Looking for a food preparation business plan? You're in the right place.
A personal chef business has an unusual set of questions to answer. How many sessions can one chef cook in a week? What does a client pay for groceries, and how much of that is yours to keep? How many families leave each month, and what does it cost to replace them? A generic restaurant template has no answers to any of these.
In this article we'll walk through a complete sample plan for a personal chef company in Plano, Texas, section by section, so you can see how a service built on repeat bookings gets planned, priced and funded. We'll cover the executive summary, the SWOT analysis and, in particular, all of the financials.
Here's what you'll take away:
- The one-page summary: see how to state a recurring-client business in a few lines, so a lender sees the model before the detail
- The per-session economics: learn how to price a chef's day, bill groceries honestly and see what is left after labor, mileage and card fees
- The client count and churn: find out how to plan for families who leave, and what each replacement costs, so growth is not overstated
- The chef schedule: match employed chefs and contract chefs to booked sessions month by month, so revenue never outruns who can cook it
- The start-up budget: see what a business with no kitchen to build actually needs, and why most of the cash is held in reserve
- The five-year profit, cash flow and balance sheet: follow every hire, price rise and distribution through to cash
- The downside case: have an answer ready for "what if bookings are 20% short?" along with the steps the owners take
If you're planning an in-home chef or meal preparation service, read this before you write your own. The company is fictional, so keep what fits your market and change the rest.
In this plan
Looking for a food preparation business plan template? The Toolkit builds yours with your own numbers.
The Plan in Brief
What's For Dinner? is a personal chef company that opens in Plano, Texas on 1 January 2027. A chef comes to the client's home, shops for the groceries, cooks in the family's own kitchen and leaves five to eight dinners portioned into labeled containers. Most clients book every week or every other week. The company has no commissary, no delivery fleet and no storefront.
Kim and Alan Kirby own the company. Kim is the lead chef and runs menus and chef training. Alan runs sales, scheduling, menu costing and the books. Both are on payroll from the first month.
The company needs $270,000: $200,000 from the two founders and a $70,000 bank term loan. Of that, $220,200 is held as a cash reserve, $19,500 buys chef kits and office equipment, and $30,300 pays for legal work, licensing, menu development and the launch campaign.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $367,410 | $1,001,080 | $1,340,820 |
| Net income after start-up costs | ($159,938) | $47,697 | $127,007 |
| Closing cash | $86,364 | $121,251 | $200,430 |
Sessions start in March 2027, after two pre-opening months. The company ends its first year with 36 active clients, about 71 sessions a month and an operating profit in each month from September. Year 1 is a loss because chefs and both owners are paid before the client base can carry them. Year 2 is the first profitable year, with a thin margin of 4.8%, and Year 3 is the first with a margin of about 9.5%.
The plan tests itself. If bookings run 20% below plan and the owners slow hiring, skip the coordinator and take a 15% pay cut each from July 2027, the company is still profitable from Year 2 and holds at least $57,600 of cash at every year end, though Year 1 would end with equity of only about $10,900 and the bank would be asked for relief on its covenants. The financial section sets out that case and three sensitivities.
The proposition is narrow. A family keeps its own kitchen, its own groceries and its own schedule, and gets a chef who already knows what the children will eat.
Who Is Behind What's For Dinner?
Legal name: What's For Dinner?, Inc., a Texas corporation taxed as an S corporation. Owners: Kim Kirby (62%) and Alan Kirby (38%), by capital contributed. Office and storage: a small flex unit in Plano for dry storage, container stock, a labeling station and a desk. Stage: pre-launch. Six founding families have agreed to book sessions from March.
Kim has worked in restaurant and catering kitchens for fifteen years and has cooked privately for families for the last four. Alan ran purchasing and scheduling for a regional food distributor.
What the company sells
| Line | How it is priced | Year 1 share of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Chef session: shopping, cooking and portioning 5 to 8 dinners in the client's kitchen | $570 a session, Year 1 | 68% |
| Groceries bought for the session | Billed at cost plus 10% | 22% |
| Dinner parties and holiday cook days | About $1,650 a party and $620 a cook day with groceries | 10% |
Why in-home
Every session happens in the client's kitchen, so the company has no production space to lease, no food to hold overnight and no delivery route to run. That is the whole cost advantage, and the whole limit: the company can only grow by adding chefs, and each chef cooks one home at a time. A dinner party serves eight to ten guests. There are no banquet services, trucks or events beyond that size.
Texas rules, in general terms
The company's food-handling and permit position is stated generally because rules for cooking in a client's own home depend on the city and the county health authority. The plan budgets for a food-handler card for every cook, a certified food manager for Kim and an allowance for any local permit or registration. Texas cottage food rules are not relied on, because the company does not sell food made in the Kirbys' own kitchen. Kim and Alan confirm each requirement with the Plano and Collin County health authorities before the first session.
Sales tax is a separate question. Whether Texas sales tax applies to chef fees, groceries and prepared food depends on how the service is structured, and the revenue in this plan is shown before any sales tax collected for the state. The owners confirm the treatment with the Texas Comptroller and an accountant before the first invoice.
Plano's Kitchens and the Families Who Skip Them
Where the demand sits
The plan does not quote a Plano household count or income figure. The target is a narrow group that already pays for help at home: families with two working adults, children at home and a weekly spend on takeout or delivery that already runs into hundreds of dollars.
