Tempeh Business Plan: Co-ops, Markets and Restaurants

Fresh tempeh is soybeans, dehulled, cooked, inoculated with a tempeh starter and held warm for about a day and a half until the culture binds them into a firm block. An 8-ounce block costs about 69 cents in beans, starter, bag and label and sells to a co-op for $3.50, which sells it for about $5.49. Markets pay retail, restaurants buy big blocks for their kitchens, and a chickpea tempeh gives soy-free customers a choice. The plan turns on the incubation cabinet, since every batch spends a day and a half in it, the cold chain from kitchen to store shelf, and steady standing orders. The plan below works per block. In the example, an Asheville tempeh maker starts with $17,800, ends its first year about $8,200 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $2,800 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 tempeh, who buys, where you make it, the goals.
• Cost each block: beans and starter by weight, the bag, pouch and label, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: co-op and grocer blocks, market blocks, restaurant blocks, chickpea tempeh.
• Incubation space sets how many blocks a week.
• Fresh tempeh is kept cold or frozen; date it from your own testing.
• Co-ops and restaurants on standing orders are the steady part.
• TaroStack costs each block from its recipe and what each batch used. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Blue Ridge Tempeh Co., a made-up tempeh maker in Asheville, North Carolina, writes:

Blue Ridge Tempeh Co. makes soybean and chickpea tempeh in a shared commercial kitchen in Asheville and sells 8-ounce blocks to co-ops and natural grocers and at two farmers markets, and 5-pound blocks to restaurants. In its first year it aims to reach $9,195 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a block costs

An 8-ounce block takes about 4.5 ounces of dry organic soybeans at about $1.25 a pound, plus starter and a splash of vinegar; chickpeas cost about $2.60 a pound. Tempeh is mostly labor and incubation time, which sit in the fixed costs below. Soy is a major allergen, on every soybean label, as in food allergen labeling requirements.

Part 3: incubation, the cold chain and the stores

Batches run three times a week: beans soaked overnight, dehulled, cooked, cooled, inoculated, bagged in perforated bags and held in the incubation cabinet at about 86°F for around 36 hours. Finished blocks are steamed, vacuum-sealed and chilled, or frozen for stores that want them that way; the date comes from the business's own shelf life study, as shelf life testing explains. Co-ops order weekly, and the stores it sells to are run like those in food co-op business plan.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $9,195 a month and keeps $7,432, 80.8%; co-op and grocer blocks bring $3,372 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $4,650 every month: wages for a part-time helper ($2,200), shared kitchen hours ($1,300), delivery fuel ($300), freezer and cold storage ($250), insurance ($200), market fees ($150), software ($50), and other costs ($200). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $79,174, and the business ends it $8,193 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $5,750 of sales a month, in the fifth month. The lowest cash point, −$5,066 in month 4, is covered by the $7,000 of working cash with about $1,900 to spare. Tempeh sells evenly through the year; the markets add a little in summer.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $10,800 before working cash is earned back in about 4 months at full speed. Another soy food for grocers is in tofu business plan, and another cultured food in kimchi business plan.

Get the template

Download the tempeh 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 block. A batch that doesn't knit together is thrown out, soybean prices move, and which frozen blocks are oldest at each co-op is hard to keep in your head.

How TaroStack does it

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

Recipes by weight. Each block 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 tempeh business?

The example budgets $17,800, including $7,000 of working cash; the incubation cabinet is the biggest item.

Is a tempeh business profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $2,800 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does a block of tempeh cost to make?

In the example, about 69 cents for an 8-ounce block: 39 cents of soybeans and starter and 30 cents for the bag, pouch and label.

Can I sell homemade tempeh?

From a licensed kitchen, kept cold or frozen, labeled with soy as an allergen and dated from your own testing.