Advancing With Business Plan

[Uktom]

So when I last posted about this I was unsure of what to exactly do as I had a variety of paths to choose from. I have decided to attempt to rent somewhere where we could live and have a small eating establishment. I know I would like it to be around the current area where I live which is around soi 88, this is mainly because I know it very well now.

I then need to start doing some market research. What I have concluded is that there are 3 specific things to look at here. Firstly location is going to be important, you need a location where there will be people passing by frequently, but not a road that jusr has bikes speading down it.

The second is finding a niche in this area. I would want to go out and look around at what there is a lack of in this area and that people will want to purchase.

The 3rd one is more about the living situation of the venture, we obviously want to live somewhere that is not crazily noisy or somewhere with poor living conditions. I asked a person who owned a smallish establishment along the train line soi about rent, and his was around 8k a month. So I am trying to work out what would be best to sell and how much would the whol thing cost to get started.

[Pleng]

I don't know if there's a market for it; in fact I'm pretty sure there isn't enough seeing as I only vary rarely crave it, but occasionally I do crave a greasy 'kebab-shop' style pizza Don't get me wrong, I love Italian style pizzas and you can get some amazing ones. But sometimes, you know...

Anyway I'm sure you'll get plenty of business advice and warnings. And I'm sure I won't be the last one to say this: Do not spend more than you can afford to loose! With all the good will in the world, your business could go tits up, and you need to have enough cash left to walk away.

[dtaai-maai]

Forgive me in advance, Tom, for being perfectly frank.

I get the impression you need to make money to get by, rather than provide your Mrs with a pastime. If the best idea you can come up with is a small (presumably tiny) restaurant, I think you're in big trouble.

I have no idea of your personal circumstances, but I think you need to sit down and have a long hard think about what you're doing in Thailand and how you'll survive in the long run.

Sorry for being negative, but I can sense impending doom and penury in the not-too-distant future, and this is not the place to be penniless!

None of my business, of course, but you're asking for advice.

[Uktom]

Thanks for that advice pleng. There is one place I kow that does kebab style food close to the train station on the trainline soi.

[Pleng]

Thanks for that advice pleng. There is one place I kow that does kebab style food close to the train station on the trainline soi.

Ah yea I've seen it. There's a few kebab shops littered around. Didn't realize they did Pizzas too. May have to check it out one hungover day

[Uktom]

@dtaai-maai, mai bpen rai pom koa-jai khun. I would like to point one thing out though. We all have our own path in life, our own ideas, morals and opinions, and I understand where you are coming from so thanks for the headsup.

I do have many other ideas, but the problem is that I don't know exactly now how the processes of things happen in some areas of business, for example I could use my skill of photography/design in some way, but here in Thailand it is hard for a foreigner to find that path. There are many things you can do with skills such as that though, create a local magazine, free-lance graphic design, sell photography, (we have already dicussed the whole T-shirt thing in the previous thread). But actually getting any idea of that nature into motion seems a little more than difficult here. I have been playing online poker for around 5 years and that helps to bring in some money as well, but of course, that is never going to be a sure thing.

If you have any suggestions dtaai-mai, please jump in.

[Spitfire]

The restaurant business is a saturated one, but if you get a reasonably good place and make a really good restaurant with great food then there is always room for someone new, you just have to have your act together properly.

To be perfectly honest, if I was was considering a restaurant then I would seriously consider doing a Thai restaurant for the locals as so many of them eat out all the time and if you do good Thai food then they come en-mass. Do your market research and offer something that is really good quality and locally popular or offer something that is novel from another part of Thailand and popular.

I can never remember the name, as I haven't been there for quite a while, of that Isaan style restaurant with that bamboo village style eating area that is on the right a bit further down as you go past MV southwards on the way out of town towards Pranburi etc but it was/is certainly popular and busy.

Restaurants are very much the case of get it right and get rich or plateau quickly and make little or not enough.

[Uktom]

Well my partner is from Issan and she can cook pretty well, it is quite often when I meet Thai people here they are from Issan somewhere. The food is quite different in taste from what you would normally get around this region if you have lived here long enough to see.

My problem is this, there is little pint in me going back to my home country as the job market and economy is shot to bits there, I have a girlfriend who I have been with for the past 1 or so now and I would prefer to stay in Thailand anyway. I have skills from university within design, but it is hard to use them here.

