A pumpkin patch business plan is a year of costs paid for about six weeks of sales. The land, the insurance, the seed and the corn maze are paid from January, and nearly every dollar arrives on the weekends from late September to the end of October, so the plan has to show the cash it takes to reach the first weekend, and what one rained-out Saturday costs. In the example below, a family farm in Indiana sells admission with a wagon ride and corn maze, pumpkins from the patch, apple cider donuts and cider to about 5,200 visitors, and ends the year about $54,300 ahead on $96,700 of sales, before paying the family, but it needs $14,000 of cash to get to September. Below is a description example, each part of the plan, the season, the startup budget, and a free template.
The short version
- Describe the patch in a paragraph: the acres, the attractions, the weekends open, the goals.
- Cost each sale: the weekend staff per visitor, the cutting and restocking, the donut mix and oil, card fees.
- Admission is most of the money; pumpkins, donuts and cider are the second, third and fourth sale of the visit.
- Seed, maze and land are paid all year; budget the cash to reach the first weekend.
- October is the year; plan for a wet weekend or two.
- TaroStack keeps the pumpkins counted in the field and the donut mix, cider and cups costed. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Wabash Bend Pumpkin Farm, a made-up pumpkin patch near Lafayette, Indiana, I use in these examples, writes:
Wabash Bend Pumpkin Farm grows pumpkins and a five-acre corn maze, open Fridays to Sundays from the last two weekends of September through October, with wagon rides to the patch, a play area, fresh apple cider donuts and cider.
Part 2: what each sale costs
| Per unit | Admission | Pumpkin, average | Cider donuts, half dozen | Cider, a cup |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Weekend staff: parking, wagons, maze, checkout | $2.50 | |||
| Wristband | $0.10 | |||
| Cutting vines and restocking the patch | $0.40 | |||
| Donut mix and cider, frying oil, cinnamon sugar, bag | $1.75 | |||
| Frying, 3 minutes at $15 an hour | $0.75 | |||
| Cider from an orchard nearby, cup and lid | $0.65 | |||
| Card fees, 3% | $0.36 | $0.21 | $0.27 | $0.12 |
| Variable cost | $2.96 | $0.61 | $2.77 | $0.77 |
The weekend staff are counted per visitor: about eight people on a busy Saturday, at $15 an hour, for about 400 visitors a day. The seed, fertilizer and spray for the pumpkins are in the fixed costs, because they're paid in the spring whatever October brings. A donut is costed like any recipe, from the mix to the bag; how is in steps in recipe costing.
Part 3: customers and prices
| Product | Price | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | In October |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Admission: wagon ride, corn maze, play area | $12.00 | $2.96 | $9.04 | 75.3% | 4,000 |
| Pumpkin from the patch, average | $7.00 | $0.61 | $6.39 | 91.3% | 1,800 |
| Apple cider donuts, half dozen | $9.00 | $2.77 | $6.23 | 69.2% | 1,000 |
| Apple cider, a cup | $4.00 | $0.77 | $3.23 | 80.8% | 1,200 |
Admission is nearly two thirds of the contribution. Pumpkins are priced by size, so the $7 is an average of small pie pumpkins and big carving ones. A family of four that pays admission, picks two pumpkins, shares a bag of donuts and two ciders spends about $79, and leaves about $62 after the variable costs. Selling more than the crop at the farm is in value added products for farms.
The donuts and cider are food served to the public, so ask your county health department what permit the stand needs before opening weekend. Ask your insurer about the wagons and the play area, and whether your state has an agritourism law that asks for a posted warning sign.
Part 4: the season, month by month
Fixed costs are $1,735 a month, averaged over the year: land rent and taxes ($400), insurance ($250), tractor and wagon upkeep ($200), the corn maze's design and planting ($250), seed, fertilizer and spray ($250), marketing ($200), portable toilets and parking ($150), and software and card fees ($35). Month 1 is January; the patch opens in late September:
| Month | Admission | Pumpkins | Donuts | Cider | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$1,735 |
| Feb | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$3,470 |
| Mar | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$5,205 |
| Apr | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$6,940 |
| May | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$8,675 |
| Jun | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$10,410 |
| Jul | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$12,145 |
| Aug | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | −$13,880 |
| Sep | 1,200 | 540 | 300 | 360 | $22,320 | $15,595 | $1,715 |
| Oct | 4,000 | 1,800 | 1,000 | 1,200 | $74,400 | $56,033 | $57,748 |
| Nov | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | $56,013 |
| Dec | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | $0 | −$1,735 | $54,278 |
The year's sales are $96,720 and the profit $54,278, before paying the family who run it. Cash falls to −$13,880 by the end of August, which is why the plan keeps $14,000 of working cash, and every year after the first needs that much put aside from the October before. If rain takes a quarter of October's visitors, the year's profit falls by about $14,400, to about $39,800, so a patch plans its staff by the forecast and its fixed costs for a wet year. How to plan stock around a short season is in seasonal inventory.
Part 5: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Used tractor | $10,000 |
| Two hay wagons with benches | $4,000 |
| Donut fryer and stand | $6,000 |
| Checkout shed and card readers | $3,000 |
| Signs, fencing and parking | $2,500 |
| Play area: hay bales, corn box, slides | $3,000 |
| Website and photos | $500 |
| Working cash | $14,000 |
| Total to start | $43,000 |
The land isn't included; this plan's farm rents its fields. At $54,300 a year, the $29,000 spent on equipment and the grounds is earned back in the first good season. How many visitors it takes to cover a year of fixed costs is the same sum as in break-even point for a food business: $20,820 of fixed costs divided by about $14.40 of contribution a visitor is about 1,450 visitors.
Get the template
Download the pumpkin patch business plan workbook. Four sheets: your admission, pumpkins, food and drinks with price, variable cost and October'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
About 2,300 pumpkins, a fryer going all weekend, donut mix, oil, sugar, bags, cups and cider bought by the case, and fourteen open days in October with no time to count. A notebook can't say whether there's enough donut mix for Saturday, how many big carving pumpkins are left in the patch, or what a bag of donuts costs now that the mix went up.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps the pumpkins counted in the field and the donut mix, cider and cups costed.
Pumpkins as stock. Each size of pumpkin is an item, counted on a phone in the patch with no signal, so Friday's restock is a number, not a walk.
Donuts as a recipe. A half dozen is a recipe of its mix, oil, sugar and bag, so a weekend of frying takes them off stock at what you paid, and the price creep report shows when the mix or the oil went up.
The reorder list. Mix, oil, cups and cider come up on a reorder list in days of cover, so the order goes in on Wednesday, before the weekend that would have run out.
| The job | Notebook | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| Big carving pumpkins left | Walk the patch | Stock by item, counted on a phone |
| Enough donut mix for Saturday? | Look in the shed | Reorder list in days of cover |
| What a bag of donuts costs now | Last year's number | Each batch, at what it used |
| Which supplier raised prices | A feeling | Price creep by supplier |
Counting, recipes and reorder lists 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.