We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Rachel Udeh-jackson. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Rachel below.

Rachel, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Alright, so we’d love to hear about how you got your first client or customer. What’s the story?

It’s an interesting story actually, but also a sad one. My great-grandfather had just passed away, and I was deeply burdened with grief. It was around the time of his passing that I made the decision to take a huge risk with my idea for selling healthy, accessible, gourmet dishes.

So I started selling plates of food to patrons at middle-class, African-American hair salons. I also gave away free platters of sample foods at upper-middle class, mainstream hair salons. This form of strategic marketing created lots of buzz around my name because the dishes were unique!

For instance, I would sell mozzarella stuffed meatballs with spaghetti, veggie pizza on a whole wheat crust, and cheeseburger quesadillas with roasted corn on the cob. I also sold specialty salads with salmon, turkey bacon, and feta dill dressing.

Surprisingly enough, my first private chef client was one of the Uber drivers who coincidentally lived in my neighborhood. From those points of contact my revenue continued to grow. So while I was motivated by the grief of my great-grandfather & longtime chef mentor; it launched me into making my first dollar very quickly.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Rachel Udeh-Jackson, but I’m also referred to as “Rachel Joi, The Singin’ Chef”. I was actually a child star on the rise when it came to singing. My mother was my artist development manager, and she also tried her hand at being a booking agent. However it wasn’t until I landed my first exposure deal with Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church in 2015 that I began singing on a professional level as an artist.

My time with Shiloh attracted attention from locals, and I developed a small following. From there I got attention from Grammy Award Winning Producer, Jack Miele, who co-produced my first single “Eternal Love”; which was later released on my current project “The Singin Chef — EP”.

Do you have multiple revenue streams – if so, can you talk to us about those streams and how your developed them?

Yes, Hope’s Kitchen Eateries Inc. is my personal chef business. However, while my main focus is providing tools and education to food entrepreneurs and food enthusiasts who lack accessible resources; HKE has branched out into selling digital products like eBooks, digitally formatted (printable) recipes, and branded clothing from its sister company (The Singin Chef LLC).

TSC is responsible for all supplemental streams of income. Since HKE is strictly a service-based business; I needed a second company to host the supplemental, product-based revenue.

How did you put together the initial capital you needed to start your business?

I literally started my first business with food stamps, a 2-way bus pass, and a very small percentage from my federal tax refund. The rest was just a lot of hustle, grit, determination, sales skills, and networking skills. My starting budget was actually less than $300. However, HKE at its best has made five figures.

As far as my second business, I used roughly $8,000 from HKE sales to fund the launch of TSC as a way of scaling my profit potential.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.racheludehjackson.co/
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@racheludehjackson?si=0XS2K5CmwZYA-2fp