i could run a business better than Thais

[Lunchtime O'Booze]

"Take a LAUNDRY business for example,most want you to pick up the laundry within 24 hours,i can take my laundry in Sydney and its done the same day. "..

is that what you propose ?? taking our laundry to Sydney to be done ??

why not..no wackier than some of the businesses started up in Pattaya by farangs...the 24 hour vegetarian restaurant in Jomtien was one..6 months in the planning..3 months of renovating and then a gala opening one night and shut by the morning with the owner walking off in a huff !!

[Dboy]

* I think the laundry takes longer because they are air-drying on the rooftop rather than using electric dryers, to save on electric cost. look for dryers, you won't see many

* internet cafe's were probably ok businesses 5-10 years ago, but at 1 baht per minute you don't have much margin

* the glass was probably tinted dark because the shop was a bar, gogo or massage place before they turned it into an internet cafe

* from my observations, I'd say lack of capital is the main thing that kills a small business in Pattaya. It takes time to build a following (lots of examples of this have been posted on SGT)

* I don't know about 24hr vegetarian restaurants (is Jomtien the place for that?) but I am familiar with a 24hr hamburger joint in Chiang Mai that is PACKED, even at 3 in the morning. they must make a ton of baht

* instead of studying the failures, look at the creative, successful people in town. Here are a few examples:

Renoirs(Flamingo Hotel) - I forget the name of the guy who runs this place, but he's very attentive to guests, and he did a great job with Renoirs, which fills a certain niche

John Botting - never met him but he clearly knows how to create a product and sell it; has multiple businesses, therefore multiple income streams

Punya - did a great job with Sansuk. I LOVE that place (that's the customer opinion that a good businessman wants to achieve, free advertising). He also owns Howard's and seems to always have guests.

Boat Bakery - simple business done well; I have no idea who the owner is.



The last thing that Pattaya needs is another Basil Fawlty trying to run a hotel or host bar. Model yourself after someone who knows what they're doing.



Dboy

[Aunty]

"Take a LAUNDRY business for example,most want you to pick up the laundry within 24 hours,i can take my laundry in Sydney and its done the same day. "..

is that what you propose ?? taking our laundry to Sydney to be done ??

why not..no wackier than some of the businesses started up in Pattaya by farangs...the 24 hour vegetarian restaurant in Jomtien was one..6 months in the planning..3 months of renovating and then a gala opening one night and shut by the morning with the owner walking off in a huff !!

LOL! Oh dear, oh dear. :cheers: :cheers:

[Aunty]

And i will do my best to beat any competition.
And if i have to be a cunt of a boss to win,i will be,because i will be out to win.

You want to be careful they don't get up and fucken shoot ya!

John Botting - never met him but he clearly knows how to create a product and sell it; has multiple businesses, therefore multiple income streams



Also multiple loss streams, if you believe his financial statements.

Punya - did a great job with Sansuk.

It certainly doesn't hurt to have been left a small fortune by a dead, geriatric, farang sugar daddy.

[Dboy]

John Botting - never met him but he clearly knows how to create a product and sell it; has multiple businesses, therefore multiple income streams



Also multiple loss streams, if you believe his financial statements.


like I said, never met him. I doubt there's ANYONE out there running a business who hasn't had financial difficulty at some point. If you want to play it safe, be an employee. Just don't fault the people who want to live a bigger life than you do.




Punya - did a great job with Sansuk.

It certainly doesn't hurt to have been left a small fortune by a dead, geriatric, farang sugar daddy.


That's only part of Punya's story though. Yeah it's nice to be willed a fortune, but it's not a requirement for success. Punya is also very detail-oriented and hands-on. I walked up to Sansuk once in about 95 degree F heat and saw Punya outside making sure some road crew was pouring concrete properly...that's not a guy who sits on his ass and counts his sugar-daddy money. That's a guy who wants a job done properly. It seems Punya is ALWAYS working. He's either managing a problem, chatting with a customer, or dealing with an employee. Look, you learn various lessons from various people. Complaining about where the seed-money came from is just silly. Getting the money is the easy part. Find your own role-models if you don't like those. The point is to identify traits that seem to work. I realize this board is probably not the best place to discuss entrepreneurship, but Billy brought up the Pattaya business topic, which is something of interest to me. The catty responses are completely useless.


