Business and Selling Items

[Uktom]

Hello and happy Songkran first of all Hua Hin!

I have been living here for a little over two years now. I am curious to know if anybody can help with three things. Firstly I would like to sell an acoustic guitar, where would be the best place to sell it within Hua Hin?

Secondly I am looking to buy a second hand laptop and sell my current one, again where would be the best place for doing this?

Lastly, I have been here learning Thai for the duration, along with a bit of freelance graphic design now and then. Me and my partner were considering buying bulk Tshirts from Bangkok and then selling them on to vendors at the many markets around Hua Hin. My partner is Thai so she can be the face of it so we would have a less chance of getting ripped off. She also has connections in BKK for the T shirts.
Aside from that, we also have an idea of renting out a small resteraunt which we would turn into a niche small coffe shop that sold cakes and things of that nature. Up around soi 88 where we live and across the train tracks, there are a few little places, does anybody know how much it would cost to rent out a place like that?

Any advice would be highly appreciated, thanks Tom

[Big Boy]

Hi Uktom,

Welcome to the forum. For buying and selling things, you could try the Classifieds Section of this forum viewforum.php?f=6 . It's free

I'll leave the other questions to somebody more qualified than me.

[Uktom]

Thanks for the speedy reply Big Boy, I think I have posted the items up in the classified section, although the thread has not appeared yet. I will await other replies for the other questions, cheers.

[PET]

HH already has a number of coffee shops doing what you propose, with The Baguette probably the most successful so I strongly suggest you do some market survey work, because I see many of these 'coffee shops' pretty empty.

Your GF may well have a good contact for T Shirts in Bangkok but I am sure many retailers in HH have such contacts already and I doubt you will have the volume sales to make this type of business worthwhile - adding good screen printing could make a difference, but that is a wholly different thing.

As I said above do a market survey before you commit any cash, far too many small business ventures fail here because of a lack of business knowledge.

[johnnyk]

T-shirt sellers don't want to deal with a middleman, it drives up the price. They go to the factories or the markets directly in BKK for wholesale prices. You have to ask yourself, what can you offer that is a better deal than they have now?

[Uktom]

Okay thanks for the headsup on the Tshirt situation, I had an inckling that it would not need anything else as the markets seem to have their systems operating fine as it is.

I have tried to get a fixed job working in graphic design as that is what I have an education in, but of course as we all know, it is easier and cheaper to employ a Thai than a farang.

The key to the eating establishment idea would be to find a niche, so you think a baugette would be the bette roption than coffee? Well I assume that market research would be wise as with any kind of business. Thanks for the responses though people, happy songkran!

[Takiap]

I must also agree with some of the replies here regarding t-shirts and etc. Most of the vendors have their contacts already, although, with the correct type of advertising, you probably could set up a place and sell "large sizes since I have heard countless foreigners complaining about not being able to find cloths that fit.

Coffee shops are two a penny here nowadays, and as others have pointed out, most of them are empty. Saying that, nothing is impossible. There are restaurant going bang almost daily, and yet others have opened and are enjoying great success - Naab Tong springs to mind for example.

Now, if your wife/gf opened a fortune telling place and actually gave someone the winning lottery numbers, you'd be made for life.

Jokes aside, you need to find an area that's lacking something, and then cash in. For instance, we have a trillion hair salons, restaurants, and etc in our soi, with most of them barely doing any business at all. Then, along came a Thai, and he opened an ice making place. It's the most successful business on the soi.


Whatever you do, don't open an optician or a tailor shop.

[johnnyk]

Okay thanks for the headsup on the Tshirt situation, I had an inckling that it would not need anything else as the markets seem to have their systems operating fine as it is.

I have tried to get a fixed job working in graphic design as that is what I have an education in, but of course as we all know, it is easier and cheaper to employ a Thai than a farang.
The key to the eating establishment idea would be to find a niche, so you think a baugette would be the bette roption than coffee? Well I assume that market research would be wise as with any kind of business. Thanks for the responses though people, happy songkran!

