recruiting a team will allow you to earn an extra 3% on the sales of each member
– Discounts On all products
– Bonuses including free products and points toward vacations
If you don't like the idea of an MLM then you may want to consider an alternative way to make money by checking out My Top Free Work At Home Recommendation!
How to become a Pampered Chef Consultant?
You must first purchase a consultant kit to get started with Pampered Chef,. There are three kits to choose from depending on your level of comfort and enthusiasm with the products. If you just want to try it out and see if it's for you, the starter kit should be right up your alley. If you love all things related to cooking and you feel like you can sell anything, try out the ultimate kit. Take a look and see what they have to offer.
– Starter Kit ($109): Gives you products and business tools worth $450.
– Deluxe Kit ($159): Gives you products and business tools worth $650.
– Ultimate Kit ($249): Gives you products and business tools worth $1000.
If you choose to go out and host a party, Pampered Chef will offer you host credits. These credits will give you anywhere from $25 to $50 off your kit. Everything included in the kit is designed to help you convince your friends that cooking is amazing and that they definitely need that new set of spatulas.
The Pros
Here are some of the things I like about the company!
Website
Pampered chef offers an option that allows you to get your own website for an extra $10 a month. This can help you get more customers quickly and easily. I like that they do this so you're not limited to just harassing your family and friends. I'm not sure if they provide in depth training on how to promote this website or if you can add content to it. My Top Free Work At Home Recommendation does and can be used to promote Pampered Chef or anything else.
Affordable Products
Obviously Pampered Chef has a lot of pricey cooking tools and utensils. But they also offer many reasonable priced items that are probably easier to sell. So I appreciate they give you options.
No Compensation Plan Translator Needed
Unlike most MLMs, Pampered Chef has an easy to understand compensation plan. All the details are laid out on their website so there are no questions as to how much you can make with the company.
Great Discounts
For anyone who likes to cook, the discounts, along with the ability to make money on the side, is a pretty good deal. Every Pampered Chef consultant has access to exclusive discounts on products as well as the potential to earn free products through bonuses.
Pampered Chef Cons & Complaints
Well unlike many of the pampered chef reviews you may have read, I'm going to lay out the complaints against pampered chef. It doesn't necessarily make it a scam. But at least you have a more complete picture of the company. This way you can make an informed decision that benefits you.
Difficult to Make a Full-Time Living
Initially you can probably get a few friends and family to purchase some of the pampered chef products. But selling enough of it to live off will take a lot more than your initial circle. You'll need to host numerous events, expand your customer base, and form a team to get the kind of money you need to make a living. For some that may turn out to be more trouble than it's worth.
Products are Expensive
Earlier in the review I mentioned how affordable the products are, but that is not true for everything. It is the big budget items that people seem to have a problem with. There are certain items that are priced way higher than comparable products. It's going to be hard to convince people why they should pay a markup when they have other options. Obviously these items will prove to be difficult to sell. This will limit your income.
Hosting Parties Will Be Exhausting
The first party could be fun. You and all of your friends can get together and you'll probably sell a good amount of products. Sadly, your friends will not want to sit through the same presentation every week. You will need to get new groups of people in order to keep making money. Some people are able to make this happen. But for most people this will prove difficult. Fortunately they do provide other ways to promote.
Is Pampered Chef Legit or Not?
Like any other MLM based business, Pampered Chef does have a few flaws. However I don't see any of them as being egregious enough to label Pampered Chef a scam. This company offers a legitimate business opportunity that can help you make some extra money. Pampered Chef has good products with a wide price range. So it may be worth a shot!
What's An Alternative?
So you may have read this review and thought to yourself this opportunity may not be for me. Or maybe you're already a consultant looking for a way to expand your business without hosting more events. Either way, you have options my friend. I would recommend you look into My #1 Free Work At Home Recommendation. This will help you earn a full or part time income without having to chase down people or host events. It can also help you with your existing MLM by bringing people to you. If you'd like to learn more then check it out here!
At the end of the day, I'm a big believer in multiple streams of income. So you may want to look into my popular Work At Home Courses as well. In this industry you never want to have all your eggs in one basket. So be sure you have a lot of different sources of income coming in.
Well that's enough jibber jabbing for me. Let me know what you think of this opportunity by posting a comment below.
Eddy with a y
Awesome post, Eddy! I’ve been a Pampered Chef Consultant for about a month now. I was able to take advantage of the $39 celebratory start-up fee… yes! My first virtual party was a nice hit! I have 2 parties on my calendar for the month so far (one virtual, one in-person). I’m having a blast with my new Pampered Chef business! Every good cook deserves Pampered Chef in his/her kitchen lol! Thanks for the review!
Hey Callie,
Congrats on this new business venture. Keep me posted on how it goes for you.
This is a great post about pampered chef legitimate or scam. This post has really impress me through its quality writing. So thanks for sharing such a awesome post.
You’re welcome.
Hey Eddy! I was reading articles on another company that has been asking me to become a consultant I found numerous articles stating the company I was looking at was a scam. At the present time I am a Pampered Chef consultant so I decided in all fairness to see if other articles say my company is also a scam. Your article made me feel so much better about my business venture. I also wanted to state that I do 16 to 20 parties per month and since I joined in September only one of those by choice was an in home party. Pampered Chef has now branched out so you can do virtual parties on Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram. This extends my customer base Nationwide instead of being restricted to my small town. This offers me more of a chance to make a living with Pampered Chef than ever before. Thank you so much for your article!
