The main purpose of this study is to determine whether a very unique Vietnamese restaurant is viable to function without any coordination with other Asian cuisines such as Chinese, Thai, etc..

. This thesis also clarifies the constructive opportunities of creating a unique Vietnamese restaurant and coffee shop brand with the featured cuisine and beverage culture; especially this will bring more information and advantages to not only the author but also persons or investors interested in a very beautiful Asian culture.During the thesis, the detailed financial condition and budget were completed. The theoretical background for constructing the business plan was based on a number of books about what are key elements in writing a business plan and what other theories should be used to implement the research. Business plan is needed for many reasons: to be a guideline for the business, support the internationalization and to manage the financial budget of the business.Moreover, the management methods for staff, customers and the service are very important also.

From the authors view and experience, the main key factors why the customers choose the restaurant and what marketing strategies or customer service campaign make the restaurant successful. As in this study is used a project-based method, the resources used in the thesis are literature, internet sources related to the topic and the author’s own experience. As a learning process, the study is beneficial to the author.The thesis shows a basic model of writing a business plan and this is limited to a specific industry in a specific area so anyone who uses this thesis as a reference for making a business plan must take targeted industry into consideration. Key words: Business plan, Vietnamese restaurant, project-based, Helsinki 4 1 Introduction “l always like to look on the optimistic side of life, but I am realistic enough to know that life is a complex matter”.

(Walt Disney) “Planning without action is futile; action without planning is fatal” (Unknown)One of the most important reasons for a failure in business is the lack of an adequate business plan. Nowadays, when everybody thinks that being rich is so simple and anybody can make money, the life is still more complicated than thought. Planning your business beforehand is very necessary to evaluate the business potential and direct a plan in the future. It is also to help the owners or investors to no longer risk the money on a business unless there are good reasons to think that it will be successful.

From the authors point of view, as she has a dream to establish her own assistant; she needs to understand how important of a business plan is and what, when and where it should be implemented to be a successful restaurant. Especially the new idea here is to coordinate a restaurant and coffee shop in Vietnamese style and culture. The author always reminds herself “Dreams can become true when you know and make an effort what you need to do”.

1. 1 The aim of this thesis is to understand how to create a completed business plan and achieve its main goals and objectives.This is supposed to bring a totally new brand, new culture, new cuisine and beverage style to European ultra, and hopefully can be expanded to become a chain of restaurant around Finland or even some other developed European countries. The restaurant which is called “Hidden Charm” combined to a coffee shop will be a new “home” to enjoy relaxing time after a busy day. Restaurant “Hidden Charm” will be aware of the risks, difficulties and problems, and with the help Of this thesis tries to avoid them with a number Of solutions and methods. 1. 2 Research method The thesis will be carried out as a project-based thesis and followed by a research as well which enable to use practice-as-research as one of the search methodologies and find the proper models and theory for a business plan 1.

3 The theoretical framework of this study includes theories about a business plan, SOOT analysis, the marketing planning and strategy to give a general view how to start to run a business in reality.The business plan will propose the readers what, where, why and how a business will achieve its objectives and the people who will be responsible for it, the SOOT analysis will show the marketers to concentrate on the main key factors when planning a business, the marketing planning and strategy will alp to introduce and develop the products and services effectively and the CRM system will support to improve the customer service as well as the products’ quality in the restaurant imitations The author had to focus on the Vietnamese “Hidden Charm” restaurant and coffee shop which serve only cultural Vietnamese cuisine and beverages.Since the business would exploit the very potential customers – Finnish citizens, the author would make and design some specific Vietnamese style atmosphere, space and customer service with marketing campaigns to attract the customers so that the customer service system would show a productive exult. 6 2 Vietnamese culture, cuisine and beverages 2. 1 Background information Vietnamese Culture is one of the oldest cultures in Southeast Asia from the ancient Bronze Age, Dong Son culture being widely considered one of its most important progenitors.Vietnam was strongly influenced by Chinese culture in politics, government, social, ethics and art after under 1 000 years of Chinese rule.

Following the 1 10th century, Vietnam was independent from China. Vietnam had undergone two biggest cultural penetrations of the Champ – part of the Khmer empire (modern Southern Vietnam) and French colonial period which roughs various influences from Europe(Vietnam, Wisped 2014).Some important elements are considered to be characteristic of Vietnamese culture such as ancestor veneration (Figure 1) ? the respect for community and family values or dragon, lotus, bamboo – the symbols present for Vietnam as well(Wicketkeepers). Figure 1 . Ancestor veneration (Diocletian) 7 Vietnamese cuisine encompasses the foods and beverages with a combination of five fundamental element correspondences in the overall meal. Each Vietnamese dish has a distinctive flavor which reflects one or more of these elements (Figure 2).

Normally, there are some main ingredients such as fish sauce, shrimp paste, soy sauce, rice, fresh herbs, fruits and vegetables. Elements Correspondence Wood Spices (Engјvi) Organs (Engјtent) Colors (EngјSC) Senses (Engјgig ) Nutrients (Engјchat) Sour Gall bladder Fire Earth Bitter Sweet Small intestine Stomach Metal Spicy Water Salty Large intense- Urinary blatting deer Green Red Yellow White Black Visual Taste Touch Smell Sound Protein Minerals Carbohydrates Fat Figure 2. Five Element Correspondences in Cuisine (Wisped 2014) 8 With a varied cuisine culture, Vietnamese comprise a large number of rotational cooking methods.For examples: boiling, steaming, barbecuing, frying, drying pan-roasted, stir frying deep-frying, stewing, slow-cooking, simmering, etc (Figure 3 & 4). In additional, the cuisine culture for a Vietnamese is also shown by using bowls, chopsticks and spoons which are accompanied by an array of sauces, dips, salads and so on.

