A BBQ sauce business plan sets out the sauce, the safety review that makes it shelf-stable, who will buy it at what price, where you'll make it, and the first year month by month. Before anything else, find out from a process authority whether your sauce is an acidified food under FDA's rules, because that decides the review, the filings, the pH checks and the training your plan has to budget. In the example below, a BBQ sauce maker in a rented kitchen reaches 300 retail and 600 wholesale bottles a month by month 11, makes a monthly profit from month 2, and ends the year about $14,400 ahead on top of paying for the kitchen hours. Below is a sample description, each part of the plan, the projection, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the business in a paragraph: the sauce, the customers, the kitchen, the goals.
- Get a process authority's review before you budget anything else.
- Cost a bottle: ingredients, bottle and cap, label, labor, kitchen time.
- Price for retail and wholesale, and count the stores you need.
- Record pH on every batch and a lot code on every bottle.
- Project 12 months with sales ramping up.
- TaroStack keeps every batch's pH, lots and cost, and traces any bottle. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, adds a BBQ sauce. Its description reads:
Windward Roots BBQ makes a pineapple and smoked shoyu BBQ sauce in a rented commercial kitchen on Oʻahu, bottled in 16 oz glass under a scheduled process from a process authority. We sell at two Saturday markets and online, and wholesale to grocers, butchers and gift shops. Every bottle carries a lot code and best-by date. In the first year we plan to be in 30 stores and to sell 900 bottles a month by month 11.
Part 2: the process review
Many bottled sauces made safe with vinegar are acidified foods under FDA's rules, which brings a scheduled process from a process authority, FDA registration and filing, a trained supervisor, and pH records for every batch. Some sauces fall outside the definition. Which side yours is on is the process authority's call, not a guess, and it's the first line of the plan. What the review covers and costs is in process authority letter, and how the acidified-food steps fit a sauce plan is in hot sauce business plan. This is general information, not legal advice.
Part 3: what a bottle costs
| Per 16 oz bottle | Cost |
|---|---|
| Tomato paste, vinegar, sugar, pineapple, shoyu, spices | $0.95 |
| Glass bottle, cap and label | $1.05 |
| Labor | $0.50 |
| Kitchen time | $0.60 |
| Variable cost | $3.10 |
A retail bottle also pays a 3% card fee, so its variable cost is $3.37. The bottle costs more than the sauce in it, which is common for sauces; packaging minimums are worth checking against your early volume.
Part 4: customers and prices
| Channel | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Bottles a month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Retail, markets and online | $9.00 | $3.37 | $5.63 | 300 |
| Wholesale to stores | $5.50 | $3.10 | $2.40 | 600 |
Six hundred wholesale bottles a month is about 30 stores taking 20 each. A store selling at about $9 sits beside your own price. What stores ask of a new supplier is in requirements for selling food to grocery stores.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach 100% by month 11, against $575 of fixed costs a month: insurance, market booths, the website, marketing and samples, and delivery.
| Month | Retail bottles | Wholesale bottles | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 45 | 90 | $900 | −$106 | −$106 |
| 2 | 60 | 120 | $1,200 | $51 | −$55 |
| 3 | 75 | 150 | $1,500 | $207 | $152 |
| 4 | 90 | 180 | $1,800 | $364 | $516 |
| 5 | 120 | 240 | $2,400 | $677 | $1,193 |
| 6 | 150 | 300 | $3,000 | $990 | $2,182 |
| 7 | 180 | 360 | $3,600 | $1,302 | $3,485 |
| 8 | 210 | 420 | $4,200 | $1,615 | $5,100 |
| 9 | 240 | 480 | $4,800 | $1,928 | $7,028 |
| 10 | 270 | 540 | $5,400 | $2,241 | $9,269 |
| 11 | 300 | 600 | $6,000 | $2,554 | $11,823 |
| 12 | 300 | 600 | $6,000 | $2,554 | $14,377 |
With little fixed, the cash stays close to even in the first months; the startup costs, the process review, the course, label work and the first 1,000 bottles, are the cash the plan has to raise. The number to make believable is 30 stores. How pH is tested and recorded on every batch is in pH testing for acidified foods.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Process authority review and lab tests | $450 |
| Acidified foods course for the supervisor | $500 |
| Label design and nutrition analysis | $700 |
| First 1,000 bottles, caps and labels | $1,050 |
| Ingredients for test batches | $250 |
| pH meter and calibration solutions | $150 |
| License and permits | $400 |
| Market tent and table | $300 |
| Barcodes from GS1, for stores | $250 |
| Website | $300 |
| Working cash | $2,000 |
| Total to start | $6,350 |
Get the template
Download the BBQ sauce business plan template. Type your bottles with their price, variable cost and monthly volume at full speed, your fixed costs and startup budget, and how fast stores 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
A scheduled process asks for a record of every batch: the recipe version, the ingredient lots, the pH, the temperatures and who supervised. At two batches a week in two flavors, a binder falls behind, and the day a store asks about a bottle from March, or a supplier recalls a lot of tomato paste, the answer is in the binder, if it's anywhere.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the batches the process asks for, and the cost and lots behind every bottle.
Every batch, with its pH and its lots. Each sauce is a recipe with versions. Recording a batch takes the ingredients off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, and puts the bottles into a lot with a best-by date. Batch record forms carry your own fields, like pH, fill temperature and sign-off, with limits, so a pH over your process's limit is flagged when it's entered, and the batch can sit on hold until it's resolved.
Any bottle, traced. One report walks any lot to the stores that got it and back to the tomato paste lot inside, with what's still on your shelves, so a store's question or a supplier's recall has an answer in minutes.
And the plan, checked. Each store is a customer with its orders. Margins are reported by product and by customer, on what each bottle actually cost, and the reorder list shows bottles and caps in days of cover, with the supplier's minimum.
| The job | Binder and spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| pH against the limit | Written down, maybe | A batch record field, flagged over the limit |
| Which tomato paste went in | "Paste" | The supplier's lot, on the batch |
| Who got this lot | Search the invoices | One report, lot to store |
| Cost per bottle | Worked out once | Every batch, at what you paid |
Lots, holds, recalls, recipes with versions, batches and batch records with limits 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.