Business plans · Food truck format
Coffee Truck Business Plan
A coffee truck business plan comes down to cups per day at each pitch. Use this outline and the starter budget, test your break-even below, then build the Google Sheet from your own drinks in the FoodTechGuru app, using its Food truck format.
Create your business planDownload the outline (.docx)- $70,550opening equipment in the starter list
- $1,750monthly costs to start from
- $5,430starter labour a month
Open a real finished plan
See a finished plan from the app
We have not filmed a coffee truck plan yet, so this is the Google Sheet the app generated for our taco truck demo, Rio Taco Truck. Your workbook has the same seven tabs with your numbers.
- $74,415to start
- $3,349net profit a month
- 131portions a day to break even
- −$87,342lowest cash point, month 5
A view-only example of a food truck. Its figures are not a forecast for your business.
The seven sections
What goes in a coffee truck 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 truck, your pitches, the money you need and the month you expect it back.
Concept and customers
Office parks at 8 am, farmers markets, events or campus. Morning trade is short, so say where you go after 11.
Market and competition
Visit each planned pitch on a weekday morning. Count the people passing and the coffee already within a five-minute walk.
Menu and pricing
A cost and price per drink, with the cup, lid and sleeve. Keep the menu to what one person can make in a rush.
Marketing plan
Where the truck is today, how regulars find out and a month of posts with real drinks at real locations.
Operations and team
Your commissary, water and power, the pitch calendar and who drives. Permits vary by city, so list what yours requires.
Financial plan and funding
One steady month, twelve months of cash and the budget for the truck and the espresso setup.
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)Food truck format · what the app pre-fills
The numbers the app starts you with
A coffee truck uses the Food truck format, which opens with a cook line. We crossed out the griddle, fryer and hood, then added the espresso machine, grinders and ice machine at the prices the app uses for a café. You edit the same list in the app.
Opening crew
| Role | People | Hours/wk | Pay/h |
|---|---|---|---|
| Owner | 1 | 45 | $0 |
| Cook | 1 | 40 | $18 |
| Service | 1 | 30 | $14 |
| Labour a month, with 10% employer costs | $5,430 | ||
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 | $900 |
| Utilities / fuel | $350 |
| Insurance | $150 |
| Repairs & maintenance | $150 |
| Marketing | $200 |
| Fixed costs a month | $1,750 |
Opening equipment
| Food truck | $50,000 |
| Commercial griddle | $2,500 |
| Countertop fryer | $1,500 |
| Undercounter refrigerator | $1,800 |
| Compact freezer | $1,200 |
| Stainless prep counter | $750 |
| Sink and water system | $1,500 |
| Ventilation and extraction | $3,000 |
| Generator and power setup | $2,200 |
| Point-of-sale terminal | $700 |
| Opening packaging stock | $800 |
| Smallwares starter set | $1,200 |
| Fire and safety equipment | $500 |
| Commercial espresso machine | $6,500 |
| Coffee grinder 2 × $900 | $1,800 |
| Ice machine | $1,600 |
| Equipment | $70,550 |
| With the workbook's 10% contingency | $77,605 |
- Use the cook line in the crew list for your barista. The app has no separate barista role, and its pay rate is yours to change.
- The truck at $50,000 is the app's starting figure for a food truck. A smaller van or trailer build can come in very differently, so replace it with your quote.
- A generator and a sink and water system stay on the list. An espresso machine draws a lot of power, so ask your installer before you size the generator.
Free, in your browser
Test your coffee truck break-even
Costs below are the Food truck 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.
Cost per drink, from the coffee dose and milk.
- 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 a week of beans, milk and syrup.
- 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 Food truck. It only shapes the suggestions; you can change every number.
Feeds Controls
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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
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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
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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
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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.
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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
Repairs & maintenance
Marketing
Phone screens are a recreation. Crew, monthly costs and equipment are the app's real Food truck starters, as edited above. 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
Regulars need to know where the truck is today. FoodPerfect, our sister product, restyles phone photos of your drinks, writes captions in your voice and fills a month of posts for you to approve.
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 truck business plan FAQ
How many cups a day does a coffee truck need to sell?
With the starter crew, starter monthly costs and our sample menu, break-even comes to 84 cups and items a day at five trading days a week. Change the price, the crew or the trading days in the calculator above to see your own number.
Does the app have a coffee truck format?
It has six formats, and a coffee truck fits Food truck. The format only shapes the suggestions, so you swap the griddle for an espresso machine and change every number.
How do I enter espresso in a cost card?
Use weight, because the workbook counts ingredients in kilograms. Write the dose and milk as 18 g coffee and 200 g whole milk, then review each line after the card generates.
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 truck business plan uses the same steps with your own recipes.
Build your coffee truck plan from your own drinks.
Cost your drinks, choose Food truck, swap in your espresso setup and open the workbook about a minute later.