What the client does now
| Alternative | What it offers | Why a family picks it | How What's For Dinner? differs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Restaurant takeout and delivery apps | Hot food, no prep | No planning | Food is made to the family's own tastes, and the weekly cost is predictable |
| Boxed meal kits | Ingredients and recipes | Low price per meal | The family does not cook at all |
| Prepared-meal subscriptions | Cooked meals delivered from a central kitchen | Fixed menus, no one in the kitchen | A chef cooks in the client's kitchen from the family's own preferences |
| Grocery-store prepared foods | Ready meals | Immediate | Fresh food, portioned to the family |
| Other personal chefs | Same service model | Existing relationship | A scheduled bench of chefs, so a sick day does not cancel the week |
The table describes categories, not a ranking. Competitor names and prices are left out on purpose, because they change and each provider publishes its own.
SWOT
| Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|
| Founders with kitchen and purchasing experience | Chef quality varies, and each chef is one cooking style |
| No commissary or lease to carry | Revenue depends on a modest number of high-value clients |
| Six founding families before opening | A client who leaves removes about $20,700 of annual billing |
| Opportunities | Threats |
|---|---|
| Referrals from clients' friends and neighbors | Households trimming discretionary spend |
| Holiday cook days and dinner parties for existing clients | Chefs leaving with clients |
| New-resident households moving to Plano | Worker-classification scrutiny of contract chefs |
The Booking Family
Who books
The typical client is a household of three to five, with at least one child at home, two incomes and a calendar that leaves no room for weeknight cooking. The person who books is usually the one who plans the meals.
How clients use the service
| Booking pattern | Share of clients | Sessions a month |
|---|---|---|
| Weekly | 25% | 4.3 |
| Every other week | 60% | 2.2 |
| Monthly | 15% | 1.0 |
After skipped weeks, the plan uses 2.3 sessions per active client per month.
Why families leave
Moves, a change of job, a new baby, a change of diet and plain budget review. The plan sets churn at 3.5% of active clients each month, about 35% a year and an average stay of about 29 months. Every year of the plan therefore needs enough new families to replace the ones who leave, as well as to grow the base.
What a client gets
A menu agreed in advance, a named chef, groceries bought to the family's preferences, and portions labeled with reheating notes. Clients pay by card on file after each session.
From First Call to Standing Order
The booking path
An inquiry arrives through the website or a referral. Alan runs a 20-minute call on household size, diet, allergies and kitchen. Kim or a lead chef cooks a paid trial session. The family then picks weekly, every other week or monthly, and the company holds a recurring slot.
Year 1 pipeline
About 105 inquiries at a 40% close rate give 42 gross new clients in Year 1, including 6 founding families. Net of churn, that leaves 36 active clients at the end of December.
| Lead source | Gross new clients | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Founding families (Kim's existing clients and friends) | 6 | 14% |
| Referrals from current clients | 11 | 26% |
| Local search and ads | 10 | 24% |
| Neighborhood social groups | 6 | 14% |
| Realtor and new-resident introductions | 5 | 12% |
| School and gym sponsorships | 4 | 10% |
Pricing
The session fee is $570 in Year 1 and rises 3% a year from Year 2. It buys about seven hours of chef time: 75 minutes of shopping, 45 minutes of travel, about four hours of cooking and portioning, and an hour of cleanup. The fee is the plan's own figure, and so is the grocery bill that goes with it: a Year 1 session comes to $751.50, or about $1,730 a month for a client who books 2.3 sessions. No outside price survey is cited, and the figures are meant to be tested against what Plano families already pay. Groceries are billed at cost plus 10%, so a $165 shop is billed at $181.50 and the company keeps $16.50. That markup covers handling and is smaller than the value of the shopping time, so the margin sits in the session fee.
| What one Year 1 session earns | Amount |
|---|---|
| Session fee | $570 |
| Groceries billed to the client | $181.50 |
| Groceries paid by the company | ($165) |
| Employed chef cost incl. on-costs, per session at 90% use | about ($267) |
| Mileage, containers, card fees and credits | about ($52) |
| Left toward owner pay, rent and marketing | about $268 |
Dinner parties and holiday cook days
A dinner party is a four-course meal for eight to ten guests, cooked by a lead chef and an assistant for about $1,650. A holiday cook day is a larger session before Easter, Thanksgiving or Christmas, in which the chef cooks the holiday mains and sides in the client's kitchen for about $620 with groceries. The plan expects 14 parties and 22 cook days in Year 1, and 22 parties and 40 cook days in Year 2. Cook days cluster in the holidays: in Year 1, 20 of the 22 fall in November and December and the other two fall in March, ahead of Easter on 28 March 2027. Parties are spread across the year, with 5 of the 14 in November and December.
