A charcuterie business plan is a plan for perishable stock bought ahead of orders. Cheese and cured meat are bought by the pound before the week's boxes and boards are booked, cut cheese keeps days rather than weeks, and every board is built by hand the day it's picked up. So the plan has to cost a board from the food a person up, price it so the box and the assembly are covered, and buy cheese for the orders it has. In the example below, a charcuterie company in Nevada sells boxes for two, boards for eight and fifteen, and grazing tables, and ends its first year about $26,400 ahead on $97,000 of sales, with the assembly paid. 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: boxes, boards, tables, who orders, the goals.
- Cost the food a person, then the board or box, the assembly and the labels.
- Price to the same margin at every size; quote a price a person too.
- Grazing tables are the biggest sales; boxes for two are the most orders.
- Buy cheese and meat for the week's orders; cut cheese won't wait.
- Work from a licensed kitchen; boards of cheese and meat need refrigeration.
- TaroStack keeps cheese and meat by lot and date, and costs every board from what they cost. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Silver Sage Boards, a made-up charcuterie company in Reno, Nevada, I use in these examples, writes:
Silver Sage Boards builds charcuterie boxes, boards and grazing tables to order in a licensed commercial kitchen, for pickup or delivery in the Reno and Sparks area, for parties, offices and weddings.
Part 2: what each order costs
The food a person is 2 ounces of cheese at $12 a pound, 2 ounces of cured meat at $16 a pound, 10% for trim, and $1.50 of crackers, fruit, nuts and jam: $5.35.
| Per unit | Box for 2 | Board for 8 | Board for 15 | Grazing table for 50 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Food, at $5.35 a person | $10.70 | $42.80 | $80.25 | $267.50 |
| Box, board or setup, labels and napkins | $4.50 | $11.00 | $16.50 | $60.00 |
| Assembly at $20 an hour | $5.00 (15 min) | $13.33 (40 min) | $20.00 (60 min) | $80.00 (4 h) |
| Card fees, 3% | $1.20 | $3.90 | $6.75 | $23.55 |
| Variable cost | $21.40 | $71.03 | $123.50 | $431.05 |
Delivery is charged as its own line, so it isn't here. How each size was priced, and why a box for two costs more a person than a board for fifteen, is in how to price charcuterie boards. The food is about a third of each price, a little less for a box for two; what's typical elsewhere is in what is a good food cost percentage.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | A month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Charcuterie box for 2 | $40.00 | $21.40 | $18.60 | 46.5% | 80 |
| Board for 8 | $130.00 | $71.03 | $58.97 | 45.4% | 40 |
| Board for 15 | $225.00 | $123.50 | $101.50 | 45.1% | 15 |
| Grazing table for 50 | $785.00 | $431.05 | $353.95 | 45.1% | 3 |
At full speed the boards for eight bring about $2,360 of the month's $6,430 of contribution, the boards for fifteen about $1,520, the boxes for two about $1,490 from 80 orders, and three grazing tables about $1,060. The boxes are the most orders and the most messages; the grazing tables are the most money an order and the most hours on a Saturday. Each size is priced to the same margin, so what differs is how many orders it takes to fill a month.
Part 4: the first year, month by month
Fixed costs are $1,475 a month: commercial kitchen rent ($900), insurance ($100), the health permit averaged ($30), the website and ordering ($60), marketing and samples ($250), delivery fuel ($100), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it in month 11:
| Month | Boxes for 2 | Boards for 8 | Boards for 15 | Grazing tables | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 12 | 6 | 2 | 0 | $1,710 | −$695 | −$695 |
| 2 | 16 | 8 | 3 | 1 | $3,140 | −$47 | −$742 |
| 3 | 20 | 10 | 4 | 1 | $3,785 | $247 | −$496 |
| 4 | 24 | 12 | 5 | 1 | $4,430 | $540 | $45 |
| 5 | 32 | 16 | 6 | 1 | $5,495 | $1,027 | $1,072 |
| 6 | 40 | 20 | 8 | 2 | $7,570 | $1,968 | $3,040 |
| 7 | 48 | 24 | 9 | 2 | $8,635 | $2,454 | $5,494 |
| 8 | 56 | 28 | 11 | 2 | $9,925 | $3,042 | $8,537 |
| 9 | 64 | 32 | 12 | 2 | $10,990 | $3,528 | $12,065 |
| 10 | 72 | 36 | 14 | 3 | $13,065 | $4,470 | $16,535 |
| 11 | 80 | 40 | 15 | 3 | $14,130 | $4,956 | $21,491 |
| 12 | 80 | 40 | 15 | 3 | $14,130 | $4,956 | $26,447 |
The year's sales are $97,005 and the profit $26,447, with the assembly paid at $20 an hour in the variable costs. At full speed that's about $4,600 of cheese, meat and accompaniments a month and about 75 hours of building. Cash falls to −$742 by month 2, so the plan keeps $2,500 of working cash, and grazing tables take a deposit. Orders peak around the holidays and Valentine's Day; plan the cheese and the hours for them.
Part 5: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Reach-in refrigerator | $2,500 |
| Meat slicer | $1,200 |
| Platters and display pieces for grazing tables | $1,500 |
| Knives and cutting boards | $300 |
| Insulated delivery bags | $200 |
| Branded boxes and labels, first order | $800 |
| Website and photos | $1,000 |
| Working cash | $2,500 |
| Total to start | $10,000 |
Boards of cheese and cured meat need refrigeration, and cottage food laws generally cover only foods that don't, so this plan works from a licensed commercial kitchen under a permit from the county health department; ask yours what a board company needs, and how long a grazing table may sit out. At $26,400 a year, the $7,500 spent before working cash is earned back by month 8. What's thrown away is a cost to measure; how is in waste log template.
Get the template
Download the charcuterie business plan workbook. Four sheets: your boxes, boards and tables with price, variable cost and a month's volume 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
Eight cheeses and five meats, each bought in its own size, cut wedges that keep a few days, a Saturday with a grazing table and twelve boards, a supplier whose brie went up, and leftovers that have to be used or thrown away by Tuesday. A notebook can't say how much of the aged cheddar is left and how old it is, what a board for eight costs this week, or how much brie Saturday's orders need.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps cheese and meat by lot and date, and costs every board from what they cost.
Cheese and meat by lot and date. Each wheel or chub is received with its lot and date, and cut cheese is counted by the pound on a phone, so the cheddar left and how old it is are numbers, and boards are built from the earliest dates first.
Boards as recipes. A board for eight is a recipe of its cheese, meat, accompaniments, board and labels, so each order takes them off stock at what they cost, and the price creep report shows when the brie went up.
Orders by day. Each order is a sales order for its pickup or delivery day, so Saturday's boards and what they need are one list, and "what could I make right now" says whether there's enough brie.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Aged cheddar left, and how old | Unwrap and look | Stock by lot and date |
| What a board for eight costs now | Last month's receipts | A recipe, at what you paid |
| Enough brie for Saturday? | Hope | What could I make right now |
| Cheese thrown away | Not written down | Adjustments with a reason |
Recipes, lots, sales orders and adjustments 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.