Having a comprehensive and expert-developed juice bar business plan is essential to raise capital from investors or banks or to simply help you outline your execution strategy.
We’ve been in the industry for over a decade, helping many of our clients create business plans to develop and clarify their concept, as well as supporting them in the process of securing funding. This is a comprehensive guide offering key information and expert tips on how to successfully create your juice bar business plan.
A business plan is an essential document for startups that outlines the operational and financial objectives and vision of a prospective business. It contains details on the mission, plans, financial projections, and budgets, explaining how objectives will be realized.
A Juice bar business plan is the roadmap to the success of your business. Not only is it a document that succinctly expresses the vision in a structured format, but it also allows business owners to monitor progress and alignment with their vision through each stage of the process, holding the startup accountable during the journey. Additionally, a juice bar business plan is a vital document necessary to secure funding for the venture from a variety of sources.
In this article, we’re going to share about the benefits of crafting a professional juice bar business plan, as well as why they are essential for funding approval, before breaking down the key features of a juice bar business plan, so that you can use this format as a juice bar business plan template, as you navigate this initial startup phase of your new company.
As a startup entrepreneur, having a detailed juice bar business plan will be a valuable investment of time, energy, and financial resources. Having this structured success roadmap and expression of your mission and objectives is going to offer key benefits for the entire opening and operational process.
Below are the top 5 benefits of a juice bar business plan:
This plan will give a bigger picture of all the elements of your business, integrating things like location analysis, marketing tactics, product offerings, and management structure. As your business functions as an ‘alive’ entity, each element shifting and responding to another, it’s important to have an integrated outline for the entire company vision.
The juice bar business plan puts all ideas in one place – the document serving as that ‘roadmap’. For example, with this plan, you’ll be able to see how the product ideas match the target market, or how your location demographic will influence marketing strategy. What you’re ideally looking for is how each and every element shows is an extension of your overall brand vision.
Creating and running a business is not based on guesswork – it requires a strategic focus that is clear from the outset, and through every stage of the journey. As mentioned above, the bigger picture allows you to define a clear strategy to meet these objectives and fulfill your overall mission through the different phases of the startup journey.
Especially when you are dealing with a lot of moving parts in starting (and eventually running) your business, you can begin to assess what the main priorities are in each stage, to allocate time, effort, and your startup capital to the key areas first. You’ll have a much clearer idea of which steps need to be taken first, and which ones are ‘secondary steps’, once you have your plan completed.
Since you’ll include financial statements in your business plan, you’ll be able to prioritize funds, and again stay on par with your budget as you are opening your business. There are many figures to keep on top of; from purchasing assets, products, and repaying debts if receiving loans, so your plan gives you an outline to refer to.
As a more systematic way to track your progress, good business planning involves setting milestones that you can work towards and achieve. These are goals such as opening on a certain date, reaching a sales level, opening new locations, and more. Your business plan can include key goals and dates to reach them so that you can be held accountable to focus energy on reaching those milestones.
Just as a roadmap is valuable to help steer you in the right direction, there will also be many moments when the map doesn’t reveal all the paths that can be taken, and you can veer from the initial path to move onto a new one.
What we mean here is that having a plan is great for all of the reasons we discussed above, though it’s important to remember that as you move through the stages of opening and running your business, changes will also happen. Evolution is inevitable as your ideas shift and decisions are made in response to present circumstances.
We can’t stress enough the need to be flexible and not attached to have to execute exactly how you outlined each step of the plan, as that could potentially limit your business’s growth.
Instead, be responsive to each phase and know that it’s actually a good sign if you’re operating in ways that weren’t first considered. If you’ve made many changes from what was initially expressed in your business plan, that can actually be an indication that you are running your business from a present and proactive mindset, which is ultimately a success-based mindset to hold.
Any business that is seeking funding to assist with their venture needs to demonstrate to prospective inventors that they have a sound vision and clear plan for opening their business. Not only will you need to show that your business idea will be profitable, but you’ll also need to provide financial data to convey that you understand the financial obligations and also have a clear plan to pay back inventors.
The Managing Executive of the Nedbank Small Business Services, Sibongiseni Ngundze, comments that a business plan needs to be ‘realistic and achievable.’ Essentially, the plan is a professional document that shows potential inventors that you are serious about your vision, and through the information presented, their investment won’t be considered ‘high-risk.’
Many sources that invest in/fund juice bar businesses:
A typical juice bar business plan will include the following elements. Note that this isn’t the only format of a business plan – as your particular context and concept might require additional/less information to be included in your plan. Similarly, a potential financer might also request other elements to be included in the plan.
In general, the main elements of a comprehensive juice bar business plan include:
Whether digital or physically printed, a business plan should have a clear title page and contents list of the start of the plan outlining all of the proceeding sections with page numbers so the reader can easily navigate the plan. If you already have a logo, use that on the title page and throughout the plan, in the footer, for example, to demonstrate a more professional design.
This is the essential introduction, which is also known as the ‘statement of purpose’ – it is a succinct description that encapsulates the overall plan’s mission and the reason for creating the plan.
Key elements to be included in the executive summary are:
Note: This should be a summary of all of these elements, as they will go into much more detail in the entire plan, so the executive summary is generally no more than 3/4 of a page long.
Generally, this begins with a short juice and smoothie bar industry overview, including current trends and future outlook. Provide facts and figures here to show that you’ve done your research.
State that your business falls in the foodservice sector, as well as which sub-market your business comes under (i.e grab-and-go health bar, juice-wellness experts, protein smoothies and juices, etc). Be sure to cite your sources when referring to relevant statistics.
