Cooking Up Success with the Right Apps (Not the Edible Kind)

Chef Jojo Spills the Beans
Written By Joanna Mercado

The Deep Dish on the Apps Behind My Success (And Not the Appetizers)

When I say I run a private chef business, people think it’s a ton of cooking, but honestly, I look forward to the moments when I do get to cook. When I first started this business, I didn’t realize running a private chef business isn’t just about food it’s also about the systems, the tools, and apps that keep everything operating smoothly behind the scenes. Finding the right ones that work for this industry is an ever-changing task, with the needs for marketing changing, social media, and the keep up with clients can be a lot. I honestly have tried everything most small business owners can afford, with a lot wasted money, but these experiences helped me to shape my business to work for me, using different platforms, some I still use today, others I have outgrown. Here is is a short version breakdown of my experiences.

Website Journey

  • The $100 Slip: My first experience was with a company that promised a custom site for a low cost. Three months went by, I still had nothing to show for it. I tried emailing and the first red flag should have been that the owner of such a large company had time to answer to little old me. I kept hoping that my website would be next and that wasn’t a smart move. I could have made it myself faster, which led me to the next effort.

  • Wix DIY: Tried doing it on my own.  Great UI and lots of design options, but not fit for long-term as I continued to struggle to understand how to pick the different plug ins. Maybe it will work for you! But I had instant success with Squarespace, and I was considering using them for a payment platform, so it made sense for me to try and use their platform to easily integrate with their payment system.

  • Squarespace: Became my go-to platform. Clean, manageable, and flexible enough to support my brand. My only issue with Squarespace so far as been trying to get the Menus to be listed on the site that is better for the customer, but doesn’t waste the SEO that is gained with the menu descriptions It also has been difficult to integrate Honeybook with Squarespace, I had to figure out how to use the Contact form on Honeybook, instead of using the Squarespace Contact form that would send it straight to your business email instead of the system I use. I never actually tried to use Squarespace Systems, but I know a lot of people have had good experiences and would recommend. The ONLY real issue I have experienced with Squarespace is when trying to have different Blogs, you cannot run multiple blogs on one site. So I cannot have a travel chef blog and a recipe blog, or how to train your private chef blog for example. I would have to have them all running on one main article list or have a different site for each one.

  • Considering WordPress: SEO visibility may push me to migrate eventually, I have been considering building a new site and transferring everything over, which would take a lot of energy and time, so its a huge deal when picking which platform to use, choose wisely!!! If I had to do it again, I would probably go with Wordpress, but Squarespace is the best for creating a fast website in my opinion.

Business & Operations Tools

  • QuickBooks Online – Handy for my accounting and bookkeeping.

  • HoneyBook – First tried to connect other systems using Zapier, only to discover that HoneyBook had native solutions.

  • Monday.com – project and workflow management.

  • Slack and Microsoft Teams – communication tools. Eventually shifted primarily to Google Workspace (Gmail, Docs, Sheets).

  • My Calls – a dedicated business phone line and texting system for assistants.

  • HubSpot – lead management and marketing.

  • Loom – training and quick instructional videos.

  • Flip Insurance – mobile business insurance provider.

Content Creation & Branding

  • Canva – design and content creation.

  • Tailor Brands – branding and logo resources.

  • Vellum – digital book creation software (though limited for cookbooks and Mac-only).

  • Blurb and BookWright – printing and self-publishing, including uploading to Amazon.

Marketing & Social Media

  • Hootsuite – Scheduling tool for social media, and great for tracking analytics

  • Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, Snapchat, LinkedIn – main social platforms for brand presence

  • Google Business, Yelp, TripAdvisor – vital for local discoverability and reliable reviews.

  • Niche Platforms – Take a Chef, Epicurean, Chefin, LetsBach, Airbnb, VRBO.

AI and New Tools

  • Claude.ai – content creation and brainstorming.

  • ChatGPT – used for writing, planning, and operations support.

Every app had its season. There are some I no longer use, and some are still daily essentials. There is no perfect all-in-one system, but there is a toolkit that is suitable for every phase of business growth. To me, it has been a blend of website platforms, operations tools, creative resources, and marketing channels.

Basically pave the way to success if you follow these steps with these apps!

Keep cooking with love, Chef Jojo 🍳💋

Joanna Mercado
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