 | | | 
29.12.2010, 20:52
| Junior Member | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 58
Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thanked 33 Times in 22 Posts
| | What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
So I was all set to buy a pre-existing franchise business - negotiations are heading the way of the wind and now I am an entrepreneur-expat in Basel armed with a GmbH.
This is a serious question -What business or service do expats in Basel really need? Of course, I have some ideas myself, but I would love to get some input or a reality check. Any ideas would be tremendously appreciated.
Thanks!
| 
29.12.2010, 21:05
|  | Senior Member | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 472
Groaned at 5 Times in 4 Posts
Thanked 509 Times in 194 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
Please make a really cool café that serves decent beer, is not too fancy, is not some cookie-cutter British pub, is not too loud, is not dead silent, has low ceilings, is laid back, has a tiny menu of simple affordable tasty things to eat, has wood tables, different kinds of chairs, is not named something ending in -bar (Unsichtbar, Baragraph, Wünderbar,  ), has affordable beer, has borderline bad art on the walls, has a borrowable chess set, has odd serving staff and is generally a place where people would like to spend their leisure time.
Set up such a café and I will make it my second residence.
| The following 8 users would like to thank 10:30 for this useful post: | | 
29.12.2010, 21:07
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Quaint Wädenswil, Zürich, CH
Posts: 8,131
Groaned at 27 Times in 20 Posts
Thanked 7,036 Times in 3,912 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
KFC franchise ?
| The following 10 users would like to thank jrspet for this useful post: | | 
29.12.2010, 21:08
|  | Mod, Chips and Mushy Peas | | Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Albisrieden
Posts: 5,382
Groaned at 165 Times in 103 Posts
Thanked 8,569 Times in 3,177 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
A combined brown sugar merchants and salary advice company
Cheers,
Nick
| The following 3 users would like to thank nickatbasel for this useful post: | | 
29.12.2010, 21:10
|  | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Apr 2007 Location: Genève
Posts: 1,422
Groaned at 28 Times in 20 Posts
Thanked 1,308 Times in 607 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | KFC franchise ? | | | | | +1 The message you have entered is too short. Please lengthen your message to at least 10 characters. | This user would like to thank Mowvich for this useful post: | | 
29.12.2010, 21:11
| Senior Member | | Join Date: May 2010 Location: Bern
Posts: 483
Groaned at 47 Times in 26 Posts
Thanked 357 Times in 161 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
Whole Foods!
| 
29.12.2010, 22:20
| Junior Member | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 58
Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thanked 33 Times in 22 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
That's a good idea | Quote: | |  | | | Whole Foods! | | | | | | 
29.12.2010, 22:26
|  | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: town not big enough for the both of us
Posts: 993
Groaned at 48 Times in 35 Posts
Thanked 1,208 Times in 509 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | Please make a really cool café that serves decent beer, is not too fancy, is not some cookie-cutter British pub, is not too loud, is not dead silent, has low ceilings, is laid back, has a tiny menu of simple affordable tasty things to eat, has wood tables, different kinds of chairs, is not named something ending in -bar (Unsichtbar, Baragraph, Wünderbar, ), has affordable beer, has borderline bad art on the walls, has a borrowable chess set, has odd serving staff and is generally a place where people would like to spend their leisure time.
Set up such a café and I will make it my second residence. | | | | | have you never been to the Roter Engel?
| 
29.12.2010, 22:30
| Junior Member | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 58
Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thanked 33 Times in 22 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
I like the idea - apparently here you need to do quite an extensive restaurant management course to be able to own a restaurant / place where they serve warm food (or hire someone who has done such a course to manage the facility).
It's interesting, in going through the exercise of almost purchasing this franchise I realized that it could be great for expat families, but when you start thinking about it, a Basel expat wish list could get quite long.
A comfortable feeling, reasonably priced restaurant or cafe would certainly be high on the list. Thanks! | Quote: | |  | | | Please make a really cool café that serves decent beer, is not too fancy, is not some cookie-cutter British pub, is not too loud, is not dead silent, has low ceilings, is laid back, has a tiny menu of simple affordable tasty things to eat, has wood tables, different kinds of chairs, is not named something ending in -bar (Unsichtbar, Baragraph, Wünderbar, ), has affordable beer, has borderline bad art on the walls, has a borrowable chess set, has odd serving staff and is generally a place where people would like to spend their leisure time.
Set up such a café and I will make it my second residence. | | | | | | 
29.12.2010, 22:42
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Feb 2007 Location: ZH
Posts: 6,400
Groaned at 38 Times in 37 Posts
Thanked 17,636 Times in 4,512 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
Why an expat focused business? Expats are a tiny minority and notoriously fickle. Start a business that will have customers of all nationalities as customers (including Swiss) and you will have a much bigger chance of success.
| The following 10 users would like to thank grumpygrapefruit for this useful post: | | 
29.12.2010, 23:06
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Kt. Zürich
Posts: 11,806
Groaned at 611 Times in 517 Posts
Thanked 21,736 Times in 11,416 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | Why an expat focused business? Expats are a tiny minority and notoriously fickle. Start a business that will have customers of all nationalities as customers (including Swiss) and you will have a much bigger chance of success. | | | | | two related businesses; Brothel situated over a 5 minute car wash
| 
29.12.2010, 23:53
|  | Senior Member | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 472
Groaned at 5 Times in 4 Posts
Thanked 509 Times in 194 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | have you never been to the Roter Engel? | | | | | No, wait. Have you never been to the Roter Engel?