Where the First 42 Families Come From
Marketing spend and what it buys
The Year 1 budget is $43,000: $15,000 of launch spend from start-up capital plus $28,000 of operating spend. That is 11.7% of Year 1 revenue, falling to 3.7% by Year 3 and 3.1% by Year 5 because revenue grows faster than the budget. Spread over 42 gross new clients, Year 1 costs about $1,020 per client, or less than two session fees. The cost per client does not fall. It rises to about $1,310 in Year 2 (35 gross new clients on $46,000) and to about $1,470 in Year 3 and $1,500 in Years 4 and 5, because the founding families are cheap to win and later families are not, and referrals are one channel of six rather than a cost cut. A client's contribution after direct costs is about $616 a month (2.3 sessions at about $268), so even at $1,500 a family repays its acquisition cost in about two and a half months.
| Channel | Year 1 spend | What it is expected to do |
|---|---|---|
| Website with booking, and photography (launch) | $6,500 | A booking page, sample menus and a clear price |
| Founding-family tasting sessions (launch) | $4,500 | Food cost and chef time for trial sessions with the first six families |
| Local ads and print (launch) | $4,000 | Introductions to Plano neighborhoods |
| Local search ads | $9,000 | "Personal chef Plano" and "weekly meal prep at home" searches; about 10 clients |
| Referral credits | $4,000 | A $175 credit to the referring client and $175 to the new family, about $350 per referral; about 11 clients |
| Neighborhood social groups | $4,500 | Paid posts and a presence in local parent groups; about 6 clients |
| Realtor and new-resident program | $4,000 | A welcome session offered through realtors; about 5 clients |
| School and gym sponsorships | $4,000 | A table at a spring fair and a studio sponsorship; about 4 clients |
| Newsletter and holiday mailers | $2,500 | Cook-day reminders in October and November |
Marketing milestones
- March 2027: first sessions for six founding families.
- June 2027: 17 active clients and the first referral credit paid.
- September 2027: 27 active clients and an operating profit for the month.
- December 2027: 36 active clients and $65,750 of monthly revenue.
A Session From Grocery Aisle to Fridge
How a session runs
The chef receives the menu three days ahead, shops that morning, arrives at the client's home by late morning and cooks four to six items at once. Everything is portioned into labeled containers with reheating notes, the kitchen is cleaned and the client receives a photo and a note.
How many sessions a chef can cook
An employed chef is planned at about 4.4 sessions a week over 48 working weeks, or about 211 sessions a year, because client days cluster early in the week. Chefs are scheduled at no more than about 90% of that, which leaves room for sickness and cancellations. Each is on a $40,000 salary plus 27% on-costs, about $241 a session at full use and $267 at 90%. Kim cooks about 8 sessions a month in the first two years, 6 in Year 3 and 4 after that.
A $40,000 salary is about $19.23 an hour over 2,080 hours. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour and the federal salary floor for the exempt white-collar categories is $684 a week, or $35,568 a year, but a salary above the floor does not make a cook exempt: the duties tests also have to be met, and a chef who shops, cooks and portions is unlikely to meet them. The plan therefore treats chefs as hourly, non-exempt employees paid straight time, and it does not price overtime, so a chef scheduled above 40 hours in a week would cost more than planned. Employment counsel confirms the position before the first hire.
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Client sessions | 440 | 1,212 | 1,573 | 1,822 | 2,015 |
| Session equivalents incl. parties and cook days | 488 | 1,292 | 1,681 | 1,949 | 2,156 |
| Covered by contract chefs | 37 | 81 | 106 | 124 | 138 |
| Covered by Kim and employed chefs | 451 | 1,211 | 1,575 | 1,825 | 2,018 |
| Their capacity (trading months in Year 1) | 573 | 1,363 | 1,762 | 2,160 | 2,371 |
| Use of capacity | 79% | 89% | 89% | 85% | 85% |
| Employed chefs at year end | 5 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 11 |
A dinner party counts as 2.2 session equivalents and a holiday cook day as 0.8. In Year 1, capacity is tested month by month. The tightest month is March 2027, when Kim is the only cook: about 7 sessions and the 2 Easter cook days come to roughly 7.9 session equivalents against her 8, about 99% use, with no slack for illness. From April the chefs' schedule keeps every month at or below about 90%, and July 2027 is the tightest of those, at 39 session equivalents against 43 of capacity. Year 3 revenue of $1,340,820 across 1,681 session equivalents is about $800 per session equivalent, or about $152,000 a year for each employed chef at 90% use.
Employed chefs and contract chefs
Most sessions are cooked by employed chefs. Contract chefs are paid per session, at about $190, and are used for dinner-party assistants, a share of holiday cook days and overflow. They are not counted in base capacity, are not guaranteed any volume, supply their own vehicles and food-handler cards, and carry no benefits.
The contract chef position is stated generally. Tax and labor authorities look at how much control a business has over the work, and a cook who follows the company's menus, set schedule and client list may be treated as an employee. The plan therefore keeps contract work to assistant and overflow sessions, budgets $1,500 to $3,500 a year for classification review and payroll compliance, and has counsel confirm each contract chef agreement before use.
The office and equipment
A small flex unit holds dry storage, containers, labels and a desk. There is no production kitchen. Each chef carries a kit: knives, cookware, insulated carriers, scales and thermometers. The start-up budget buys three kits at about $3,000 each for Kim and the first two employed chefs, with a shared pool of spare cookware and carriers. Later chefs need kits too: three in Year 1, at a planning cost of about $3,000 each, and one to two a year after that.
