The Traditional Business Plan Is Broken: Introducing the Regenerative Culinary Business Plan
- Jodene Hager, LMT, MBA
- 7 hours ago
- 3 min read
Most business plans were built for a world you’re trying to dismantle. They prioritize extraction, externalize harm, and assume that low wages, burnout, and environmental damage are simply “the cost of doing business.”
If you’re building a food enterprise rooted in justice — one that honors workers, land, culture, and community — you already know the traditional business plan model cannot hold your vision.
The Regenerative Culinary Business Plan: Fifth Element Framework is the alternative. This is not your typical restaurant business plan. It’s a complete, pitch‑ready blueprint designed for founders who refuse to replicate the systems that created the crisis in the first place.
This plan enables you to define a business model that is financially viable due to its accountability, not in spite of it.
This is not a generic template. It’s a structured, rigorous planning tool that embeds the core principles of the Fifth Element Framework directly into your business model. Instead of forcing you to justify your values, it treats them as the foundation of your financial and operational design.
It guides you to build a business that is:
1. Non‑Extractive by Design
Commitments like a Real Living Wage, regenerative sourcing, and equitable labor structures are built into the model from the start. You’re not asked to “fit them in later.” They are the baseline.
2. Resilient in a Climate‑Unstable World
The plan integrates climate adaptation, sustainability, worker safety, and infrastructure resilience as essential business functions — not optional add‑ons.
3. Measurably Regenerative
You define clear, trackable metrics for wage equity, ecological impact, community benefit, and resource stewardship. Financial performance is one metric among many, not the only one.
This is a business plan that tells the truth about what it takes to build a food enterprise that heals more than it harms.
Who This Framework Is For
This plan is built for founders who are designing food systems that center land, labor, and liberation.
Best Suited For:
Worker‑owned or community‑owned food enterprises
Regenerative, farm‑connected, or culturally rooted culinary concepts
Founders seeking non‑extractive capital
Restaurants committed to wage equity and ecological stewardship
Not Suited For:
High‑volume, low‑wage models
Concepts dependent on the tip credit
Businesses built on industrial supply chains
Ventures seeking fast‑growth, extractive VC funding
If you’re building something that challenges the status quo, this is the plan that supports you.
How to Use the Framework
You can use this asset independently or with my support.
Self‑Guided Use
Clarify your mission, values, and commitments using the guided worksheets
Work through the structured questions for each Element of the framework
Fill in the pitch‑ready template with your answers
Use the appendices to complete wage calculations, sourcing plans, and governance structures
This gives you a complete, lender‑ready, investor‑ready, community‑ready plan.
Collaborative Use (With My Support)
If you want deeper partnership, I can help you:
Set accurate wage, sourcing, and regenerative metrics
Design governance structures that protect your enterprise from future extraction
Refine your funding narrative for community‑aligned capital
Together, we build a plan that is both visionary and operationally sound. Learn more here.
Build the Future the Old System Can’t Imagine
If you’re ready to design a culinary enterprise that honors workers, land, and community — and still stands up to financial scrutiny — this is your blueprint.
Download the Regenerative Culinary Business Plan: Fifth Element Framework and start building the food future you believe in.
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