flagship course · Brazil
Eight modules take you from the first customer to a running, measured service in bed and breakfast business.
about this course
Plan, start and run bed and breakfast business in São Paulo: serve a leisure or business guest, deliver a guest room and a morning meal, keep records, and show a working month of numbers.
About 8 weeks part-time. Own phone or computer, real customers or a real practice site, a peer and a mentor for the final review. Local rules and licences checked against official sources.
Every module standard is met; all claims are true and backed by records; peers and a mentor mark the evidence 'Meets' or better.
Who it is for: students, graduates, career changers, owners, workers and returners. Requirements: none. Materials: lesson text, templates, tracker, rubric, check with answers.
lesson by lesson
Every sound business in bed and breakfast business begins with one clear customer and one clear problem. In São Paulo and the wider state, demand is real but crowded, so a small, well-described customer group wins before a broad one.
Activity. Write the one-sentence customer, a five-row rival table and eight interview records. Share them with a peer for a challenge round.
Standard to meet. Define a specific customer, build a rival table with prices, and trace every claim to an interview or a source.
Brazil asks every trader to be visible and accountable. Know which register, tax regime and sector rules apply before the first sale, and check each against the current official text.
Activity. Build your own six-line compliance table for your first location. Mark what is done, what is pending and who confirms it.
Standard to meet. Cite an official source for every line, assume nothing, and date every pending item. Local law always wins over this course.
An offer states what the customer gets, how well, by when and at what price. For a guest room and a morning meal, the offer must make the quality visible and the next step easy.
Longer notes. Decide who your house is for, such as visiting consultants, couples on weekends or cultural travellers, and set one standard room-night price that includes breakfast. Cost a night from breakfast food, laundry and cleaning, water, energy and small amenities. Compare your price with similar stays in your neighbourhood and with a hostel and a hotel. Photograph each room honestly and write house rules on noise and check-in. Confirm lodging registration and fire-safety rules with the city before the first guest sleeps over. Put the breakfast menu, check-in times and parking details in a short welcome note that you send the day before arrival, so guests know what to expect and your first message sets the standard.
Activity. Write the offer card, the proof list and the terms sheet. Test them with three customers and note every point where they hesitated.
Standard to meet. Check that promise, proof and price are consistent, fit the terms on one page, and record three customer reactions.
Good operations make results repeatable. For bed and breakfast business, write each step so a new person could follow it on their first day, and measure each step.
Activity. Draw the process map and write procedures for the two riskiest stages. Run each once and time it.
Standard to meet. Write procedures a stranger can follow, record weekly numbers for each measure, and trace one defect to a root cause.
The most serious risk in this field is bad reviews from small failures. A calm, written risk routine protects people first and the business second.
Activity. Build a ten-row risk register and a one-page emergency plan. Run a ten-minute drill with a peer and note two improvements.
Standard to meet. Rank controls by preference for the top risks, run the drill, and start the log. Where a regulation applies, follow the official rule.
People deliver the promise. Define roles, train to a standard and give feedback in the open.
Longer notes. Teach the housekeeper a fixed room routine: strip, wipe, restock, vacuum and a final look from the doorway. Put a laminated checklist in the cleaning cupboard and walk the first rooms together. Agree who prepares breakfast, who answers late arrivals and who handles repairs. Practise a calm reply to a complaint about noise or a dirty bathroom. Keep a written rota with pay and days off, and confirm which employment rules apply to a housekeeper who also serves breakfast. Walk through a bad review together with the team once a month and ask what could have prevented it. Staff who help find the fix are far more likely to follow the new routine than those who are only told.
Activity. Write two role cards and a training plan for one new hire. Role-play a hard customer conversation twice and review.
Standard to meet. Write role cards with measurable standards, show the sign-off steps in training, and write the service rules in plain words.
A business lives or dies on a few numbers. Know your contribution per unit, your fixed costs and the volume you need.
Activity. Build your own table: price, variable cost, contribution, fixed cost, break-even and a downside case at 75% of sales. Show it to a peer or mentor.
Standard to meet. Calculate correctly, give every figure a source or mark it as an assumption, and show a downside case.
Growth should follow proof. Measure, learn, then add; and keep returning to the customer.
