Coffee Shop Business Plans

How To Write Your Coffee Shop Business Plan

How to Write a Coffee Shop Business Plan

How to Start a Coffee Shop Business Plan

Plan For Success With a Coffee Shop Business Plan

steps to starting a coffee shop If you dream about opening a coffee business, you have so many options to choose from.

From setting up your drive-thru coffee stand to opening a mobile coffee truck to buying an existing coffee shop, the ideas are nearly endless!

After you settle on a feasible coffee shop concept, you will have no shortage of items on your to-do list. Next is getting your game plan together.

One way to make sure that you are doing everything right (and not miss anything along the way) is to write a thorough coffee shop business plan.

In this post, we will discuss how to write a coffee shop business plan.

Additionally, we will answer some pretty common questions surrounding this essential business document that will impact your success as you start your coffee business.

Great Reasons to Write Your Coffee Shop Business Plan

To simplify your life and save you money, you want to have a game plan. And you’re going to want to put your game plan in writing in a business plan.

Your Business Plan Will Save You Money

When you start any business, including a coffee shop or a drive-thru coffee stand, it is tremendously easy to go well beyond your original coffee business budget estimates. A business plan can help significantly reduce your costs, as well as time-busting mistakes.

Underestimating expenses for a coffee shop startup can be quite common, and that’s even when you have a well-articulated business plan in place. However, by having a well-thought business plan covering your concept and all of your anticipated expenses, coffee equipment, etc., you will undoubtedly save yourself plenty of time, money, and the psychological impact of “sticker shock” that some new coffee shop owners experience.

If you don’t have a business plan, you will be inclined to spend more money and waste more time because it will be difficult to plan and manage your coffee shop budget efficiently.

Your Coffee Shop Business Plan Will Keep You Organized

Keeping yourself organized will not only save you time and money; it will also reduce your headaches.

However, the most important thing is that your business plan will always reveal your next steps to starting your coffee business. It will also help keep you on pace to start what needs to be started and finish what needs to be finished.

There are so many steps to be mindful of when starting a coffee shop. It would be nearly impossible to effectively manage every detail of your business without writing them down. Having your coffee shop business plan available will help you to keep on track.

Your Business Plan Ensures Nothing Gets Left Behind

Even if you have opened several businesses before, you know that many many many elements need to be addressed before moving forward with the implementation process.

Important steps that can be easily left out or neglected can cause headaches and tremendous costs (in lost time and money) as you move forward.

Your Plan is Essential for Your Audience

How to start writing a coffee shop business plan When you think about it, your business plan’s audience will be small, but they will be an important audience. They include:

Your property manager:

This is the person you will most likely be renting from and will often require to see your business plan. If they have any degree of experience, they would have also seen many business plans previously.

In fact, they might have several competing business proposals sitting on their desk for their properties, including the one you are interested in. Your coffee shop business plan will need to be well-thought-out and articulate your vision.

Your investors:

Besides, any stakeholder, such as a potential investor (banker or a personal friend with money), who plans on giving you startup cash will also want to see a professionally written business plan. Having a written business plan demonstrates that you have seriously thought through your business.

You, the coffee shop owner:

While it is important to write and deliver a cohesive business plan to each of these three sets, the true beneficiary of a good business plan is you.

You, as the owner, will become naturally very involved with your business plan. The process of thinking, writing, planning, and developing your plan all serve to help you better prepare for your coffee shop business.

Your Plan Helps You Get The Answers To Important Questions

There will be some important questions that you will need to answer during your coffee shop planning phase. For example, you may spend some time figuring out your coffee shop budgetary questions in your business plan. The budget and financial questions and projections will be a big hurdle to compile and explain for many would-be coffee shop owners because they are unfamiliar with them.

Avoiding your budgetary needs, goals, and projections, or at the very least, just skimming over what you need to know for your business to function, can actually spell future disaster for a coffee shop business owner. On the other hand, getting your financial projections in order and at least meshing out the numbers in good faith will provide you with tremendous insight into just how your coffee business will function.

In fact, having a pretty good grasp on your financial position (and your financial records) can be liberating and even empowering. By knowing where you are financial, you will then make appropriate (or even better) decisions in launching your coffee shop.

How to Write a Coffee Shop Business Plan

Writing Your Business Plan Takes Time

Writing a thorough coffee shop business plan will take time. It takes time to think through some of the decisions you will have to make. It also takes time to research the elements that each section contains.

Write your plan in chunks and write-as-you-go. You can either let the process drain you or use it to gather up your creative energy!

One of the ways to do this by getting some help with the grunt work. We recommend getting our Complete Coffee Shop Startup Kit – print out the accompanying MS Word template and then brainstorm at your favorite coffee shop in

We believe that it will not only save you time (and money), but it will give you a better perspective, and give you added knowledge and wisdom that took other coffee shop business owners years to learn.

The process of thinking things through and writing out the process will help you better formulate your thoughts and set you on a course of action.

How Long Does a Business Plan Have To Be?

A coffee shop business plan can be as long as you want it to be. Don’t think of your business plan as an assignment that needs to be turned in to your English teacher. It’s completely for you – and just a few other important people.

The length of your business plan really depends on the complexity of your concept. Still, it can range anywhere from 15-60 pages once it’s filled out (Occasionally more depending on the business’s scope).

We recommend that you always use headings, subheadings, and spaces between paragraphs and sections when constructing your business plan. Having spaces between paragraphs will allow you to read what you have worked hard on easily, and it will allow you to write in the margins.

A coffee shop business plan has several main sections. While there is no “right structure” for your typical business plan, they will often include everything from your mission statement to your coffee shop equipment needed to your financial position, projections, and estimates.

There is also no right order that your business plan needs to come in, just as long it follows some cohesive framework that works for you. However, keep in mind that many investors and property managers look at many business plans, so they might be used to certain sections that are labeled familiarly.