A dog food business plan sets out the recipes you'll cook and who buys them, what a pound costs and sells for, the nutrition and registration rules, and the first year month by month. Fresh dog food, cooked, portioned and frozen, is different from treats in one big way: a dog may eat nothing else, so a food sold as a complete diet has to meet a nutrient standard, and proving that is a startup cost before the first pack is sold. After that, it's a kitchen business with a subscription at its heart: a dog eats every day, so a monthly plan is steady work. In the example below, a maker in Lexington sells frozen packs at markets, monthly plans delivered and training treats, makes a profit from month 2, and ends the year about $33,000 ahead on $88,800 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for the cooking. 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 recipes, where you sell, the kitchen, the goals.
- Cost a pound: meat, rice and vegetables, the vitamin and mineral mix, the pouch, the cooking.
- Sell packs at markets and monthly plans by delivery; plans are the steady income.
- A food sold as complete and balanced must meet AAFCO's nutrient profiles or pass a feeding test.
- Most states require registration or a license before you sell; shipping into a state counts.
- Have a veterinary nutritionist formulate the recipes; it's the biggest startup line after the freezers.
- TaroStack keeps every batch with its meat lots and its date. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Paddock Pet Kitchen, a made-up pet food maker in Lexington, Kentucky, I use in these examples, writes:
Paddock Pet Kitchen cooks fresh dog food from beef, chicken, rice and vegetables to recipes formulated by a veterinary nutritionist, portioned and frozen in one-pound packs, sold at farmers markets and by monthly plan with home delivery, alongside training treats. Every pack carries a batch code and its date.
Part 2: what a pound costs
| Per unit | Beef and rice, 1 lb | Chicken and rice, 1 lb | Monthly plan, 30 packs | Training treats, 4 oz |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Meat: beef 0.45 lb at $4.50, chicken 0.45 lb at $2.50 | $2.03 | $1.13 | ||
| Rice and vegetables | $0.40 | $0.40 | ||
| Vitamin and mineral mix | $0.25 | $0.25 | ||
| Pouch and label | $0.35 | $0.35 | ||
| Cooking and portioning, at $20 an hour | $0.67 | $0.67 | ||
| 15 beef and 15 chicken packs | $97.50 | |||
| Delivery | $4.00 | |||
| Treats: meat, flour, bag, time | $2.13 | |||
| Card fees, 3% | $0.26 | $0.23 | $6.30 | $0.27 |
| Variable cost | $3.96 | $3.03 | $107.80 | $2.40 |
The vitamin and mineral mix is what turns meat and rice into a complete diet; without it, a home-style recipe falls short of the nutrient standard. Cooking is about 2 minutes a pound in a batch: cooking the meat, rice and vegetables, mixing in the premix, portioning, sealing and freezing. How to put labor into a cost is in how to compute labor cost in baking.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | A month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fresh dog food, beef and rice, 1 lb frozen pack | $8.50 | $3.96 | $4.54 | 53.4% | 400 |
| Fresh dog food, chicken and rice, 1 lb frozen pack | $7.50 | $3.03 | $4.47 | 59.6% | 400 |
| Monthly plan, 30 packs delivered | $210.00 | $107.80 | $102.20 | 48.7% | 25 |
| Training treats, 4 oz bag | $9.00 | $2.40 | $6.60 | 73.3% | 150 |
A medium dog eating a pound a day goes through 30 packs a month, so a monthly plan is $210 and leaves $102.20; 25 plans are about a third of the contribution at full speed and tell the kitchen exactly how much to cook. Market packs bring new customers, and treats sell to everyone at the stall. How treats are priced on their own is in how to price homemade dog treats, and the treat business in dog treat business plan.