Longer notes. Record every booking with source, nights, room, price and review score. Calculate occupancy by weekday and by month and look for the empty nights. Test a midweek offer for visiting workers and a weekend offer for couples. Ask guests who liked the stay to leave a written review and to book direct next time. Review prices each season against what similar houses charge and against your costs. Keep a notebook of guest requests, such as an extra pillow, a late taxi or a quiet room, and turn the repeats into standard services, because small touches are what guests mention in reviews.
Activity. Write a 90-day plan with one target, three actions and a review date. Present it in five minutes and take questions.
Standard to meet. Set a measurable, dated target, break the actions down small enough to start this week, and put the review date in the calendar.
case study
Situation. the owner runs a five-room bed and breakfast in Sao Paulo that can offer 150 room-nights a month. She charges R$ 280 per room-night with breakfast, and laundry, cleaning, breakfast food and energy cost about R$ 90. Her fixed costs are R$ 6.000 a month for rent, insurance, internet and a part-time cleaner. Last month she sold 90 room-nights. A travel agent proposes a group of 20 room-nights next month at R$ 240 each, and a guest left a poor review about a dirty bathroom. The owner does not know her break-even occupancy or whether the group price is worth taking. She keeps bookings in a calendar on the wall and has no record of how guests found her or what each night really earned.
Task. Say what you would do first, next and last, and what record you would keep.
Model answer. First, margin per room-night is R$ 280 - R$ 90 = R$ 190, or 67,9 percent. Break-even is 6.000 / 190 = 31,58, so 32 room-nights, which is 21,3 percent of capacity. At 90, profit is 90 x R$ 190 - R$ 6.000 = R$ 11.100, with occupancy of 60 percent. Next, the group price gives R$ 240 - R$ 90 = R$ 150 per night. If the nights would otherwise be empty, 20 x R$ 150 = R$ 3.000 is extra profit. If they displace guests at R$ 280, each swap loses R$ 40. The 20-night group at R$ 240 is a worked-example scenario. Fix the bathroom checklist first. Also, move the wall calendar into a sheet with source, nights, price and review score, and read it monthly. Add a housekeeping checklist signed by the cleaner, so a bathroom complaint can be traced to a date and a room. the owner's wall calendar becomes a weekly sheet, so a dirty-bathroom review points to a date, a room and a signed checklist.
assessment
Evidence: customer file, compliance table, offer card, procedures, risk register, role cards, money table, 90-day plan. Mentor and peers mark it with this rubric. Pass: no criterion at 'Not yet'.
| Criterion | Not yet | Meets | Exceeds |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customer and market | Everyone is the customer | One segment with interviews | Segment, interviews and a counted market |
| Rules and records | Unaware of duties | Table with sources | Table kept current, owner and dates |
| Offer and operations | No written standard | Offer card and procedures | Procedures measured weekly |
| Safety and risk | No register | Ranked register | Register, drill and incident log |
| Money | No numbers | Break-even correct | Break-even, cash plan and downside case |
Model answer: It makes the offer, the price and the message specific; you can test it with real people. (Covered in module 1: Know your customer and market. To pass that module: Define a specific customer, build a rival table with prices, and trace every claim to an interview or a source.)
Model answer: MEI for micro-entrepreneurs whose activity is on the official list, or a company with a CNPJ (check current limits; regulated activities need sector authorisation first). (Covered in module 2: Rules, registration and data duties in Brazil. To pass that module: Cite an official source for every line, assume nothing, and date every pending item. Local law always wins over this course.)
Model answer: LGPD, the general data protection law. (Covered in module 2: Rules, registration and data duties in Brazil. To pass that module: Cite an official source for every line, assume nothing, and date every pending item. Local law always wins over this course.)
Model answer: What is delivered, to what standard and by when, and at what price, with proof. (Covered in module 3: Design the offer. To pass that module: Check that promise, proof and price are consistent, fit the terms on one page, and record three customer reactions.)
Model answer: So any trained person can repeat it and so each stage can be measured. (Covered in module 4: Run the work step by step. To pass that module: Write procedures a stranger can follow, record weekly numbers for each measure, and trace one defect to a root cause.)
Model answer: Bad reviews from small failures. Start by removing or reducing its cause; where that is not possible, add guards, training and protection, and record each control in the risk register. (Covered in module 5: Safety, quality and risk. To pass that module: Rank controls by preference for the top risks, run the drill, and start the log. Where a regulation applies, follow the official rule.)
