Before you launch your dream F&B venture and start selling quality bread and baked goods, you need to create a bakery business plan. A solid business plan can help you in your endeavor to get the required funding, besides helping you stay organized.
Before we get started, you might be interested to check out our Ready-made Bakery Business Plan Template with pre-written text and automatic financials which you can easily customize and adapt to your own project, no financial expertise required.
Writing a detailed bakery business plan may appear challenging, but in reality it isn’t. We’ll walk you through all the important parts of a business plan, from penning a compelling executive summary to showcasing your marketing plan.
So let’s get started.
Why Do You Need A Bakery Business Plan?
You need a good business plan for several reasons. These include:
To attract potential investors
To understand each and every aspect of your bakery business
To serve as a roadmap for business success
How Many Sections A Bakery Business Plan Should Have?
When writing a business plan for your bakery, include the following sections:
Executive Summary
Company Overview
Customer Analysis
Competitive Analysis
Marketing Plan
Operation Plan
Management Plan
Financial Plan
Continue reading to learn what goes in each one of them.
Bakery Business Plan Breakdown
Executive Summary
Every business plan starts with an executive summary, but guess what? It is the section that is written last.
A solid executive summary should pique potential investors’ interest, besides telling them all the important details.
So how can you write an executive summary that captures the reader’s attention from the first line?
Here are some key points to keep in mind.
Start with a strong hook. Explain upfront what your bakery does and what makes it unique.
Use concise language. Use bullet points to highlight important details.
Highlight your core strengths. Maybe your menu is your strongest point or maybe your management team is the best in the business. Be sure to discuss the core strengths of your bakery business.
Don’t use technical language. Technical mumbo-jumbo may put off readers, so play it smart and explain technical terms in an easy-to-understand language.
Don’t make claims you can’t back up. If you can’t backup something with proof, leave it out.
Here’s a Sample Executive Summary for a bakery business plan:
Business Name: Home Bakery
Home Bakery, located at (mention the location), is an upcoming, upscale bakery that will focus on offering healthy, organic, and premium baked goods. We’ll also sell sandwiches, soups, salads, breakfast and lunch, besides serving a variety of gourmet teas and coffees.
Home Bakery’s founders Jake Baker and Chet Baker have more than two decades of experience in the bakery business, including management experience.
Though there are three bakeries in the 2-mile radius, there’s much demand for more bakeries, especially those offering organic, premium bakery products and gourmet beverages.
Since our bakery is situated on a busy street, we expect regular business from passersby. In addition, a residential area, with a population of over 2,500 residents, is located within 200 meters of our shop.
We are targeting the upper end of the bakery market by offering organic, healthy, and premium bakery products, along with non-machine coffee and tea products, at reasonable rates.
In the first year, we expect sales revenue to be $200,000, which should jump to $370,000 by year three. We expect the net profit to grow from $40,000 to $70,000 by the third year.
We require $150,000 for lease costs, equipment, furniture, and renovations. The two owners have $50,000 in cash and the rest they intend to raise from a bank or commercial lender.
Company Overview
In this section, outline the finer details of your bakery business. Specifically, you should provide information regarding the following questions.
Who owns the bakery business?
What is your niche?
What baked and other products will you offer?
What is your store concept and design?
How many staff members do you plan to hire?
Here’s a sample company overview
Home Bakery, located at (mention the location), is an upcoming, upscale bakery focusing on offering healthy, organic, and premium baked goods. We’ll also sell sandwiches, soups, salads, breakfast and lunch, as well as a variety of gourmet teas and coffees.
Home Bakery’s is owned by Jake Baker and Chet Baker, both of whom have more than two decades of experience in the bakery business, including management experience.
Home Bakery’s niche is selling healthy, organic, and premium bakery products, as well as gourmet coffee and tea beverages.
Home Bakery’s Products:
Below is Home Baker’s menu. All items will be 100% organic and natural and are classified under the following eight main categories:
Breakfast Sandwiches
Soups
Croissants and Viennoiseries
Sandwiches and Wraps
Muffins and Cakes
Bagels
Salads
Cookies and Desserts
<You can then showcase here a screenshot of the full menu.>
Home Bakery’s Store Design:
Home Bakery will be spread over a 2,100 square foot area. The key elements include:
Ordering counter
Kitchen area
Self-service coffee area
Tables to comfortably sit 30 customers
Restrooms
<Include a rough sketch of the floor plan if possible>
The retail location has 25 dedicated parking spots, which should prove sufficient even on weekends and other busy hours.
Home Bakery will be open from 7 am to 8 pm, 7 days a week. Depending on the demand, we may extend our hours and offer delivery service.
Staff Plan
Both the owners will be involved in the day-to-day operations of the bakery. We also plan to hire four full-time employees. Depending on the demand, we may hire part-time employees to help us out during busy hours.
Customer Analysis
This is the section in which you’ll discuss your target audience. Be specific and describe all customer segments that your bakery will be targeting.
Here’s a sample customer analysis
Home Bakery will serve the people living in the nearby residential area, passers-by, and professionals working in the neighborhood.
Home Bakery is located in an affluent area, where people have an affinity toward healthy, organic, and premium foods and beverages, in line with our offering.
Home Bakery will be targeting three main customer segments:
Stay-at-home moms – A large proportion of married women in the nearby residential area are stay-at-home moms who often meet for coffee or lunch. Home Bakery will offer them the ideal place to spend some quality time.
