HISTORIA DEL CAFE

Progressive Café

Janet is 25 years old. Her mother runs a successful construction equipment rental business and her father a private music school. At High School. Janet was a member of the school´s Nature Club. Janet was also secretary of the Enterprise Dynamics Club, which facilitated the junior Achievement activities in the school.

Through the club she was attached to the Millennium café, a very successful franchised health food outlet in town. There, she experienced and practiced well-tested approaches for running a café business through working in all the sectors and discussing the business with employees and the owner manager. She was given a certificate of proficiency upon completion of her assignment.

As part of her diploma course in college several years later, in which she was an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) major and a minor in Small Hotel Management, Janet designed and implemented an ICT system for small hotels during the mandatory three months practical assignment. This project won first prize in the Hotels and Hospitality category during the National Exhibition for Innovative young Entrepreneurs of the Future. Upon graduation and after briefly working in a Four Star Hotel, Janet competitively applied for and obtained a lease to manage the Progressive Café, no entrance door is directly opposite the main gate of the college she had attended. The café occupies the ground floor and lawns of a building owned by her former college as a commercial development to generate income for it.

Janet has provided the following profile and information from the records she has been reading about the cafe and discussions held with the men and women around the café. The Progressive Café was previously run for about 10 years under license from the City Authority by another woman, who later set up a firm for processing foods to supply to local supermarkets, and who recently migrated to a foreign country where she has relocated and expanded her business.

The very Spacious Progressive Café targets the college´s community comprising about 3,000 men and women (staff, workers and trainees) as well as another 3,000 city residents, some of whom are passers-by while others work in the various offices and businesses near the college. The café opens at 7:00 a.m. and closes at 8:00 p.m. serving a total of 900 men and women each day. The café offers direct delivery to nearby customers, take away services and direct service within the premises (self-service and waiter service). There are four other cafés in the vicinity of this very busy part of the city. The first café tends to be very crowded, as it does not have adequate space. The second one is an international franchise and has very high prices. The third one is located on the third floor of the next building, and the fourth one is located in a back street and has no seating arrangements.

The Progressive Café has been generating a net income of 1.2 million per year.

The average net income per month is 100,000 after deducting 23% for income from the gross profit. All the sales are on a cash basis only. The cost of items and food stuffs sold and other direct expenses per month account for 50% of sales, all operating expenses/overheads account for 28%, sales tax is 5% and net profit is 17%. Sales per month total 600,000 and the cost of items/foodstuffs sold is 300,000. The other operating expenses include 20,000 for rent 4,500 for water 6,000 for the telephone, 7,000 for electricity 5,000 for transport, 2,000 for stationery, 8,000 for maintenance and cleaning 4,500 for loan interest and 13,000 for other expenditure. These figures are fairly constant for all the months of the year. The café is normally run by eleven workers including the owner manager. There are two cooks (additional ones can be added depending on requirements), a cashier, a store keeper/purchaser, four attendants and two cleaners, all to be supervised by Janet. All the employees are competent as they have been with the café since it opened, and they all having hotel and catering certificates in their respective areas. Their wages and salaries amount to 100'000. Before the-café reopens, it needs two million to be used as follows: 300,000 for stock, 550,000 for a van, 250,000 for storage, 180,000 for cutlery, 300,000 for cookers, 230,000 for furniture, 50,000 to cover pre-operational preparations and 140,000 in cash. Janel has half this amount from her savings. Her mother will lend her half the balance with no interest, while the bank could lend her the other half of the balance at an interest rate of 10% per annum.

In addition, the café is housed on the same premises as a telephone centre and a cyber café, which are run by the college´s Entrepreneurship Club. The Progressive Café serves hot non-alcoholic beverages, hot and cold snacks, fruit and vegetable salads, ice creams, as well as healthy light foods. The prices charged are acceptable and within the range of the targeted clientele, which has sustained the café for all the years it has been in existence. Janet intends to continue operating the Progressive café as it is. However, to attract more customers she plans to undertake the following: develop beautiful promotional brochures, install an electronic notice board with catchy and entertaining messages, play high quality music, introduce delivery to outside customers, use quality cutlery and comfortable furniture, improve the general layout by. Making the premises more accessible for wheelchair users (install a ramp at the door, adjustable height for tables for computers, more, space around tables), enhance employee courtesy and speed of service, maintain high standards of hygiene and cleanliness throughout, improve the interior decor and avoid congestion by having separate positions for the different types of service. She also plans to undertake the following additional activities: sponsor the education of ten children from the local home for Children Living with HIV/AIDS, donate to the Foundation for Aged Men and women, serve as a mentor for women and men planning to go into business, as well as attend and participate in the meetings of the City Environment Enhancement Committee.

Café del Progreso

Janet tiene 25 años. Su madre dirige un exitoso negocio de alquiler de equipos de construcción y su padre a una escuela privada de música. En High School, Janet era un miembro del Club de la Naturaleza de la escuela. Janet fue también secretario de la Empresa Dinámica Club, lo que facilitó las actividades de Junior Achievement en la escuela.

A través del club que se adjuntó a la cafetería del Milenio,

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