Model answer: Remove, replace, guard, train, protect with gear. (Covered in module 5: Safety, quality and risk. To pass that module: Rank controls by preference for the top risks, run the drill, and start the log. Where a regulation applies, follow the official rule.)
Model answer: Price minus variable cost per unit. (Covered in module 7: Money: cost, price and break-even. To pass that module: Calculate correctly, give every figure a source or mark it as an assumption, and show a downside case.)
Model answer: 32 room-nights a month (fixed R$ 6.000 / contribution R$ 190, rounded up). (Covered in module 7: Money: cost, price and break-even. To pass that module: Calculate correctly, give every figure a source or mark it as an assumption, and show a downside case.)
Model answer: So you can tell which change caused the result. (Covered in module 8: Grow, measure and renew. To pass that module: Set a measurable, dated target, break the actions down small enough to start this week, and put the review date in the calendar.)
levels L1 to L7
Seven levels, one slide each. Read the slide, then read the speaker notes under it. Credits stack and you can step in and out; this course is L4.
jobs this leads to
Generic roles, from entry to senior. Each opens the pathways page; use the Career Launch course for the job-search method.
ten locations and global
Local rules change licences, taxes, data duties and customer rights. This course is written for São Paulo. Check the current official text for your own place.
Language: English, Hindi, Kannada. Currency: INR. Registration: Udyam (small business) or company registration with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. Data rule for what you publish: Digital Personal Data Protection Act 2023. Skills frame to cite: National Skills Qualifications Framework (NSQF) and the national credit framework.
Language: Dutch, English. Currency: EUR. Registration: registration with the Chamber of Commerce (KvK). Data rule for what you publish: EU GDPR (Dutch: AVG), supervised by the Autoriteit Persoonsgegevens. Skills frame to cite: the Dutch qualification framework (NLQF) linked to the European Qualifications Framework.
Language: Arabic, English. Currency: AED. Registration: a trade licence from the emirate economic department or a free-zone licence. Data rule for what you publish: Federal Decree-Law No. 45 of 2021 (personal data protection). Skills frame to cite: the emirate education and training regulators (for example KHDA in Dubai) and the national qualifications framework.
Language: Portuguese (Spanish and English support). Currency: BRL. Registration: CNPJ registration, or MEI for micro-entrepreneurs. Data rule for what you publish: LGPD (Lei Geral de Protecao de Dados). Skills frame to cite: the national technical-education catalogue and the national S-system training bodies.
Language: English, French. Currency: CAD. Registration: federal or Ontario business registration. Data rule for what you publish: PIPEDA, with provincial rules where they apply. Skills frame to cite: the provincial colleges framework and the national credential-recognition guidance.
Language: English, Spanish. Currency: USD. Registration: state registration (Secretary of State) and a federal tax ID. Data rule for what you publish: state privacy laws (for example California), and COPPA for children under 13. Skills frame to cite: state and community-college credit systems.
Language: English, Mandarin, Malay, Tamil. Currency: SGD. Registration: registration with ACRA. Data rule for what you publish: Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA). Skills frame to cite: the Singapore national skills frameworks and the national credit system.
Language: English. Currency: AUD. Registration: an ABN and, for companies, ASIC registration. Data rule for what you publish: the Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles. Skills frame to cite: the Australian Qualifications Framework (AQF) levels.
Language: Chinese (Cantonese, Mandarin), English. Currency: HKD. Registration: a business registration and, for companies, the Companies Registry. Data rule for what you publish: the Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance. Skills frame to cite: the Hong Kong Qualifications Framework.
Language: Georgian, Hebrew, Arabic, English. Currency: GEL or ILS. Registration: local business registration in the country where you work. Data rule for what you publish: the personal data law of the country where the learner lives. Skills frame to cite: the national qualifications framework of that country.
Language: English. Currency: KYD. Registration: a trade and business licence or company registration. Data rule for what you publish: the Data Protection Act. Skills frame to cite: the local education and training framework.
Language: Spanish, English. Currency: MXN. Registration: tax registration (RFC) and company or sole-trader registration. Data rule for what you publish: the federal law on personal data held by private parties. Skills frame to cite: the national competency certification system and the education ministry levels.
The global version uses plain English, metric units, and your own currency. Machine translation is available in every language; the English text is the official text. Before you act for real, check your local rules with an adviser.
next
Draft flagship. Own wording; teaching figures are examples, not forecasts. Not live.