Biscotti Business Plan: Coffee Shops, Markets and Gifts

Biscotti are baked twice until dry, so they keep for weeks, which makes them one of the easiest baked goods to sell wholesale. A wrapped single costs about 32 cents to make and sells to a coffee shop for $1.10, which sells it beside the register for $3. Market bags, gift tins and corporate gift boxes in December keep more of each sale. The plan turns on coffee shop accounts, since a single shop can take a hundred a week, on wrapping, which takes more time than baking, and on the gift season. The plan below works per biscotti, bag and tin. In the example, a Montclair biscotti maker starts with $31,500, ends its first year about $13,000 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $3,800 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 flavors, who buys, where you bake, the goals.
• Cost each item: flour, eggs, sugar, nuts by weight, the wrapper or bag, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: café singles, market bags, gift tins, corporate gifts.
• Biscotti keep for weeks: wholesale works.
• Wrapping takes more time than baking; count it.
• Plan for December gifts.
• TaroStack costs each biscotti from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Montclair Biscotti Co., a made-up biscotti maker in Montclair, New Jersey, writes:

Montclair Biscotti Co. bakes almond, chocolate hazelnut and anise biscotti in a shared kitchen and sells wrapped singles to 30 coffee shops, bags at a Saturday market, gift tins online and at the market, and corporate gift boxes in December. In its first year it aims to reach $13,040 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a biscotti costs

A biscotti is about an ounce of flour, sugar, eggs and almonds; the almonds are most of its cost. Coffee shops sell the wrapped single for about $3. Pricing them is in how to price biscotti, and selling to cafés in how to sell baked goods to coffee shops.

Part 3: coffee shops, the market and gifts

The kitchen bakes Mondays and Wednesdays and wraps on Tuesdays and Thursdays; coffee shops get a delivery every two weeks, since biscotti keep. The market runs Saturdays year-round. Corporate orders come in from mid-November, and the kitchen adds two days a week for the month. Every wrapper lists the ingredients and allergens: wheat, eggs, and almonds or hazelnuts.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $13,040 a month and keeps $9,589, 73.5%; café singles bring $4,680 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $5,800 every month: wages for a baker and wrapper ($3,500), shared kitchen hours ($1,200), delivery fuel ($300), insurance ($250), market fees ($200), software ($50), and other costs ($300). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $112,302, and the business ends it $12,982 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $7,890 of sales a month, in the fifth month. The lowest cash point, −$5,735 in month 4, is covered by the $10,000 of working cash with about $4,300 to spare. December, with gift tins and corporate boxes, sells about twice a normal month; the plan spreads it as an average, so order tins and boxes in October.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $21,500 before working cash is earned back in about 6 months at full speed. A bakery selling a wider range is in bakery business plan, and the cookie business beside it in cookie business plan.

Get the template

Download the biscotti 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 cost per biscotti. Almond prices move by the harvest, a coffee shop doubles its order before the holidays, and the wrappers run short the week the corporate orders land.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs each biscotti from its recipe and from what each batch used.

Recipes by weight. Each biscotti is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.

True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.

Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.

Recipes, batches and true cost 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 biscotti business?

The example budgets $31,500, including $10,000 of working cash; the used van is the biggest item.

Is a biscotti business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $3,800 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a biscotti cost to make?

In the example, about 26 cents of ingredients and 32 cents wrapped, sold to coffee shops for $1.10.

How long do biscotti last?

Weeks, since they're baked twice until dry; the date comes from the maker's own shelf life study.