A broom making business plan is mostly a plan for paying yourself by the hour. A broomcorn kitchen broom takes about $15 of broomcorn, handle and wire and an hour and a quarter of winding and sewing, so its price is set by the time in it, and the business works when enough of those hours sell at a price that pays them. In the example below, a broom maker in Vermont sells kitchen brooms at craft fairs and online, kitchen brooms to shops, hearth brooms and decorated wedding brooms. The first year ends about $4,100 ahead on $48,600 of sales, after paying every hour at $20, which is most of what the maker earns. Below is a description example, 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 brooms, where they sell, the goals.
- Cost each broom by its broomcorn in pounds, its handle, and its hours.
- The hours are more than half the cost; price from them.
- Craft fairs and online pay the full price; shops pay about half, so make shop brooms faster, in runs.
- Wedding brooms and hearth brooms carry more margin for each hour.
- Buy broomcorn by the bale and keep it counted, because a short season means a short supply.
- TaroStack keeps broomcorn by the pound and handles by the each, and takes each run of brooms off stock as it's made. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Hogback Mountain Brooms, a made-up broom maker near Marlboro, Vermont, I use in these examples, writes:
Hogback Mountain Brooms winds broomcorn kitchen brooms, hearth brooms and wedding brooms on hardwood handles in a barn workshop in southern Vermont, and sells them at New England craft fairs, online, and through about 12 shops. In its first year it aims to pay its maker $20 an hour and cover its costs.
Part 2: what a broom costs
| Per unit | Kitchen broom, direct | Kitchen broom, to shops | Hearth broom | Wedding broom |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Broomcorn at $5 a pound | $8.00 (1.6 lb) | $8.00 (1.6 lb) | $3.00 (0.6 lb) | $6.00 (1.2 lb) |
| Handle | $6.00 | $6.00 | $3.00 | $6.00 |
| Wire and twine, or ribbon and decoration | $1.20 | $1.20 | $0.60 | $8.00 |
| Winding and sewing at $20 an hour | $25.00 (75 min) | $20.00 (60 min, in runs of 12) | $13.33 (40 min) | $35.00 (105 min) |
| Packing or delivery, its share | $2.50 | $1.00 | $1.50 | $3.00 |
| Selling fees: 6% direct, 3% to shops | $5.10 | $1.44 | $2.70 | $6.60 |
| Variable cost | $47.80 | $37.64 | $24.13 | $64.60 |
A shop broom is the same broom made faster: twelve at a time, the broomcorn sorted once, the handles prepared together, an hour each instead of an hour and a quarter. How to set a price from materials and time is in how to price handmade items.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | A month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kitchen broom, direct | $85.00 | $47.80 | $37.20 | 43.8% | 40 |
| Kitchen broom, to shops | $48.00 | $37.64 | $10.36 | 21.6% | 36 |
| Hearth broom, direct | $45.00 | $24.13 | $20.87 | 46.4% | 30 |
| Wedding broom, decorated | $110.00 | $64.60 | $45.40 | 41.3% | 6 |
In a month at full speed the direct kitchen brooms bring $1,488 of the $2,759 of contribution, the hearth brooms $626, the shops $373 and the wedding brooms $272. The shops earn the least for each broom, $10.36, but they sell 36 brooms a month without a fair fee or a day behind a table, and they put the name in front of people who don't go to fairs. Wholesale pricing is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
Part 4: the first year, month by month
Fixed costs are $1,220 every month: barn workshop rent ($500), craft fair fees averaged ($350), travel to fairs averaged ($150), the website ($40), insurance ($50), ads ($100), and software and card fees ($30). Sales start at 15% of full speed:
| Month | Kitchen, direct | Kitchen, to shops | Hearth | Wedding | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 6 | 5 | 5 | 1 | $1,085 | −$795 | −$795 |
| 2 | 8 | 7 | 6 | 1 | $1,396 | −$679 | −$1,475 |
| 3 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 2 | $1,862 | −$497 | −$1,972 |
| 4 | 12 | 11 | 9 | 2 | $2,173 | −$381 | −$2,353 |
| 5 | 16 | 14 | 12 | 2 | $2,792 | −$139 | −$2,491 |
| 6 | 20 | 18 | 15 | 3 | $3,569 | $160 | −$2,331 |
| 7 | 24 | 22 | 18 | 4 | $4,346 | $458 | −$1,873 |
| 8 | 28 | 25 | 21 | 4 | $4,965 | $700 | −$1,173 |
| 9 | 32 | 29 | 24 | 5 | $5,742 | $999 | −$174 |
| 10 | 36 | 32 | 27 | 5 | $6,361 | $1,241 | $1,067 |
| 11 | 40 | 36 | 30 | 6 | $7,138 | $1,539 | $2,607 |
| 12 | 40 | 36 | 30 | 6 | $7,138 | $1,539 | $4,146 |
The year's sales are $48,567 and the profit $4,146. That's small, and it's after every hour of winding and sewing is paid at $20: a full month is about 116 hours, $2,330 of wages, plus $1,539 of profit. The first five months lose money, $2,491 at the lowest, which the working cash covers. The way to more profit is more brooms at the full price, at fairs and online, not more shops. What to bring to a fair is in how much inventory for a craft fair, and what a market stall costs in cost to sell at a farmers market.
Part 5: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Broom winder | $1,200 |
| Sewing vise | $600 |
| Broomcorn, first 180 pounds | $900 |
| Handles, first stock | $400 |
| Hand tools | $250 |
| Craft fair tent, display and sign | $900 |
| Website and photos | $1,000 |
| Working cash | $3,000 |
| Total to start | $8,250 |
The $5,250 spent before working cash isn't earned back in the first year; at $1,539 a month it is early in the second.
Get the template
Download the broom making business plan workbook. Four sheets: your brooms with price, variable cost and a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash; your fixed costs; and your startup budget with working cash. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Broomcorn bought by the bale, sorted into lengths and colors, handles bought, foraged or turned, twelve shops reordering before the holidays, and a fair every other weekend in the autumn. A notebook can't say whether there's broomcorn for the shops' December orders and two fairs, or what last month's brooms used.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps broomcorn by the pound and handles by the each, and takes each run of brooms off stock as it's made.
Materials in their units. Broomcorn bought by the bale is counted by the pound, and handles and wire by the each, so the stock is in the units the brooms are made in.
Brooms as recipes. A kitchen broom is a recipe of broomcorn, a handle, wire and twine, so a run of twelve takes the materials off stock and records the labor minutes. "What could I make right now" says how many kitchen brooms the broomcorn and handles on hand allow.
Shops and fairs. Each shop's order is a sales order, and brooms taken to a fair can be a site of their own, counted before and after on a phone, so what sold is a number.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Broomcorn on hand | Weigh the bales | Stock by the pound |
| What a run of brooms used | A guess | Taken off stock as it's made |
| Brooms for December's orders? | Count and hope | What could I make right now |
| What sold at the fair | Count the van | A count at the fair's site |
Recipes, units and sales orders are on every plan, from $49 a month; a fair as a site of its own is on Standard at $99. 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.