Cheesecake Business Plan, With a 12-Month Projection

A cheesecake business plan sets out what you'll bake and who buys it, what a cake and a slice cost, the kitchen and the cold storage it needs, and the first year month by month. Cheesecake is a good business to plan because the same cake earns three very different amounts depending on how it's sold: whole to a customer, whole and pre-sliced to a café, or by the slice at a market. It also has to stay cold from the oven to the fork, which decides where you can make it. In the example below, a cheesecake maker in Mississippi sells whole cakes direct and to cafés, slices at markets and mini cheesecakes, makes a profit from month 2, and ends the year about $36,000 ahead on $109,600 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for the baking. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, what one cake earns three ways, the cold chain, the projection, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: what you bake, where you sell, the kitchen, the goals.
• Cost a cake with your time in it: cream cheese is the biggest ingredient line.
• One cake earns very differently whole, sliced for a café, or slice by slice at a market.
• Cafés are steady but pay least per cake; slices pay most but sell slower.
• Cheesecake must stay cold, so plan on a licensed kitchen and cold storage.
• Budget for an oven, a refrigerator and a mixer before the first sale.
• TaroStack keeps every bake with its lot and date, and the cream cheese on the reorder list. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Magnolia Cheesecake Co., a made-up cheesecake maker in Jackson, Mississippi, I use in these examples, writes:

Magnolia Cheesecake Co. bakes New York and seasonal cheesecakes in a licensed kitchen, sold whole to order, pre-sliced to cafés and restaurants, by the slice at two farmers markets, and as mini cheesecakes. Every cake carries its bake date. In our first year we plan to supply 10 cafés.

Part 2: what a cake costs

Then each product adds its own:

A slice's share is a twelfth of the cake, its slicing included. A mini is $2.10 of ingredients and 6 minutes of work. Cream cheese is the line to watch: it's 60% of the ingredients. How to cost a recipe line by line is in steps in recipe costing.

Part 3: one cake, three ways

Sold as twelve slices at a market, one cake brings in $84 and leaves $57.36; whole to a customer, $48 and $25.63; to a café, $36 and $12.40. The café pays least, but it orders every week, pays on account, and sells the cake every day you're not at a market. The slices pay most, but a market only sells so many, and the ones left at the end of the day have a date on them. How to set a café price that still pays is in how to price baked goods for wholesale.

Part 4: keeping it cold

Cheesecake is made with cream cheese, eggs and sour cream, and it has to be kept refrigerated from the time it cools to the time it's eaten. Cottage food rules are written for foods that keep at room temperature, so check whether your state allows cheesecake from a home kitchen at all; in many it doesn't, and this plan uses a licensed kitchen. Cold storage, a cooler at the market and cold delivery are all in the budget. Milk, eggs and wheat are the allergens to declare, plus any nuts in a crust or topping. How the cottage food rules work is in how to start a cottage food business.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $1,545 a month: the kitchen lease ($1,000), refrigeration power ($100), insurance ($70), market fees ($150), the vehicle ($150), the website ($40), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it by month 11:

The year's sales are $109,628 and the profit $35,953, on top of $20 an hour for the baking, about 160 hours a month at full speed.

Part 6: the startup budget

Get the template

Download the cheesecake business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products with price, variable cost and monthly volume at full speed; the 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

Two hundred and eighty cakes a month, in five flavors, with bake dates, go to customers, ten cafés and two markets, and the refrigerator holds cakes from four bakes. A café asks which day's cake it got, the cream cheese runs out the morning of a holiday order, and the slices left after a rainy market never get counted.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps every bake with its date.

Bakes with lots and dates. Each cheesecake is a recipe, crust and filling, and units convert: cream cheese bought by the case, weighed by the pound. Recording a bake takes the ingredients off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, and puts the cakes into a lot with their bake and best-by dates, so the oldest go out first and lots close to their date show in your alerts.

Cafés on account. Café orders are sales orders for their delivery day that show whether the cakes to fill them are in the refrigerator while you're still typing, and one report walks any bake to every café that got it.

And what's left over. Slices left after a market go off as adjustments with their reason, so the market that always leaves a cake unsold shows up. The cream cheese sits on the reorder list in days of cover, and margins are reported by product and by customer.

Recipes, batches, lots and margins by product and customer 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

Is a cheesecake business profitable?

It can be. In the example, a maker selling whole cakes, café wholesale, market slices and minis ends the first year about $36,000 ahead on $109,600 of sales, with $20 an hour paid for the baking.

How much does it cost to make a cheesecake?

In the example, $11.10 of ingredients for a 9-inch New York cheesecake, $7 of it cream cheese, and $19.43 with 25 minutes of hands-on time.

Can I sell cheesecake from home?

Cheesecake needs refrigeration, and cottage food rules are written for foods that keep at room temperature, so in many states it can't be made at home for sale. Check your state's list; the example uses a licensed kitchen.

How much should I charge for a cheesecake?

Cost it with your time, then price each channel. In the example, a 9-inch cheesecake sells for $48 whole, $36 to a café pre-sliced, and $7 a slice at a market.