Samosa Business Plan: Frozen Packs, Market Stalls, Catering

Samosas sell three ways for a small maker: frozen packs in Indian grocers, hot samosas and samosa chaat at markets and festivals, and catering trays for parties and weddings. A frozen pack of 12 vegetable samosas costs about $2.45 in pastry, spiced potato and peas and the bag, and sells to a grocer for $8.50. The plan turns on folding hands, since every samosa is shaped by hand, freezer space, and the festival calendar, Diwali above all. Keeping the frozen line vegetarian keeps it simple for grocers and outside USDA's meat rules. The plan below works per pack and per plate. In the example, an Edison samosa maker starts with $30,000, ends its first year about $9,800 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $4,100 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 business in a paragraph: the samosas, who buys, where you make them, the goals.
• Cost each pack: pastry, filling, the bag; each plate: samosas, chutneys, the plate, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: frozen packs, hot samosas, chaat, catering trays.
• Folding by hand is the biggest labor cost.
• Keep the frozen line vegetarian for grocers.
• Plan for Diwali and the wedding season.
• TaroStack costs each samosa from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Masala Mile Samosas, a made-up samosa maker in Edison, New Jersey, writes:

Masala Mile Samosas makes vegetable samosas in a shared commercial kitchen in Edison, sells frozen packs of 12 to six Indian grocers, hot samosas and samosa chaat at a weekend market and festivals, and catering trays for parties. In its first year it aims to reach $15,400 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a pack costs

Two hot samosas include the frying oil. The grocer sells the frozen pack for about $11.99. Catering trays of 50 sell for $90 and cost $25. Prepackaged samosas carry an ingredient list and allergens, wheat at least, in food allergen labeling requirements.

Part 3: grocers, festivals and the kitchen

Samosas are folded twice a week in the shared kitchen; frozen packs go to the grocers every two weeks. The weekend market and festivals take hot samosas fried on site, which needs the event's temporary permit, in temporary food permit. Diwali brings catering orders for weeks, and the kitchen books extra days in October. The Indian grocers who stock the packs are in indian grocery store business plan.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $15,400 a month and keeps $11,719, 76.1%; frozen packs bring $4,840 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $7,600 every month: wages for two folders ($4,800), shared kitchen hours ($1,200), market and festival fees ($500), van fuel ($300), insurance ($250), freezer storage ($200), software ($50), and other costs ($300). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $132,675, and the business ends it $9,759 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $9,990 of sales a month, in the sixth month. The lowest cash point, −$9,256 in month 5, is covered by the $10,000 of working cash with about $700 to spare. October and November, with Diwali, sell the most; the plan spreads them as monthly averages, so book kitchen days and freezer space in September.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $20,000 before working cash is earned back in about 5 months at full speed. Another frozen dough sold to grocers is in empanada business plan, and a stall business beside it in concession stand business plan.

Get the template

Download the samosa 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 pack. Potatoes and oil prices move, a new folder is slower, and the Diwali rush changes how fast every pack is made.

How TaroStack does it

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

Recipes by weight. Each samosa 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 samosa business?

The example budgets $30,000, including $10,000 of working cash; the used van is the biggest item.

Is a samosa business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $4,100 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a pack of samosas cost to make?

In the example, about $2.45 for a frozen pack of 12 vegetable samosas: 90 cents of pastry, $1.20 of filling and 35 cents for the bag.

Can I sell homemade samosas to Indian grocery stores?

From a licensed kitchen, labeled with ingredients and allergens; vegetable samosas stay outside USDA's meat rules.