Chef Archive

Folks, I see a lot of my fellow chefs in here stating that they can not seem to make a living as a chef, or they are not getting the level of sales they want.

I'm not here to brag, or preach to you. But we all have a business to run, weather you are simply a bartender or a master chef. We are in the business of providing a service to the community. Keyword here is service. Location for us is very important, if you are in an out of the way area you will not get sales. You will not get sales even if you are on the planetary map.

Here are two location suggestions. These are things that I have tried and found to work.

Beaten Path method:

Find a location outside of a popular city on your chosen planet. Then watch the people as they leave town. Where do they go? Why do they go that way? Talk to people and ask what direction the biggest attraction of the area is. Perhaps there is a very popular theme park to the south. Go south untill you can build a house. Plop it down and stock your vendor.

Co-location Method:

By now you should have made a few business contacts, be they weaponsmiths, armorers, tailors, whatever. Start talking to them. Use the above method and then look for a business that has several vendors inside that offer a wide array of products. Do they have a chef vendor? No? Great! talk with the owner of the business and get some kind of arrangement for you to put a vendor in there on a trial basis. Explain that you can both benefit from the mutual traffic to eachothers vendors.

Signage is another very important detail. In the past I used to put just "galaxy grub cafe" on my vendor house. This is *not* the way to draw people in. I've found the best way to word your signs it to convey what services you offer in a concise manner as possible. You are just one of hundreds of buildings a player will see in a given play period. Why should they come into your little cafe? Word your signs with that in mind, speak to your customers before they even enter your shop. What I have found to be most effective is the wording below, or a variation of the below.

"Galaxy Grub Cafe - Quality Chef Buffs - Stocked Daily!!"

Lets look at that. Instead of using "food" I used "buffs" in its place, this speaks quickly to the consumer in a manner they immediatly identify with. I go on to say that I stock all of my vendors with quality product on a daily basis. Keywords are quality & daily. Just with those few changes I would wager if you are in a good location you will see an increase of traffic.

These are just a few of the things that have made my chef business profitable. Use this advice how you will. Good luck all!

oh yeah . I mean the word buffs must help alot even though your advertisement is placed under the word food... I mean at least you have the word buff!

Location is important but not as important as going to town and advertising your goods , giving away free tester buffs and showing people how there stats works.

Also a location like fort tusken or the Kryat Graveyard is good for a food vender as well, because the high traffic of adventurers who would most likey want to use buffs.

/agree

Customer service.. is a big key

Even though it doesnt gain immediate sales, Take time to completely answer any questionsyou get. Be friendly, and very open on any drawbacks or shortages you may have. They may offer to supply the missing componant to you, and gain you a loyal customer.

I keep a relatively small customer base, but there is a personal connection there, and I make sure to help anyone who asks for it. My base grows pretty slowly, but I'm not losing customers, and the random drop-bys in the store are nice too.

I was once out of ryshcate and couldn't make any more for about 2 days (had to factory the aludium, aarrgghh!) so I actually *reluctantly* gave the store waypoint to a few chefs nearby in case they had it. My customer bought a decent order off of him, but came back to me when I restocked. I like to know that customers will stick around if you have good personal skills, not just because you are the only chef they have heard of in the galaxy.

Location is important but not as important as going to town and advertising your goods

Hehe I never do that anymore. I focused on a convenient location, global advertising, amemorable and consistently well stocked shop (best fishing poles in the galaxy),stocking a few stores in addition to my own, and being nice to the regulars (which gets me good word of mouth). I have just about the right amount of business between my food and meds, don't want too much or it'd just be too stressful.