A bath bomb business plan sets out what you'll make, which rules apply, who will buy it and at what price, how you'll make and store it, and the first year month by month. Bath bombs are cheap to make in ingredients, so the plan turns on your time per batch, humidity, which ruins bombs before they sell, and volume. In the example below, a bath bomb maker reaches 300 retail and 600 wholesale bombs a month by month 11, covers its small monthly costs from the first month, and ends the year about $15,400 ahead on top of paying for the making. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the projection, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the business in a paragraph: the products, the customers, the workspace, the goals.
- Cost a bomb: ingredients, shrink bag and label, your minutes, and a share of overhead.
- Price for retail and wholesale; wholesale needs batches big enough to keep labor down.
- Put the rules in the plan: no drug claims, approved colors, a correct label.
- Plan for humidity and shelf life: dry storage, a best-by date, oldest first.
- Project 12 months with sales ramping up.
- TaroStack costs every batch, dates every lot, and sends the oldest out first. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Hoʻola Botanicals, a made-up skincare maker I use in these examples, adds bath bombs to its skincare line. Its description reads:
Hoʻola Botanicals makes plumeria, coconut and lilikoʻi bath bombs by hand in a dehumidified workspace on Oʻahu, sold at two Saturday markets and online, and wholesale to gift shops and spas. Every bomb is shrink-wrapped and carries a lot code and best-by date. In the first year we plan to be in 30 shops and spas and to sell 900 bombs a month by month 11.
Part 2: what a bomb costs
The costs come from starting a bath bomb business, where a batch of 12 is worked through. For the plan, the overhead share moves to the monthly costs:
| Per 5.5 oz bath bomb | Cost |
|---|---|
| Ingredients ($8.43 a batch of 12) | $0.70 |
| Shrink bag and label | $0.15 |
| Labor, 45 minutes a batch at $20 an hour | $1.25 |
| Variable cost | $2.10 |
A retail bomb also pays a 3% card fee, so its variable cost is $2.34.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Channel | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Bombs a month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail, markets and online | $8.00 | $2.34 | $5.66 | 300 |
| Wholesale to shops and spas | $4.25 | $2.10 | $2.15 | 600 |
Six hundred wholesale bombs a month is about 30 shops and spas taking 20 each. A shop selling at about $8.50 sits beside your own retail price.
Part 4: the rules and operations
| Area | In the plan |
|---|---|
| Cosmetic or drug | Claims stay on scent, color and feel; "eases sore muscles" can make it a drug |
| Colors | Only colors approved for cosmetics, with the supplier's documents |
| Label | Ingredients in order, net weight, your name and place, a contact for reactions |
| MoCRA | Safety records and serious reaction reports, even for a small business |
| Workspace | A dehumidifier, drying racks, sealed storage |
| Records | A batch record and lot code for every batch: ingredient lots, humidity, bombs made |
What the cosmetics law still asks of a small maker is in MoCRA for small businesses. This is general information, not legal advice.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach 100% by month 11, against $410 of fixed costs a month: market booths, marketing and samples, the website, software and card fees, and dehumidifier power.
| Month | Retail bombs | Wholesale bombs | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 | 90 | $743 | $38 | $38 |
| 2 | 60 | 120 | $990 | $188 | $226 |
| 3 | 75 | 150 | $1,238 | $337 | $563 |
| 4 | 90 | 180 | $1,485 | $486 | $1,049 |
| 5 | 120 | 240 | $1,980 | $785 | $1,834 |
| 6 | 150 | 300 | $2,475 | $1,084 | $2,918 |
| 7 | 180 | 360 | $2,970 | $1,383 | $4,301 |
| 8 | 210 | 420 | $3,465 | $1,682 | $5,983 |
| 9 | 240 | 480 | $3,960 | $1,980 | $7,963 |
| 10 | 270 | 540 | $4,455 | $2,279 | $10,242 |
| 11 | 300 | 600 | $4,950 | $2,578 | $12,820 |
| 12 | 300 | 600 | $4,950 | $2,578 | $15,398 |
With so little fixed, the plan's risks are elsewhere: a humid week that ruins a batch, a scent that doesn't sell before its best-by date, and 30 shops, which is the number the plan has to make believable. At 900 bombs a month, that's 75 batches of 12, about 56 hours of making, which is the other limit worth writing down. How batch size changes labor per unit is in batch size calculator.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Molds, scale, bowls, sifter, gloves, masks, shrink bags and heat gun | $250 |
| First ingredients, fragrance oils and approved colors | $450 |
| Labels and label design | $400 |
| A cosmetic chemist's review of the formula | $300 |
| Product liability insurance, first year | $600 |
| Business license | $100 |
| Website and product photos | $400 |
| Market tent, table and display | $300 |
| Working cash | $1,000 |
| Total to start | $3,800 |
Get the template
Download the bath bomb business plan template. Type your products with their price, variable cost and monthly volume at full speed, your fixed costs and startup budget, and how fast shops will come on; it works out each month's sales, profit and cash, the first month with a profit and the lowest cash point. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Seventy-five batches a month in eight scents is a lot of lots. Which plumeria batch went to which spa, which bombs were made in the humid week, how much citric acid is left, and whether the coconut scent is still selling: a notebook doesn't keep up, and the first sign of trouble is a shop's message about cracked bombs.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps every batch's lots, dates and cost, and finds any bomb's batch in seconds.
One base, many scents. The base mix is a sub-recipe used in every scent's recipe, with units converted: buy baking soda by the 50 lb bag, use it by the ounce. Recording a batch takes each ingredient from the lot used, at what you paid, and puts the bombs into a lot with a best-by date, costed from what came out good. Batch record forms carry your own fields, like the room's humidity, with limits that flag a reading outside them.
Oldest first, and any bomb traced. Stock is picked first-expired-first-out by default, and the expiry forecast shows what will pass its best-by unsold. One report walks any lot to the shops and customers who got it and back to the ingredient lots inside.
And the plan, checked. Each shop and spa is a customer with its orders. Margins are reported by product and by customer, and stock that isn't moving shows how long since it last went out, so the scent that doesn't sell is visible before the next batch.
| The plan's line | In the spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Cost per bomb | $2.10, from the first batch | Every batch, at what you paid |
| The humid week's batches | Remembered, maybe | Humidity on the batch record |
| Which spa has this batch | Search the orders | One report, lot to customer |
| A scent that doesn't sell | Found at the best-by date | Stock not moving |
Lots, expiry, recalls, recipes, batches and batch records are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.