Lemonade Stand Business Plan [Sample Template]

Are you about starting a lemonade stand? If YES, here is a complete sample lemonade stand business plan template & feasibility report you can use for FREE.

Okay, so we have considered all the requirements for starting a lemonade stand business. We also took it further by analyzing and drafting a sample lemonade stand marketing plan template backed up by actionable guerrilla marketing ideas for lemonade stand businesses. So let’s proceed to the business planning section.

Why Start a Lemonade Stand Business?

Lemonade stands is a very lucrative business that can be started by even kids and college students to make some money for themselves during the holidays and summers. This business is also a good business idea for stay-at-home parents or unemployed people.

With less than $100, you can start your lemonade business for yourself. But if you have enough funds to invest, you can try starting up a mobile lemonade stand.

You can also consider selling snacks and other types of fruit juice to boost your business income. It is very important that you pen down your business plan and obtain all the necessary licenses and permits for your business before you start.

You may also want to understudy one who is already versed in the industry. This is so that you will be put through the various processes involved in starting a lemonade stand business. Here is an already prepared business plan to help you navigate your way through the business;

A Sample Lemonade Stand Business Plan Template

1. Industry Overview

Domestic lemon production in the United has recently started up while the previous year ended in July. In the united states, California is the biggest lemon producing state with 47,000 acres in production, and the 8,300 acres remaining in the United States are grown in Arizona.

Within the 2014 – 2015 season, lemon production in California grew by 9 percent, while Arizona’s lemon production increased by 11 percent during the same reason. Lemon production in California is believed will remain stable while Arizona production will probably reduce by 15 and 20 percent.

Just at the exact point when oranges, grapefruit and tangelos are all showing a slight reduction in acreage, lemons and tangerines/mandarins were the only citrus varieties to show an increase. Just in 2015 alone, US lemon acreage amounted to 55,300, up 1,000 acres compared to the year before.

During the year 2015, Lemon prices remained strong throughout the same. The start of the same year, prices of lemon started very strong due to a smaller harvest during the previous year.

It also ended on a strong note with the season-average price being 14 percent above the season-average price in 2014. Becauseof this strong lemon prices, the industry experienced an increase in production value, up from $641 million in 2014 to $694 million in 2015.

Lemon importation in the United States increased last year to a record 169.6 million pounds. It is believed that this increase was triggered by lower fresh production and higher prices. Mexico provided 54 percent (equivalent to 92.1 million pounds) of all lemons imported into the US and the country has been increasing its lemon shipments to the US year over year.

Chile is the number two sourcing country for lemons and exported 62.2 million pounds during last season, more than doubling the volume shipped the year before. Shipments from Spain almost tripled compared to the previous year and amounted to 10.3 million pounds.

Lemon exports exceeded imports and amounted to 247.9 million pounds last year. Japan was the largest destination for US fresh lemons, buying 67.9 million pounds.

Canada received about the same amount as Japan. South Korea ranks third, receiving 30.2 million pounds. Despite the strong export number, domestic per capita consumption increased 5 percent from the previous season. Since 2010, US per capita consumption of lemons has consistently been above 3 pounds per person.

2. Executive Summary

Peoples Cafe is a new and big specialty beverage retailer. We plan to make use of a system that is entirely new to the industry to provide astounding hot and cold beverages in a convenient and time-efficient way. We at Peoples Cafe hope to provide our customers with the opportunity to drive up and place their order of well-prepared lemonade, espresso drink, freshly brewed coffee, or other beverage.

We also hope to give our patrons the best hot and cold beverages, specializing in well blended lemonade, coffees, blended teas, and other custom drinks. We will also offer soft drinks, fresh-baked pastries and other confections.

at Peoples Cafe hope to get at our targeted markets by deploying Drive-through facilities and Mobile Cafes to satisfy the various urge of the people of San Diego, California. These facilities we believe will be designed to manage the two-sided traffic and dispense customer-designed, specially ordered cups of premium lemonade in less time than need to visit other businesses.

We at Peoples Cafe hope to offer quality products and an extensive menu of delicious items, to make sure we get our customer awareness and loyalty, as well as good publicity coverage and media support. The financial picture we have for this venture looks promising.

