Is Pampered Chef A Pyramid Scheme? Full Review!

I’ve had some direct experience with Pampered Chef and actually, my opinion of this business is higher than a majority of MLM type businesses I review.

But is it worth your time being a part of it?

Is Pampered Chef a Pyramid Scheme, or a legit work-from-home business?  Check out this Pampered Chef review and see what you think!

Product Name: Pampered Chef  
Price: $109 – $249 to start  
Who is it for? – Mainly those interested in cookware/cooking, socializing and earning a bit of money on the side.

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What Is Pampered Chef About?

Pampered Chef is a work at home business opportunity with a multi-level-marketing (MLM) structure to it.  

That means, you can make a profit not only from products that you sell, but by recruiting others into the business, earning a percentage from their sales too.

Pampered Chef create a wide range of cookware products, at the more expensive end of the market.  

Many do complain that the products are overpriced, but nevertheless many people do appreciate that the products are decent quality — and this can be a rarity in an MLM business!

Pampered Chef Review In Brief:

Unlike many MLM’s, from what I see of it, Pampered Chef is not full the hype and false promises of many that I’ve seen.

 Pampered Chef have some really great products and I know plenty of people that rave about them.  

However, the chance of you creating a full time business opportunity is unlikely, without building a team beneath you  – you’d be needing plenty of more buyers and contacts than just your circle of family and friends.

On the other hand, if you’re looking to make a bit of extra money on the side, enjoy socialising, cooking and throwing parties, it may suit you.

How Much Does Pampered Chef Cost?

Pampered Chef have three different starter kits now that you can buy to kick start your business.  

The starter kit is $109, (value $450), the Deluxe kit is $159 (value over $650) and the Ultimate kit is $249, (value $1000).  

This is not a lot of money to pay out at all, in order to start your own business and many MLM’s expect you to invest considerably more to get started.

It’s true that perhaps it doesn’t seem like you get all that many products in a kit, when you consider the price, but you actually don’t need all that much to showcase some products and create demonstration meals.

How Much Do You Earn?

Commission wise, you make 20-25% commission, depending on how much you sell and this can rise to 30% as you go on.

The amount you earn, is determined by how much you sell.  So, the more you sell, the more you earn.

There are also car bonus incentives and vacation incentives, as a motivation for advancing further with the business. 

Unlike many MLM’s that I review, Pampered chef are considerably more honest when it comes to telling you what sort of income opportunity this is.

They clearly state that 75% of their consultants have other jobs, as well as being a Pampered Chef consultant.

But even with the other 25%, I imagine a large chunk of those don’t have other jobs because they’re stay at home parents.  

Certainly in my experience, many people use pampered chef as a way to make a supplementary income, rather than a full time one.

Pampered Chef parties reportedly earn on average of $599 of sales and this would make you up to $120 in commission.

 So, if you just bought the starter kit, you could gain back your investment from as soon as your first party.

However, you also have to consider how much it may cost you to throw the party – you’ll need to buy food and drinks for people attending and this could be costly.

The Pampered Chef Website Option:

As well as the standard way of selling, via networking with people, creating parties for friends, family and friends of friends – Pampered Chef also now give you the opportunity to have your own website too.

This is a good move by Pampered Chef – you do however have to pay an extra $10 a month for this.

In addition,  it seems to be used largely as an extra tool to direct people you already know to visit your site, so that they can purchase products, rather than a way to generate new customers from anywhere online.

This is partly because no one will find your pampered chef website organically in the search engines, without you directing them to it, (due to not being optimized for SEO).

They also won’t teach you how to manage your website and you can’t optimize it yourself.

A Better Option: Having Your Own Website!

To really make use of this opportunity, you should have your own personal blog or website where you could link in YouTube videos, write product reviews and add your own recipes on there and so forth.  

You could then direct people from your personal website, to your personal Pampered Chef website to actually make the sales.

For example, you could do a recipe post containing certain products and then link to those products throughout your post.  

Unfortunately, Pampered Chef won’t give you any training regarding setting up your website.

Nor other methods like I’ve suggested, for driving traffic to your personal pampered chef site.  

(I learnt how to drive free traffic to a website here).

