Burger Restaurant Business Plan Template for a Smash Burger Restaurant with Take-Out and Delivery: Word Plan + Excel Projections + Patty & Fries Costing Calculator + Startup Checklist

The sections lenders and investors expect: executive summary, concept and value proposition, market analysis, competitive analysis, marketing plan, operations plan, management and staffing, financial plan, legal requirements and permits, and conclusions with an action plan. This kit gives you those 10 sections already written in Word for an independent smash burger restaurant, plus the Excel financial projections that back them up, a calculator for the beef, the fries and the cost of every burger, and an 80-task startup checklist.

Built for an independent smash burger restaurant in a mid-sized US city: about 1,700 sq ft in a second-generation restaurant space, 44 seats, counter service (guests order at the register or a kiosk and the food comes out on a tray or at the expo, with no servers), two gas flat-tops, three fryers with filtration under a Type I hood, take-out and marketplace delivery, and shakes and soft drinks (beer is optional), open seven days a week for lunch and dinner. The owner is the general manager. Covers count each take-out or delivery order as 1.6 covers. Nothing to strip out from a restaurant template. If your concept is different, the Excel workbook takes any numbers you type, but the written plan describes this restaurant (see the questions about servers, franchises and trucks).

It depends on the space, the hood and the build-out, which move the number more than anything else. The kit's example comes in at $257,450 in startup costs, and $382,704 in total cash once working capital is added. Line by line it covers architect, MEP and permit fees, a build-out of a second-generation restaurant space ($67,500 in the example), electrical, HVAC, plumbing and a grease interceptor, a Type I hood with UL 300 fire suppression ($12,000) and the duct and makeup air ($8,000), two gas flat-tops with smash presses and scrapers, three fryers with filtration, a bun toaster and a shake machine, a walk-in cooler, reach-in and undercounter refrigeration, the freezer and the ice machine, dish and sink equipment, smallwares from a digital scale to probe thermometers, furniture for 44, POS, a self-order kiosk, a kitchen display and online ordering, LLC and legal, signage and facade, branding and launch, opening inventory and pre-opening training, plus a deposit, two months of rent before opening and a contingency. Replace each line with your own quotes: they are example prices, not a price list. The $30,000 to $130,000 you may see quoted for an independent burger startup describes a pop-up or a very small format, not a restaurant with a hood.

Not for the restaurant in this plan. The kit's example needs $382,704 in cash at opening, $130,000 of it your own money and $253,000 a loan, and the startup costs alone, before any working capital, come to $257,450. The Type I hood with its fire suppression ($12,000 in the example) is more than half of $20,000 on its own, before the duct. The written plan explains other formats, such as a ghost kitchen, a burger bar with servers or a truck, but it does not budget them: if that is your concept, type your own numbers into the Excel workbook.

It can be, with a modest margin. In the kit's example the restaurant sells $1,158,300 in year 1 (195 covers a day at $16.50 for 360 days), with 31.2% of sales in cost of goods and 31.5% in labor, and it leaves a net profit of 7.6% of sales in year 1, 9.3% in year 2 and 10.3% in year 3, with a break-even of 160 covers a day (157 on a cash basis, which leaves 24% of headroom at 195). The owner is on payroll as general manager at $4,500 a month, below what a manager would earn, so think of an owner's draw on top of that from net profit. The pessimistic scenario (180 covers a day at $15.50 for 355 days) still ends year 1 with a small profit ($23,372); the optimistic one reaches about $230,000. Beef is the risk the plan names: a rise in the price per pound moves the food cost of every burger, so the calculator makes you type your own price. Replace the example with your own numbers before you decide.

It is a rule of thumb you will read for restaurants: one common version gives about 30% of sales to cost of goods, 30% to labor and 30% to other operating costs, leaving about 10%. The kit does not start from a rule; it builds the numbers: in the example, cost of goods is 31.2% of sales, labor 31.5% (counter service, no servers), prime cost 62.7%, rent 4.7%, EBITDA 14.5% and net profit 7.6% in year 1. On food the plan uses a 34% food cost, the real usage of the whole menu, against 25.7% in the calculator's weighted costing: the gap is the balls, buns and sauces thrown out at close, staff meals, comps, mistakes and marketplace refunds that a recipe costing does not show.