We at Peoples Café chose to become the Drive-through cafe between the mountains, gaining several million dollars through an initial public or private offering that would allow the People’s Cafe to open twenty to thirty facilities per year in all metropolitan communities in the North, Midwest, and South with a population of over 150,000.

It is very important to note that Peoples Cafe is a Limited Liability Corporation. We believe that all membership shares are all currently owned by Nick and Sandra Martins, and we also plan or hope to use a portion of the shares to raise capital. Our plan calls for the sale of 100 membership units in Peoples Café to family members, friends, and angel investors.

We also believe that it is crucial to say that each membership unit in the business is priced at $2,328 with a minimum of five units per membership certificate, or a minimum investment of $21,954 per investor. We also understand that if all funds are raised, Nick and Sandra Martins will maintain ownership of no less than 51% of the People’s Cafe.

3. Our Products and Services

We at Peoples Cafe hope to provide our patrons the finest hot and cold beverages, specializing in well blended Lemonade and custom blended teas. In addition, we also hope to select sell coffees, soft drinks, Italian sodas, fresh-baked pastries, and other confections.

\We at Peoples Cafe hope to offer our customers the ability to custom order a lemonade beverage that will be made and produced to their exact specifications. All of our staffs will be well trained in the art of making, blending, and serving the highest quality hot and cold beverages, with exceptional attention to detail.

Through our website and certain locations, we will market premium items such as Lemonade, coffee mugs, T-shirts and sweatshirts, ball caps, and more. We hope to create multiple sources of income in line with our core business concept, which is why we will run an in – house and community based consultancy service and trainings as it relates to lemonade and all other drinks.

Our Objective is to produce the best products – freshest lemon, coffee beans, cleanest equipment, premium serving containers, consistent flavour.

4. Our Mission and Vision Statement

• Our Vision at Peoples Cafe is to build a stand that will provide astonishing services to the people of San Diego and also grow to become a venture that will occupy every major city in the United States.
• Our mission at Peoples Cafe is to provide our customers with the finest quality beverage in the most efficient time, provide community support through customer involvement, and build and grow our business at a profitable rate through sound economic decisions.

Our Business Structure

Our Business Structure at Peoples Cafe will be a relatively flat one, since most of our personnel will be involved in production and there will be a relatively low headcount in management. We plan to create three functioning groups within Peoples Cafe: Production, Sales and Marketing, and General and Administrative.

Our Production group will involve our Customer Service Specialists, who will be manning our Drive-through and Mobile Cafes and blending the juices and beverages for the customers. Our Sales and Marketing will take care of the promotion and scheduling of the Mobile Cafes, as well as the promotion of the Drive-through and the Community Contribution program.

General and Administrative manage the facilities, equipment, inventory, payroll, and other basic, operational processes. We have taken our time to map out the various roles of our employees and what we need, and they include;

• Chief Executive Officer
• Chief operating officer
• Chief financial officer
• Chief information officer
• Director of marketing
• District and facilities managers
• Warehouse manager /store manager
• Customer Service Specialists
• Cleaner

5. Job Roles and Responsibilities

Chief Executive Officer

• Develops management’s effectiveness by employing, selecting and training, managers. Passing across information to managers on values, plans, and purposes.
• Generates, interacts, and applies the organization’s vision, mission, and overriding theme.
• In charge of setting prices and validation business deals
• Provides a sense of direction for the business
• Constructs, transfers, and helps to drive the organization’s vision, mission, and overall direction.
• Validates checks and documents.
• Appraises the achievement of the organization

Chief Operating officer

• In charge of overseeing the smooth running of the business
• Leads the producing of all business products
• Part of the team that determines the quantity of products that are to be produced daily
• Make lists and budget for all supplies
• Oversee the entire business process
• In charge of training new staffs
• Makes sure that quality in maintained at all times
• Maps out strategy that will lead to efficiency amongst workers in the venture
• In charge of training, evaluation and assessment of the workforce
• Ensures operation of equipment by completing preventive maintenance requirements; calling for repairs.
• Ensures that the bakery meets the expected safety and health standard at all times.