[Dannie Boy]

Not suggesting you should copy them exactly, but in the middle of town, Moonsmile and Plateau restaurant seem to have got it right. - very good quality food (mainly Thai but some farang dishes) at reasonable prices and served with a smile. It must be one of the most consistently busy restaurants in HH, so if you can offer something similar over in the Soi 88 area, you might be able to make it, but you will have to get it all right, not just one or two bits.

[Big Boy]

IMHO there are already better, cheaper restaurants than Moonsmile and Plateau in the Soi 88 area.

The problem with Issan food is that it's rarely eaten in restaurants - even in Issan. There are stalls all over Hua Hin already selling Issan food at very low cost. You'd need something really special to break into the Issan food market with the level of success that you seem to be looking for.

[Dannie Boy]

[quote="Big Boy"]IMHO there are already better, cheaper restaurants than Moonsmile and Plateau in the Soi 88 area.

The reason for quoting M&P is that it is a benchmark that most regular visitors and residents are aware of, so they can make valid comparisons. If there are restaurants in the Soi 88 area already offering as good/better/cheaper food, then it makes UKtoms prospects even more daunting and sufficient reason for him to go back to the drawing board.

[HHADFan]

How about a 'greasy chopstick' restaurant serving Hunan Chinese food? If you do it well, I'll certainly be a regular.

[Uktom]

No you are right in what you say dannie boy, I think it is time to get back to the drawing board.

I would like to try and explain my situation so people who read this topic and that actually care may understand. Yes I am young, compared to the average expat in Thailand young. But I have grown to love SE Asia and I am no fool here now, I live according to their culture and respect it, I can speak Thai and a fairly decent level but the problem is work work work! I feel that I may explode sometimes as I have skills that are being wasted, I just don't know what to do. I NEED to find a better way to support myself, returning home is not an option. I can carry on the way I am now for a while, but not for a lenghty period of time, it just isn't realistic.

[Pleng]

The problem with Issan food is that it's rarely eaten in restaurants - even in Issan. There are stalls all over Hua Hin already selling Issan food at very low cost. You'd need something really special to break into the Issan food market with the level of success that you seem to be looking for.

The other problem is that even in expensive restaurants, Issa food is low cost, therfore low markup food. It's often not even shown on the English menu as every Thai person seems to think a farrang will never eat a som tam or nam tok!

No you are right in what you say dannie boy, I think it is time to get back to the drawing board.

I would like to try and explain my situation so people who read this topic and that actually care may understand. Yes I am young, compared to the average expat in Thailand young. But I have grown to love SE Asia ...but the problem is work work work!

UKtom I feel your pain, really I do. It took me seven years from deciding that I wanted to live in Thailand until finally managing it. In that time I came here for 2 weeks, 2 months, 3 weeks at a time; whatever I could get. If I hadn't lucked into my current situation then it would probably have still taken me another 3 or 4 years to finally make it here.

Just don't let the need to be here blind you to the practicality of being here. You seem to have your head together so I'm sure you'll suss something out eventually.

I don't know much about your industry but have you thought about the possibility of contracting in the UK and doing an x month England working/y month in Thailand holidaying kind of thing? That was the route I was looking at until I ended up where I am. Contract wages can be pretty good; and I worked out that I would have been able to, in my case, work in the UK for 8 months, and come here for 4-6 months before having to go back and work. Even with those 4-6 months off I would have been still paying off my debts and would still have been building up savings. Also as a contractee you'd be meeting more and more people and you might just get lucky and find somebody who has something going out here.

[Uktom]

Thanks for the advise pleng. Um I have not considered doing that, jobs at the moment in UK are not really readily available as they were, and ontop of that I have a student debt which only is needed to be payed back when you are earning a set amount a year. The UK itself depresses me, the culture, the weather, everything just gets me down, plus I have social anxiety which here I am being treated for better than I ever was in the UK. I feel if I go back, things will go downhill mentally. I am kind of between a rock and a hard place.

The eating establishment I had in mind was not going to be some lavish restaurant, I had in mind kind of a small place, maybe even open air like you see thai vendors cooking from. I first came to think about maybe a place that sells cakes, coffe, sandwhichs, that kind of thing, as around where I am there are few places like that from what I have seen so far.

To be honest, I think eventually I will find a solution, I came here at age 21 with one friend and with little money and I am still here now, so I think I can handle myself. I just need to wrk something out as 'the next step' and was hoping I could get some critical advice here. I have gotten some good blunt words so far, so keep the suggestions and opinions coming, I can take it :p