Insurance and food safety
General liability, product liability, hired and non-owned auto and cyber cover, budgeted at $8,500 in Year 1. Workers' compensation is carried inside the on-costs because client agreements and insurers are likely to ask for it, and the company confirms the requirement with a broker. The company also confirms with its insurer how cover applies to damage or loss in clients' homes, and how keys and alarm codes are held. Every cook holds a food-handler card, and Kim holds a food manager certification.
Software
Scheduling and client records, card payments, menu and grocery planning, and cloud accounting and payroll: $6,000 in Year 1.
The Kirbys and the Chef Bench
Kim Kirby, co-founder and lead chef
Kim has fifteen years in restaurant and catering kitchens and four cooking privately for families. She cooks about eight sessions a month, writes the menus and trains every new chef. Her $68,000 salary starts in month one.
Alan Kirby, co-founder
Alan spent several years in purchasing and scheduling at a food distributor. He takes the inquiry calls, schedules chefs, costs menus and keeps the books. His salary of $62,000 starts in month one.
Where the team is thin
Kim is the only person who can build a menu and train a chef, and Alan does the scheduling that every session depends on. The plan covers the first with written recipe cards and a trial-session checklist for each chef. It covers the second by hiring a part-time client coordinator in month 14.
If a chef leaves
Each client has a primary chef and a back-up chef who has cooked at least one session in the home. The plan expects to replace one employed chef in four each year and budgets $3,500 for each replacement (advertising, two weeks of paid training with Kim and a new kit): $2,000 in Year 1, rising to $10,800 in Year 5. Employed chefs sign an agreement with a non-solicitation term, which counsel confirms is enforceable in Texas before use.
Owners and the bank
Kim holds 62% and Alan 38% of What's For Dinner?, Inc. The bank takes personal guarantees from both. Owner distributions begin in Year 3 and are paid only from cash the model shows the company can spare.
What a lender would still ask
- Evidence for the $570 session fee and the grocery bill that goes with it: a survey of what Plano personal chefs charge, and signed letters from the six founding families.
- How many of the 42 gross new clients in Year 1 are booked or contracted beyond the founding six, and the trial-to-client conversion behind the 40% close rate.
- A monthly forecast for January to March 2028. The base-case low is about $49,000 in September 2027, a month and a half of operating costs, and the weaker start of 2028 is not modeled.
- A minimum-cash covenant, and the owners' answer if the cover test of a likely 1.25x fails in Year 1, when the model shows a negative figure even in the base case.
- Why a company holding a $220,200 reserve borrows $70,000 at 10.5%. The plan keeps the loan to cap the owners' own savings at risk at $200,000.
- Overtime and the hourly status of the chefs, the classification opinion on contract chefs, and whether the non-solicitation term holds in Texas.
- Insurance for loss or damage in clients' homes, and how keys and alarm codes are held.
- Who builds menus and trains chefs if Kim is unavailable, and whether key-person cover is in place.
- Written confirmation of local permits, the sales-tax treatment of chef services and prepared food, and the Texas franchise-tax position.
- The effect of dearer groceries, higher wages or a slower ramp. The financial section runs wages, chef pay and revenue sensitivities, and the answers are not comfortable: each turns Year 2 into a loss.
The Numbers Behind the Sessions
The figures that follow come from one five-year model. Year 1 is shown month by month, with two pre-opening months, and later years are annual. The operating figures come first, so each total can be traced to a price, a client count or a chef schedule.
Launch funding and the reserve
| Use of funds | Amount |
|---|---|
| Chef kits for Kim and the first two employed chefs (about $3,000 each), plus a shared pool of spare cookware, insulated carriers and scales | $12,500 |
| Office, storage shelving, labeling printer and laptops | $7,000 |
| Business registration, food-handler cards, food manager certification and any local permit | $2,800 |
| Legal: service agreement, chef agreements, entity set-up and worker-classification review | $6,500 |
| Menu development, recipe costing, test sessions and chef training | $6,000 |
| Launch: website with booking, photography, founding-family tasting sessions and local ads | $15,000 |
| Cash reserve for the pre-opening months and the first slow quarters | $220,200 |
| Total uses | $270,000 |
| Source of funds | Amount |
|---|---|
| Kim Kirby's savings | $124,000 |
| Alan Kirby's savings | $76,000 |
| Bank term loan | $70,000 |
| Total sources | $270,000 |
Kim contributes $124,000 and Alan $76,000, together 74% of the $270,000, and the company borrows $70,000 from a bank over five years at 10.5%, interest-only for six months. The rate is a planning figure for this example, not a quoted lending rate, and the bank takes personal guarantees from both owners. Only $49,800 buys anything: chef kits, office equipment, legal work, licensing, menu development and the launch campaign. The other $220,200 is held back because two months of payroll come before the first session, and the client base does not cover its chefs until September. The reserve is still not generous. Its lowest month-end balance in the base case is about $49,000 in September 2027, roughly a month and a half of Year 1 operating costs, which average about $33,000 a month. The monthly view spreads each year's annual cost lines evenly over twelve months, so that low is approximate, and the weaker January and February of 2028 are not modeled at all (see the revenue note). A lender is likely to ask for a minimum-cash covenant and a monthly forecast for early 2028.