It depends on what you pay per pound, how much of it ends up on the flat-top and how many ounces go in each ball. With the calculator's starting values (kit estimates, editable), a usable pound of 80/20 beef bought already ground costs about $5.41, and about $5.15 if you buy whole chuck, before the labor of grinding it. Grinding in-house pays off only if the labor stays below about $0.26 per usable lb, so the calculator's default verdict is to buy the blend ground. A pound makes about 5.3 balls of 3 oz (about 5.2 once you count the end-of-day shrink), and the example restaurant goes through about 58.5 lb of beef a day. The Costing sheet then puts a single at about $2.00 of food cost (24% of its price), a double at $3.21 (29%), a combo at about 25% and a triple at 32.7%, which it flags as "Watch the cost". Weigh every ball on a scale: ounces that are too heavy are food cost that never shows up in the costing.

The Fries & Oil sheet takes the pounds of fries per serving, the price per pound, the price of oil and how many days it lasts. With its starting values (kit estimates, editable), a 5 oz serving of frozen fries costs about $0.46 and fresh-cut fries about $0.35 before labor, plus about $0.10 of oil per serving, and the example fryers go through about 320 lb of oil a month. The default verdict is that frozen pays off once you count labor. There is no federal limit that tells you when to change fryer oil (the usual yardstick is total polar materials, which your oil supplier or fryer maker will give you a target for), so the sheet asks you to type your own oil life. Acrylamide is the same story: there is no federal limit for restaurants and the kit does not set one. California's Proposition 65 lists acrylamide and can apply to businesses in that state, so if you open there, ask a local advisor what, if anything, you have to post. The plan sticks to what you control: golden, not dark, fries, fry temperatures set by your fryer maker and the quality of your oil.

The plan has every burger cooked through: under the FDA Food Code 2022 (3-401.11, which each state adopts in its own edition), ground beef is cooked to 155 °F (68 °C) for 17 seconds, and the kit's procedure applies that to every smash, checked with a probe thermometer and written on the cooking log. Because the beef is smashed thin on the flat-top and cooked all the way, there is nothing rare or medium on the menu. Ask your health department which Food Code edition your state follows.

Only if you offer burgers cooked to order (medium or medium-rare, for instance). The plan's example cooks everything through, so it does not need one. If you decide to offer them, the Food Code's consumer advisory (3-603.11) is a disclosure on the menu, with a reminder, and it goes on your website and your marketplace listings too. The checklist has you settle this with your health department before you print a menu.

The kit does not tell you they are required. The plan buys beef already ground or already in balls from a supplier and keeps the supplier's invoices and lot information. If you grind your own, a simple log of the cuts, the lots and the times is a good practice, and the checklist lists it as optional. Ask your health department what it expects from a restaurant that grinds, since the answer can depend on your state and county.

Almost certainly: the flat-tops and the fryers go under a Type I hood with UL 300 fire suppression and makeup air ($12,000 for the hood and $8,000 for the duct and makeup air in the example), cleaned every quarter in the example because burgers are greasy (NFPA 96 sets the frequency by the type of cooking, so ask your fire marshal), with the fire marshal's sign-off, and a grease interceptor sized by your plumbing inspector. The exhaust duct to the roof also decides whether a space works: if the building will not allow it, the cooking line does not fit, which is why the checklist puts the zoning check and the hood and duct route before you sign the lease.

The nine major US allergens are milk, eggs, fish, crustacean shellfish, tree nuts, peanuts, wheat, soy and sesame, the ninth since 2023 under the FASTER Act. A burger meal carries most of them: wheat, milk, egg, soy and often sesame in the bun, milk in cheese and shakes, egg in mayo-based sauces, wheat in the breading of a chicken sandwich, and cross-contact on shared flat-tops, utensils and fryers. Mustard is not a major allergen in the United States, though it is in the UK. The plan tells you not to promise "gluten-free": the buns contain wheat and the fryers are shared. The checklist has you build an allergen matrix by item before opening, and print it for the counter crew.

Yes, that is the format. It is counter service: guests order at the register or a kiosk, and a counter crew takes the payment, calls the order and packs the to-go bags. In the example there are 12 people counting you, 9.05 full-time equivalents and about $365,000 a year in labor with employer payroll taxes, 31.5% of sales. Pay runs from $15.50 an hour for the counter crew to $17 for the grill cooks and $21 for the shift lead, and the example counts no tips and no tip credit, so every hour is paid at or above the federal and your state minimum, whichever is higher. A burger bar with servers is a variant, described in the written plan, but the Excel workbook is built for counter service.

