How to Write a Cafe Business Plan

What is a cafe business plan?

A cafe business plan is a formal, detailed document that outlines your business’s future, including your predicted costs, business goals and how you are going to achieve them.

To tailor your business plan to reflect the hospitality industry, you will need to go into detail about your target market, business niche, competitors and USPs. This document should be useful for you as the business owner, any business partners, potential investors, lenders and even staff.

Things to consider before writing a business plan for a cafe

Before creating a business plan, you’ll need to spend time collating all information necessary to your new business and how you will begin. Consider the following before making a start on your official document:

• Define your vision

In the hospitality industry, you need a unique selling point in order to attract customers and beat the competition. Starting with your vision, you can carefully tailor your business plan to meet this intent from the beginning. 

Think about your own favourite cafes, search for inspiration from books or films and consider decoration and products you’ll sell. Each detail is extremely important to your overall vision.

• Keep your target audience in mind 

Who will be reading your business plan? Make sure it provides benefits to others as well as yourself. Investors, lenders and partners will want to know specifics: funding and predicted costs, potential profits and turnover, future growth potential and an expansion plan, for example.

• Think about your long term goals

It’s difficult to make predictions about the future of a business, especially when it hasn’t even materialised yet! Understanding where you want to be and the journey you’ll need to take to get there is crucial to your business plan.

Cafe Business Plan Template

A business plan should be broken down into specific sections, each focusing on an important area of the business, from the initial set up to future predictions and plans.

We’ve created a detailed template for aspiring cafe business owners to use. We’ll run through each area and what you’ll need to include, hospitality specific, to provide you with quality guidance, impress investors and secure funding. 

Title Page

Starting with a title page helps your business plan maintain structure and clarity. Start with any information that you already have on your new business – if applicable, add the following:

• Legal Business Name
• Location
• Website Address
• Email Address
• Number

Follow with a table of contents that outline what is included in your business plan.

Executive Summary

The executive summary is the first detailed section of your business plan that people will read. It should be well-written, concise and convincing. Reading other examples first may help you to understand exactly what this section needs to be.

You’ll need to clearly summarise your plan, your vision, the competition and the market, your USPs and predicted KPIs and any other key information. If you’re seeking investors or funding, explain what you’d want from them and how you’d utilise their investment.

Business and Industry Overview

Here, you need to include a range of information about the business, just as the above section does, but with reference to your overall business structure, potential marketing, proposed sales and daily operations. 

Essentially, you’ll be summarising your entire business here, with a focus on more tangible elements. Once you’ve established your brand and theme, for example, you can then look into the industry in general.

Competitor research is crucial. Looking into the cafe and coffee shop industry and analysing what works, what doesn’t and how you fit into the industry is needed from the offset. 

Explain how your business is unique and what you will do to ensure that you stand out from competition. You could consider questions such as:

• Am I the only cafe in the area that offers X? This could be free WiFi, locally sourced food, a large range of coffee bean blends, etc.
• A local cafe serves X – we are also planning on serving this. Will we source better ingredients or equipment, for example?

Sales Plan / Marketing Plan

Once you’ve laid out the details of your business and have begun enticing investors, you’ll need to think about how you’ll entice customers next.
Break this section down into three areas: products, pricing and promotion.

Products:

• What are you offering?
• Do you have a speciality – e.g. coffee or smoothies?
• Do you offer more than just food and drink?
• Are you using specific, high-quality equipment?

Pricing:

• Consider ingredient and production costs.
• What is the current market price for similar products?
• Will you be priced competitively?
• What is your anticipated ROI?

Promotion:

• Will you market your business traditionally, online or both?
• How much do you expect to spend on marketing?
• Will you offer discounts, loyalty cards or introduce a points system?

Owner / Management Plan

You’ll now need to explore the legal side of your business, its management structure and staffing requirements. 

• Who will own the business?
• Will people have shares in the business? If so, who and how much?
• Who will manage the business?
• How many staff will you have / need or already have lined up?
• Will you require external resources?

Operation Plan

How will your business operate day to day? Think about your premises, staff, equipment and supplies.

• Will you need to factor in rent and utilities?
• What will you offer staff in terms of contracted hours and wages?
• What equipment will you need to buy and what will these expenses be?
• What ingredients will you need, who are your preferred suppliers and how often will you have to reorder?

Financial Plan

Finally, you’ll need to go into detail about the overall financial aspect of your cafe business. This section is extremely important, so make sure it’s detailed and clear. 

You’ll need to demonstrate profitability through three areas:

• Balance Sheets – Summarise liabilities, assets and equity. This may be a simple snapshot with your business being new. For a startup business, this would be on the day the business opens.
  
  You should note that the balance sheet for unincorporated businesses without employees will be much simpler since it won’t include things such as pensions and income tax.
• Cash Flow – Demonstrate that you can manage cash flow effectively and note down any expected revenue and expenses.
• Income Statements – Note down projections for profit, revenue and expenses. You should do this on a monthly basis for at least the first year of your business starting up. 

How Cogogo can help you to open a cafe

Although creating a cafe business plan can seem complicated, it is an important step that needs to be taken before opening a cafe. A well thought out business plan proves to others, and yourself, that your cafe can be successful. 

At Cogogo, we offer a wide range of buyer-ready businesses across numerous sectors, including the hospitality sector, that benefit from already established processes, client bases, branding and infrastructure. 

If you’re a first time cafe owner, there is no better place to start than with our trusted business brokers who can match you with a business that aligns with your skills, goals and aspirations.