Operating figures behind the model
- Sessions are priced at a $570 chef fee, rising 3% a year from Year 2. Each session buys about seven hours of chef time: 75 minutes of shopping, 45 minutes of travel, about four hours of cooking and portioning, and an hour of cleanup. The fee, and the $181.50 of groceries billed with it ($751.50 a session, about $1,730 a month for a client who books 2.3 sessions), are the plan's own figures. No outside price survey is cited, and a lender would test them against what Plano families pay now.
- Groceries cost the company $165 a session in Year 1 and are billed to the client at cost plus 10%, which leaves $16.50 a session. That covers handling and is less than the value of the shopping time, so the margin sits in the session fee.
- Clients book an average of 2.3 sessions a month: a quarter weekly, 60% every other week and 15% monthly, less skipped weeks. Monthly churn is 3.5% of active clients, so the company must win about 42, 35, 34, 36 and 37 new clients in Years 1 to 5 to reach 36, 52, 62, 70 and 76 active clients at each year end.
- Dinner parties average $1,650 and holiday cook days $620 with groceries. The plan expects 14 parties and 22 cook days in Year 1, 22 and 40 in Year 2, and 40 and 66 by Year 5. A party uses 2.2 sessions of chef time and a cook day 0.8. In Year 1, 20 of the 22 cook days fall in November and December and two fall in March, before Easter on 28 March 2027; only 5 of the 14 parties fall in November and December.
- An employed chef is planned at about 4.4 sessions a week over 48 weeks, 211 a year, and scheduled at no more than about 90% of that. The salary is $40,000 plus 27% on-costs, about $241 a session at full use and $267 at 90%. Contract chefs are paid about $190 a session, rising 3% a year, with no on-costs, and sit outside base capacity.
- Pay rules are stated hedged. The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour (29 U.S.C. 206), and the federal salary floor for the executive, administrative and professional exemptions is $684 a week, or $35,568 a year (29 CFR 541.600). A $40,000 salary clears that floor, but a salary alone does not make an employee exempt, and a chef who cooks and portions is unlikely to meet the duties tests. In practice the chefs are hourly, non-exempt employees. $40,000 is about $19.23 an hour over 2,080 hours, and the model does not price overtime, so a chef scheduled above 40 hours in a week would cost more than planned. Employment counsel confirms this before the first hire, and the Texas Workforce Commission can confirm any state difference.
- Capacity matches revenue in every year, though March 2027 runs near full. Employed chefs and Kim cover 451, 1,211, 1,575, 1,825 and 2,018 session equivalents, against scheduled capacity of 573 in the trading months of Year 1 and then 1,363, 1,762, 2,160 and 2,371. Year 1 revenue per session equivalent is about $750 and Year 3 about $800.
- Chefs after the first three cooks need kits at about $3,000 each: three in Year 1 ($9,000, with $800 of knife service and replacement), then one, two, two and one in Years 2 to 5. A further line plans for turnover of one employed chef in four each year, at $3,500 for advertising, two weeks of paid training with Kim and a replacement kit: $2,000 in Year 1, rising to $10,800 in Year 5. These are planning figures. Professional fees (accounting for an S corporation with payroll, legal updates and tax filings) rise from $6,500 in Year 1 to $14,000 in Year 5 as payroll grows to fourteen people, also as planning figures.
- Payroll on-costs are 27% of wages for payroll taxes, health cover, workers' compensation and a retirement match (15% for the part-time coordinator). Annual 3% pay raises are charged as a separate line from Year 2.
- Employed chefs are reimbursed for about 24 miles a session at $0.76 a mile. That is the IRS business rate for 1 July to 31 December 2026 (irs.gov, read 17 October 2026), used here as a planning rate because the 2027 rate is not yet known; the company's own reimbursement policy is not a tax rate. Card fees are 3% of revenue, and cancellations, credits and bad debt are 0.6%.
- Rent is a small flex unit at $16,800 in Year 1 for storage, container stock and a desk. There is no production kitchen. Insurance covers general and product liability, hired and non-owned auto and cyber risk. Revenue is shown before any sales tax collected for the state.
- Tax is charged at the federal corporate rate of 21% (26 U.S.C. 11(b)) plus 0.75% of profit as a cautious planning figure for the Texas franchise tax. The franchise tax is actually assessed on margin, not profit, and the Comptroller lists a no-tax-due threshold of $2,650,000 of revenue for report years 2026 and 2027 (read 17 October 2026); the company's revenue stays below that figure in every year, so it may owe none, but thresholds are reset every two years. The company would normally be taxed as an S corporation, which moves the income tax to Kim and Alan, so corporate rates are a cautious planning figure. The engine's tax base ignores the start-up costs and does not apply the federal 80% limit on loss carryforwards.
- Owner distributions of $35,000, $75,000 and $120,000 are paid in Years 3 to 5, only from cash the model shows the company can spare. The loan runs to maturity inside Year 5.
- Three sensitivities run on the same model, each alone and with no management response. Revenue 10% lower (revenue only: direct costs follow revenue, but payroll, hiring and every other cost line stay as planned) turns Year 2 into a net loss of $29,023, leaves cash of $16,875 at the end of Year 2 and $5,879 at the end of Year 3, and takes it below zero in Year 4 (a deficit of $28,379) and Year 5 (a deficit of $59,657). Every wage 10% higher turns Year 2 into a net loss of $3,634, with debt service cover of 0.3x and equity of $8,064 at the end of Year 2, and the lowest Year 1 month-end cash falls to about $27,000. Employed chefs at $50,000 instead of $40,000 turn Year 2 into a net loss of $30,789 and take cash below zero from Year 3 (a deficit of $3,066), reaching a deficit of $99,814 in Year 5. In each case the owners would slow hiring and pricing would be reviewed early.
