First ofall allow me to say hi to all the nice people in this forum. I have a friend currently living in Greece, whichunfortunately does not speak very good English, so she asked me to write tothis forum on her behalf.

Well, as Isaid she is living in Athens Greece, and she has saved a small amount of money(around 50.000 CHF) an amount that she would like to use in order to buy asmall business in Switzerland, something like a small coffee shop, smallrestaurant, anyway something to start with.

Asmentioned above she does not speak very good English, but she speaks very goodFrench, as she has attended a culinary school in France, and has experience inworking in coffee-food establishments. Her concern is if the amount of money she has saved would be enough tobe able to buy the kind of business she wants. In Athens for example, thisamount would be more than enough, but she is reluctant to open a business inGreece now that the country is on the verge of bankruptcy.

Well, that’sit, I want to thank you in advance for any responses and advise.

With that amount of money,she might be able to buy a coffee machine, for the rest, add a million.

The brutal truth I'm afraid. Just a parking place in a communal garage might well cost around Fr. 25,000 here in Switzerland. A coffee shop or similar - way, way over the budget.

ha ha ha That's pretty funny. Yhea this is what I thought also, but did not wanted to tell her and disappoint her.
Anyway, is Switzerland really so expensive? Her other choise is France and she told me that she found many little places within her budget. Why this huge difference? I've been in Switzerland several times and saw many small immigrant-run places selling kebab for example. I find it hard to believe that those small restaurants cost a million CHF.

How about renting a bussiness like that?
Again thanks for your responces.

With 50k she is not getting anything like a business. Maybe rent will be that much. Tell her to add a couple of zeros to her savings and ask again

To get an idea about prices you & your friend need to look at the businesses for sale, http://www.gastro-express.ch/immo/index.cfm

I am not recommending this link, it is just an example.

You will see sometimes restaurants that are for rent also require the renter to pay a substantial sum for "fixtures & fittings".

These people rent (often for a considerable sum per month).
A lot of people here ruin themselves completely just by opening a restaurant or take-away.
If she honestly fears that Greece is going bankrupt, she should take the 50k and deposit them here in CHF-account.
;-)

she should probably at least get her money out before they impose currency controls or the greek banks go bust.

she could borrow 60% more with that amount. banks are reluctant to loan for the purpose of fond de commerces
On top of that she should have around 30k just on the side to cover first months expenses without going down.

all in all you need min around 150 to 200k here to start a small shop

In my opinion the best thing for her would be, if she really wants to do it in Zurich, is come here try to find a job in this sort of business save up more cash since you earn more here and once you know your way around the dif. mentality build up a friend support circle and so on try the bigger step into owning a place herself..

Its hard wrok but def. do able

It might be doable, but only with local knowledge first. You don't need to take such a big risk that is almost doomed to fail.

The post said she spoke French, so I assume she wants to do this in the French part. Property is much cheaper there, as are rents. She could probably BUY a derilict restaurant with flat above in a small town, for 300k, using that 50k as a deposit. That could be suicide though. Kitting it out would be a nightmare, and there are likely no customers, apart from kids on mopeds.

My advice would be to move to the French part, get a job in several such establishments over here for a couple of years. Definitely put the 50K in a bank here while you are over.

Well, Ibelieve that you gave her wise advice. I also thought that she should try toget a job first and keep her cash in the bank. Then she should work hard inorder to increase her savings and then, if she insists, to go ahead and trydoing something of her own.

I want tothank you all for talking the time to respond to this thread.

I doubt she will be able to save very much, from the pay she will get. Switzerland is very expensive place to live.

FYI, when a sovereign nation takes a haircut the equity markets rally 135% on average over the next 12 months, in USD terms..... In local currency its normally even better. I think Russia jumped 1000% or something? If you are scared of a default then keep your cash on the side and then put some of it into non-bank equities once the default happens.

If youre afraid that Greece is going back to the Drachma then I would use the 50k to get a 250k loan at the bank. Then take the money and stick it into a US bank account. If the Greeks switch their bank assets and liabilities to drachma she will likely only have to pay back half the loan. But even if they stay in the Euro Im sure your US$'s will go up more than your loans value.

To my knowledge the only markets with great returns on investment (and no debt) on such a small sum would be in Africa. A lot of the stuff we look at returns 7% ROIC per month, but are too small for us to invest in. Lots of stuff between 100k and 1mn. Im sure you can find a way to make money there. But I realize most people are scared to do business there.

As far as Switzerland goes? We just sold one of our parking spots for 32k. 50k wont buy you much in this place Im afraid.

Well the problem with that is that currenlty and for the last 18 months or so the Greek banks do not give loans to anybody. It is very difficult if not impossible to take a 250k loan even if you are making tens of thousands or euros each month. That is because no one is certain that they will be able to keep their job for a long time. Unemployment is increasing rapidtly and every day more and more people are loosing their job, even people with high paying jobs. The only way in order to get a 250k loan from a Greek Bank is to have lets say a 500k real estate to morgage and again it is not certain the bank will accept that because they already have forclosed thousands of homes from people that are unable to pay their loans.

Does she really want to live in Switzerland? If not, I can recommend her to live in Brighton (England). The money she had and the skills she got, she will be able to have a nice business.

Hi, I'm on a fact finding mission with the same idea and I'm going to be in Zurich around the 19th of July. PM me so that we can put heads together nothing Is impossible.

Welcome to the forum. Do you also want to open a Greek cafe here?

In a nutshell:
Switzerland is densely populated --> high real estate prices
traditionally low interest rates --> cheap loans/mortgages --> even higher real estate prices
relatively high wages & most Swiss people believe that more expensive equals better --> lack of price competition in most industries

of course there are many other factors but these are some important ones

Try your luck here:

http://www.businessbroker.ch/Home/ta...S/Default.aspx