Your Name: Priscilla Carruthers
Company Name: The Icebox Queen
Web and Social Media Links: www.iceboxqueen.com; www.facebook.com/TheIceboxQueen
How did you decide on the name of your business? It’s feminine, retro, kind of funny, and unique. And way easier to say than Priscilla’s Personal Chef Service.
How long has your business been around? 4 years total, 2 years in Fort Worth and 2 years in Austin
Tell us more about your product/business and how you developed the concept behind it: I am a personal chef. I cook for families – I do all the grocery shopping, make a week’s worth of meals in my client’s kitchen, stock their fridge full of meals ready to pop in the oven, and clean it all up. I like to cook for a lot of different reasons – I like the order of it, I like starting a job and finishing it, and I like serving people through food. It makes my day to be able to make people smile when they see their plate, to satisfy a craving, and to help a family sit together at the end of the day and relax together. Being a personal chef allows me to nurture other people through delicious, healthy, homemade food, and allows me to do it on my schedule for clients I enjoy.
What makes your business so unique? My clients each receive personal, customized service specifically for their families, tailored to their likes, dislikes, allergies, and preferences. Hate broccoli? Consider it gone. Love spicy? I’ll stock up on jalapenos. Vegan, gluten free, avoiding carbs, and low fat? I’ll make your blackberry kale salad. Every day I work is unique, because it’s specific to my families.
Do you have a storefront? Do you work from home? I work out of my client’s homes. I do all the shopping, cook in their kitchens, and leave their kitchen cleaner than when I came in. I do my accounting, menu planning, and marketing from home, or my local coffee shop.
How do you balance it all? I’m still working on that. Scheduling work hours and family hours and doing my darndest not to mix the two helps a lot.
What is one piece of advice you can give to any mom starting their business? Plan ahead, plan ahead, plan ahead. Saving money to pay your taxes ahead of time, doing your bookkeeping regularly, plotting creative ideas or marketing techniques before you need them – planning ahead can save you when the baby gets sick, the car dies, and the rent is due all at once.
What is the best aspect about having your own business? Making my own schedule. It is IMMENSE that I don’t have to ask off to plan a vacation, that I can make doctor’s appointments whenever I want, and I can choose clients around my child care schedule.
What is the part you struggle with the most in your business? Making my own schedule. It is really hard to plan working at home hours with a mobile 7 month old who hates sleep. My business motto starting out was to not say no unless I HAD to, and while that can lead to lots of new opportunities and clients, it can also lead to overbooking myself. I’ve had to take that motto down a notch since having James, so that I can leave some time in my schedule for myself.
What did you wish you knew before starting a business? Only work with clients you like. If you don’t get along with your client in a service business, it only leads to both of you being upset with the service. Life’s too short to be unhappy at work. Especially when you’re the boss.
Do you have a future or long terms goals with your business? I love that my business can be ramped up or down as necessary. Right now, I can keep it small and sweet as I start my family, and when my kids are in school, I can take it back up and eventually hire other chefs to cook for families under the Icebox Queen name.
Fun Facts:
What do you love to do when you’re not being supermom? In the 24.5 minutes I have to myself on the daily, I like to go for a swim in any body of water available while reading time travel science fiction, hugging my dogs, and eating Italian sub sandwiches..
What is your favorite household product? It’s a tie between Viva paper towels and my baby gate across the living room that my extremely tall baby and enormous dog enjoy making out over.
What wardrobe staple can you not live without? Nursing tank tops and kitchen Birkenstock clogs.
What was your first job? Customer service wench at Harris Costume Shop. It was just as fun as it sounds. The Icebox Queen would have approved of my regular Saturday poodle skirt choice.
What celebrity would you love to have dinner with? Ina May Garten. Only if she cooks. And only if it can be in the Hamptons. And she has to pick a special flower arrangement from a little shop her friend owns.
What was the last book you read? I listen to books while I work on Audible, so the last one I listened to was “The Bone Clocks” by David Mitchell. Fascinating story about a regular gal who gets involved with a group of immortals. I’m reading “The Time Map” right now, which is about time travel too. Time travel is my jam.
Is there any piece of advice, tips, events happening or discounts you would like to share with our readers? Life is for living – be happy, eat good food with your family and friends, and be nice to each other.