- The engine applies one blended direct-cost rate, taken from the Year 1 mix, to every year, so a line's own cost percentage only holds in Year 1. Because party and cook-day food costs 36% of its revenue and groceries 91%, the blend overstates direct costs in later years, by about $6,700 in Year 3. The monthly view spreads each year's annual cost lines evenly, so pre-opening months and the downside timing are approximate.
Revenue by line
| Revenue stream | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chef session fees (recurring clients) | $250,800 | $711,570 | $951,210 | $1,134,840 | $1,292,700 |
| Groceries billed at cost plus 10% | $79,870 | $226,580 | $302,890 | $361,360 | $411,620 |
| Dinner parties and holiday meal packages | $36,740 | $62,930 | $86,720 | $105,560 | $120,340 |
| Total revenue | $367,410 | $1,001,080 | $1,340,820 | $1,601,760 | $1,824,660 |
| Growth on prior year | – | 172% | 34% | 19% | 14% |
Fees and groceries move together with the number of sessions, and groceries carry almost no margin, so the fee line is where the profit comes from. Dinner parties and holiday cook days are the smallest line. They matter because they use the same chef bench, and November and December fill the weeks when routine sessions are thinnest. Year 2 grows 172% over Year 1 because Year 1 has ten trading months and a ramp from six clients to 36. Year 2 revenue is about 27% above the December 2027 monthly run rate of $65,750, which is $789,000 over twelve months. The engine spreads Year 2 evenly, so the weaker January and February of 2028, which follow the holiday peak, are not modeled. Cash at the end of 2027, $86,364, is what stands against that dip; the model cannot size it, and the reserve was not built to absorb it on its own.
Month by month in 2027
| Month | Chef session fees (recurring clients) | Groceries billed at cost plus 10% | Dinner parties and holiday meal packages | Total revenue | EBITDA |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan 2027 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | ($33,342) |
| Feb 2027 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 | ($33,342) |
| Mar 2027 | $3,990 | $1,270 | $1,240 | $6,500 | ($28,360) |
| Apr 2027 | $10,260 | $3,270 | $1,650 | $15,180 | ($21,708) |
| May 2027 | $14,820 | $4,720 | $1,650 | $21,190 | ($17,102) |
| Jun 2027 | $18,810 | $5,990 | $3,300 | $28,100 | ($11,806) |
| Jul 2027 | $22,230 | $7,080 | $1,650 | $30,960 | ($9,614) |
| Aug 2027 | $26,790 | $8,530 | $1,650 | $36,970 | ($5,009) |
| Sep 2027 | $33,630 | $10,710 | $1,650 | $45,990 | $1,904 |
| Oct 2027 | $38,760 | $12,340 | $3,300 | $54,400 | $8,349 |
| Nov 2027 | $41,040 | $13,070 | $8,260 | $62,370 | $14,457 |
| Dec 2027 | $40,470 | $12,890 | $12,390 | $65,750 | $17,048 |
Nothing is earned in January or February. Revenue then builds with each month's new clients and peaks in December on holiday cook days. Summer sessions run about 10% below trend because families travel. EBITDA turns positive in September and stays positive to year end. After allowing for the three days a card payment takes to settle, the low point of cash is September, at about $49,000. Annual cost lines are spread evenly over the twelve months, including the two pre-opening months, so the monthly figures are approximate.
Chefs and payroll
| Role | Annual wage | Starts | Year 1 end | Year 2 end | Year 3 end | Year 4 end | Year 5 end |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kim Kirby, co-founder and lead chef (cooks about eight sessions a month, writes menus and trains chefs) | $68,000 | Month 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Alan Kirby, co-founder (sales, scheduling, menu costing and finance) | $62,000 | Month 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 1 | $40,000 | Month 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 2 | $40,000 | Month 5 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 3 | $40,000 | Month 8 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 4 | $40,000 | Month 9 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 5 | $40,000 | Month 11 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 6 | $40,000 | Month 13 | – | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Client coordinator (part time, 25 hours a week) | $27,000 | Month 14 | – | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 |
| Employed chef 7 | $40,000 | Month 25 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 8 | $40,000 | Month 25 | – | – | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 9 | $40,000 | Month 37 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 10 | $40,000 | Month 37 | – | – | – | 1 | 1 |
| Employed chef 11 | $40,000 | Month 49 | – | – | – | – | 1 |
| Total payroll incl. on-costs | $283,633 | $498,363 | $602,550 | $704,150 | $754,950 |
Kim and Alan are paid from January. The first employed chef starts in month 4, as the first clients are booked beyond what Kim can cook, and chefs two to five follow in months 5, 8, 9 and 11. The sixth chef starts in month 13, the part-time coordinator in month 14, two more chefs in month 25, two in month 37 and the last in month 49. Each hire follows booked sessions and is timed so no month from April 2027 runs above about 90% of capacity; March 2027, when Kim is the only cook, runs near full. Contract chefs are paid per session and so do not appear as payroll rows. The coordinator's $27,000 is a part-time salary. Chefs are modeled at straight-time pay with no overtime.
