Tamale Business Plan: Dozens, Holidays and Frozen Packs

Tamales sell by the dozen, and a dozen of pork tamales costs about $9.65 in masa, pork, chile, husks, the bag and the steaming, sold for $28. The rest of the cost is hands: spreading and folding takes about a minute and a half a tamale. The plan turns on three things. Christmas, when orders run to many times a normal week. Freezer space, since frozen dozens keep and fresh ones don't. And the meat rule: pork and chicken tamales sell to customers from a licensed kitchen, but selling them to a grocer brings USDA's inspection, so the grocer gets rajas con queso. The plan below works per dozen. In the example, a Hyattsville tamale maker starts with $39,200, ends its first year about $14,500 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $5,600 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 tamales, who buys, where you make them, the goals.
• Cost each dozen: masa, filling, husks, the bag and steaming, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: pork, chicken and rajas dozens, frozen dozens to grocers.
• Labor is the biggest cost: time the spreading and folding.
• Meat tamales sold to a grocer bring USDA inspection; sell meatless ones wholesale.
• Plan for Christmas: orders, freezer space and extra hands.
• TaroStack costs each dozen from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Paint Branch Tamale Co., a made-up tamale maker in Hyattsville, Maryland, writes:

Paint Branch Tamale Co. makes pork, chicken and rajas con queso tamales in a shared commercial kitchen and sells them by the dozen at a Saturday market and for pickup, takes holiday orders, and sells frozen dozens of rajas con queso to two Latino grocers. In its first year it aims to reach $26,550 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a dozen costs

Fresh dozens go out in butcher paper at 7 cents; frozen dozens in an 18-cent freezer bag. Folding time, a minute and a half a tamale, is in the wages below. How the $28 was set is in how to price tamales.

Part 3: customers, Christmas and the meat rule

The Saturday market and pickup orders take fresh dozens; holiday orders open in November and run to about 150 dozen a week. The two grocers take frozen rajas con queso every two weeks. Pork and chicken stay direct: a tamale with meat sold to another business brings USDA's inspection, in usda meat inspection requirements. Bags and labels for each kind are in how to package tamales for sale.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $26,550 a month and keeps $15,474.50, 58.3%; pork dozens bring $7,004 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $9,900 every month: shared kitchen hours ($1,800), wages for two tamale makers ($6,500), freezer storage ($300), market fees ($300), van fuel and upkeep ($400), insurance ($250), software ($50), and other costs ($300). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $228,728, and the business ends it $14,517 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $16,990 of sales a month, in the sixth month. The lowest cash point, −$11,538 in month 5, is covered by the $12,000 of working cash with about $500 to spare. December sells several times a normal month; the plan spreads it as an average, so book the extra kitchen hours and freezer space in October.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $27,200 before working cash is earned back in about 5 months at full speed. Making them by the hundred dozen is in how to make tamales in bulk, and what can be sold from a home kitchen in can you sell tamales from home.

Get the template

Download the tamale 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 dozen. Pork shoulder moves by the week, a new folder is slower, and in the Christmas rush nobody knows which frozen dozens were made first.

How TaroStack does it

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

Recipes by weight. Each dozen 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 tamale business?

The example budgets $39,200, including $12,000 of working cash; the used van is the biggest item.

Is a tamale business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $5,600 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a dozen tamales cost to make?

In the example, $9.65 for a pork dozen in masa, pork, chile, husks, the bag and steaming, plus about 18 minutes of folding.

Can I sell tamales to a grocery store?

Meatless ones, like rajas con queso, from a licensed kitchen; tamales with meat sold to another business bring USDA inspection.