Chief Financial officer

• In charge of preparing financial reports, budgets, and financial statements for the organization
• Provides managements with financial analyses, development budgets, and accounting reports; analyses financial feasibility for the most complex proposed projects; conducts market research to forecast trends and business conditions.
• In charge of financial forecasting and risks analysis.
• Performs cash management, general ledger accounting, and financial reporting
• In charge of developing and managing financial systems and policies
• In charge of administering payrolls
• Ensures compliance with taxation legislation
• Handles all financial transactions for the organization
• Serves as internal auditor for the organization

Chief Information officer

• Provides technological guidance within an organization.
• Supervises information system and communications network.
• Develops and implements a customer service platform to serve the organization in every aspect.
• Designs and maintain a network infrastructure for local and wide area connectivity and remote access.
• Consults with administration, department managers, and manufacturing representatives to exchange information, present new approaches, and to discuss equipment/system changes.
• Participates in vendor contract negotiations for all new computer equipment and software purchased for the corporation.
• Creates a cost-benefit analysis as well as supporting a detailed definition of data requirements and departmental workflows.

Director of marketing

• Manages external research and coordinate all the internal sources of information to retain the organizations’ best customers and attract new ones
• Models demographic information and analyse the volumes of transactional data generated by customer purchases
• Identifies, prioritizes, and reaches out to new partners, and business opportunities et al
• In charge of supervising implementation, advocate for the customer’s needs, and communicate with customers
• Develops, executes and evaluates new plans for expanding increase sales
• Documents all customer contact and information
• Represents the People’s Cafe in strategic meetings
• Helps to develop sales and growth for the People’s Cafe

District and facilities managers

• In charge of outlining a comprehensive recruiting and training program for warehouse managers to follow
• Monitor the P&L reports for each store and develop effective ways to fill in any gaps between actual performance and People’s Cafe projections
• Prioritize store performance issues to make certain that the issues most directly affecting profitability are addressed first
• Immediately address any lapses in compliance with corporate policies or local, state and federal laws
• Act as a coach to the store managers and as a resource to each store employee to help inspire the success of each store

Warehouse manager / store manager

• Maintains receiving, warehousing, and distribution operations by initiating, coordinating, and enforcing program, operational, and personnel policies and procedures.
• Complies with federal, state, and local warehousing, material handling, and shipping requirements by studying existing and new legislation; enforcing adherence to requirements; advising management on needed actions.
• Safeguards warehouse operations and contents by establishing and monitoring security procedures and protocols.
• Controls inventory levels by conducting physical counts; reconciling with data storage system.
• Maintains physical condition of warehouse by planning and implementing new design layouts; inspecting equipment; issuing work orders for repair and requisitions for replacement.
• Contributes to team effort by accomplishing related results as needed.

Customer Service Specialists

• Ensures that all contacts with customer (e-mail, walk-In centre, SMS or phone) provides the client with a personalized customer service experience of the highest level
• Through interaction with customers on the phone, uses every opportunity to build client’s interest in the People’s Cafe ’s products and services
• Manages administrative duties assigned by the store manager in an effective and timely manner
• Consistently stays abreast of any new information on Peoples Cafe, promotional campaigns etc. to makes sure accurate and helpful information is supplied to customers when they make enquiries

Cleaner

• In charge of cleaning the stand at all times
• Makes sure that toiletries and supplies don’t run out of stock
• Cleans both the interior and exterior of the shop
• Any other duty as assigned by the manager.

6. SWOT Analysis

Our Objective at Peoples Cafe is to build a classic business that will capture majority of the local market share. We are putting all things in place and we have taken everything into consideration.

We also decided to get our SWOT Analysis, which will go a long way in helping us establishing a business that will be very successful. We hired a business consultant to do this analysis for us because we believe they will be able to state our issues of we have any.

In view of that, we were able to take stock of our strengths, our weakness, our opportunities and also the threats that we are likely going to be exposed to in the industry and our business location. Scarcely summarized below is the result of our SWOT Analysis;

• Strength

According to our SWOT Analysis, the strength of Peoples Café rests on the fact that we are set to bring in new products and innovation into the industry. Our workforce and business location was all notes to be one of the strength we have at Peoples Cafe. Our founders who are experienced individuals in the industry will go a long way to push our venture to the top.

• Weakness

Our SWOT Analysis stated that our threat will be the time it will take people to know where we are and what we offer. People go about their daily activities and most times they tend not to discover the new business next to them except the venture comes with a direct marketing Plan.

We at Peoples Cafe plan to start advertising even before we open up our shops, at least to make sure that our brand is known.