Continue to give an overview of the target market, competitive edge, and the product/service offering you’ll provide. Again, this is an overview, so know that more details for each point you share will be included in the categories we outline below.
This is a more detailed analysis of the market to define the size, demographics, trends, and sales potential you’ll have within the market. Frame this all in a way where you are providing how your juice bar is a unique offering for an underserved location (if applicable).
Within this section, this is where the target market is defined. This can be done in a number of ways – simply as an explanation of your ideal customer or creative ‘customer profiles’ can even be created.
Following the market analysis, provide a description of your competitors in the area, and data for how your prospective juice bars compare to what’s already available.
Juice bar business plan example points to cover in your competitive analysis:
Highlight the structure of your team, including the responsibilities of each role, such as technicians (prep staff, cleaners, etc), as well as supervisor/management position key responsibilities.
Include an overview of the tasks and expectations for each role and what your role is as the entrepreneur, founder. Additionally, you can have an entire breakout section for the founders of the company and their competitive edge/area of expertise that will enhance the startup through their experience, passion, etc.
Smart investors don’t simply invest in ‘good ideas’, they are essentially investing in people who can execute on good ideas sustainably. In this way, inventors would appreciate knowing not only where their money is going but also learning about who it is going to, through reading about the experience and expertise of the key founders of this juice bar concept.
Depending on where you are in your process of creating your menu, provide information on what you’ll be offering (or expect to offer), in terms of juices, smoothies, meals, retail products, etc.
Explain why these items have been selected for your menu – why you’re taking that specific approach (e.g. cold-pressed versus regular juicing) as based on the demand and stats of the industry and your competitors, to show that it was a strategic decision.
This is where you’ll include any creative decisions for names or menu items (or general menu theme) that you’re already clear on to show what makes your business stand out and give it a competitive edge.
Reiterate here your positioning strategy, which is which niche within the juice and smoothie bar market you’re going to fill (i.e high-end luxury vibe, community-hub with comfortable inn-house seating, expert health tonics, and cold-press juices, etc).
Comment on your pricing structure, with either some examples of products and their price or a range that you’ll cover. Determine how the product will reach the customer – will you opt into online delivery services? Provide online retail ordering, in-house seating, etc?
Consider promotion strategies, especially customer loyalty programs, and opening-day marketing tactics. Address elements like packaging, advertising, and both printed and digital forms of marketing (especially social media plans).
The information included in this section of your startup juice bar business plan covers two key areas – your budget and your financial revenue projections.
State the amount capital you have available for the startup, including any funding requests (how much you are looking to raise from financers) and a budget breakdown of how much you are expecting (and able) to invest in different elements of the business.
If you’re stumped on how much it costs to start a juice bar, take a look at our in-depth guide to calculating your budget range here.
Also included with the budget generally is how much reserve capital you’ll also allocate to running the business for the first 4-6 months.
In terms of the financial projections, this will be based on how you expect the cash flow to function based on the understanding you have of your expenses and projected income. You’d consider lease and other fixed costs you might already have an idea of, as well as produce costs based on your menu idea and labor budget based on your business model.
For a new business, you’d project what your assets and liabilities might be to determine what equity you might accumulate. Since most business plans will be for a new startup, the financial projection aspect can often seem the most intimidating.
We help our clients with their process of creating projections to include these in their business plan. Reach out to us on the form at the end of the article if you’d like assistance with this.
This section is where all of your supportive documents will be – such as floor plan sketches, brand design, licenses and permits, letters of references, copy of your lease, other legal documents, your credit history/documentation if relevant. Also, any other documents that give proof to claims you have made in your plan, or that offer additional information that investors might like to see.
As your craft each section we outline above, take into account the following tips to craft a professional juice bar business plan increase your chances of receiving funding:
This is one of the most common services our consulting company offers our clients. If you’re looking to take the guess-work out of this entire process and have our team create your plan based on your vision, get in touch with us here to speak about what we can do for you.
What’s the difference between a business plan and an investment proposal?
They are quite similar. The investment proposal is purely created for the audience of investors, whereas a business plan is an internal document that is more comprehensive in the information, that can also be used as a proposal for investments, as well as your own roadmap for your startup process. Hence why we always recommend creating a business plan, rather than just an investment proposal.
Will I be guaranteed funding when I have a great business plan for my business?
No one can guarantee that your business will get funded. However, your smoothie and juice bar business plan will very much increase the chances that your business will get funded as a majority of investors and all banks will require this before considering your request for financing. When it is well-written, includes the elements listed above, and takes into account our additional tips, you’ll have a much higher chance of being seen as a worthy company to invest in.
If you help us make our business plan, will you be able to help me to raise money once it’s complete?
We can guide you on the best avenues to secure funding. As an added service, we have also worked with clients in this stage as they bring us on to have meetings with prospective investors to support them in the process of securing funding. We can support this process, yet we do not do the entire ‘leg-work’ to obtain the funding. As the business owner, this is your role.
Although we have offered a detailed outline of how to create a juice and smoothie bar business plan, we understand that acquiring this information and executing the details of this kind of plan can feel overwhelming. This is why we provide this service for our clients, after all, opening up a juice bar is already a massive undertaking.
We’ve completed countless business plans for our clients to support their process of receiving funding from investors, and we’d be happy to put one together for you. This way, you can be assured that you’re receiving the most comprehensive plan for your prospective business. The form above is the fastest way to get into contact with us to express your interest in our services.