So, you’re wondering how much do Pampered Chef Consultants make?
Chances are you’re here because you’ve been approached by a Pampered Chef Consultant who has told you all about a great ‘business opportunity.’
It sounds fantastic – who wouldn’t want to make passive income by promoting products they’re already using?
However, you’ve heard conflicting things about network marketing.
People often compare MLM businesses to pyramid schemes, and you certainly don’t want to be scammed!
This article is here to help.
We’re going to dive into the Pampered Chef business opportunity and find out just how lucrative it really is.
Can you make money with Pampered Chef?
More to the point, how much do Pampered Chef Consultants make?
Let’s find out.
How Much Do Pampered Chef Consultants Make?
What is Pampered Chef?
Pampered Chef was founded in 1980 in Chicago, Illinois, by Doris Christopher, a teacher-turned-stay-at-home-mom who decided to start doing ‘kitchen shows’ and selling kitchenware in her friends’ homes.
Sidenote: if you’re also a stay at home mom looking for a side hustle, you may find this blog post interesting.
Pampered Chef specialises in kitchen gadgets, specifically things you never knew you needed, such as a salad chopper (scissors for cutting lettuce), an onion peeler (pretty self-explanatory), and a corn butterer (yes, really).
Pampered Chef has a worldwide presence that includes the UK, Germany and Mexico, but its primary headquarters is in Addison, Illinois.
In 2002 Pampered Chef was purchased by Berkshire Hathaway (Warren Buffet’s company) and is now part of their family of companies.
Is Pampered Chef an MLM?
Pampered Chef is an MLM company, meaning that rather than selling its products in stores, they are sold through their worldwide sales force of over 65,000 distributors, known as ‘Consultants.’
Pampered Chef employs the old-school ‘Party Plan’ model, where the Consultant will host a gathering and try to convince their guests to buy the products (apple wedger, anyone?). Traditionally, these parties are in-person events, but in recent years, ‘virtual’ parties on social media have soared in popularity.
Pampered Chef Consultants also earn money by introducing other Consultants to the company . When these people make sales, the people who recruited them will earn commission.
There is no Pampered Chef salary (unless you count the people working in the corporate side of the company, which the Coaches are not).
Pyramid scheme allegations
MLM companies like Pampered Chef frequently have to defend accusations that they are operating as illegal pyramid schemes.
I actually conducted a more in-depth analysis of Pampered Chef as a company and found that they do indeed resemble a pyramid scheme in many ways, including the fact that the Consultants are the company’s biggest customers, and there is a huge focus on ‘growing a team’ rather than selling products.
However, that’s not what this article is about.
This article is about whether you can actually make money as a Pampered Chef Consultant, and how much you can expect to earn if you decide to take the plunge.
How do you make money with Pampered Chef?
The Pampered Chef compensation plan (which they call a ‘Career Plan’) outlines just how Pampered Chef Consultants earn money.
As I mentioned earlier, there is no such thing as a Pampered Chef salary.
Instead, Consultants receive commissions and bonuses for selling kitchen products.
There are various commission levels, but all Consultants make between 20-25% commission per sale they make.
Like in any MLM, Pampered Chef Consultants can also recruit others into the company and earn money from the sales generated by those people.
The most people they recruit, the higher they rank in the company and the bigger their commissions get.
How much do Pampered Chef Consultants make?
So, how much do Pampered Chef Consultants make?
In order to see how much Pampered Chef Consultants make, it is necessary to see their Income Disclosure Statement.
An Income Disclosure Statement is a document that allows us to see exactly how many people are earning money with an MLM company, and how much of it they’re making.
However, unlike every other MLM I have analysed on this website, Pampered Chef does not have a United States Income Disclosure Statement.
This is because in the US, they are not legally obliged to release one.
Most MLM companies choose to release Income Disclosure Statements to reduce the likelihood of their distributors making false income claims (which can lead to legal trouble with the FTC).
The fact that the US branch of Pampered Chef choose not to release this data is extremely telling.