• Opportunities

The opportunities available to us are unlimited. Our SWOT Analysis noted that the industry is a recession-proof industry that will always keep booming as long as the world’s population keeps growing. People may not always have the time to cook due to their schedule, and will always decide to grab a cup of lemonade or coffee on his way to the office.

• Threat

According to our SWOT Analysis, our threat is the fact that we are competing with already established beverage stand in San Diego, California, and also there are other entrepreneurs who are likely going to launch similar business within the location of our business.

We understand that this is an easy business to start and people are currently planning on how to join the trend. But we have plans to make sure that this and other threats won’t stop us from achieving our objectives and mission.

7. MARKET ANALYSIS

• Market Trend

Just as we must have said above, California is the leading agricultural state in the U.S., with $24.5 billion in 1996 farm gate sales, compared to $13.3 in second ranked Texas. Nine of the top 10 agricultural counties in the U.S. are located in California, all of which are billion dollar producers.

Fresno County, where this meeting is being held, is the country’s number one agricultural county, with $3.3 billion in farm gate sales.

The ranking of California as the leading citrus producing state in the United States has been aided by their climatic advantages which enable them to produce a great variety of agricultural products that are not grown extensively elsewhere in the U.S.

The rising demand of their production of vegetables and citrus is a function of domestic demand, export demand, and competition, both domestically and internationally.

These demands are hyped by things like price, population growth rates, income levels and elasticity, household size, age distributions, educational levels, availability and prices of substitutes and complements, exchange rates, and changing consumer attitudes and preferences.

One of the key lifestyle trends that is always affecting food consumption is the on-going entrance of women into the work force, increasing the demand for foods of high and predictable quality that offer convenience and variety.

Also the growth in public knowledge about how diet and health are linked and the importance of maintaining physical fitness throughout life is another trend that have influenced product mix and product form of foods consumed in the United States, as elsewhere.

Other countries are reacting to the U.S. market’s growing demand for imports, and are directly developing their horticultural industries, in alignment with the implementation of broader export-led economic growth and diversification strategies.

Also the U.S. is investing in the long-term establishment of new export markets, in response to maturing demand at home and the growth in year-round demand for produce in other countries.

8. Our Target Market

We at Peoples Café plan to focus on two different market audience: Commuters and Captive Consumers. We have designed our business extensively to be able to access both of these markets. Commuters are defined as any one or more individuals in a motorized vehicle travelling from point “A” to point “B.”

Peoples Café greatest concentration will be on commuters heading to or from work, or those out on their lunch break. Our Captive Consumers market audience would include those who are tethered to a campus environment, or in a restricted entry environment that does not give the right to free movement to and fro.

This will include high school and college campuses, where there is limited time between classes, and corporate campuses where the same time constraints are involved, but regarding meetings and project deadlines and special events–such as carnivals, fairs or festivals–where there is an admission price to enter the gate, but exiting would mean another admission fee, or where refreshments are an integral part of the festivities.

Our target market will also be the mobile individual who has more money than time, and excellent taste in a choice of beverage, but no time to linger in a cafe.

Our competitive advantage

We at Peoples Café hope to build a business that can provide a substantial value proposition where a customer does not have to find a parking place, exit the vehicle, stand in line to order, wait for the beverages ahead of him to be produced, pay a premium price for average product, find a place to sit, clean up the previous customer’s mess, then enjoy their lemonade or coffee.

That’s if they have much time to spend. But our business concept is to build a business where a customer drives up, places the order, receives a high quality product at a competitive price, and drives away, without spending much time and energy.

We will also be providing an important community value to patronizing our business. Because for every purchase a patron makes from us, we plan to donate up to 6% of the sale to the local charity selected by the customer. Our Competitive Advantages are very simple. Our high quality product that will be sold at a competitive price in our stands will be a devastating hit to our competitors.

9. SALES AND MARKETING STRATEGY

• Sources of Income

Peoples Cafe is a standard business established to be very successful, which is why we will be providing our products in the most convenient and efficient way available–either at one of our two-sided Drive-through shops, or at one of our Mobile Cafes.

This we believe will separate Peoples Café from the competition in that its customers won’t need to find a parking place, wait in a long line, jockey for a seat, and clean up the mess left by a previous patron. We hope to provide enough income to be able to run our business and still move on with our charity aspect.