Profit and loss
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $367,410 | $1,001,080 | $1,340,820 | $1,601,760 | $1,824,660 |
| Direct costs (groceries bought for clients and food for parties and cook days) | ($85,835) | ($233,875) | ($313,247) | ($374,208) | ($426,283) |
| Gross profit | $281,575 | $767,205 | $1,027,573 | $1,227,552 | $1,398,377 |
| Payroll incl. on-costs | ($283,633) | ($498,362) | ($602,550) | ($704,150) | ($754,950) |
| Rent | ($16,800) | ($17,300) | ($17,800) | ($18,300) | ($18,900) |
| Utilities | ($2,400) | ($2,500) | ($2,600) | ($2,700) | ($2,800) |
| Marketing | ($28,000) | ($46,000) | ($50,000) | ($54,000) | ($56,000) |
| Insurance | ($8,500) | ($11,000) | ($13,000) | ($14,500) | ($16,000) |
| Professional fees | ($6,500) | ($9,000) | ($11,000) | ($12,500) | ($14,000) |
| Software subscriptions | ($6,000) | ($8,500) | ($10,000) | ($11,000) | ($12,000) |
| Card processing fees (3% of revenue) | ($11,022) | ($30,032) | ($40,225) | ($48,053) | ($54,740) |
| Contract chefs, paid per session (about $190 a session) | ($7,030) | ($15,852) | ($21,367) | ($25,745) | ($29,511) |
| Mileage reimbursed to employed chefs (about 24 miles a session at $0.76) | ($8,234) | ($22,096) | ($28,721) | ($33,292) | ($36,805) |
| Containers, labels, bags and cleaning supplies | ($3,175) | ($8,653) | ($11,589) | ($13,845) | ($15,771) |
| Client credits, cancellations and bad debt (0.6% of revenue) | ($2,204) | ($6,006) | ($8,045) | ($9,611) | ($10,948) |
| Chef kits for new hires, knife service and equipment replacement | ($9,800) | ($5,100) | ($8,800) | ($9,500) | ($6,900) |
| Chef turnover: recruiting, training and a replacement kit (one in four chefs a year) | ($2,000) | ($5,400) | ($7,400) | ($9,600) | ($10,800) |
| Worker-classification and payroll-compliance allowance | ($1,500) | ($3,000) | ($3,000) | ($3,500) | ($3,500) |
| Food-handler cards, certification renewals and permits | ($900) | ($1,600) | ($1,900) | ($2,200) | ($2,400) |
| Aprons, uniforms, phones and office supplies | ($2,400) | ($4,200) | ($5,000) | ($5,500) | ($6,000) |
| Annual pay raises (3% a year) | $0 | ($14,951) | ($36,695) | ($65,294) | ($94,753) |
| EBITDA | ($118,524) | $57,652 | $147,881 | $184,262 | $251,599 |
| Depreciation | ($3,900) | ($3,900) | ($3,900) | ($3,900) | ($3,900) |
| Interest | ($7,215) | ($6,055) | ($4,563) | ($2,908) | ($1,070) |
| Income tax | $0 | $0 | ($12,411) | ($38,317) | ($53,253) |
| Net income before start-up costs | ($129,638) | $47,697 | $127,007 | $139,137 | $193,376 |
| Start-up costs expensed at opening (legal, licensing, launch marketing) | ($30,300) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Net income after start-up costs | ($159,938) | $47,697 | $127,007 | $139,137 | $193,376 |
Year 1 loses $118,524 at the operating level and $159,938 after interest, depreciation and start-up costs. Year 2 is the first profitable year, at a 4.8% net margin, which is thin because the sixth chef and the coordinator arrive before the client base fills them. Year 3 is the first year with a margin worth the name, at 9.5%. The margin eases to 8.7% in Year 4 as income tax reaches a full year, then rises to 10.6% by Year 5 as the same two owners and the same office carry more sessions. Payroll falls from 77% of revenue in Year 1 to 47% in Year 5. Income tax is zero in Year 2 and $12,411 in Year 3, because the Year 1 loss is carried forward.
Where the cash goes
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash from operations | ($157,882) | $48,417 | $129,202 | $141,728 | $196,157 |
| Chef kits, carriers and office equipment | ($19,500) | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Funding received | $270,000 | $0 | $0 | $0 | $0 |
| Loan principal repaid | ($6,253) | ($13,531) | ($15,022) | ($16,678) | ($18,516) |
| Owner distributions | $0 | $0 | ($35,000) | ($75,000) | ($120,000) |
| Net change in cash | $86,364 | $34,886 | $79,180 | $50,050 | $57,641 |
| Closing cash | $86,364 | $121,251 | $200,430 | $250,480 | $308,122 |
Closing cash is positive in every year and rises from $86,364 in Year 1 to $308,122 in Year 5, after $230,000 of distributions in Years 3 to 5. The first loan principal is repaid after the six interest-only months, and the loan is gone by the end of Year 5.
