Protein Bar Business Plan, With a 12-Month Projection

A protein bar business plan sets out the bars you'll make and who buys them, what a bar costs and sells for, the label a protein bar needs, and the first year month by month. Protein bars are pressed, not baked, which makes them quick to produce in batches, and the ingredients cost well under a dollar a bar. Two things shape the plan. A bar sold on its protein almost always makes a nutrient claim, and a claim takes away the small-business exemption from the Nutrition Facts panel, so every flavor needs a nutrition analysis before it's sold. And bars shipped by the box spend a large part of their price on postage. In the example below, a maker in Salt Lake City sells single bars direct, boxes online, bars wholesale to gyms and cafés and variety packs, makes a profit from month 5, and ends the year about $14,300 ahead on $74,300 of sales, after paying $20 an hour for the work. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the label, the projection, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the business in a paragraph: the bars, where you sell, the kitchen, the goals.
• Cost a bar from the protein up; the wrapper and the pressing time are most of the rest.
• Price direct, online and wholesale separately; shipping eats online boxes.
• A protein claim means a Nutrition Facts panel: budget for a nutrition analysis per flavor.
• "High protein" means 20% or more of the daily value per reference amount; "good source" 10 to 19%.
• Printed wrappers come in big minimum runs, so start with few flavors.
• TaroStack keeps every batch with its lot and costs it from what it used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Bonneville Bar Co., a made-up snack bar maker in Salt Lake City, Utah, I use in these examples, writes:

Bonneville Bar Co. presses protein bars in three flavors in a commercial kitchen, sold singly at gyms and markets, by the box online, wholesale to gyms and cafés, and in variety packs. Every bar carries a lot code and a best-by date. In our first year we plan to supply 25 gyms and cafés.

Part 2: what a bar costs

Then each product adds its own:

How to cost each ingredient by the gram is in how to calculate cost per ounce.

Part 3: customers and prices

Wholesale is half the bars and leaves 65 cents each, $1,300 a month at full speed; it keeps the presses running and puts the bar in front of the people who buy it. The online box leaves $11, less than a third of its price, because $7 of it is postage. How to set a wholesale price that holds up is in how to price baked goods for wholesale, and the same method works for bars.

Part 4: the label

Small food makers can be exempt from the Nutrition Facts panel: a business with fewer than 100 full-time-equivalent employees selling fewer than 100,000 units of a product a year can file for the exemption, but only if its labels, labeling and advertising make no nutrient content or health claim (21 CFR 101.9(j)(18)). A protein bar is sold on its protein, and "high protein" is a nutrient content claim: it means the food has 20% or more of the daily value per reference amount, and "good source" means 10 to 19% (21 CFR 101.54). So the plan assumes a full Nutrition Facts panel on every flavor and budgets a nutrition analysis for each, before the first printed wrapper. Nuts, milk in whey protein, soy and wheat in oats processed with it are the allergens to check and declare. This is general information, not legal advice; a food labeling consultant can check the panel and the claim before you print.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $1,345 a month: commercial kitchen time ($800), insurance ($60), market and gym event fees ($100), the website and online shop ($50), marketing ($300), and software and card fees ($35). Sales start at 15% of full speed and reach it by month 11, about 4,200 bars a month:

The year's sales are $74,337 and the profit $14,287, on top of $20 an hour for the work, about 104 hours a month at full speed.

Part 6: the startup budget

Nutrition analysis and printed wrappers are a third of the startup, and both are per flavor, which is why the plan starts with three. When the volume outgrows the kitchen, bars can be made by a co-packer to your recipe; how to find one is in how to find a co-packer.

Get the template

Download the protein bar 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

Four thousand bars a month in three flavors, protein powder bought by the pallet, printed wrappers in minimum runs, and 25 gyms reordering on their own schedules: a notebook can't say which protein lot went into which batch, how many wrappers of each flavor are left, or when the oldest bars in the storeroom reach their date.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps every batch with its lot and its date.

Batches with their lots. Each flavor is a recipe, and units convert: protein powder bought by the 20-kilo bag, weighed by the gram. Recording a batch takes the ingredients and wrappers off stock from the lots used, at what you paid, and gives the bars a lot and best-by date. One report walks any ingredient lot to every customer who got bars from it.

Wrappers before they run out. Printed wrappers sit on the reorder list in days of cover against the printer's lead time, so a flavor isn't stopped for want of film. Lots close to their date show in your alerts.

And the gyms' orders. Gym and café reorders are sales orders that show whether the bars to fill them are on the shelf while you're still typing, and margins are reported by product and 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.

Questions people also ask

Is a protein bar business profitable?

It can be. In the example, a maker selling bars direct, online, wholesale and in variety packs ends the first year about $14,300 ahead on $74,300 of sales, with $20 an hour paid for the work.

Do homemade protein bars need a nutrition label?

If the label or advertising makes a nutrient claim, like "high protein," the small-business exemption from the Nutrition Facts panel doesn't apply, so yes. Budget a nutrition analysis for each flavor.

How much does it cost to make a protein bar?

In the example, $1.31 for a 60-gram bar: 30 cents of protein powder, 25 cents of nut butter, dates, oats and syrup, 8 cents of coating and flavor, an 18-cent printed wrapper and 50 cents of labor.

How much does it cost to start a protein bar business?

In the example, about $10,700: $7,700 for a mixer, a press, a scale, a sealer, nutrition analysis for three flavors, printed wrappers, design and permits, and $3,000 of working cash.