Part 4: complete and balanced, and registration
Pet food must be safe, made under sanitary conditions and truthfully labeled, and many states' rules are based on a model from the Association of American Feed Control Officials (FDA). The line on the label that matters most is the nutritional adequacy statement: a food sold as complete and balanced must be formulated to meet AAFCO's dog food nutrient profiles for a life stage, or pass a feeding test using AAFCO procedures, while treats are exempt (AAFCO). So the plan pays a veterinary nutritionist to formulate the recipes to the nutrient profiles, and a lab to analyze them for the guaranteed analysis on the label. Many states also require registration or a license before you distribute, and selling at a farmers market or shipping into another state counts (AAFCO); check every state you'll sell or ship into. This plan cooks its food; FDA's pet food pages warn about the risks of raw diets to pets and people. This is general information, not legal or veterinary advice.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Fixed costs are $1,320 a month: commercial kitchen time ($700), freezer storage ($150), state registrations and fees ($25), insurance ($70), market fees ($150), the delivery vehicle ($150), the website and online shop ($40), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it by month 11:
| Month | Beef packs | Chicken packs | Monthly plans | Treats | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 60 | 60 | 4 | 23 | $2,007 | −$219 | −$219 |
| 2 | 80 | 80 | 5 | 30 | $2,600 | $110 | −$109 |
| 3 | 100 | 100 | 6 | 38 | $3,202 | $445 | $336 |
| 4 | 120 | 120 | 8 | 45 | $4,005 | $876 | $1,212 |
| 5 | 160 | 160 | 10 | 60 | $5,200 | $1,540 | $2,751 |
| 6 | 200 | 200 | 13 | 75 | $6,605 | $2,306 | $5,057 |
| 7 | 240 | 240 | 15 | 90 | $7,800 | $2,969 | $8,026 |
| 8 | 280 | 280 | 18 | 105 | $9,205 | $3,735 | $11,762 |
| 9 | 320 | 320 | 20 | 120 | $10,400 | $4,399 | $16,161 |
| 10 | 360 | 360 | 23 | 135 | $11,805 | $5,165 | $21,326 |
| 11 | 400 | 400 | 25 | 150 | $13,000 | $5,829 | $27,155 |
| 12 | 400 | 400 | 25 | 150 | $13,000 | $5,829 | $32,984 |
The year's sales are $88,829 and the profit $32,984, on top of $20 an hour for the cooking. At full speed the kitchen cooks about 1,550 pounds a month; if beef rises a dollar a pound, each beef pack costs 45 cents more, so the recipe costs are worth checking every delivery.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Recipes formulated by a veterinary nutritionist, three | $1,500 |
| Lab analysis for the guaranteed analysis | $600 |
| Kettle, mixer and tools | $800 |
| Two chest freezers | $1,000 |
| Vacuum sealer | $400 |
| Pouches and labels, first order | $500 |
| Label design | $350 |
| State registrations | $300 |
| Market cooler and display | $500 |
| Working cash | $3,000 |
| Total to start | $8,950 |
Get the template
Download the dog food 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
Beef and chicken from two suppliers, batches frozen by date, 25 monthly plans to pack and deliver, markets every weekend and treats on the side. A notebook can't say how many beef packs are in the freezer, which batch a customer's dog ate, or which supplier's meat was in it if one recalls a lot.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps every batch with its meat lots and its date.
Recipes with versions. Each recipe, with its premix, is a recipe with versions, every ingredient by weight, and units convert: beef bought by the case, weighed by the pound. A change from the nutritionist is a new version, and every batch records which one it was made to.
Batches with their lots. Recording a batch takes the meat, rice, premix and pouches off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, notes the lots automatically, and puts the packs into a lot with their date, so the oldest go out first. One report walks a supplier's meat lot to every batch and every customer who got packs from it.
And the monthly plans. Each month's plans are sales orders for their delivery day that show whether the packs are in the freezer while you're still typing, and margins are reported by product and by customer.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Beef packs in the freezer | Count the shelves | Stock by lot and date |
| Which recipe version was this batch? | Maybe in the notebook | The batch's recipe version |
| A supplier recalls a lot of chicken | Read the invoices | One report, lot to customer |
| Plans or markets, which pays? | A feeling | Margins by customer |
Recipes, batches, lots, recalls 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.