What I like About Pampered Chef:

When I arrived at their website, it was bright and colourful, full of great food photography, recipes and information.  

There is nothing in your face about selling this as a business opportunity and I appreciated that, because it’s clear that their products sell on their own merit.

This is not a business that solely survives JUST by recruiting others into the business, these products are decent products and many people rave about them.  

Plenty of people also just make their own little side income by selling products directly and many will not create a downline, nor feel a pressure to recruit others.

The fact that this MLM is not solely relying on their members recruiting others, makes it significantly better than a majority of MLM’s out there.

Too often, you’ll find MLM’s trying to shift things like exceedingly overpriced health and wellness products, stating they have all sorts of health benefits, but no scientific evidence to back them up.

MLM products will often be very difficult to sell to people, because not only are they overpriced, but you can get very similar products at a fraction of the price at a regular store. 

With cookery products however, they either work or they don’t work and Pampered Chef also create quite unique products that people will go directly to them for.

They definitely do have some decent products, (I even own some myself!).

My Experience With Pampered Chef:

I have a small amount of direct experience with Pampered Chef, because one of my good friends was a consultant.

I have been to a few Pampered Chef parties and at no point did I feel under pressure to be recruited into this as a business or anything like that.  

The host was simply trying to sell the products and get to keep some of the Pampered Chef products for herself, because she was a fan.

She was making a very small amount of money from this, because the parties themselves cost a lot of money and this is something you’ll need to consider.

For example, she would cook several dishes during the demonstrations and provided wine and drinks for everyone who attended.

This would have considerably eaten into any profits she made.

Then, it seemed at the end people would try and choose the cheapest products to buy…

More as a “token thanks,” for throwing the party – rather than actually wanting to buy anything.

Big Discount Opportunities!

Pampered Chef consultants can make big savings on products – generally up to 50%!!

And this can be incentive enough for people to sign up as consultants and host the odd party.

If you’re a fan Pampered Chef products and you don’t mind throwing a few parties now and again to your family and friends, you could at the least get some decent products and freebies.

Considering that Pampered Chef products are on the pricier side, I can imagine this being a good motivator for some people who enjoy cooking.

PROS VS CONS

PROS

• Low start up costs.
• Big discounts and freebies.
• Supportive training team.
• Potential personal  pampered chef website.
• Quality products that many people will be interested in.
• Products have 30 day money back guarantee.
• Car and vacation incentives for bigger earners.

CONS

• A majority of consultants will only make a part time wage or extra side income.
• To create a successful business, you’d need to create a downline and recruit others into the business.
• Many may deem the products as expensive.
• Throwing parties can be costly, which will eat into your profits.
• Throwing parties can be exhausting, especially if you’re already trying to hold down another job
• If you an introverted person and don’t enjoy socialising much, this may not be a good fit for you

Is Pampered Chef A Pyramid Scheme?

NO!  

I think it is completely wrong to label Pampered Chef a pyramid scheme, but I also understand the reasoning behind why some people do.

Many people, (especially those who have had negative experiences with MLM, or have seen the many corrupt sides to so many) claim that MLM businesses in general are nothing more than legalised pyramid schemes.

In many cases, I’m inclined to agree.

For many MLM style businesses, the products are a smoke screen for what’s really going on and that is that they are often purely recruitment style scams.

 The products are often secondary and the motivation behind the business and the training, is all about recruiting and very little about any products involved.

But in the case of Pampered Chef, you can certainly see that many people treat this as a little side business and just directly sell products, without feeling any pressure to recruit others into the business.

The products clearly play a massive role in this business and they aren’t just secondary to signing up new recruits.

Review Conclusion: Do I Recommend Pampered Chef?

Well, that really depends!  If you enjoy socialising, throwing parties, demonstrating and cooking, (or think you might over time) then it’s certainly something you could test out for a very reasonable amount of money.

But it’s much more likely that this opportunity would be more of a supplementary income than a full time business venture.

 If you feel confident that you could build a team below you and recruit others, then  it could become more.

Ultimately, if you wanted to turn it into more of a full time opportunity, you should also be embracing the internet as a way to make connections – Pampered Chef talk about online social media parties and this is a good idea.

You could also have your own website, but as I explained before, it’s not at all as useful as it could be.