Frequently asked questions for
BizCafe

BizCafe is a hands-on business simulation where students run a small specialty coffee shop for up to 16 simulated weeks. They make decisions in management, marketing, operations, finance, and planning — all in a realistic, integrated environment.

Students learn by doing as they manage staffing, pricing, budgeting, purchasing, scheduling, and customer satisfaction.

BizCafe is ideal for:

• Introduction to Business
• Business Essentials
• Small Business Management
• Principles of Management
• Courses teaching basic operations, marketing, or financial literacy

It’s intentionally built for students with little or no prior business experience.

Students manage a functioning coffee shop, making decisions in:

• Naming and positioning their business
• Choosing furniture & equipment
• Setting hours of operation
• Staffing managers and servers
• Setting prices for different cup sizes
• Purchasing coffee & cups
• Launching promotions, websites, and social media
• Responding to incidents (if assigned by instructor)

BizCafe covers the foundational “Business Essentials” topics:

Management 

• Staffing, wages, turnover, morale, workload balancing

Marketing

• Pricing decisions, promotions, value perception, target customers

Operations

• Demand forecasting, capacity planning, inventory, hours, purchasing

Accounting

• Income statement, balance sheet, cash flow, checkbook/cash system

Planning & Integration

• Aligning decisions across functions to improve performance

• Up to 16 weeks/rounds
• Most instructors use 12–13 rounds
• Students typically spend 30–60 minutes per round

At launch, students choose:

• Business name
• Furniture (used or new styles; $2,000–$4,000)
• Espresso machine (2-cup or 4-cup model)
• These choices affect capacity, speed, ambiance, and early cash flow.

Each round includes decisions on:

Management

• Manager salaries
• Number of part-time servers
• Server wages

Marketing

• Cup prices (small/medium/large)
• Advertising (web, search ads, social media, boosted posts)
• Promotions (discounts, 2-for-1 deals)

Operations

• Shop hours (M–F; optional weekends)
• Coffee purchases and quality level
• Cup purchases (bulk with logo or local, higher cost)

Special Decisions

• Incidents / mini-cases if enabled

BizCafe tracks performance through:

• Dashboard metrics (rank, trends, alerts)
• Customer satisfaction scores
• Daily receipts & capacity data
• Checkbook and cash balance
• Monthly accountant-prepared statements

Performance depends heavily on integrated decision-making, not isolated metrics.

Students receive:

• Income Statement (accrual)
• Balance Sheet
• Cash Flow Statement (optional)
• Checkbook (cash-based)

This helps them compare cash-based vs. accrual-based accounting.

Students can review:

• Local wages & turnover
• Competitor menus and prices
• Coffee quality comparisons
• Customer survey results
• Competitor branding (logos, ads, cups)

Yes. BizCafe uses realistic expenditures, including:

• Monthly rent ($2,000)
• Utility payments
• Manager & server wages
• Coffee & cup purchases
• Depreciation on equipment

This gives students a true picture of business cash flow.

Demand depends on:

• Price
• Ambiance
• Coffee quality
• Advertising & promotions
• Service speed (staff + equipment)
• Customer satisfaction

Yes. If they underestimate demand, the system automatically sources coffee or cups locally at higher cost, which reduces margins.

Instructors can enable “incidents,” which are short managerial scenarios requiring student responses. They simulate real-world dilemmas such as staffing issues, customer complaints, or operational mistakes.

Yes. Instructors can add:

• Auto-graded assignments
• Reflection questions
• Decision rationales
• Discussions around incidents

Yes — the Brewing a Business eBook Bundle integrates directly with the simulation and covers:

• Business foundations
• Ethics cases
• Mini-assignments
• Video interviews

Every instructor gets:

• A dedicated CRM contact
• Instructor onboarding
• Quick-start guides
• 24-business-hour support response