Daily commuters – As Home Bakery will be located on a busy street, we expect a lot of business from passersby. We’re conveniently situated for commuters to pick up coffee and a sandwich in the morning and evening.
Local office workers – Roughly 6,000 people work within a half a mile of our location. We expect many of these professionals to visit our shop during the lunch hours, as well as in the morning.
Competitive Analysis
This is the section where you’ll talk about all your direct and indirect competitors, as well as what will make your bakery stand out from the competition.
Here’s a sample competitive analysis
These players are situated within a 2-mile radius of our bakery and are thus direct and indirect competitors.
Miller’s Grocery Store:
One of the more popular grocery stores of this part of the town, Miller’s Grocery Store goes back a little over two decades. Besides offering all products you typically associate with a grocery store, Miller’s has a small in-house bakery shop. That said, it doesn’t serve organic items. Plus, their menu is very limited. For instance, they offer only 4 types of cookies, 3 types of soups, non-gourmet coffee and tea products, etc. In comparison, all our products are made from organic items and we offer many options for every product type.
Quick Bite Bakery:
Located seven stores to the west of our bakery, Quick Bite Bakery—like our shop—is strategically located. It has been in business for last seven years and offers customers a number of baked goods, mostly desserts and cookies.
That said, we enjoy many advantages over it, namely:
Quick Bite Bakery has only a few products on its menu that are organic
It doesn’t offer salads, soups, and sandwiches
It can house only 10 customers at a time, while we have a capacity of 30 people
It has no parking space
Martha’s Deli:
Situated half a mile to the east of our bakery, Martha’s Deli has been serving bakery products for the last 15 years. It mainly offers breakfast sandwiches and lunch sandwiches, along with some cakes and soups. Martha’s Deli also offers a wide variety of packaged goods.
However, we enjoy several advantages over it, including:
Martha’s Deli offers limited organic food items
It doesn’t offer gourmet coffee and tea products
Its menu is not as varied as ours
As part of the competitive analysis, we also recommend building a table featuring every competitor and then listing the strengths and weaknesses of each. This clearly shows the gap of the market and can be a great introduction to then list your competitive advantages.
Marketing Plan
Describe your go to market strategy, as well as plans to attract and retain customers.
Here’s a sample marketing plan:
Home Bakery will mainly focus on communicating its unique value proposition, which is as follows:
Offering customers high-quality and organic food items. These include baked goods, soups, salads, and sandwiches, and more
Giving customers both eat-in and take-out options
Provide top-of-the-line customer service
Marketing & Promotion Strategy
Home Bakery will target people working and living within its 5-mile radius. Our marketing & promotional strategy comprises:
Direct Mail
Home Bakery will blanket areas surrounding the shop with direct mail pieces, which will offer discounts, besides providing general information about the store.
Online & Mobile Marketing
Home Bakery will develop a state-of-the-art website and mobile app, allowing people to place orders on-the-go. We will then promote our business online using selected social media channels.
Sampling
Home Bakery will initially offer free food samples to people passing by to introduce them to our top-quality baked products
Pre-opening Events
Prior to opening the shop, we’ll organize several pre-opening events to create buzz and attract prospective customers.
The above is just a high-level marketing plan. In your bakery business plan, you will need to go into the details by describing for each channel: the rationale, the target audience you will be reaching and the budget you plan to allocate.
Operating Plan
This is where you need to answer questions like:
How will you run your bakery shop?
What will be your store timings?
What will be the process of food and drink production?
What will be your rates?
Preparing the operating plan can help you identify potential issues and address them beforehand. For instance, if you expect your bakery shop to be jam-packed during lunch hours and weekends, would four full-time employees suffice? Or maybe you should consider hiring additional full-time employees.
Here’s a sample operational plan:
Our bakery shop will be open from 7 am to 8 pm. If needed, we’ll extend the working hours.
We’ll prepare all food items and beverages in house. Our food items and beverages will be moderately priced. We’ll purchase coffee and tea wholesale and keep two week’s worth of supply at all times. Since we are opening from 7 am onwards, we’ll be able to target early commuters as well.
Other important elements to mention in your operational plan include describing the process of preparing and serving your baked goods using text and flowcharts, how you plan to consistently deliver on your value proposition and what you plan to do in case customers complain.
Management Plan
In this section, talk about the store’s management, their relevant experience, and the immediate hiring plan.
Here’s a sample management plan:
About the Management Team:
Home Bakery’s owners—Jake Baker and Chet Baker—have over two decades of experience in the food industry. They’ve also conducted the following two baking courses in the local high school:
How to Bake Wedding Cakes: Students were taught to bake different types of wedding cakes, such as classic and contemporary, as well as how to decorate them.
How to Bake Bread: In this course, students developed an overall understanding of baking different types of breads, including, but not limited to flatbread, baguettes, bagels, pain bordelaise, ciabatta, focaccia, and rye bread.
Hiring Plan
Jake Baker and Chet Baker will serve as the store managers. They will also hire the following personnel:
A short-order cook
Two wait staff
One baking staff
One assistant manager
In your hiring plan, it is a good idea to draw a table with key positions, start dates and estimated annual salaries.
Financial Plan
Show investors how your bakery shop will be financially successful. Share information regarding:
Fixed and Operating costs
Expected revenues
Profit and loss
Cash flows
Balance sheet
Startup costs and capital needed
Wrap Up
A strong bakery business plan is often the difference between a successful launch and an unsuccessful one. Therefore, invest time and effort in preparing one.