(Figure 5) Figure 3. Mackerel fish stewed with ginger/ peppercorns/ chili (Fish food in Vietnam, Bamboo) Figure 4. Vietnamese sweet deep-fried cake (Sweet cake in Vietnam, Battens) 9 Figure 5.

Family Vietnamese meal. (Family Meal in Vietnam, Gadding))When about the Vietnamese beverages ornamentation, green tea and coffee are the most popular and traditional beverages. Green tea is often available after Vietnamese meals and provided free at restaurants and coffee shops for the customer to balance the taste with other drinks. It is also a friendly and polite beginning for a discussion at work, a visit from a friend or just about any other situations involve sitting down around the table. Everything seems to be easier, smoother and more peaceful when inhaling the scent of green tea through the nose.

(Figure 6) Figure 6.Vietnamese Green Tea (Green Tea, Chinch) 10 Vietnamese Coffee is made from Robusta beans which have very strong flavor. Most of the minorities of Vietnamese who drink coffee take it with condensed milk. (Figure 7) Drinking coffee has become quite a fashionable trend among young people especially.

Now there are so many coffee shops not only selling the traditional black coffee and coffee with milk (brown coffee) but also some “modern” coffee types like ice blended coffee with flavors such as Caramel, Hazelnut, Java Chip, Pumpkin Spice, Chocolate Chip, Espresso, Cinnamon Dolce, Vanilla… Figure 8) (Cataracts) Figure 7.Vietnamese Traditional Coffee (Vietnamese coffee) Figure 8.

Ice Blended Coffee with Jelly (Ice Blended Coffee) 11 2. 2 Vietnamese food uses many different kinds of spices from the vegetables like ginger, lemongrass, Vietnamese mint, long coriander, lime, basil leaves… And all the dishes are usually cooked using fresh ingredients, minimal amount Of oil, quite lots of herbs and vegetables. (Figure 9) As a result, the balance between herbs and meat with variety of spices, Vietnamese food is considered one of the healthiest cuisines in the world (CNN).

Vietnamese Food is low in fat, gluten-free and jam-packed with vitamins and minerals.The salad and soups are full of vitamins A and E thanks to fresh herbs, spices, plenty of vegetables and lean protein. Many dishes are made with rice noodles, rice papers or rice flour instead of wheat that is very naturally gluten-free. Otherwise, some foods like fresh summer and spring rolls or soups which include very low sugar amount; less than g per serving. (Figure 10 & 1 1)(Vietnamese Healthy Food, the Huffing Post).

Figure 9. Vietnamese Traditional Noodle Soup – “Ph&’ (Vietnamese Pooh, kitchenettes) 12 Figure 10. Fresh Summer Rolls (Summer Rolls in Vietnam) Figure 11.Vietnamese Fresh Chicken Salad (Chicken Salad in Vietnam) 13 2. 3 Vietnamese in Helsinki – Finland Vietnamese is one of the largest people groups from of Southeast Asia in Finland. According to Statistics Finland, in 2007, there are 4,645 people whose mother tongue is Vietnamese and 2,010 people with Vietnamese citizenship residing in Finland.

Two main regions with significant Vietnamese populations are Helsinki and Turk. (Statistics Finland 2007. ) As Statistic Finland (2013) states more than 2,500 Vietnamese people are permanently resident in Finland. The figure 12 will give more details. Figure 12.Groups permanently resident in Finland by their second nationality in 2013. (Statistics Finland 2013) 14 In addition, there is a great number of Asian restaurant chains in Helsinki from Thailand, Japan, Vietnamese, India, etc.

Especially some of them are very popular and developing day by day now. For example, the “Orchid Thai Quick and Tasty” in the Centimeter (Figure 1 3) where they serve very featured That’s cuisine but also very traditional Vietnamese cuisine such as noodle soup (Pooh), Vietnamese Crepe (Banshee) or fresh summer rolls (Figure 14) which are highly recommended to the customers.Figure 13. Orchid Thai-Viet Kitchen (Orchid Ravioli) Figure 14. Fresh summer rolls (Summer Rolls in Orchid) 15 Cabin Sushi is a Japanese family restaurant with a cozy and friendly atmosphere in the Scampi Centre as well or Figuratively (Figure 1 16) which bringing the best experience of buffet sushi to the customer and is located near Forum Shopping Mall (7 minutes walking). Figure 15. Chubbiness in Scampi (Cabin in Scampi) Figure 16. Fug Sushi (Revolutionary) 16 Therefore, there are many Asian restaurants in Helsinki but no unique Vietnamese ones there.

That is the main reason why the author decided to make a difference among other restaurants. With very unique and feature culture, cuisine and beverages, the balanced combination and appropriate taste adjustment for the Europeans, “Hidden Charm” restaurant would be a very potential competitor with others. From the authors own observation, nowadays, there is a significant increase of Vietnamese students in Helsinki, not only directly from Vietnam, but also from other cities in Finland, the students want to come to Helsinki to kick for more opportunities. Therefore, the demand of Vietnamese cuisine has plopped as well.