Coffee Cart Business Plan, With a 12-Month Projection

A coffee cart business plan sets out where the cart will stand and when, what a drink costs and sells for, the cart, machine and permits, and the first year month by month. A latte is about a dollar of beans, milk and cup, and the barista's minute costs as much again; the rest of the price pays for the cart, the spots and the events. Events are what make a cart different from a café: a wedding or office party pays a flat fee for two hours, booked ahead, and fills the days a market spot is quiet. In the example below, a cart in Boise sells drip coffee, lattes and flavored lattes at markets and office parks, plus event bookings, makes a profit from the first month, and ends the year about $36,400 ahead on $88,500 of sales, after paying $16 an hour for every hour behind the machine. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the rules, the projection, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the cart, the spots, the events, the goals.
• Cost a drink with the barista in it: beans, milk, cup, and the minute it takes.
• Lattes are the business; drip is fast and cheap; oat milk and syrups cost more and sell for more.
• Book events: a flat fee for two hours, paid ahead, whatever the foot traffic.
• A cart needs a commissary, water tanks and sinks to pass inspection; check before buying.
• The machine and grinder are the big costs; a used cart keeps the startup down.
• TaroStack keeps beans, milk and cups counted on the cart and at the commissary. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Foothills Coffee Cart, a made-up coffee cart in Boise, Idaho, I use in these examples, writes:

Foothills Coffee Cart serves espresso drinks and drip coffee from a towable cart at two farmers markets, three office parks on weekday mornings, and private events, with beans from a local roaster. In our first year we plan to book 40 events.

Part 2: what a drink costs

The barista line is the cost a café hides in its wages: at full speed the cart sells about 1,800 drinks a month over some 120 hours of serving, setting up and cleaning, which is $1,920, about $1.20 an espresso drink and 60 cents a drip. Oat milk costs more than twice what dairy does an ounce, which is why the flavored and oat latte carries a higher price. How to read a food cost against the price is in what is a good food cost percentage.

Part 3: customers and prices

Lattes are half the drinks and most of the money. An event leaves $319, about as much as 100 lattes at a market, booked and paid for ahead, which is why the plan aims at weddings, office parties and school events for the weekdays and weekends when markets are slow. Beans from a local roaster are a selling point; how a roaster prices them is in coffee roasting business plan.

Part 4: the rules

A coffee cart is a mobile food business. Health departments generally require it to operate from a commissary, a licensed kitchen where it fills water, empties waste water, washes equipment and stores supplies, and the cart itself needs a handwashing sink, a wash sink, fresh and waste water tanks, and refrigeration to keep milk cold. Each city or county also decides where a cart may park and sell. The rules differ from one county to the next, so read the county's mobile food rules before buying a cart, because the cart has to be built to pass that inspection. A cart runs much like a food truck; a food truck inventory spreadsheet is a start for what to load each day. This is general information, not legal advice.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $955 a month: the commissary ($300), insurance ($70), permits ($40), market and location fees ($250), the vehicle and towing ($150), generator and propane upkeep ($40), software and card fees ($45), and marketing ($60). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it by month 11:

The year's sales are $88,520 and the profit $36,401, on top of $16 an hour for every hour behind the machine. The barista cost is counted per drink at the full-speed rate, so in the first months the cart opens fewer hours to match. The $20,100 of cart, equipment and first stock is paid back by about month 10.

Part 6: the startup budget

Get the template

Download the coffee cart business plan workbook. Four sheets: your drinks and events 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

Beans from the roaster every week, milk and oat milk with short dates, cups and lids by the case, a cart that's at a market one day and a wedding the next, and a commissary storeroom behind it all. A sheet can't say whether there's enough oat milk on the cart for Saturday, what to load for a 150-guest wedding, or whether events or markets earn more.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps beans, milk and cups counted on the cart and at the commissary.

The cart and the storeroom. The cart and the commissary storeroom are sites, with transfers between them, so what's loaded for the day comes off the storeroom's count and what comes back goes on again. Counting works on a phone with no signal, and milk and oat milk carry their dates, so the oldest go out first and anything close to its date shows in your alerts.

Drinks as recipes. Each drink is a recipe of its beans, milk, syrup and cup, and units convert: beans bought by the 5-pound bag, used by the gram. Recording a day's sales against the recipes takes them off stock at what you paid.

And what each line earns. Event bookings are sales orders for their date, the reorder list works in days of cover against each supplier's lead time, and margins are reported by product and by customer.

Recipes, lots and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month; up to three sites, the cart and the commissary storeroom included, are 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.

Questions people also ask

Is a coffee cart business profitable?

It can be. In the example, a cart selling at markets, office parks and events ends the first year about $36,400 ahead on $88,500 of sales, with $16 an hour paid for every hour behind the machine.

How much does it cost to start a coffee cart business?

In the example, $23,100 with a used cart, a two-group espresso machine, a grinder, a generator, first stock, permits and $3,000 of working cash. A new cart costs more.

How much does a latte cost to make?

In the example, about $1.09 of beans, milk and cup for a 12-ounce latte, and $2.46 with the barista's time and card fees.

How much should I charge for an event coffee cart?

Cost the drinks, the baristas' hours with setup and travel, and fuel, then price for your margin. In the example, two hours and up to 100 drinks cost $281 and sell for $600.