I think graphic designer is a prohibited position for falangs, so a legal issue rather than easier/cheaper.

[johnnyk]

First, identify a need. Then meet it with a product or service.
Too often people come up with an idea and commit time and money to it only to discover there is little or no market for the product/service.
I knew a guy who was very successful producing and selling very upscale and expensive gourmet take-away dinners ($40 entrees etc).
He didn't do it because he loved food or thought he had great recipes or that the food biz was "cool".
His insight was that people with high incomes had plenty of everything ....
except time.
They wanted to have a really great meal at home but after a 10-12 hour day had no time or energy to cook up a high-end meal.
He filled that need for them and did well.

[Uktom]

Some really insightful replies here, cheers. I know a fair bit about advertising due to studying graphic design, but actually setting up a business needs to contain many parts like that of a working machine.

We were considering up over around soi 88, past the train tracks. Here there are a few guest houses/hotels, some restaurants, a salon or two, pharmacies and of course 7/11's - infact there are two opposite each other lol, what is up with that? So I will speak with my gf when she gets back and we will look around and formulate some ideas.

About the graphic design notion of a career here, I soon knew when I first moved here that you need first a company wanting to hier you, then to get a letter from them which would then result in you able to get a visa plus permit, but I think a lot of the time the companies are required to pay for the visa so they do not bother and find it easier to emply Thai's...

[Roel]

Of course it cost them more money and a lot more trouble to employ a farang but if you are really good a serious big company might be interested in your services. But then there are certainly better opportunities in Bangkok I would think, not so much in Hua Hin. Possibly graphic designer is a job restricted for Thais only but that should not put you off. If a serious company really wants to hire you there are simple workarounds to tackle that.

[Uktom]

I already worked out a few years ago that Bangkok was the place to go if I wanted a decent graphic design career in Thailand, however I do not like Bangkok as a place to live on a permanent basis. It is okay in small doses, I just find it too crazy. I also think there will be floods yearly now unless the government does something about it, but that is another topic on it's own.

It is just recently that it has been anooying me about working here in Thailand, due to the fact of visa restrictions etc. You don't see many farang bartenders or farangs working in 7/11 lol. So yes, I have come to the conclusion teach English or run some sort of business small or large.

[Siani]

It is just recently that it has been anooying me about working here in Thailand, due to the fact of visa restrictions etc. You don't see many farang bartenders or farangs working in 7/11 lol. So yes, I have come to the conclusion teach English or run some sort of business small or large.

I think you do not see farangs working in the 7/11 etc mainly because in Thailand they employ their own, they do not give jobs to foreigners that a Thai can do. Teaching is an option, but low wages and you must have a degree.

[Uktom]

It is just recently that it has been anooying me about working here in Thailand, due to the fact of visa restrictions etc. You don't see many farang bartenders or farangs working in 7/11 lol. So yes, I have come to the conclusion teach English or run some sort of business small or large.

I think you do not see farangs working in the 7/11 etc mainly because in Thailand they employ their own, they do not give jobs to foreigners that a Thai can do. Teaching is an option, but low wages and you must have a degree.

My friend who has nw gone back to the UK as a teacher here for over a year and he has no degree. I know there is a great influx of people trying to teach here which just damages the education system. I looked into the saleries of teachers because my mother who has been a teacher in the UK for 25 years and had a degree in English would be able to obtain a higher teir teaching job and earn 80-100k a month. My friend without the degree was on 30k. I have dismissed teaching as it is not something I wish to do. I have also been here long enough to know why farangs aren't seen in 7/11 :p It is one of the few countries I have been to where it is so restricting on foreign workers.

[dtaai-maai]

I have also been here long enough to know why farangs aren't seen in 7/11 :p It is one of the few countries I have been to where it is so restricting on foreign workers.

Please tell me you don't seriously want to work in a 7/11...?

I think you'll find most countries throughout the world will protect their domestic workforce to the extent of insisting that an employer can only employ a foreign national if no native-born worker can fill the post.