Small Venture Budget Builder

1 · Your sales

Budget period Pick the rhythm you actually sell on — a weekly meal-prep run, a market day, a month of pop-ups. Every number below should cover the same period.

Expected sales ($) What you realistically expect to take in — not your best day ever. A honest middle guess budgets better than a hopeful one.

2 · Food & ingredient cost

Ingredients & food cost ($) Everything edible that goes into what you sell, for the same period. Drinks, garnishes and the extras count too.

Your food-cost percentage

—

Food cost ÷ sales. Restaurants commonly teach a healthy range of about 28–35%. Above that, prices, portions or sourcing usually need a second look.

3 · Labor

Labor cost ($) Everyone who gets paid to make the period happen — prep help, a server, a driver — including paying yourself. Small food ventures often run labor around 25–35% of sales; if you don't pay yourself here, the "profit" below is partly your wages in disguise.

4 · Overhead

The costs that exist whether you sell one plate or a hundred: kitchen rent or commissary fees, permits and licenses, insurance, market booth fees. Name your own lines — add as many as you have.

Overhead total: $0

5 · Supplies & packaging

Supplies & packaging ($) Containers, bags, labels, napkins, gloves, cleaning supplies — the non-food things each sale consumes. Easy to forget, and it adds up fast.

6 · Platform & market fees

Fees (% of sales) Any percentage taken off the top before the money reaches you — a marketplace or platform commission, a card-processing percentage, a market's cut. Enter the combined percentage; the worksheet turns it into dollars for you ($0).

Your picture

Total costs $0

Net left over $0

Net margin —

Food-cost % —

Enter your expected sales and costs above — your picture builds itself as you type.

Best · expected · worst

Same costs, three sales days. Food cost and fees move with sales; labor, overhead and supplies stay put — that's what makes a slow week sting.

Scenario	Sales	Net	Margin
Worst (−20% sales)	$0	$0	—
Expected	$0	$0	—
Best (+20% sales)	$0	$0	—

A teaching worksheet, not financial advice — your numbers stay in your browser and are never saved, sent, or shared. Example figures in the hints are illustrations, not quotes or promises.

Keep learning

Numbers are a chef skill too

This worksheet comes from our Financial Literacy session in the Workforce Readiness series. Browse the class library, or see how chefs run their meal-prep practice — clients, menus and payments — on Farm2Chef.

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