Dboy

[lonelywombat]

John Botting - never met him but he clearly knows how to create a product and sell it; has multiple businesses, therefore multiple income streams



Also multiple loss streams, if you believe his financial statements.

Boygeenyus is the only other person claiming to have access or interest in Johns business statements

new poster as well. HHMMNNN

Oh, dear. Caught out again by the junior super-sleuths of Sawatdee Gay Thailand. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to pull the wool over the eyes of the likes of lonelywombat, I guess. I might as well own up to it now: I'm also the Easter Bunny, Jimmy Hoffa, Osama bin Laden, and Hedda.

[thrillbill]

One of the big secrets of any business (besides offering a good product or service) is proper training. I think many Thai businesses do not train their workers properly...no one is held accountable ...and the managers may think they just sit on their arse and delegate. People from the West know what good service is...but most Thais have no role model to follow. Just look at the banks here, can you imagine a bank in the USA being closed before everyone gets off work and on weekends? (I do my banking at two banks and the main bank offices close around 3:30pm). I was in Bangkok over the weekend and dropped in at Mike's Hamburgers to check it out.... brand new place that will go under soon. WhY?? Because the young staff can't understand English to take an order properly (this place caters to tourists, not the locals). And don't you like it when you shop for electronics at places like Testco or Big C and there are plenty of clerks standing around but they're busy squeezing their zits in the mirror or talking to one another--where is the supervisor??? (He thinks this is normal behavior. Where is the customer service? So one has to realize that "customer service" as we know in the West and take for granted is not a reality here at most places---yet.

[Marsilius]

In much of the west we (or at least our ancestors - who passed it on to us) are very heavily influenced by the so-called "protestant work ethic".

To simplify it grossly, but not inaccurately, the first protestants saw making money in business as a sign of God's favour and approval (as opposed to Catholics who thought that investing into a business venture in order to make interest was actually sinful: Catholics were, instead, supposed to plough excess cash into "good works" of charity - entirely unproductive of any monetary profit, of course.)

Hence, this is one of the reasons why capitalism and competition (which in turn leads to some businesses actually taking notice of consumers' demands in order to become successful) took root earliest in England. For more details (even if it is now somewhat dated) try R.H. Tawney's "Religion and the Rise of Capitalism" - there is also a Wikipedia entry on the "protestant work ethic".

Maybe Buddhism is simply even more inimicable to capitalist enterprise than was medieval Catholicism?

OK - Japan, Thaksin... there are clearly, in 2007, plenty of contrary examples of successful Buddhist entrepreneurs: but they almost all date from the 20th or 21st centuries when some Buddhists (individuals and societies) decided to adopt western capitalism in order to "succeed" in life. In this thread, on the other hand, we're talking about laundry owners, small shop owners, shop assistants and motorcycle taxi drivers who have not been able (or have not chosen) to move in that direction themselves. [Punya, by the way, spent, I think, quite some time in the USA and has clearly picked up other ways of business in doing so.]

DELETED

[Marsilius]

The development of Chinese capitalism was, of course, smothered - and even considerably reversed for more than 30 crucial post-war years - by Mao's extreme communism.

Displaying a "work ethic" in your own financial interest then would get you jailed or killed.

And who wants (unless a complete idealist in a society where everyone else is the same?) to demonstrate a work ethic on behalf of the anonymous and monolithic state that, in reality, does little for you?

DELETED

[Marsilius]

Surely, the point is that most religion is the enemy of common sense!

[Hmmm]

im convinced if I spoke THai I could make a fortune.

Maybe so, but what proportion of farang business owners speak Thai ?


I too wonder why Thai staff are put into a position where they are dealing with farang customers but cant talk english.

Why does a farang owner put himself in a position where he is dealing with Thai staff but can't speak Thai ?

So how many successful farang business owners speak Thai, and/or have business-savvy Thai managers ? I'm honestly interested in the answer.

