Business plans · Café format
Coffee Shop Business Plan
This coffee shop business plan outline also works for a cafe with a food menu. It comes with a real workbook from our Corner Café demo, the app's starter numbers and a break-even calculator. Build your own Google Sheet from your own drinks and food costs in the FoodTechGuru app.
Create your business planDownload the outline (.docx)- $36,300opening equipment in the starter list
- $3,470monthly costs to start from
- $11,622starter labour a month
A real workbook from the app
Corner Café: what the numbers said
Corner Café is a demo business we run through the app: a café selling soup, toast, muffins, banana bread and a wrap, with no drinks on the menu. Every figure below comes from the workbook the app generated, flags included.
- $49,500to start
- $19,890sales a month
- $2,145net profit a month
- 82a day to break even
| Health check | Plan | Healthy range | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Food cost % | 12.7% | 28% – 35% | Below target |
| Labour % | 48.9% | 25% – 35% | Too high |
| Prime cost % | 61.6% | 45% – 65% | On target |
| Net margin % | 10.8% | 3% – 10% (to 15% strong) | Strong |
| Margin of safety % | 12.4% | 15% – 40% | Fragile |
| First profitable month | 7 | month 3 – 9 | On target |
| Payback (months) | 23.1 months | 12 – 36 months | On target |
| Lowest cash point in 12 months | −$70,750 | above 0 | More cash needed |
The linked Sheet is our Rio Taco Truck example, so you can click through all seven tabs. Corner Café has the same tabs. These are demo inputs, and they are not a forecast for your business.
The seven sections
What goes in a coffee shop business plan
You write the sections that need your judgment. The workbook gives you the numbers for the rest.
Executive summary
One page, written last: the shop, the corner you chose, the money you need and the month you expect to get it back.
Concept and customers
Morning commuters, laptop regulars or weekend brunch. Each one changes your seats, your hours and your menu.
Market and competition
Stand outside at 8 am with a counter. Note the foot traffic, then the price of a latte at the three nearest shops.
Menu and pricing
A cost and a price for every drink and food item. Add the cup, lid and sleeve to anything sold to go.
Marketing plan
The opening week offer, your regulars' reason to return, photos of the real drinks and a month of posts.
Operations and team
Opening hours, the barista schedule, who opens and who closes, and your bean and milk deliveries.
Financial plan and funding
One steady month, twelve months of cash and the budget for the machine, the counter and the seating.
Keep this as a template. The Word file has these seven sections with their prompts and a list of the numbers to bring. It is free with your email.
Download the outline (.docx)Café format · what the app pre-fills
The numbers the app starts you with
The app calls this format Café. It opens with this crew, these monthly costs and this equipment list, in dollars, and you change every figure before you generate.
Opening crew
| Role | People | Hours/wk | Pay/h |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | 1 | 45 | $0 |
| Cook | 1 | 40 | $18 |
| Service | 2 | 30 | $14 |
| Manager | 1 | 40 | $22 |
| Labour a month, with 10% employer costs | $11,622 | ||
The app opens owner pay at $0. The workbook warns: “A plan that only works when you work free is not a plan.”
Monthly base
| Rent / pitch | $2,500 |
| Utilities / fuel | $450 |
| Insurance | $180 |
| Software / POS | $90 |
| Marketing | $250 |
| Fixed costs a month | $3,470 |
Opening equipment
| Commercial espresso machine | $6,500 |
| Coffee grinder 2 × $900 | $1,800 |
| Commercial refrigerator | $2,200 |
| Compact freezer | $1,400 |
| Ice machine | $1,600 |
| Commercial dishwasher | $2,500 |
| Sink and water filtration | $1,200 |
| Stainless prep table | $900 |
| Refrigerated display case | $3,000 |
| Point-of-sale terminal | $700 |
| Customer seating 20 × $150 | $3,000 |
| Counter and basic fit-out | $10,000 |
| Cups and smallwares starter set | $1,500 |
| Equipment | $36,300 |
| With the workbook's 10% contingency | $39,930 |
- The espresso machine opens at $6,500 and two grinders at $900 each. Swap in your supplier's quote, or a lease payment on the monthly side.
- Counter and basic fit-out opens at $10,000. Our Corner Café demo raised that line to $18,700 and its total reached $49,500.
- The starter crew includes a manager at $22 an hour. A small shop run by its owner can remove that line, and labour falls by about $4,200 a month.
Free, in your browser
Test your coffee shop break-even
Costs below are the Café starters from the table above. Prices and sales are our sample menu, so replace them with yours. The math and the verdicts match the workbook's Unit Economics tab.
- Sales a month
- Net profit a month
- Net margin
- Simple payback
- Food cost
- Labour
- Prime cost
- Net margin
- Margin of safety
Labour reads high? The workbook says it is “usually a rota problem, not a wage problem.”
What you get back
Seven tabs. 1,800+ live formulas. Every formula already connected.
Not a PDF that goes stale. The plan is a working spreadsheet model — yellow cells are your inputs, everything else is a formula. Change a price, and break-even, profit and cash flow follow.
- 1
Controls
Every setting in one place: format, currency, venues, trading days, crew, monthly base, delivery channels, targets.