After all, if they offered such a lucrative business opportunity, why would they keep the earnings of their Consultants a secret?
Luckily for us, businesses in Canada are required to release this information, and so we do have the numbers that tell us how much do Pampered Chef Consultants make in Canada.
Let’s get into it.
The Pampered Chef Income Disclosure Statement 2022
Before we get into the Pampered Chef Income Disclosure Statement, it is important to remember that the numbers we’re about to look at are in Canadian dollars.
At the time of writing, 1 CAD is the equivalent of 0.75 USD.
In Canada, there were 4421 Consultants in the year 2022.
The Pampered Chef Income Disclosure shows us that:
- 90% of all Consultants earned an average of $44.74 per month, or $536.94 over 12 months.
- 5.3% earned an average of $256 per month.
- 2% earned an average of $1696 per month.
- The big earners, who earned more than $7000 per month, made up less than 0.2% of the company.
These numbers DON’T take into account the costs of being a Pampered Chef Consultant.
How much does it cost to be a Pampered Chef Consultant?
For this next section, the currency will also be in Canadian dollars, because I am using the Canadian Income Disclosure Statement to calculate the costs of running a Pampered Chef business.
So then, the minimum amount you can spend to join Pampered Chef is 70 CAD for the Stoneware Launch Bundle.
Alternatively, you can choose a different Launch Bundle, which includes a selection of Pampered Chef products.
While these other Launch Bundles aren’t mandatory, you will need to buy Pampered Chef products at some point, and buying them as part of a Launch Bundle is significantly cheaper than getting them later down the line, so most people do end up purchasing one.
The various Launch Bundles cost $130, $250, and $320.
So then, the sign-up cost to join Pampered Chef ranges from $70 – $320.
However, that’s not all.
Other expenses that the Pampered Chef Income Disclosure Statement specifically mentions include:
- Product samples.
- Sales trainings.
- Purchasing products to resell at trade shows or use in demonstrations at parties.
- Event space rental.
- Tickets to the National Conference ($315 in 2022), as well as airfare, food, and accommodation during the conference. Virtual conference tickets costed $75 in 2022.
- ‘Personal website’ that costs between $13 – $16 per month after the first three months.
- $4.75 per month for ‘demonstration insurance’ if you intend to host parties.
- Products used for promoting Pampered Chef on social media.
- Internet
- Telephone bill (you may need to increase your mobile data allowance)
- Tools to film yourself cooking such as a video camera, tripod, ring light, video-editing software etc.
- Food used to demonstrate how the products work.
- Transportation costs for in-person meetings and to parties not held at your own home.
- Cost of hosting a party – food, drinks etc.
As you can see, this all adds up, and when you consider that 90% of Consultants are making less than $50 per month, it’s highly likely that all these people are actually losing money rather than making it.
How Much Do Pampered Chef Consultants Make? | Final Thoughts
The numbers on Pampered Chef’s elusive Income Disclosure statement are unfortunately not surprising – no matter which network marketing company you look at, the average earnings of participants are always the same.
This is because, on average, 99.6% of people in MLM companies lose money or make no money due to the way that the business model is structured.
If you read the income disclosure statements for other MLM companies like Isagenix, Monat, or Color Street, you will see similar figures across the board.
It should be obvious by now that here at Not Your Boss Babe, we do NOT recommend joining Pampered Chef, or any MLM – it isn’t a smart business decision, and the odds are stacked so highly against you that you actually stand a better chance of earning a living as a professional gambler than in a network marketing biz.
Alternatives to Pampered Chef
If you’re looking for a side hustle or a work from home job, you may find these articles helpful:
Advantages and Disadvantages of Blogging
Easy Freelance Jobs for Beginners
Best Side Hustles for Single Moms
How to Sell Feet Pics Online
Secrets to Selling on Poshmark
Profitable Digital Products to Sell on Etsy
How to Become a Micro Influencer
That’s about it for today, but as always, if you have any questions then don’t hesitate to leave them in the comments section below and I will get back to you!
Until next time,
XOXO
Leave a Reply