How is it that you know so much but have never started a businesss of your own? Many people have started with very little money but have made it big. Why haven"t you tried? Before you say anything I owned 2 retail shops and have several properties and I started wth nothing. I also owned 400 acres and raised pure bred horses for many many years. But for now have shucked everything to care for an ailing parent which is why my 3 times a year trips have gone to once a year. Just asking?

[Dboy]

Maybe so, but what proportion of farang business owners speak Thai ?

Based on my non-scientific polling, which comes from hanging out in bars alot, the sense I get is that the number of Thai-speaking farang business owners is somewhere near zero. I would imagine that this may be because that the sort of people who tend to own bars are not the ones who tend towards intellectual pursuits. In fact, most of the bar owners I know in Thailand have little to no interest in Thailand whatsoever. For instance, I know one bar owner (a fat Brit of course) who has been running bars in Pattaya for over 20 years but still has no idea the Thai-lingo for what English speakers call "water". How could you AVOID learning that in 20 years of living in Thailand? Bar owners somehow manage it. Now, I did meet a guy from Germany in my last Thai course who is working on a power plant near Pattaya. He's executive-level, and is learning Thai. I have met quite a few farangs who speak good Thai, but they are usually bar customers, not bar owners.

Dboy

[thrillbill]

Good Point about the Chinese being great capitalists. (never thought of that ) Generalizing here: The Chinese businessman would sell his mother-in-law in order to make a buck... Have you ever rented from a Chinese? If not, you'll find out how ruthless they are. And have you ever met an employee at a Chinese run family business that could speak highly of how they were treated? No wonder the Chinese merchants aren't popular in places such as Malaysia, Indonesia, and else where.

[Aunty]

Im glad you owned 400 acres,your a rich man,im not,im just a aussie working class battler and im not afraid to admit that i have to go to work everyday on shiftwork,like most people on here who are also working class battlers and have to save for their annual holidays.

On your bloodly wages??? Bullshit!!!

Its great you own several properties,i dont,im still working to pay one off.You have achieved a lot.
Like most of us on this board,we battle everyday to pay our first home off,your a lucky man,LUVTHAI,you own several properties,most of us dont.
.

What a liar you are .It is just 2 years since you announced you had bought 3 flats and was a slum lord.

That fits the picture you have created on this forum, you cant even remember the lies you posted here

What a f###### liar

[globalwanderer]

let's face it you could not run a **** up in a brewery

typical government paid lacky

i had this... i owned flats and put deposit down on a flat... if you'd done good you'd have sold flats and bought your flat

Maybe so, but what proportion of farang business owners speak Thai ?

Based on my non-scientific polling, which comes from hanging out in bars alot, the sense I get is that the number of Thai-speaking farang business owners is somewhere near zero. I would imagine that this may be because that the sort of people who tend to own bars are not the ones who tend towards intellectual pursuits. In fact, most of the bar owners I know in Thailand have little to no interest in Thailand whatsoever. For instance, I know one bar owner (a fat Brit of course) who has been running bars in Pattaya for over 20 years but still has no idea the Thai-lingo for what English speakers call "water". How could you AVOID learning that in 20 years of living in Thailand? Bar owners somehow manage it. Now, I did meet a guy from Germany in my last Thai course who is working on a power plant near Pattaya. He's executive-level, and is learning Thai. I have met quite a few farangs who speak good Thai, but they are usually bar customers, not bar owners.

Dboy

Dboy,

Please, not all of us. Yes, I speak the Thai language quite reasonably and the Thais like it very much that I made the effort, I also had a private teacher who insisted I followed her process to read and write to get the pronunciation correct!

Prior to all of this, I paid privately to learn Spanish although it is so long since I used it I am very rusty now.

Futhermore, I am speaking Lao at the moment as Tam's father is going on 80 and is fit as a fiddle, smokes, drinks and has no interest at all in speaking Thai. Unbelievable the luck some have!!

Mind you, it helped when I had throat cancer and they removed my vocal chords, I specifically asked for my artificial voice box to be Thai!!