Published plans run from about 15% to 30% of the order on DoorDash and on Uber Eats, and Grubhub has its own tiers; promotions and packaging come on top, and tiers change, so check them before you sign. The example sends 19% of sales through marketplaces at a 25% commission and keeps that share as a ceiling, with the marketplace menu about 15% higher for about the same basket. The Costing sheet shows the margin of every item dine-in, on take-out and on a marketplace: with its starting values, the same combo leaves $12.07 dine-in, $11.52 on take-out and $9.12 through a marketplace, about a quarter less. Delivery also hurts the product itself: a smash burger travels worse than it eats in the dining room, because the crust softens in the bag within minutes, so the plan puts the fries in a vented container and fries them last, caps marketplaces at 19% of sales, and pushes pickup at the restaurant, which pays no commission.

No. A burger truck is a different business, while this plan is written for a fixed location with a hood: for a mobile business, the Food Truck Business Plan Kit fits better. A drive-thru is another site and another build-out. A franchise follows its franchisor's system and fees: the plan tells you to ask for the Franchise Disclosure Document, read Item 7 (the estimated initial investment) and Item 19 (financial performance figures, if it gives them), and compare both accounts before you sign. This kit is for the independent owner who builds a burger restaurant of their own. For a full-service restaurant with a full bar, the Restaurant Business Plan Kit is the general plan, with the same lender-ready format.

They do different jobs. This plan is for deciding, financing and opening the restaurant: the written plan, the numbers and an 80-task startup checklist. The Burger Joint Checklists Kit Pro is the set of daily, weekly and monthly routines for running a burger restaurant once it is open: opening and closing, the flat-top and fryer stations, cleaning and food safety checks. Many owners use both: the plan before opening, the checklists after.

Four sheets: Beef & Patty, Fries & Oil, Costing and Instructions, in US units (lb, oz and °F). Beef & Patty takes the price per pound of your blend, the end-of-day shrink and the ounces per ball (2, 3 or 4 oz), and gives you the cost per usable lb, the balls per lb, the beef you need a day and the cost of a single, a double and a triple, and whether grinding in-house pays off with your labor. Fries & Oil gives you the cost per serving of frozen and fresh-cut fries and of the oil. Costing prices 14 products from the burger, fries, chicken sandwich, shake and drink prices you type (the defaults are kit estimates for October 2026: replace them with your distributor's prices and your own menu), and shows the food cost, the suggested menu price and the margin dine-in, on take-out and on a marketplace, plus the weighted food cost of the week against your target.

Yes. It follows the format lenders usually ask for: a written plan, a 3-year P&L, break-even, three scenarios, a 12-month cash flow, sources and uses of funds, and a loan schedule with the debt service coverage ratio (DSCR), 3.37× at its lowest in the example, which you can check against your lender's target. It's a lender-ready format, not a guarantee of approval, and a planning tool, not financial, tax or legal advice: review the final numbers with your accountant before you apply for a loan.

Yes. The green cells are the ones you type: covers per day, average check, operating days, the split between food and beverage, cost of goods percentages, delivery share and commission, rent, wages and every startup cost line. The linked formulas recalculate the rest. To change a calculated cell, use Review, Unprotect Sheet (there is no password). The workbook, the calculator and the checklist each include an Instructions tab.

Yes, with notes. Tax rates and wages are editable cells: enter 20% VAT, Canadian GST/HST plus any PST, or 10% Australian GST, the tax you reclaim on purchases, and your own minimum wage and employer costs. UK and Australian prices include tax, so in the Excel model type your average check without it. The plan, the checklist and the calculator are in US units (lb, oz, °F and sq ft), and the plan has a short note for UK readers. In Canada and Australia, check your provincial or state rules with your local authority. Every English edition also includes the US · UK · Canada · Australia Equivalents Guide, a bonus with the local terms, taxes, food safety and staff rules side by side. The price is $39 USD, a one-time payment: at checkout, Stripe can show the amount in your local currency (for example GBP, EUR, CAD or AUD) and converts it for you. The Excel cells have no currency symbol, so you type amounts in your own currency; the example in the Word plan is in US dollars.

No subscription: you pay once and get lifetime access to the online dashboard. When we improve the plan or the workbooks, you get the new version at no extra cost: just download the files again. One purchase covers one business: if you're a consultant or an investor, you can use the files with the projects you advise, but you can't hand them copies, since each business buys its own.

Yes. A full 30-day guarantee. If the plan doesn't meet your expectations, we'll refund 100% with no questions asked.