I said this: | Quote: |  | | | Please make a really cool café that serves decent beer, is not too fancy, is not some cookie-cutter British pub, is not too loud, is not dead silent, has low ceilings, is laid back, has a tiny menu of simple affordable tasty things to eat, has wood tables, different kinds of chairs, is not named something ending in -bar (Unsichtbar, Baragraph, Wünderbar,  ), has affordable beer, has borderline bad art on the walls, has a borrowable chess set, has odd serving staff and is generally a place where people would like to spend their leisure time. | | | | | That said, Roter Engel is the best café that I've found in six years of living here. But I still prefer to invite friends for a beer in my kitchen rather than going out.
| 
30.12.2010, 00:11
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Oct 2009 Location: Basel
Posts: 14,953
Groaned at 295 Times in 199 Posts
Thanked 19,026 Times in 8,002 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | Why an expat focused business? Expats are a tiny minority and notoriously fickle. Start a business that will have customers of all nationalities as customers (including Swiss) and you will have a much bigger chance of success. | | | | | as gg has managed to successfully sell british cheese to the swiss, my suggestion would be to emulate him and try to sell british made watches the swiss! | The following 2 users would like to thank Phil_MCR for this useful post: | | 
30.12.2010, 00:22
| Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: basel
Posts: 2,358
Groaned at 24 Times in 16 Posts
Thanked 2,426 Times in 1,164 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | Please make a really cool café that serves decent beer, is not too fancy, is not some cookie-cutter British pub, is not too loud, is not dead silent, has low ceilings, is laid back, has a tiny menu of simple affordable tasty things to eat, has wood tables, different kinds of chairs, is not named something ending in -bar (Unsichtbar, Baragraph, Wünderbar, ), has affordable beer, has borderline bad art on the walls, has a borrowable chess set, has odd serving staff and is generally a place where people would like to spend their leisure time.
Set up such a café and I will make it my second residence. | | | | | Like Bohemian Bagle in Prague? Oh yes. Add a few English language newspapers and chocolate chip biscuits and I will be there.
| 
30.12.2010, 00:26
| Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: basel
Posts: 2,358
Groaned at 24 Times in 16 Posts
Thanked 2,426 Times in 1,164 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | No, wait. Have you never been to the Roter Engel?
I said this:
That said, Roter Engel is the best café that I've found in six years of living here. But I still prefer to invite friends for a beer in my kitchen rather than going out. | | | | | Where is this place? I have never heard it mentioned .
| 
30.12.2010, 07:24
|  | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: Nov 2009 Location: Basel, Bruderholz
Posts: 509
Groaned at 3 Times in 3 Posts
Thanked 363 Times in 160 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
flu jab center?
C *cough* K
| 
30.12.2010, 09:34
| Junior Member | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 58
Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thanked 33 Times in 22 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel??
It's simply a matter of having a better understanding of the expat market. After 4 years of living here, I am still not quite sure what makes the Swiss tick. ;-)
Of course, I would be happy to have anyone from anywhere come in and share their hard-earned money with me - I just would pick something that would be of (hopefully) obvious interest to the expat community and then work on bringing in the locals. | Quote: | |  | | | Why an expat focused business? Expats are a tiny minority and notoriously fickle. Start a business that will have customers of all nationalities as customers (including Swiss) and you will have a much bigger chance of success. | | | | | | 
30.12.2010, 09:38
| Junior Member | | Join Date: May 2008 Location: Basel
Posts: 58
Groaned at 0 Times in 0 Posts
Thanked 33 Times in 22 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | Like Bohemian Bagle in Prague? Oh yes. Add a few English language newspapers and chocolate chip biscuits and I will be there. | | | | | Actually, I wonder if there wouldn't be any interest in some form of Expat Times, English-language, 20-minuten-type publication. Another thing I discovered is that it is not particularly easy to advertise to the expat community.
| This user would like to thank Canadiangal for this useful post: | | 
30.12.2010, 10:07
|  | Forum Veteran | | Join Date: May 2009 Location: Dubai
Posts: 871
Groaned at 32 Times in 23 Posts
Thanked 779 Times in 381 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | It's simply a matter of having a better understanding of the expat market. After 4 years of living here, I am still not quite sure what makes the Swiss tick. ;-) | | | | | You may think that you understand the expat market better than you actually do but either way are you sure that there is a sufficient customer base of expats to make a viable business.
Restaurant - 180 expat covers a night
Shop - 100 expat customers a day
Unless you are establishing a high value / low customer base business (relocation services or something similar) rather than a retail opportunity, I would recommend you go with mike's advice and appeal to the widest audience as possible.
Setting up any business is difficult but you are suggesting setting up a business where you only want to access 15% (not too sure what the expat percentage is but even this I would suggest is too high) of the customer base available.
| 
30.12.2010, 10:40
|  | Forum Legend | | Join Date: Jan 2008 Location: Kanton Zürich
Posts: 3,038
Groaned at 50 Times in 35 Posts
Thanked 1,180 Times in 738 Posts
| | Re: What would be the best expat servicing business to start in Basel?? | Quote: | |  | | | You may think that you understand the expat market better than you actually do but either way are you sure that there is a sufficient customer base of expats to make a viable business.
Restaurant - 180 expat covers a night
Shop - 100 expat customers a day
Unless you are establishing a high value / low customer base business (relocation services or something similar) rather than a retail opportunity, I would recommend you go with mike's advice and appeal to the widest audience as possible.
Setting up any business is difficult but you are suggesting setting up a business where you only want to access 15% (not too sure what the expat percentage is but even this I would suggest is too high) of the customer base available. | | | | | Are you moving to Dubai or already there? I just spent basically
the last 6 months there and in Abu Dhabi.
|
Currently Active Users Viewing This Thread: 1 (0 members and 1 guests) | | Thread Tools | | Display Modes | Linear Mode |
Posting Rules
| You may not post new threads You may not post replies You may not post attachments You may not edit your posts HTML code is Off | | | All times are GMT +2. The time now is 16:23. | |