Now I struggle with English!

DELETED

typical government paid lacky


Well look,next time Im sitting on my fat arse during one of my 12 paid coffee breaks a day I will be thinking of you.
I was thinking of asking the boss to put a glass window in front of our meal room so all you taxpayers can come and watch what we Govt Public servants get up to.


wx40afp,

I hope they have the courtesy to do it quietly and not disturb your lunch or tea break!

[Dboy]

I would say to be successful in business in Thailand you need to know how to speak the language.
Those farangs who dont know Thai are only doing themselves a disfavour.

agreed


Dboy

[Marsilius]

I was once told, years ago, that at that time the go-go bar "Uncle Charlie's" in Pattayaland Soi 1 was owned on the sort of co-operative basis as described above. I have no idea whether or not it was true. Can anyone confirm?

I was once told, years ago, that at that time the go-go bar "Uncle Charlie's" in Pattayaland Soi 1 was owned on the sort of co-operative basis as described above. I have no idea whether or not it was true. Can anyone confirm?


Yes,

It was and went very well, but with a small co-op who knew each other and were like minded in their tastes, i'e' volume of music, beer bar atmosphere etc.

[Marsilius]

They had a very idiosyncratic idea of "atmosphere" - in the literal sense... I have never been in a place where the air-con was set to such a low temperature. It was positively freezing!!!

They had a very idiosyncratic idea of "atmosphere" - in the literal sense... I have never been in a place where the air-con was set to such a low temperature. It was positively freezing!!!


Marsilius,

I NEVER said I was one of them! LOL.

[Dboy]

Im sure if i was to ask for 49% of shares,say 49 at 20,000 baht each.
We start a go go bar in sunee plaza,i take 51 % ,i run it .
The benefits are you get sent your share of the profit,you get a discount on your off fee.
How many of you would part with 20,000 b to have a share?

Im sure we all could have better ideas than the dickheads who run them now.
We could have a S&M Style theme go go.
drinks 90 baht, farang doorman,midget waiters,no mamasan.

This could make a good prospectus.
Geez im a smart man.


More than anything else, I think this idea would be entertaining for people on this board.. Great idea dude (especically the S&M thing heh). Did you base the 20,000bt on valuation of similar businesses in Sunee? If not Sunbelt could probably work that out for you. Think how much more friendly the threads would be here:-) until the whole thing blows up of course.


Dboy

Im sure if i was to ask for 49% of shares,say 49 at 20,000 baht each.
We start a go go bar in sunee plaza,i take 51 % ,i run it .
The benefits are you get sent your share of the profit,you get a discount on your off fee.
How many of you would part with 20,000 b to have a share?

Im sure we all could have better ideas than the dickheads who run them now.
We could have a S&M Style theme go go.
drinks 90 baht, farang doorman,midget waiters,no mamasan.

This could make a good prospectus.
Geez im a smart man.


More than anything else, I think this idea would be entertaining for people on this board.. Great idea dude (especically the S&M thing heh). Did you base the 20,000bt on valuation of similar businesses in Sunee? If not Sunbelt could probably work that out for you. Think how much more friendly the threads would be here:-) until the whole thing blows up of course.


Dboy


Dboy,

Can you imagine the board/shareholders meetings if anyone had the audacity to offer an opinion that differed from wx40afp???


I can picture them now, AW SHADDAP, YA MAD CUNT! EH,WOOLY MOOF, I'm just a working class battler, who got off his fat arse to run this gaff! etc etc etc

No thanks on this one, Try John Botting or Monty!

DELETED

Ummm, why me Kev???


Dear John,

Businessman!!!

An eye for a good deal????

DELETED

OK, being diplomatic I see. But Monty also???


Monty will be a partner in a business with virtually anyone, not sure if he draws the line at Billy though!

... that comment is racist.

It depends on the "individual" not the race of a person how they run a business.

Talking about running a business and what type would one run from scratch, a couple of thoughts here as I do not see anything in Pattaya of this nature:

A chiropodist surgery (Pattaya Foot Clinic)
A left luggage shop (Pattaya Luggage Shop)
A training centre for computers school (Pattaya Computer Training School) (specific to everyday stuff, like Word, P/Point, Coreldraw, Photoshop that sort of thing)

There's three ideas.

