To price a shared kitchen, start from what it costs to keep open, not from what the kitchen across town charges. Hourly rate = (fixed costs + the profit you want − what storage and events bring) ÷ the hours you expect to book + what an hour costs you. Then check that your membership plans, with their discounts, still average out to that rate, and price storage shelves from the floor space and power they use. In the example below, a shared kitchen needs $29.23 an hour; its first draft of plans averages $27.03 and leaves it about $700 a month short, until two plans go up. Below is the hourly rate, the plans, storage, and a free calculator.
The short version
- Add up the fixed costs: rent, utilities, insurance, staff, cleaning, the equipment loan, your salary.
- Subtract what storage shelves and events contribute; the hours carry the rest.
- Divide by the hours you can realistically book, and add the cost of an hour.
- Plans with included hours are discounts; check the average rate across all plans.
- Charge off-peak hours less, so night and early slots fill without cutting daytime prices.
- Price storage from its share of rent, plus power for coolers and freezers.
- TaroStack keeps each member's goods as theirs and bills them on their own order. More below.
The hourly rate
Shenandoah Commons Kitchen, a made-up shared kitchen in Harrisonburg, Virginia, I use in these examples, works its rate out from its own numbers:
| A month | |
|---|---|
| Fixed costs: rent, utilities, insurance, staff, cleaning, loan, salary | $19,150 |
| Profit wanted | $4,000 |
| Less what storage shelves contribute | −$5,890 |
| Less what classes and events contribute | −$1,000 |
| Left for kitchen hours to cover | $16,260 |
| Hours expected to book | 700 |
| Contribution needed an hour | $23.23 |
| Plus gas, power, water, supplies and wear an hour | $6.00 |
| Hourly rate for the profit | $29.23 |
Without the profit, the break-even rate is $23.51. The number that moves the rate most is the hours: at 500 hours booked, the rate for the same profit is $38.52. A kitchen that expects to be busy and isn't finds its rate was a guess. How a shared kitchen's year adds up is in how to start a shared kitchen.
Membership plans
| Plan | Hours | Price | Rate an hour | Members | Hours a month | Money a month |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Drop-in, no plan | 1 | $35 | $35.00 | 60 bookings | 60 | $2,100 |
| Starter, 20 hours | 20 | $560 | $28.00 | 10 | 200 | $5,600 |
| Regular, 40 hours | 40 | $1,080 | $27.00 | 6 | 240 | $6,480 |
| Heavy, 60 hours | 60 | $1,500 | $25.00 | 3 | 180 | $4,500 |
| Overnight, 30 hours, 10 pm to 6 am | 30 | $660 | $22.00 | 2 | 60 | $1,320 |
| All plans | $27.03 | 740 | $20,000 |
The plans fill 740 hours, 40 more than planned, but at an average of $27.03 an hour, $2.20 under the rate. After the $6 an hour of costs, the hours contribute $15,560 a month, $700 short of the $16,260 they need. Raising the starter plan to $600 and the regular plan to $1,140, $30 and $28.50 an hour, brings the hours to $16,320, enough. The overnight plan stays cheap on purpose: those hours would otherwise sit empty. How to think about prices against costs more generally is in contribution margin example.
Storage shelves
| Storage | Floor | Share of rent | Power and upkeep | Shelves | Cost a shelf | Price | Margin |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dry storage | 300 sq ft | $487.50 | $50 | 40 | $13.44 | $60 | 78% |
| Walk-in cooler | 160 sq ft | $260.00 | $280 | 30 | $18.00 | $90 | 80% |
| Walk-in freezer | 120 sq ft | $195.00 | $300 | 20 | $24.75 | $90 | 73% |
Storage earns more per square foot than kitchen hours and keeps members loyal: a caterer whose stock lives on your shelves books your kitchen. The freezer costs the most to run, so its margin is the thinnest. Keep a waiting list for cooler and freezer shelves; when it's long, the price is too low.
Get the calculator
Download the shared kitchen pricing calculator. Three sheets: the hourly rate, where your fixed costs, profit, storage and event contribution, hours and the cost of an hour give the break-even and target rates; membership plans, where each plan's hours, price and members give the hours and money they bring and the average rate, to check against the first sheet; and storage shelves, where each area's floor, power and shelves give the cost of a shelf and the margin at your price. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.
Where this stops working
Pricing is a spreadsheet's job; billing thirty members every month for their hours, their shelves and anything extra is where the money leaks. A member renting two shelves and using four, a forgotten freezer shelf, a drop-in who never paid: each is small, and together they're a member's worth of rent.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack keeps each member's goods as theirs and bills them on their own order.
Members' goods as theirs. With We make or keep goods for clients turned on, each member is a client and their goods are their own: received at no cost to the kitchen, kept apart, counted where they sit, and released when the member takes them.
A statement each month. Each member's monthly statement shows their goods you hold and how each moved, by lot, so a member using four shelves while paying for two is plain to both of you.
Charges on their order. Hours, shelves and extras are typed onto an ordinary sales order to the member, so each month's charges are on their statement. How a count of the shelves works is in inventory count sheet example.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What a member keeps on your shelves | Walk the walk-in | Their goods, counted |
| Two shelves paid, four used | Unnoticed | Plain on their statement |
| The month's charges | A list by hand | On their order and statement |
| Goods a member took out | Not recorded | A release to them |
Keeping members' goods, with releases and monthly statements, is on Standard at $99 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.