Bringing Back Family Dinners with Prep Dish Founder Allison Schaaf

Entrepreneurs often struggle with juggling demands on their time. Not being able to get everything done is a constant source of stress. One constant in every entrepreneurs life is that they need to eat. Family meal time is not only necessary, but it is a time to unplug, recharge, and focus on what matters. My guest today, wants to remove the stress from family meal time and bring back the joy.

Allison Schaaf is the founder of Prep Dish an online meal planning service that provides tools to quickly and efficiently prep healthy gluten-free and paleo meals for the week. Allison has always had a passion for cooking and has a degree in Culinary Nutrition. She owned a personal chef company, but wanted to reach more people with Prep Dish and solve the problem of having accessible healthy home cooked meals even when people are busy.

Sponsor Spotlight: Prep Dish

Prep Dish is a healthy subscription-based meal planning service designed to help you shop once, prep once, and enjoy wholesome, delicious meals that come together in minutes all week long. Sign up at www.prepdish.com/worldwide to get your first 2 weeks FREE.

Show Notes

• [03:22] Allison always knew she would be an entrepreneur. She found a way to combine her love of cooking and entrepreneurship with Prep Dish.
• [05:35] Allison started out as a personal chef. She knew this wasn't for her because when she got home she didn't have enough energy left to cook for her family. What she did do was take her systems she used for her personal chef business and integrated it into her new business.
• [06:51] From an early age, Allison knew that food was the one thing that brought people together.
• [07:25] Food is also fuel and needs to be healthy.
• [07:39] Using meal prep to create the meal plans is what makes Prep Dish different.
• [08:44] Allison loves helping her customers, she even saved someone's marriage.
• [09:47] If you want to grow a business, it involves a team and hiring people. Allison likes providing jobs that people are passionate about it.
• [10:50] Her team are people from within her community. She takes the time to make sure the hiring process is the right fit.
• [12:53] One of the questions in the application process is do you like vegetables. The people who create meal plans have strong backgrounds in culinary service.
• [15:21] They have a Facebook community which helps with support and getting people excited.
• [16:36] Social media plays a big role and helps them get to know their subscribers.
• [18:24] They send out a survey twice a year. Their audience hangs out at Facebook and Instagram. Go where the people are.
• [20:14] Allison tries to be intentional with her time that she spends on social media.
• [21:04] Prep Dish removes the decision of what's for dinner and adds variety with their great recipes. Deirdre loves the sweet potato frittata and the superfood salad.
• [21:58] Allison's favorites are the beef and butternut squash tagine and pizza soup.
• [24:15] Allison's greatest success is that she started Prep Dish over five years ago and it’s still going strong.
• [25:36] One of her biggest challenges is wrapping identity into her business. She needs personal success and business success.
• [27:15] When it comes to problems everything is “figure outable”. Nothing is life or death. Sometimes you have to trust your gut and make a decision. Sometimes you have to reach out to other people.
• [32:42] Allison actually does better when she works less hours and gives her brain a rest.
• [33:17] There are statistics that entrepreneurs are more productive if they take a vacation.
• [33:45] Allison is a big meditator. She also follows her own meal plans.
• [35:52] Entrepreneurs need to have passion, accountability to themselves, and dedication.
• [38:02] Entrepreneurs also need to be disciplined.
• [39:04] Allison has been in business for over five years. She has learned to learn from her mistakes, and she has built a great team.
• [40:05] A series of mistakes makes a great entrepreneur.
• [40:31] Know your strengths. Create systems, processes, and efficiencies.

Links and Resources:

• Prep Dish
• @PrepDish on Twitter
• Prep Dish on Pinterest
• Prep Dish on Instagram
• Prep Dish on Facebook
• Get 2 Free Weeks of Prep Dish use code WORLDWIDE
• Marie Forleo
• Hubstaff