We recently connected with Tamar Taylor-Brown and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Tamar, thanks for joining us today. Almost all entrepreneurs have had to decide whether to start now or later? There are always pros and cons for waiting and so we’d love to hear what you think about your decision in retrospect. If you could go back in time, would you have started your business sooner, later or at the exact time you started?

If I could go back in time I wish I would have started my business earlier for sure. I started my business about a week before covid hit. No one knew how long it would last or how things would end up in the long run.

I was finishing my last semester of my bachelor’s degree, and wanted to make some extra cash. Covid changed everything for small business owners. Cost of food has become so high compared to what it once was which makes it hard for us trying to raise prices but not too much because you don’t want clients to complain or not return.

If I would have started earlier I believe I would have a more loyal consistent client base because they would have been with me prior to covid and having to raise prices.

Tamar, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Hi everyone! I’m Tamar from Tamar’s Kitchen, I am a private chef/caterer and a content creator! I’ve been cooking since I could remember helping my dad in the kitchen. He was a chef so I grew up knowing I wanted to be like him. In high school I took all 3 of the culinary classes that were offered and fell in love even more. I ultimately decided not to go to culinary school because it takes a while to grow in the culinary world, and at the time I did not want to own my own business. I chose to go to go get my Bachelors of Science in Business Administration so that I had options when I graduated.

I offer catering for all types of events, my favorite is private dinners though for an intimate crowd. With private dinners I can bring everything to where you are and can cook on site, or just deliver it already made to you. I have also offered cooking classes on zoom which is super fun!

I am most proud of starting from scratch in a new state not knowing anyone. The power of social media is what got me to where I am today.

Any insights you can share with us about how you built up your social media presence?

Facebook! For me facebook was the key to building my foundation on social media. I moved to Fort Hood because my husband was in the military so I joined every military facebook group that I could find and promoted myself in them. I found a person in one of the groups who was known and got a lot of interactions to try my food for free in exchange for a post with an honest review. This helped my growth tremendously because they saw a real review from a person they knew!

My advice is to not be afraid to give stuff away! Yes you are not making any profit from this, but it will only help in the long run especially if you know that whatever you are advertising is worth it.

How’d you build such a strong reputation within your market?

I believe great customer service helped build my reputation. I’ve been in the food service industry since I got my first job at 16. So I know how important good customer service is and how one bad interaction can be detrimental to a business. I pride myself on always giving my clients the best customer service possible.

Contact Info:

• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tamarskitchen/
• Facebook: https://m.facebook.com/TamarsKitchenn/
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCw-HTCtkXVwQVPxyqVb7jdA