We believe in the uniqueness of our products and we hope to gain income by providing our patrons the finest hot and cold beverages, specializing in well blended Lemonade and custom blended teas. We will sell coffees, soft drinks, Italian sodas, fresh-baked pastries, and other confections.

We hope to offer our customers the ability to custom order a lemonade beverage that will be made and produced to their exact specifications. We will also offer training and consultancy in regards to the beverage industry.

10. Sales Forecast

We at Peoples Café hope to start our business by having two Drive-through locations in operation. Our first location will start in the third month of this plan and be fully operational beginning on the 1st day of November, and our second Drive-through will open six months later.

We also hope to add two more Drive-through in our second year and, and an additional nine Drive-through facilities in our third year. We also hope to deploy one mobile unit in the fourth quarter of the first fiscal year. Deploy a second and a third mobile unit within our second fiscal year.

We also expect to boost revenue from the commerce portion of our website, where it will sell Peoples Café t-shirts, sweatshirts, insulated lemonade mugs, pre-packaged coffee beans, and other premium items. But we are not expecting this to be a significant profit centre, but it is a major part of the marketing plan — as a function of developing our brand and building product awareness.

We estimate that our total first year sales should reach $421,087. Our second year will see sales increase to $1,114,521.The third year, with the addition of such a significant number of outlets, we will see sales increase to $3,004,752.

• Marketing Strategy and Sales strategy

We at Peoples Café understand how important a marketing plan is to the success of our business, which is why we will be placing our Drive-through stands in business locations of very high visibility and great ease of access.

We believe that our stands will be located on high traffic commuter routes and close to shopping facilities so as to attract customers going to or from work, or while they are out for lunch, or on a shopping expedition. Our Drive-through will be very simple, astounding, and eye-catching.

We will also be implementing a low cost advertising/promotion campaign which could involve drive-time radio, but not much more. We will also depend on establishing relationships with schools, charities and corporations to provide significant free publicity because of our community support program.

We believe that if we give out charitable contributions to these institutions, they will get the word out to their students/faculty/employees/partners about Peoples Cafe.

It is no doubt that the use of word of mouth has always proven to be the greatest advertising program any business venture can leverage. The media we believe will be more than willing to promote the charitable parts of Peoples Cafe and give us the opportunity for more exposure each moment Peoples Cafe contributes to charity.

11. Publicity and Advertising Strategy

Our long-range goal At Peoples Café is to gain enough brand awareness to leverage the product line into other regions and gain inquiries from potential inventors. To achieve this goal to expand and grow, we plan to do the following;

• Spend $1,000 per month on Public relations services for the next year intended to build awareness of editors and product information insertions, reviews, etc. We believe that the school fundraising program or our other charity programs will generate a fair amount of publicity on its own and will, perhaps, minimize–or even eliminate–the need for a publicist.
• We will also spend $1,000 per month concentrating on drive time Radio advertising. We plan to experiment with different stations, keeping careful track of results. As with the school fundraising program, we expect the stand and signage to be a substantial portion of our advertising.
• List our business on yellow pages ads (local directories)
• Attend relevant international and local real estate , finance and business expos, seminars, and business fairs et al
• Create different packages for different category of clients (individuals, start – ups and established corporate organizations) in order to work with their budgets
• Leverage on the internet to promote our business
• Engage direct marketing approach
• Encourage word of mouth marketing from loyal and satisfied clients

12. Our Pricing Strategy

We at Peoples Cafe have put plans in place in other to boost our income, which may include posting specials on high-profit items at the drive-up window. We also plan to make sure that we give out free drink coupons to those who have purchased a certain number of cups or something similar.

We also plan to develop window sales techniques such as our sellers asking if the customer would like a fresh-baked item with their lemonade. We believe that our pricing will be comparable to the competition in the market, but with the value-added feature of immediate, Drive-through service and convenience.

• Payment Options

We at Peoples Café plan to make sure that all our payment policy will be all inclusive because we understand greatly that different people prefer different payment options as it suits them. Here are the payment options that we will make available to our clients;

• Cash payment
• Point of Sale (POS) Machine payment
• Online bank transfer (online payment portal) payment
• Payment via Mobile money

It is also important to note that we have chosen banking platforms that will help us achieve our plans with little or no itches. Our bank account numbers will be made available on our website and promotional materials to clients who may want to deposit cash or make online transfer for our service charge.

