BBQ Catering Business Plan, With a First-Year Projection

A barbecue caterer sells by the guest: brisket, pulled pork, two sides, bread and sauce, served at a wedding or dropped off at an office. Brisket loses about half its raw weight in the smoker, so the cost per guest starts with that yield. The plan turns on the smoker trailer and the commercial kitchen the food is prepped in, the crew for each event, and the calendar: weddings and graduations bunch into spring and fall. Drop-off lunches for offices fill the weekdays. In the example, a Waco barbecue caterer starts with $70,400, ends its first year about $12,100 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $6,200 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the events, the crowd sizes, the area you'll serve, the goals.
• Cost each guest from cooked yield: brisket loses about half its weight.
• Plan sales by service: full-service events, drop-off lunches and meat by the pound.
• Kitchen rent and the crew for each event are the costs that decide the month.
• Take deposits; a cancelled wedding is meat already bought.
• Budget working cash for the slow months, and check it against the lowest cash point.
• TaroStack makes each plate a recipe, so its true cost follows the price of what's in it. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Post Oak Smoke Catering, a made-up barbecue caterer in Waco, Texas, writes:

Post Oak Smoke Catering smokes brisket, pulled pork and sausage on an offset smoker trailer and caters weddings, graduations and company picnics, delivers office lunches, and sells meat by the pound for holidays. It preps in a rented commercial kitchen. In its first year it aims to reach $28,000 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a guest costs

Brisket bought at $4.50 a pound raw comes out at about $9 a pound cooked, after it loses half its weight in the smoker; six ounces of meat a guest is most of the plate. The sauce and its business are in BBQ sauce business plan.

Part 3: events and schedule

Two or three full-service events a week in season, 100 guests on average, with three people serving; office drop-offs on weekdays; meat by the pound around Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $28,080 a month and keeps $18,276, 65.1%; full-service plates bring $14,220 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $12,100 every month: commercial kitchen ($1,500), wages for event crew ($8,000), wood and fuel ($600), insurance ($400), trailer and truck upkeep ($500), rentals and linens ($300), software ($60), ads ($400), and other costs ($340). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $241,752, and the business ends it $12,146 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $18,590 of sales a month, in the sixth month. The lowest cash point, −$15,724 in month 5, is covered by the $20,000 of working cash with about $4,300 to spare. Wages for the event crew and the kitchen are the fixed costs; a 50% deposit at booking covers the meat for each event before it's smoked.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $50,400 before working cash is earned back in about 8 months at full speed. The license a caterer needs is in catering license, and catering in general in catering business plan.

Get the template

Download the BBQ catering business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one yield. The smoker gives a different one every cook: a brisket that renders more fat, a cook that runs long, and leftovers from an event that came in under its headcount.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack makes each plate a recipe, so its true cost follows the price of brisket and pork.

Plates as recipes. Each plate is a recipe by weight, so its cost moves when the supplier's price does.

Counts with no signal. The cooler and dry storage can be counted on a phone with no signal, and the reorder list shows what runs out first in days of cover.

Waste with a reason. Meat left after an event is recorded as waste with a reason, reported by item.

Recipes, counts and the reorder list 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.

Questions people also ask

How much does it cost to start a BBQ catering business?

The example budgets $70,400, including $20,000 of working cash; the smoker trailer is the biggest item.

Is a BBQ catering business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $6,200 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does BBQ catering cost per person to make?

In the example, about $8.20 a full-service plate: six ounces of brisket and pork, two sides, bread and sauce, plates and the card fee.

How much brisket do you need per person?

The example plans about six ounces of cooked meat a guest, which is about 12 ounces of raw brisket before smoking.