Getting into business in Thailand

[GeeMan]

10 million Baht, not a huge amount of money by western standards, roughly GBP £200K, USD $320K or AUS $320K. Most middle aged guys could probably get that together if they tried, either from savings or liquidation of existing assets (house, cars etc).

 

Would you buy a business in Thailand? At least then you'd have some influence over your future success, as well as something to occupy your time apart from Wine, Women and Bad Karaoke. Or would you just fritter the money away until you ran out?

 

I know that there are a lot of successful western owned and operated businesses in Patts, some are of the types in the poll, others are more speciality businesses (I think I recall one BM runs an air-con/refrigeration business, another a RC model cars and planes shop etc), so there would seem to be plenty of scope if one is prepared to work at it.

 

So, if you were thinking of making the break and relocating semi-permanently to LOS, and were looking to generate an income off your money, what would you do?

 

GeeMan

[On Borrowed Time]

Even in a term deposit earning 5% p.a. would earn you AUD$16K per year.

 

That would equate to 42K baht per month without eating into your capital. On a really tight budget and living Thai style you could probably live on that.

 

I wouldn't be investing my money into any business in LOS personally, so from your options I've gone for the 'safest' one, a guesthouse.

[GeeMan]

Even in a term deposit earning 5% p.a. would earn you AUD$16K per year.

 

That would equate to 42K baht per month without eating into your capital. On a really tight budget and living Thai style you could probably live on that.

 

I wouldn't be investing my money into any business in LOS personally, so from your options I've gone for the 'safest' one, a guesthouse.

 

Thanks BEPN

 

 

Don't forget non-resident tax on that $16K, at 29% = $4640, leaving only $11,360 = THB 362,000 or only 30,000 baht a month. There is also no allowance for indexing for inflation.

 

If there was no tax on interest and inflation adjustments then this would be a good idea.

 

My thinking with a business is you could potentially grow it, the income would mean no chipping away at the initial capital, and it would keep you busy for a lot of the time.

 

Cheers

 

GeeMan

[On Borrowed Time]

My thinking with a business is you could potentially grow it, the income would mean no chipping away at the initial capital, and it would keep you busy for a lot of the time.

 

 

As you can tell, at age 33, I haven't done a whole heap of research on the matter re the non-residents tax etc etc.

 

As far as growing a business, The saying goes, "The Easiest way to make a million baht in Pattaya, is to start out with 2 Million.." Not many businesses are profitable in the long run it seems.

 

But purchasing an existing guesthouse, or a franchise of a subway etc, would be the 'safer' options, IMO.

[culvers]

do something online, so that you can live in thailand, but earn elsewhere. Low start up costs too

[saxondale]

Having worked here before, most businesses in Thailand are a race to the bottom. If you actually come up with a good idea, as soon as the Thais notice you'll get muscled out or undercut. Prime example, Turkey Joe in Hua Hin.

 

Day trading, forex, deposits (no tax on interest in Hong Kong) or exports are all good options. Internet businesses are hard to get up and running.

 

Laamok's looking for $13k so if you do decide to get involved might be a way to dip your toe in.

[SlickMonkey]

Manufacturing for export to USA. Pick a product. Copy it. Improve it. Manufacture it and ship it to USA for further retail sale.

 

Or I wouldn't mind exporting Thai antiques (Copies and such). Furniture, wood products. Stuff you can only find in Thailand. Open 2-3 outlets in USA and sell nothing but "Asian house furnishings". Everything to decorate a house with in Thai Style-Asian style. Similar to Pier One but with more furniture related stuff and higher quality. Set up a huge website with pictures of everything being shipped to USA. Dimensions, weights, colors, etc. Prices and shipping details. It would take a huge inventory but I think the stuff would sell well. Markup is huge on this stuff.

Edited September 3, 2011 by SlickMonkey

[Daveo]

10 mill, I'd buy shares in my business.

[GeeMan]

10 mill, I'd buy shares in my business.

 

Cheers Daveo

 

Thanks for the offer, but you're about 2 months to late, I just bought a Kindle

 

GeeMan

[zappa93]

dont invest, 99% goes down the drain, keep it and use it, or invest in your own country, seen to much cheating down here

[shadowmaster]

Buy some condos and let some thai girl rent them out.Sex and profit in one.

[FROST MEDIC999]

Bugger didn't do the conversaion before voting so now instead of partying hard for Ten Yrs I party hard for One.

 

As somebody said it not much and most 40 Geezers could raise that piece of Piss

 

Choosing to and Piss it up against the wall is another matter though !!

[Mikael1963]

Well, first of all I realy dont think that to many guys in there 40-50 have assets worth 10 million bath. At least here in Sweden i reckonthat maybe 2-3 % can come up w this money. Even if they have houses or apartments, they mostly have big loans on them. So i say that most guys will be happy if they could come up with 1 million bath. But if i had that kind of money i would do a close look at the stockmarket and choose a solid company w a trackrecord of giving good yearly payouts and live on that.

[dc_publius]

If you have not ran a successful business back home, it is highly unlikely that all of the sudden you will turn into an astute businessman in a foreign country, in a foreign business environment, full of foreign unknown and unclear practices-including corruption. It makes little sense.

 

Now, if you have experience and expertise in some industry, then you might have something.

 

The statistic is that 50 percent of businesses fail in the first year and 95 percent fail within five years. (I know it depends on industry - restaurants, bars, and entertainment stats are even bleaker.) So... do you think that your chances are somehow better in a foreign environment?

[dc_publius]

Manufacturing for export to USA. Pick a product. Copy it. Improve it. Manufacture it and ship it to USA for further retail sale.

 

Or I wouldn't mind exporting Thai antiques (Copies and such). Furniture, wood products. Stuff you can only find in Thailand. Open 2-3 outlets in USA and sell nothing but "Asian house furnishings". Everything to decorate a house with in Thai Style-Asian style. Similar to Pier One but with more furniture related stuff and higher quality. Set up a huge website with pictures of everything being shipped to USA. Dimensions, weights, colors, etc. Prices and shipping details. It would take a huge inventory but I think the stuff would sell well. Markup is huge on this stuff.

 

Markup is huge on that stuff because operating costs are huge on that stuff. It's not like stocking $5 widgets that are easy to transport, display, and ship.

 

Obviously Thailand does manufacture some stuff. But Thailand isn't very competitive. Most stuff is made in China and imported to Thailand.

Edited March 9, 2012 by dc_publius