Mochi Business Plan, With a Projection

A mochi business plan is a plan for something that's best the day it's made. Daifuku, sweet rice dough wrapped around bean paste or a strawberry, is soft for a day or two and then firms up, so a mochi maker makes to the week's orders, sells fast, and freezes what it can. That shapes everything in the plan: how much to make for Saturday's market, how far a grocer can be from the kitchen, and why December, with New Year's orders, is the biggest month. In the example below, a mochi maker in Portland sells daifuku at markets, strawberry daifuku, daifuku to grocers and cafés, and trays of butter mochi for events, and ends a year about $30,000 ahead on $98,400 of sales, with the making paid. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the mochi, who buys it, where, the goals.
• Cost a box from the sweet rice flour up: flour, filling, box, making, fees.
• Direct sales carry the margin; grocers and cafés buy at well under the market price.
• Make to orders and markets, because daifuku is best within a day or two.
• Date every batch, freeze what won't sell in time, and sell the oldest first.
• Plan December around New Year's.
• TaroStack dates every batch, puts the earliest dates first on the picking list, and shows what's close to its date. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Fern Hollow Mochi, a made-up mochi maker in Portland, Oregon, I use in these examples, writes:

Fern Hollow Mochi makes daifuku, strawberry daifuku and butter mochi in a shared commercial kitchen in Portland, and sells them at two weekend markets, by preorder for pickup, to Asian grocers and cafés across the city, and by the tray for events. Its aim is to sell every box within two days of making it.

Part 2: what a box costs

A box of daifuku is mostly hands: shaping six pieces takes a quarter of an hour, and the ingredients cost about two dollars. Butter mochi is the opposite, a tray mixed and baked in half an hour with most of its cost in the coconut milk and butter.

Part 3: customers and prices

In December the market and preorder daifuku bring $2,871 of the $6,387 of contribution, the strawberry daifuku $1,832, the event trays $1,018 and the grocers and cafés $666. A grocer pays a little over half the market price, and its boxes have to be on its shelf the day they're made or the next, so delivery runs set how many grocers a small kitchen can serve. Wholesale pricing for short-lived food is in how to price baked goods for wholesale.

Part 4: the year, month by month

Fixed costs are $1,515 every month: the shared commercial kitchen ($900), market fees ($250), insurance ($80), the website ($40), ads ($150), freezer power and upkeep ($60), and software and card fees ($35). Month 1 is January; this is a year once the markets and grocers know the name:

The year's sales are $98,361 and the profit $30,072, with the making paid at $18 an hour. December is the biggest month by far, with New Year's orders and holiday events, and it's about 180 hours of making: more than one person, so the plan has a helper for the month. How to plan a season like that is in seasonal inventory.

Part 5: the startup budget

A new maker's first year starts smaller than this one, while the markets and grocers learn the name. At the example's pace, the $4,650 spent before working cash is earned back in the first three months of an established year.

Get the template

Download the mochi business plan workbook. Four sheets: your boxes and trays with price, variable cost and December's volume; the year, month by month, with sales, profit and cash, and month 1 set to January; 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

Batches made every market morning, boxes frozen on Tuesday and thawed for a café on Thursday, ten grocers each wanting boxes no more than a day old, and a December of preorders. A notebook can't say which boxes in the freezer go out first, which grocer got Thursday's batch, or how many boxes are a day from being too old to sell. Which boxes go first is in FEFO vs FIFO, and how much date a grocer expects on arrival in minimum remaining shelf life.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack dates every batch, puts the earliest dates first on the picking list, and shows what's close to its date.

Every batch dated. Daifuku is a recipe, and each batch takes the flour, bean paste and boxes off stock and gets a lot and a date of its own, recorded automatically.

Earliest first. The picking list for a day's grocer and café orders puts the earliest dates first, and the lots each customer got are recorded as it ships.

What's close to its date. Lots close to their date raise an alert, a forecast shows what will expire unsold, and boxes that don't sell in time leave stock with a reason, so waste is reported by product.

Recipes, batches, lots and expiry dates 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

Is a mochi business profitable?

It can be. In the example, a mochi maker ends an established year about $30,000 ahead on $98,400 of sales, with the making paid at $18 an hour, and December the biggest month.

How much should I sell mochi for?

Enough to pay the hands. In the example, a box of six daifuku costs $8.43 to make and sell and goes for $18 at a market, and $10.50 to a grocer.

How long does daifuku last?

It's softest the day it's made and firms up over a day or two at room temperature. The example sells within two days, or freezes.

How much does it cost to start a mochi business?

In the example, $8,650, with the freezer, the mochi machine, the market tent and $4,000 of working cash the biggest parts. The kitchen is rented by the month.