Talking about running a business and what type would one run from scratch, a couple of thoughts here as I do not see anything in Pattaya of this nature:

A chiropodist surgery (Pattaya Foot Clinic)
A left luggage shop (Pattaya Luggage Shop)
A training centre for computers school (Pattaya Computer Training School) (specific to everyday stuff, like Word, P/Point, Coreldraw, Photoshop that sort of thing)
Apparently there are no "foot doctor's" (podiatric doctors) in the entire country. I asked an Internal Medicine doctor at Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital if they had podiatrists, and she said "No. Any doctor, like me, can help you with that. Why do you need a specialist? We are all trained about the entire human body." I then asked if B-PH had brain surgeons or ENTs or OB-GYNs, and she said "Of course!" I asked "Why?" and she didn't get my drift....

I have also inquired at BNH and Bumrungrad, and searched online for a podiatrist in Thailand. Nada. Although when googling, I found that there was a podiatrists convention in Bangkok once. How ironic was that?

I thought there was a computer school on Pattaya Klang between Carrefour and Foodland that taught computer programs?

Talking about running a business and what type would one run from scratch, a couple of thoughts here as I do not see anything in Pattaya of this nature:

A chiropodist surgery (Pattaya Foot Clinic)
A left luggage shop (Pattaya Luggage Shop)
A training centre for computers school (Pattaya Computer Training School) (specific to everyday stuff, like Word, P/Point, Coreldraw, Photoshop that sort of thing)
Apparently there are no "foot doctor's" (podiatric doctors) in the entire country. I asked an Internal Medicine doctor at Bangkok-Pattaya Hospital if they had podiatrists, and she said "No. Any doctor, like me, can help you with that. Why do you need a specialist? We are all trained about the entire human body." I then asked if B-PH had brain surgeons or ENTs or OB-GYNs, and she said "Of course!" I asked "Why?" and she didn't get my drift....

I have also inquired at BNH and Bumrungrad, and searched online for a podiatrist in Thailand. Nada. Although when googling, I found that there was a podiatrists convention in Bangkok once. How ironic was that?



I thought there was a computer school on Pattaya Klang between Carrefour and Foodland that taught computer programs?


Hi,

When I was ill I saw a Doctor who examined me and took a Biopsy. The results were given to a technical team in the Cancer unit, where I saw another tweo Doctors.

A fourth Doctor oversaw the Radiation treatment.

A fifth Doctor performed the surgery and a sixth Doctor was responsible for checking my lungs etc.

Therefore bkk gwm, the Doctors argument does not stand up at all.

They may have had a quick glimpse at other areas of the Human Anatomy during their training, hardly qualifies, that a Brain Surgeon is also a Chiropodist!

[Marsilius]

WhiteDesire: the subject of this post is NOT racist!

If you read the earlier entries in the thread, you will see that one reason proposed to explain why small Thai businesses are often less successful than those in the west was that (according to many economic and social historians) the western countries raced ahead in developing the features of modern capitalism by adopting the so-called "protestant work ethic".

As a race, the Thais are no different from anyone else. But by adopting the religion that they have and the outlook on life that they display ("mai pen rai"), their small businesses are handicapped. Of course, the big businessmen and oligarchs have adopted western ways and prospered - so proving that Thais as a race are no different from anyone else in the world in money-making abilities.

It's not race, but the social system!

... that's like opening the gate after the horse has bolted ...

The thread heading was

"i could run a business better than Thais"

This is racist in itself.

[krobbie]

... that's like opening the gate after the horse has bolted ...

The thread heading was

"i could run a business better than Thais"

This is racist in itself.

I don't think that statement is at all racist in fact. It's as soft as saying men drive better than women. It's just badly worded.

It is a statement that we all know, in many cases, is true. I'm a newby to Thailand and have not yet been at a point where a lack of business accumen / work ethic gets to me. But I'm sure as time goes by ... we shall see.

Cheers
K.