Kolache Business Plan: A Shop That Opens at Six

A kolache shop is a morning business: bakers start before five, the doors open at six, and the case is close to empty by one. A fruit kolache costs about 50 cents in dough, filling, paper and card fee and sells for $2.25; a sausage klobasnik costs more and sells for more, and it brings the most of anything sold from the case. Office dozens and coffee fill out the morning. The plan turns on wages for an early bake and a counter, the ovens and proofer, and the case: cream cheese and sausage fillings need a hot case or a time limit, as a challenge study food showed for this shop. The plan below works per kolache. In the example, a Waco kolache shop starts with $139,600, ends its first year about $11,700 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $6,400 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 shop in a paragraph: the street, the morning, the fillings, the goals.
• Cost each kolache: dough and filling by weight, the paper, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: fruit and cream cheese kolaches, klobasniky, office dozens, coffee.
• Klobasniky sell the most from the case; office dozens bring the most in all.
• Bakers start before five: wages are the biggest cost.
• Sausage in a hot case at 135°F; cream cheese by a time limit or a study.
• TaroStack costs each kolache from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Brazos Kolache Shop, a made-up kolache shop in Waco, Texas, writes:

Brazos Kolache Shop bakes fruit and cream cheese kolaches and sausage klobasniky from 5 a.m. and sells them from an open case and a hot case from 6 to about 1, with coffee, and takes office orders by the dozen. In its first year it aims to reach $34,750 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a kolache costs

A klobasnik is the same dough around a link of smoked sausage, often with cheese or jalapeño, which is why it costs more and sells for more. Coffee is $3.00 a cup and costs 64 cents with the cup and card fee. How a bakery counts what's left at close is in how to calculate cogs for a bakery.

Part 3: the bake, the case and the clock

Two bakers start at 4:30; the first trays come out at 5:45. Klobasniky go into a hot case held at 135°F or above. Cream cheese kolaches sit in the open case on a time limit backed by the shop's challenge study: each tray is marked with its baking time and pulled at 8 hours. Office dozens are ordered the day before and boxed at 6. What's left at close goes to a food bank or is recorded as waste.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $34,750 a month and keeps $26,226, 75.5%; office dozens bring $6,276 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $19,850 every month: rent ($3,800), wages for two bakers and the counter ($13,000), utilities and oven gas ($1,400), insurance ($350), equipment upkeep ($300), ads ($300), register and software ($200), and other costs ($500). Sales start at half of full speed:

The year's sales are $331,168, and the business ends it $11,734 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $26,300 of sales a month, in the sixth month. The lowest cash point, −$17,949 in month 5, is covered by the $30,000 of working cash with about $12,100 to spare. Weekends and football Saturdays sell the most; the plan spreads them as monthly averages, so staff and bake for the calendar, not the average.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $109,600 before working cash is earned back in about 17 months at full speed. A donut shop, the kolache shop's neighbor in many Texas towns, is in donut shop business plan, and a bakery with more on the shelf in bakery business plan.

Get the template

Download the kolache 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 per kolache. Sausage and cream cheese prices move, the bakers make a different count each morning, and how many cream cheese kolaches were pulled at 8 hours is a guess by Friday.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack costs each kolache from its recipe and from what each batch used.

Recipes by weight. Each kolache is a recipe, with unit conversion from the case or sack to the gram.

True cost from the batch. Each batch takes ingredients at their real cost, from the deliveries they came from, so a price rise shows up in the next batch.

Price creep. A price-creep report per supplier shows which ingredient is quietly costing more.

Recipes, batches and true cost 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 kolache shop?

The example budgets $139,600, including $30,000 of working cash; the build-out is the biggest item.

Is a kolache shop profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $6,400 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a kolache cost to make?

In the example, about 50 cents for a fruit kolache and 90 cents for a sausage klobasnik, with the paper and card fee.

What is the difference between a kolache and a klobasnik?

A kolache is sweet dough with a fruit or cheese filling; a klobasnik wraps the dough around sausage.