learn to manage staffing and operations for a service business;
illustrate how to read basic financial statements;
learn about the impact of marketing and promotion; and
discover the importance of customer satisfaction.
Instructions
Biz Café presents the opportunity for you to dynamically learn about the various elements of a business
operation by running your own small, college-town coffee shop. Working in small teams, as you move through
the simulation, you will encounter the real world problems of managing personnel, marketing your product, and
managing cash. You will learn key business terminology and develop an understanding of how to interpret
business information.
Biz Café was chosen as a simulation for this course to give students a chance to learn the often complex
business elements associated with running a small business and the demand on scarce resources such as
capital and labour. This simulation will be threaded throughout the course and will have some requirements
each week as outlined below. Your group will be required to make core business decisions each week, and
then reflect on those decisions impact their café’s performance for the week.
Groups of 2-4 students receive $25,000 from a local entrepreneur to start-up a coffee shop near a university in
a good downtown location. They must hire servers, decide on a marketing plan, and purchase materials and
equipment to make their shop a success. Challenges include keeping customers and employees happy,
ordering the right amount of coffee and cups to meet demand, and attracting customers to their shop. Students
learn the difference between cash-based and accrual accounting and must manage their cash flow and payroll
accordingly.
Some of the decisions that you will be required to make include:
Management = Whom should I hire? What rate should I pay them?
Marketing = What price should I charge for my products? How do people learn about my business?
Operations = What/how much inventory should I purchase? What equipment do I need?
Accounting = How do I keep track of money?
The ultimate goal of course is to make decisions that maximize the long-term growth and profitability of your
café. Biz Café teaches how success in running a business is based on managing many dimensions with
competition for scarce resources and decisions that impact outcomes such as profitability, morale, service
levels, reputation, etc.
Sample Solution
