A chocolate business plan sets out what you'll make, who buys it and at what price, where you'll make it, and the first year month by month. For chocolate, month by month matters more than for most foods, because the year isn't even: December and February can be several times a quiet month, and the boxes and couverture for them are bought weeks before. In the example below, a small chocolate business launching in September makes about $25,500 in its first year on top of paying for every hour of hand work, and more than half of that comes from December and February alone. Its cash dips lowest in October, before the holidays, when packaging for the season has to be paid for. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the seasonal projection, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the business in one paragraph: the chocolate, the customers, the kitchen, the year's goals.
- Cost each product by what one more costs: couverture with tempering loss, packaging, hand labor.
- Plan the calendar: December and February carry the year; quiet months still pay the rent.
- Make ahead what keeps, like bars, and make fresh what doesn't, like ganache bonbons.
- Budget the cash for pre-season packaging and couverture, bought before the sales come in.
- Project the year month by month, with its seasons, not a straight line.
- TaroStack costs every batch, dates every box, and plans the season from last year's sales. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Windward Roots, the made-up taro business I use in these examples, starts a chocolate line. Its description reads:
Windward Roots Chocolate makes bars and hand-painted bonbons in a small licensed kitchen on Oʻahu, using couverture and island flavors: macadamia, coconut, lilikoʻi and taro. We sell bars and boxes wholesale to gift shops and cafés, and retail at a weekly market and online, with gift boxes for the December holidays and Valentine's Day. In our first year we plan to sell through two peak seasons without running out, and to cover our monthly costs every month from November.
Part 2: what each product costs
The costs come from chocolate business profit margin, where both products are costed line by line. That article's full costs include a share of overhead; here overhead is a fixed cost, so the plan uses the rest:
| Product | Price | Cost without overhead | Contribution | At full speed, a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70 g bar, wholesale | $5.25 | $1.85 | $3.40 | 900 |
| 70 g bar, retail | $9.00 | $1.85 | $7.15 | 300 |
| Box of nine bonbons, wholesale | $14.00 | $6.29 | $7.71 | 400 |
| Box of nine bonbons, retail | $24.00 | $6.29 | $17.71 | 250 |
"Full speed" here is February, the busiest month. A box carries $2.67 of hand labor, which is why bonbons that don't sell by their date are the most expensive mistake in the plan.
Part 3: customers and channels
Wholesale to gift shops and cafés gives volume and steady orders; retail gives margin and the holiday boxes. Name the shops you'll approach, the price list that fits their margin, and how far ahead they order for the holidays, because a shop's December order is placed in October. How a wholesale price is built is in how to price handmade items for wholesale.
Part 4: operations
| Area | In the plan |
|---|---|
| Kitchen | A small licensed kitchen, temperature and humidity controlled |
| Equipment | A tempering machine, molds, a cooling area |
| Couverture | Supplier, price per kilogram, how much you hold before each season |
| Packaging | Boxes, inserts, sleeves and wrappers, ordered weeks ahead |
| Shelf life | Bars keep for months; fresh-ganache bonbons for a few weeks |
| Records | Each batch's couverture and filling lots, a best-by date on every box |
How to size a peak week against your kitchen is in how to calculate production capacity.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
The business opens in September and grows through the year, with the seasons on top: December at 60% of full speed, February at 80%, quiet months around a quarter. Fixed costs are $1,775 a month: kitchen rent, utilities, insurance, marketing, website.
| Month | Sales | Contribution | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September | $1,522 | $1,017 | −$758 | −$758 |
| October | $2,283 | $1,526 | −$249 | −$1,007 |
| November | $5,708 | $3,815 | $2,040 | $1,033 |
| December | $11,415 | $7,630 | $5,855 | $6,888 |
| January | $2,866 | $1,916 | $141 | $7,029 |
| February | $15,220 | $10,173 | $8,398 | $15,428 |
| March | $3,805 | $2,543 | $768 | $16,196 |
| April | $5,708 | $3,815 | $2,040 | $18,236 |
| May | $6,849 | $4,578 | $2,803 | $21,039 |
| June | $4,768 | $3,188 | $1,413 | $22,452 |
| July | $4,768 | $3,188 | $1,413 | $23,865 |
| August | $5,149 | $3,442 | $1,667 | $25,532 |
The year makes $25,532 on top of paying for the hand work, and December and February make $14,253 of it, 56%. January earns $141. The plan's cash number hides one thing: it counts the cost of a box when the box sells. Boxes and sleeves for December and February, 910 of them at $1.40, are ordered in October, with about $1,000 of couverture, so October's real low is nearer $3,300 than $1,007, against $3,000 of working cash. A plan that shows the pre-season purchase gets the working cash right.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Tempering machine | $2,500 |
| Molds | $400 |
| Packaging design | $600 |
| First 500 boxes, inserts and sleeves | $700 |
| First 1,000 bar wrappers and sleeves | $450 |
| First couverture | $600 |
| Kitchen deposit | $800 |
| License and permits | $400 |
| Label design and nutrition analysis | $700 |
| Market tent and table | $300 |
| Website | $300 |
| Working cash | $3,000 |
| Total to start | $10,750 |
Get the template
Download the chocolate business plan template. Month 1 is September; type your own products, fixed costs and startup budget, and change each month's share of full speed to match your seasons. 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 seasonal plan is only as good as its forecast of the season. In the first December, the macadamia bars sell out on the 12th and the lilikoʻi bonbons sit, couverture goes up 8%, and fifty boxes expire in January because they were made too early. Next year's plan should start from what really sold, by product and by week, and a spreadsheet rarely keeps that.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps what each product costs, what each season sold, and the date on every box.
Every batch, costed. Each bar and bonbon is a recipe, with fillings as sub-recipes and units converted: buy couverture by the case, use it by the gram. Each batch takes the couverture, fillings and packaging off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, divided by what came out good, so tempering loss and price rises are in the cost the day they happen.
Every box, dated. Each batch's boxes go into a lot with a best-by date from the item's shelf life, sold first-expired-first-out, and the expiry forecast shows which boxes will pass their date unsold while there's time to put them on sale.
And next season, planned. Planning works out what to make and what to buy from your orders and your own sales history, last December's included, so the boxes and couverture are ordered in time, bars made ahead in the quiet weeks and bonbons made fresh. Margins are reported by product and by customer, so the flavors and shops that earn are visible.
| The question | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What does a box cost now? | Worked out once | Every batch, at what you paid |
| Which boxes expire first? | The ones at the back | First-expired-first-out, with an expiry forecast |
| How much for December? | Last year's guess | Planning from last year's sales |
| Which flavors earn? | Unknown | Margins by product |
Lots, expiry, recipes, batches and margins are on every plan, from $49 a month; planning 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.