Microgreens Business Plan, With a 12-Month Projection

A microgreens business plan sets out what you'll grow and who buys it, what a clamshell or a pound costs and sells for, the shelf space and grow schedule that make the volume possible, and the first year month by month. Microgreens are a fast crop: seed to harvest in about two weeks, grown indoors on racks under lights, so a small grower can supply markets and restaurants year-round from a garage or a spare room. That speed shapes the plan. Every order has to be planted ten days to two weeks before it's cut, the racks set the ceiling on what you can sell, and the product lasts days, not months, so growing too much is as costly as growing too little. In the example below, a grower in North Carolina reaches 800 clamshells, 60 restaurant pounds and 40 live trays a month by month 11, makes a profit from month 1, and ends the year about $25,300 ahead on $45,400 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for the growing. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the grow schedule, the projection, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: what you grow, where you sell, the space, the goals.
• Cost a clamshell with your time in it: seed and soil are cheap; harvesting and packing aren't.
• Sell clamshells direct, bags and live trays to restaurants and grocers.
• Plan the grow schedule backward from orders: plant ten to fourteen days before you cut.
• Size the racks to your sales: shelf space is the ceiling.
• Check your state's rules for growing and selling produce before the first sale.
• TaroStack plans plantings from orders and keeps every harvest as a lot. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Hilltop Greens, a made-up farm in Asheville, North Carolina, I use in these examples, writes:

Hilltop Greens grows microgreens, pea shoots, sunflower, radish and a chef's mix, indoors under lights, year-round. We sell clamshells at two farmers markets and online for weekly pickup, and bags and live trays to restaurants and a grocer. Every harvest carries a date and a lot code. In our first year we plan to fill 100 trays of rack space.

Part 2: what a product costs

The time is planting, watering, harvesting, washing where needed, and packing. A live tray needs no harvesting at all, which is why it carries the best margin: the chef cuts it.

Part 3: customers and prices

Clamshells bring in the most money in total; restaurants bring in the most per hour of driving and the steadiest weekly orders. A restaurant standing order is worth more than its price: it tells you what to plant two weeks ahead. How to write a standing order down is in wholesale order form template.

Part 4: rules

Microgreens are produce, sold fresh, so the rules come from your state's department of agriculture and health department rather than cottage food law, and the federal produce safety rules may apply depending on what you grow and how much you sell. Restaurants and grocers may ask for proof of insurance and a food safety plan. Check what applies before the first sale; how FDA's food safety rules fit together is in what is FSMA. Label each clamshell with the variety, the net weight, your farm's name, and a harvest or best-by date. This is general information, not legal advice.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $480 a month: power for lights and fans ($120), market fees ($160), the vehicle ($100), insurance ($40), the website and online orders ($30), and software and card fees ($30). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it by month 11:

The year's sales are $45,424 and the profit $25,330, on top of $20 an hour for the growing. The risk isn't cash; it's the racks, and the next section is why.

Part 6: the grow schedule and the racks

At full speed, 800 clamshells and 60 restaurant pounds come to about 160 lb of greens a month. In the example a tray yields about 10 oz, so that's about 256 trays to cut, plus the 40 live trays: around 300 trays a month, or 70 a week. With about ten days from seed to harvest, roughly 100 trays are growing at any moment, which is the rack space the budget pays for.

Plan it backward from the orders:

A market where it rains leaves cut greens with days, not weeks, to sell, so plant markets a little under the forecast and fill the gap with live trays, which keep growing until they're cut. How to plan production from orders is in how to prepare a production plan.

Part 7: the startup budget

Get the template

Download the microgreens 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

A grow schedule on a whiteboard works until there are six varieties, three restaurants with standing orders, two markets and a grocer. Then a pea shoot order is planted a day late, a market's worth of radish is cut into a rainy weekend, the seed for sunflower runs out mid-week, and nobody can say which batch of greens the grocer got when they call about a clamshell.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack plans from orders and keeps every harvest traceable.

Plantings from orders, on Standard. Each order is a sales order for its delivery day. Planning, on Standard, works out what to make and what to buy, and by when, against your capacity, so next week's trays are on the schedule this week, and the seed is ordered before it runs out.

Every harvest a lot. Each variety is a recipe, seed and medium by the tray, and units convert: seed by the pound, sown by the gram. Recording a harvest takes seed and medium off stock from the lots used and puts the greens into a lot with its date, so a question about a clamshell leads to its tray, its seed lot and every customer who got it.

And dates that move fast. Lots close to their date show in your alerts, picking takes the oldest first, and margins are reported by product and by customer, so the restaurant that orders reliably shows its worth.

Recipes, harvests as batches, lots and margins by product and customer are on every plan, from $49 a month; planning from orders 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.

Questions people also ask

Is a microgreens business profitable?

It can be. In the example, a grower selling clamshells, restaurant bags and live trays ends the first year about $25,300 ahead on $45,400 of sales, with $20 an hour paid for the growing. Profit per tray, crop by crop, is in is a microgreens business profitable.

How much does it cost to start a microgreens business?

In the example, about $5,900: $4,400 for racks, lights, trays, seed, medium, monitors, packaging, a market setup, insurance and licenses, and $1,500 of working cash.

How many trays of microgreens do you need a week?

Work backward from sales. In the example, about 70 trays a week supply 800 clamshells, 60 restaurant pounds and 40 live trays a month.

What sells best, microgreens clamshells or live trays?

Clamshells bring in the most money in total; live trays carry the best margin, because the customer does the cutting.