- 2
Unit Economics
One steady month, per venue and for all venues. Profit, prime cost, break-even, payback and a health check with what to fix.
- 3
Cash Flow
Twelve months with a growth multiplier, staged venues, CAPEX and funding — and the lowest cash point you must survive.
- 4
Menu Engineering
The same columns as the app's menu calculation. Every dish classed Star, Plowhorse, Puzzle or Dog by margin and popularity.
- 5
Cost Cards
Every dish's cost card on one tab — ingredients, gross weights, prep and cooking loss, cost per portion.
A latte card shows the coffee dose and milk by weight.
- 6
Purchase List
Your buying list, aggregated across the menu in gross weight and grouped by category — with an integrity check against the menu.
Adds up beans, milk, syrups and pastry ingredients across the menu.
- 7
Startup Costs
One-off money with estimated, actual and variance columns, plus how it's funded: owner cash, loans, investors.
How it works
Six simple questions to start your plan cooking.
Tap any step to watch it on the phone. Every step feeds a real tab in your Google Sheet.
-
Pick the closest format and how many days a week you'll trade. For this plan that is Café. It only shapes the suggestions; you can change every number.
Feeds Controls
-
Build your opening crew by role — owner, cook, prep, service, driver, manager — then tune hours per week, hourly pay and employer costs. Leave pay at zero for an unpaid role.
Feeds ControlsCash Flow
-
Choose the menu this plan will sell. Food costs come straight from its recipe cost cards and stay read-only; you set prices and how many of each dish you expect to sell a month.
Feeds Menu EngineeringCost CardsPurchase List
-
The costs that keep the doors open whatever you sell: rent or pitch, utilities or fuel, insurance, marketing, software, repairs and professional fees.
Feeds ControlsUnit Economics
-
Start from an editable equipment and opening-setup list for your format. Adjust quantities and prices, remove what you already own, add anything missing.
Feeds Startup CostsCash Flow
-
Your economics on one screen: break-even portions per day, revenue, profit, food, labour and fixed costs. Slide selling prices and sales volume to stress-test the plan.
Feeds Unit Economics
-
One tap on Generate Business Plan Google Sheet. It costs every dish, works out your monthly numbers and projects twelve months of cash flow — about a minute, and you can leave the screen.
-
A live formula workbook that opens from a link. Change a yellow input and break-even, profit and cash flow follow. Make a copy to keep it in your own Google Drive before you share it.
All 7 tabs
Food truckMobile, lean and full of personality
CaféCoffee, bites and loyal regulars
RestaurantA complete dine-in experience
BakeryFresh batches and counter sales
Ghost kitchenDelivery-first and highly focused
CateringEvents, groups and planned production
Rent / pitch
Utilities / fuel
Insurance
Software / POS
Marketing
Phone screens are a recreation. Crew, monthly costs and equipment are the app's real Café starters. The menu and sales are a sample with owner pay at $0, so they are not a forecast.
Section 5 of your plan
The marketing section needs real posts behind it
A coffee shop lives on regulars, and the marketing section of your plan should say how you will earn them. FoodPerfect, our sister product, turns a phone photo of your latte into a restyled shot, writes captions in your voice and fills a month of posts. You approve each one.
Each product does its own job, and nothing syncs between them yet. You enter your dish names and prices in FoodPerfect yourself.
See FoodPerfect for coffee shops: $3 free to start, no card ↗
Coffee shop business plan FAQ
Is a cafe business plan different from a coffee shop business plan?
The sections are the same. The difference is the menu: a cafe with a kitchen needs a cook and more equipment, while a drinks-led shop runs on baristas. In the app both use the Café format, and you remove the roles and equipment you do not need.
How many cups a day does a coffee shop need to break even?
It depends on your rent and schedule, so use the calculator above. With the starter crew, starter costs and our sample menu it comes to 133 items a day. Corner Café, with its own rent and crew, breaks even at 82 items a day.
Why does the Corner Café plan flag problems?
It is a demo with a five-item menu and $0 of packaging. Its health check reads food cost at 12.7% as below target, labour at 48.9% as too high and the 12.4% margin of safety as fragile.
What does FoodTechGuru write, and what do I write?
The app builds the financial section: costed menu, crew, monthly costs, startup budget, break-even and twelve months of cash. You write the concept, the market research and the operating detail, because those need your town and your judgment.
What does a business plan cost in the app?
The app is a free download, and you can open and edit the finished Sheet on any computer. Generating a business plan uses 50 credits and needs a paid Pro or Guru subscription. The Guru trial does not include business plans. Regenerating the same plan is free. The app runs on iPhone today.
Can I send the Sheet to a bank or a partner?
Yes, once you make your own copy. Your plan opens from a link, and anyone with that link can edit it. Use File, Make a copy to keep it in your own Google Drive, or File, Download to send an Excel file.
See the whole thing
Watch a full plan come together
This two-minute film follows a dark kitchen from cost cards to menu engineering to the finished Google Sheet. A coffee shop business plan uses the same steps with your own recipes.
Build your coffee shop plan from your own menu.
Cost your drinks and food, choose Café, answer six questions and open the workbook about a minute later.