13. Startup Expenditure (Budget)

It is important to note that a lot of factors will decide the amount we will need to successful launch a beverage stand. These factors may include our location, the size of the business we want to start i.e. the number of outlets / stands et al, and of course the state of the economy as at when we intend starting the business. We have done our research and have decided on the various places we want to spend our start-up capital, and they include;

• The Fee for registering the business in the United States –$750
• The budget for legal fees, insurance, permits and license – $30, 000
• The amount needed to build a two standard shop and renovation of the facility inclusive – $60,000
• The Cost for the purchase of kitchen / production equipment and gadgets (industrial ovens, fridges, smoke detector, TVs, microwave oven, mugs, Foils, Sound System, tables and chairs et al) – $25,000
• The Cost for supply of fruits and other inventories for a month – $120,000
• The Cost of Launching a Website – $600
• The cost opening party – $5,000
• Additional Expenditure (Business cards, Signage, Adverts and Promotions et al) – $100,000

Going by the report from our research and feasibility studies, we will need an average of $350,000 to start Peoples Cafe a standard beverage stand in San Diego, California.

Generating Funding / Start-up Capital for Peoples Cafe

Peoples Cafe just as we must have said is a Limited Liability Company that was established by Nick and Sandra Martins. They hope to build a successful business and have made the business process and way of raising start-up funds open. We hope to raise our start up fund through the following ways;

• Generate part of the start – up capital from personal savings and sell of stocks
• Source for soft loans from family members and friends
• Generate fund from Angel Investors
• Note: We have been able to raise $200,000 from the personal savings of our founders and we are almost at the verge of completing the money needed as capital from a reliable Angel investor with an eye for astounding businesses.

14. Sustainability and Expansion Strategy

We at Peoples Café believe that as time and seasons change, we will be offering products that will enhance sales and satisfy our customers’ desires. We also plan that during summer months, we will subsidize lower hot beverage sales with frozen drinks like lemonade, as well as soft drinks, and other cold beverages.

We all also make special beverages during holiday seasons, such as Egg Nog during the Christmas season and Hot Apple Cider in the Fall.

Our main desire at Peoples Café will be to listen to our patrons to understand what they are looking for most, and provide it. We all also be using our state-of-the-art, two-sided, Drive-through stands to provide convenience and efficiency for our customers.

We have already designed our state-of-the-art Mobile Cafes that will be deployed from time to time on high school and college campuses, corporate campuses, and at special events. We hope to purchase our lemonade and coffee from Citi fries Inc.

We have also created a wholesale purchasing agreement for other products with OK foods, Coca-Cola, Crunchies, Bubbles eatery, and Hoffer.

Our Drive-through stands will be manufactured by Niño palmers and our Mobile Cafes by Ceramic hob. Fulfilment equipment suppliers include Citifries Inc., Nino palmers, B &D foods limited, and Guaranteed Savage. Peoples Café computer equipment and Internet connectivity will be provided by Nicklaus Communications.

Checklist /Milestone

• Business Name Availability Check: Completed
• Business Incorporation: Completed
• Opening of Corporate Bank Accounts various banks in the United States: Completed
• Opening Online Payment Platforms: Completed
• Application and Obtaining Tax Payer’s ID: In Progress
• Application for business license and permit: Completed
• Purchase of All form of Insurance for the Business: Completed
• Conducting Feasibility Studies: Completed
• Leasing, renovating and equipping our facility: Completed
• Generating part of the start – up capital from the founder: Completed
• Applications for Loan from our Bankers: In Progress
• Writing of Business Plan: Completed
• Drafting of Employee’s Handbook: Completed
• Drafting of Contract Documents: In Progress
• Design of The Company’s Logo: Completed
• Graphic Designs and Printing of Packaging Marketing / Promotional Materials: Completed
• Recruitment of employees: In Progress
• Purchase of the Needed software applications, furniture, office equipment, electronic appliances and facility facelift: In progress
• Creating Official Website for the Company: In Progress
• Creating Awareness for the business (Business PR): In Progress
• Health and Safety and Fire Safety Arrangement: In Progress
• Establishing business relationship with banks, financial lending institutions, vendors and key players in the industry: In Progress