Crepe Business Plan: A Crepe Cart's First Year

A crepe cart turns flour, eggs and milk into a $9 sweet crepe or an $11 savory one, made to order on a griddle in front of the customer. The batter costs pennies; the fillings, Nutella and bananas or ham and gruyère, are most of the cost, and the margin is wide. The plan turns on where the cart stands: farmers markets, breweries and festivals bring the crowds, and their fees come before the first crepe. Catering a wedding or an office lunch brings a big ticket in one booking. The cart works from a licensed commissary, and a helper on busy days is the biggest fixed cost. In the example, a Charleston crepe cart starts with $32,600, ends its first year about $31,300 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $6,700 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the cart in a paragraph: where it stands, who buys, what's missing nearby, the goals.
• Cost each crepe: batter, fillings, paper and the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: sweet, savory, drinks and catering.
• Market and event fees and a helper's wages decide the month.
• Budget working cash for the slow first months, and check it against the lowest cash point.
• Catering bookings steady a rainy month.
• TaroStack makes each crepe a recipe, so its true cost follows the price of what's in it. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Petite Rue Crêpes, a made-up crepe cart in Charleston, South Carolina, writes:

Petite Rue Crêpes is a crepe cart serving sweet and savory crepes and drinks at Saturday markets, brewery nights and festivals, and catering weddings and office lunches. It works from a licensed commissary kitchen. In its first year it aims to reach $18,600 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a crepe costs

Batter is eggs, flour, milk and butter, about 35 cents a crepe; buckwheat costs a little more. The fillings are the cost to watch: gruyère and ham are $1.80 of the savory crepe. What a cart counts each week is in food truck inventory spreadsheet.

Part 3: customers and schedule

The cart works about 22 days a month: two Saturday markets, three brewery nights a week, weekday lunches in a business district and festivals. Sweet crepes outsell savory two to one in the afternoon; savory carry the evenings. A catering booking is 60 crepes for $720 and costs $210 in batter, fillings, paper and a helper's extra hours.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $18,610 a month and keeps $14,580, 78.3%; sweet crepes bring $6,660 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $7,860 every month: commissary kitchen ($700), wages for one helper ($4,500), market and event fees ($1,400), propane ($250), insurance ($200), cart upkeep ($300), register and software ($60), ads ($200), and other costs ($250). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $160,354, and the business ends it $31,300 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $10,030 of sales a month, in the fourth month. The lowest cash point, −$5,607 in month 3, is covered by the $10,000 of working cash with about $4,400 to spare. Market and event fees are the cost that grows with the calendar; the catering bookings, three a month, bring $1,530 of contribution whatever the weather.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $22,600 before working cash is earned back in about 3 months at full speed. The permits a cart needs are in food truck license, and the kitchen it works from in food truck commissary requirements.

Get the template

Download the crepe business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one cost a crepe. The cart uses a different one each week: Nutella and cheese prices move, batter made for a market that rains out gets thrown away, and the gruyère runs out on a Saturday because nobody counted.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack makes each crepe a recipe, so its true cost follows the price of Nutella, ham and gruyère.

Crepes as recipes. Each crepe is a recipe by weight, so its cost moves when the supplier's price does.

Counts with no signal. The cooler and dry storage can be counted on a phone with no signal, and the reorder list shows what runs out first in days of cover.

Waste with a reason. Batter thrown out after a rained-out market is recorded as waste with a reason, reported by item.

Recipes, counts and the reorder list 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

How much does it cost to start a crepe business?

The example's cart budgets $32,600, including $10,000 of working cash; the cart with two griddles is the biggest item.

Is a crepe business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $6,700 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a crepe cost to make?

In the example, $1.60 for a Nutella and banana crepe and $2.60 for ham and gruyère, with the paper and card fee.

What sells best at a crepe stand?

In the example, sweet crepes: 900 a month at full speed, the largest share of the contribution.