I’m happy to hear you’re doing well and you enjoyed my article. It’s great that Pampered Chef has decided to extend their training to use more web friendly techniques. They’re on the right path then!
I can tell you this business is not a scam and I have been blessed to be a Pampered Chef consultant for almost 5 years earning a full time salary allowing me to stay home with my 3 children. To be successful at any MLM business you need to love the product and believe in it, dedicate yourself to learning all the ways to market your business and be disciplined as a personal business owner. It helps having a great company to back you up with wonderful customer service, great return policies and guarantees on all the products
Caryn, thanks for agreeing with my review. We appreciate you sharing your personal experience and opinion.
Hi Eddy – thanks for posting this, I had never heard of this company before and came across your article whilst researching niche marketing opportunities for a friend of mine.
You have explained all aspects of this scheme very clearly indeed, in a completely neutral tone. I can see this would suit some people more than others.
I don’t think this is for her, but your #1 recommendation definitely looks interesting so I think I will encourage her down that route.
Just a thought, but do you agree with me that the Pampered Chef scheme would best suit a real socialite that loves organising parties and thrives on gathering new people together but isn’t necessarily dependent on the income? From what you’ve written here, it looks like making a steady and sustainable income would be difficult.
Hey Al,
You’re welcome. I wouldn’t refer to it a scheme since it has a negative connotation. But I think this opportunity is suited for anyone that enjoys cooking and is willing to market the product various ways. If you just depend on house parties targeting your friends and family than your income will be limited. But if they can apply various ways to promote this, then maybe you can make some decent money.
It’s actually pretty rare to see a MLM company offering solid and useful products, most of the opportunities I came across involve shady products such as overpriced weight loss products and supplements.
I may have given it a try few years back, but now that I’m committed to affiliate marketing it’s hard to go back to MLM model.
Hey fellow Ed.
I agree with you. I’m always amazed when I see a solid MLM. But it’s refreshing to see. I’m still not a big fan of the business model either. But if I weren’t successful with affiliate marketing, this might be a company I’d consider. Thanks for chiming in.
Generally I’m not keen on MLM’s but I’ve actually been to a couple of pampered chef parties hosted by my friend – there was no suggestion anyone joined or anything, she was just trying to make a profit out of the products. She did make a very small amount, more like a little side line than anything resembling a full time income. I would think it would be very difficult to make a living selling the products and doing the parties etc – and the commission doesn’t seem that great for people you refer. I like the products, but yep – I wouldn’t waste my time involved in the business.
I totally hear ya. My wife has attended and purchased some of their products. But she always felt some were too expensive. So I agree I do see this being very difficult to earn a full time income with. However I’m sure some do if they’re able to market properly. Either way I appreciate your honest feedback.
Hey Eddy! Thank you for introducing me to this opportunity. At first I thought this might be one of those MLM scams that you hear about all the time. However your article here really got me quite interested in this. I actually went and searched it online but it turns out that Pampered Chef don’t operate in the UK any longer.
I had a look to see if they have an affiliate program in the US too but it doesn’t look like they do.
I think this looks like a great opportunity for the right person in the right part of the world. Oh well, never mind!
You’re welcome. That’s the unfortunate thing about some of these opportunities, they’re not truly international. Thanks for chiming in.
I haven’t heard of pampered chef or any MLM that sells cooking utensils. As an MLM, I guess their price will be higher than those I could pick off the shelf or online.
I don’t think it’s going to be easy to sell cookware in a MLM structure (I could be wrong). Cooking utensils are not really fast moving products. It definitely could be a challenge.
I tend to agree with you Kenny. But my I know some pampered chef consultants and they definitely seem to sell these products. My wife has bought a few. So like any business it all depends on the marketing one does. Thanks for chimining in.
I haven’t heard of Pampered Chef, but I think you would need to work on something like this full time in order to make a full time living.
Just like all these sorts of products you would need to host parties, be a pushy sales person and love to do that sort of thing to be good at it.
It would be interesting to know just how many people make a full time income selling Pampered Chef, as one can only have so much kitchen stuff.
Hey Michel,
I’m not convinced it’s something you can make a full time living with. But I guess that does depend on your cost of living and how you promote this. Because if it’s just your immediate circle of family and friends, that will dry up. But if the consultants know how to build a team or promote this to a larger audience using the web or other techniques it may have some legs. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Hi, Eddy. I have read your review on pampered chef and it sounds like a pretty decent MLM. Most MLMs will never allow you to own a website so I think that is big plus. The fact that the great Warren Buffet would invest in a company like that also speaks volumes. The downside of all MLMs is that they can be tedious, but I do believe that not all of them are scams
Hey Leonard, I agree with you. Most MLMs get a bad rap. But this one seems solid! Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Hi Eddy! I am familiar with Pampered Chef, and actually have many of their items. Thank you for your “history” lesson on the company. Humble beginnings can turn into something big…and I am still hoping the same for my own business. I agree with you that Pampered Chef is not a scam, as many marketing schemes are these days. Having a clear compensation plan is definitely a plus with this company. Personally, I would be looking for a business that had residual income based on products that were consumable. Thanks for your review!
My wife has their products too and they seem solid. So I agree with you there. It’s one of the few MLMs that seems legitimate to me. Although I still think it would be hard to make a full time income with this. But it may be worth a shot for some people. Thanks for sharing your experience.