Balance sheet
| At year end | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cash | $86,364 | $121,251 | $200,430 | $250,480 | $308,122 |
| Accounts receivable | $3,020 | $8,228 | $11,020 | $13,165 | $14,997 |
| Chef kits, carriers and office equipment (net) | $15,600 | $11,700 | $7,800 | $3,900 | $0 |
| Total assets | $104,984 | $141,179 | $219,251 | $267,545 | $323,119 |
| Payable to grocers, suppliers and contract chefs | $1,176 | $3,204 | $4,291 | $5,126 | $5,839 |
| Bank loan | $63,747 | $50,216 | $35,193 | $18,516 | $0 |
| Paid-in capital | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 | $200,000 |
| Retained earnings | ($159,938) | ($112,241) | ($20,234) | $43,904 | $117,279 |
| Total liabilities and equity | $104,984 | $141,179 | $219,251 | $267,545 | $323,119 |
Break-even and margins
| Measure | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| EBITDA margin | -32.3% | 5.8% | 11.0% | 11.5% | 13.8% |
| Net margin (before start-up costs) | -35.3% | 4.8% | 9.5% | 8.7% | 10.6% |
| Payroll incl. pay raises as share of revenue | 77% | 51% | 48% | 48% | 47% |
| Revenue per full-time equivalent at year end | $52,487 | $117,774 | $127,697 | $128,141 | $135,160 |
| Average monthly revenue | $30,618 | $83,423 | $111,735 | $133,480 | $152,055 |
| Monthly revenue needed to cover operating costs | $43,505 | $77,154 | $95,655 | $113,444 | $124,697 |
| Debt service cover (EBITDA / interest + principal) | -8.8x | 2.9x | 7.6x | 9.4x | 12.8x |
Operating costs are covered when average monthly revenue exceeds the needed figure in the last rows of the table. Year 1 averages $30,618 a month against $43,505 needed, so it loses money. Year 2 averages $83,423 against $77,154 and clears it. Debt service cover is negative in Year 1 and 2.9x in Year 2.
When bookings run 20% short
| Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Year 4 | Year 5 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | $293,928 | $800,864 | $1,072,656 | $1,281,408 | $1,459,728 |
| Net income before start-up costs | ($158,771) | $17,932 | $95,946 | $100,766 | $136,191 |
| Net income after start-up costs | ($189,071) | $17,932 | $95,946 | $100,766 | $136,191 |
| Closing cash | $57,600 | $63,357 | $125,817 | $167,758 | $216,438 |
This case cuts every revenue line by 20% in every year. The owners react to what they see, so the pay cut starts in month 7, after six months of trading, not in January: from July 2027 Kim and Alan each take 15% less, and Year 1 annual cost lines are left untrimmed. Chef five (month 11) starts five months later, the other hires from month 13 start six months later and chefs six to nine a further three months after that, and chefs ten and eleven and the coordinator are never hired. The company stays in its flex unit, marketing is held at plan because cutting it would deepen the shortfall, volume-linked costs such as card fees, mileage, supplies and contract chefs fall with sessions, and distributions are scaled to 60% of the base case ($21,000, $45,000 and $72,000 in Years 3 to 5). Year 1 ends with equity of $10,929, and the lowest month-end cash in Year 1 is about $41,600 in October, measured as in the base case and approximate because annual costs are spread evenly. The company is profitable from Year 2, with a thin 2.2% net margin, and holds at least $57,600 of cash at every year end, below the base case in every year. Debt service cover is negative in Year 1, 1.4x in Year 2 and 5.3x in Year 3, so the case passes a likely 1.25x covenant in Year 2 only narrowly and cannot pass it in Year 1. The owners would ask the bank for a covenant holiday on the cover test through the end of Year 1 and for the net-worth test to be waived or reset for Year 1, because equity of about $10,900 leaves no cushion against a covenant set on the base case.
Sources
All pages read on 17 October 2026.
- IRS, Standard mileage rates. The business rate is 76 cents a mile for 1 July to 31 December 2026. The plan uses $0.76 a mile as a planning rate for mileage reimbursed to employed chefs in 2027 and later; the IRS rate changes by year, so confirm the current rate.
- IRS, Independent contractor (self-employed) or employee?. Cited for the general point that worker classification turns on the degree of control.
- Legal Information Institute, 26 U.S.C. 11, Tax imposed (corporate rate). Subsection (b) sets the 21% federal rate used in the model.
- Legal Information Institute, 29 U.S.C. 206, Minimum wage, for the $7.25 federal minimum, and 29 CFR 541.600, Amount of salary required, for the $684 weekly salary floor for the exempt categories. Confirm current figures and any Texas difference with counsel or the Texas Workforce Commission.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Franchise tax. The Comptroller lists a no-tax-due threshold of $2,650,000 and a 0.75% rate for report years 2026 and 2027. The model's 0.75% of profit is a cautious planning figure; thresholds change every two years, so confirm the figure for each year.
- Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts, Sales and use tax. Cited for the point that sales tax treatment of chef services and prepared food needs confirming.
- Texas Department of State Health Services, Licensing of food handler training programs and certified food manager training programs, for the food-handler and food-manager requirements. The permit position of a chef who cooks in a client's home rests with the Plano and Collin County health authorities; confirm locally.
- Prices, volumes, wages and costs in this plan are the company's own planning figures. Household counts, grocery prices and personal chef rates are not quoted from outside sources.
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