Business plan, opening and operating a Bistro in Nicosia, Cyprus

The purpose of this paper is the development of a business plan to assist a young entrepreneur opening a new bistro restaurant. The objective is to plan ahead and proactively identify and address the different aspects related to the bistro opening and consequently address the risk of failing and suffering a financial loss.

Moreover, the business plan will address and analyse the company’s operations and will be the main instrument for attracting investment and assess the two financial options available, to identify which is the most profitable. Under both financial options explored, the business plan will be the basis for requesting finance from a credit institution and co funding from the European Structural funds.

This thesis sets out to prove that the business plan is worth preparing and provides an extended analysis of the organisation plan, the marketing plan and the best suitable financial option for commencing operations. 200 copies of a questionnaire were circulated to the employees of two large law and audit firms and 130 replies were received. Conclusions were derived regarding target market group preferences and needs. Specifically the results of the questionnaire provide us with an indication of the prices the consumers are willing to pay for specific products. In addition an interview with the manager of a long established restaurant operating in the Limassol district, provided the insight into the different aspects around opening and operating the bistro and compliments the assumptions used in the operational analysis regarding average sale units, sale prices, product mix, average production costs, trustworthy suppliers and profit margins.