A wine shop's plan is mostly a plan for its shelf. The margin on a bottle is about a third of its price whether it costs $13 or $85, so what decides whether the shop makes money is how fast each tier sells, and how many dollars sit on the shelf waiting. A wall of $85 bottles looks good and turns less than once a year; the $13 bottles turn five or six times. The plan below works in categories per $100 of sales, wine by the bottle, mixed cases, a wine club, beer and cider, cheese and gifts, tastings, with the shelf priced by tier. On the paperwork side, the state license is the big one, and federal law adds records of what came in, kept three years. In the example, a Portland wine shop opens with $182,000, ends its first year $4,668 behind before the owner's pay, and makes about $2,900 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 shop in a paragraph: the neighborhood, who buys wine there, what they can't find nearby, the goals.
- Price by tier, and plan how many bottles of each sit on the shelf.
- Measure each tier by what it earns a year on each dollar it holds, not by its margin.
- Plan sales by category per $100: bottles, cases, the club, beer, gifts, tastings.
- Tastings and the club keep the most of each dollar; case discounts keep the least.
- Keep receiving records three years, and write up any sale of 20 wine gallons or more.
- TaroStack values the shelf at cost and shows what's on it, bottle by bottle. More below.
Part 1: the business description
Sellwood Wine Shop, a made-up wine shop in Portland, Oregon, writes:
Sellwood Wine Shop is a 1,200-square-foot neighborhood wine shop with about 600 wines, a third of them from Oregon and Washington, beer and cider in a cooler, cheese and snacks, a monthly wine club, and Friday tastings and Sunday classes. In its first year it aims to reach $50,000 of sales a month.
Part 2: the shelf, by price tier
| Tier | Average price | Average cost | Margin | Bottles a month | On the shelf | Shelf at cost | Turns a year | Earned a year on each $1 of shelf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Under $15 | $12.99 | $8.40 | 35.3% | 1,100 | 2,400 | $20,160 | 5.5 | $3.01 |
| $15 to $30 | $21.99 | $14.50 | 34.1% | 600 | 2,100 | $30,450 | 3.4 | $1.77 |
| $30 to $60 | $42.00 | $28.00 | 33.3% | 120 | 800 | $22,400 | 1.8 | $0.90 |
| Over $60 | $85.00 | $58.00 | 31.8% | 15 | 250 | $14,500 | 0.7 | $0.34 |
Turns a year = bottles a month × 12 ÷ bottles on the shelf. Earned on each $1 of shelf = (price − cost) × bottles a year ÷ the shelf at cost. The margins are almost the same, but a dollar of $13 wine earns $3.01 a year and a dollar of $85 wine earns 34 cents. Sellwood cut the over-$60 shelf to 80 bottles, $4,640 at cost, and special-orders the rest, which frees almost $10,000 for the tiers that turn. The measure is in GMROI formula, and turns in inventory turnover example.
Part 3: the records
Every retail dealer in wine, beer and spirits keeps, at the shop, records of what was received, who from and when, as the invoices or a book record (27 CFR 31.181), for at least three years (27 CFR 31.191). A sale of 20 wine gallons or more to one buyer at one time, a little over 8 cases of 750 mL bottles for a wedding, is written up with the buyer's name and address and a signed delivery receipt. The state license, and what it allows for tastings, is set by your state. This is general information, not legal advice.
Part 4: what each category earns
| Category | Sales | Variable cost | Contribution | Margin | Hundreds a month at full speed |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wine by the bottle | $100.00 | $66.00 | $34.00 | 34.0% | 300 |
| Mixed cases at 10% off | $100.00 | $73.00 | $27.00 | 27.0% | 60 |
| Wine club | $100.00 | $62.00 | $38.00 | 38.0% | 40 |
| Beer and cider | $100.00 | $72.00 | $28.00 | 28.0% | 50 |
| Cheese, snacks and gifts | $100.00 | $60.00 | $40.00 | 40.0% | 30 |
| Tastings and classes | $100.00 | $35.00 | $65.00 | 65.0% | 20 |
Variable costs include card fees and breakage. At full speed the shop sells $50,000 a month and keeps $17,240, 34.5%; bottles bring $10,200 of it. The club keeps more than a bottle off the shelf because the shop picks the wines, buys them by the case and knows how many to order. Tastings sell the bottles poured.
Part 5: the first year, month by month
Fixed costs are $14,350 every month: rent ($4,500), wages for part-time help ($7,500), utilities ($700), insurance ($400), the register and software ($200), ads ($500), license renewals ($150), and other costs ($400). Sales start at 55% of full speed:
| Month | Sales | Profit | Cash, year to date |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $27,600 | −$4,834 | −$4,834 |
| 2 | $30,000 | −$4,006 | −$8,840 |
| 3 | $32,600 | −$3,110 | −$11,950 |
| 4 | $35,000 | −$2,282 | −$14,232 |
| 5 | $37,600 | −$1,386 | −$15,618 |
| 6 | $40,000 | −$558 | −$16,176 |
| 7 | $42,600 | $338 | −$15,838 |
| 8 | $45,000 | $1,166 | −$14,672 |
| 9 | $47,000 | $1,865 | −$12,807 |
| 10 | $48,500 | $2,359 | −$10,448 |
| 11 | $50,000 | $2,890 | −$7,558 |
| 12 | $50,000 | $2,890 | −$4,668 |
The year's sales are $485,900, and the shop ends it $4,668 behind, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $41,600 of sales a month, in the seventh month; the lowest cash point, −$16,176 in month 6, fits inside the $25,000 of working cash. November and December, with gift bottles and holiday cases, are the busiest months, so a shop that opens in early autumn reaches them before its slow winter.
Part 6: the startup budget
| Item | Example |
|---|---|
| Opening inventory: about 600 wines | $90,000 |
| Shelving and fixtures | $25,000 |
| Build-out and signs | $20,000 |
| Beer and white wine cooler | $8,000 |
| Lease deposit and first month | $9,000 |
| Licenses and permits | $3,000 |
| Register | $2,000 |
| Working cash | $25,000 |
| Total to start | $182,000 |
Half the budget is the opening inventory, which is why the shelf in Part 2 matters. A shop that adds spirits is in liquor store inventory.
Get the template
Download the wine shop business plan workbook. Four sheets: your categories, each per $100 of sales with its variable cost and hundreds a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month and the lowest cash point; 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 tier table works once, on paper. On the shelf, 600 wines move at 600 speeds, and the bottles that stopped selling in March are still there in October, at cost, unless someone counts them and looks.
How TaroStack does it
TaroStack values the shelf at cost and shows what's on it, bottle by bottle.
Buy by the case, stock by the bottle. Wines are bought by the case and stocked by the bottle, and TaroStack does the math.
Stock value. What's on the shelf is valued at cost, by FIFO layers or moving average, with freight included.
Counts and reorders. The shelf can be counted on a phone with no signal, and the reorder list shows what's running low in days of cover.
| The job | Spreadsheet | In TaroStack |
|---|---|---|
| What the shelf is worth | A count and a lookup | Stock value at cost |
| What came in, from whom, when | Invoices in a box | Deliveries received from each supplier |
| What to reorder | Walking the aisles | The reorder list |
Counts, receiving and stock value 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.