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CallumW
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Posts posted by CallumW
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You guys are missing the fact he asked for a Thai style apartment. Majestic is what? 6,000 Baht a month plus utilities? Not exactly in the price range of most Isan girls attending college in the city.
OP, there are a lot of Thai style apartments around, pretty easy to locate.
The newest ones I know of are nearing completion on the canal road, in fact there are quite a few on that road and down the many soi which lead off it, that's a good place to start looking.
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Here in Surin my CAT CDMA connection was perfect.... Until last week!
Before: Constant 1.5mps download speeds any time of day, never a disconnect.
Now: Lucky to get of 256kbps download speed, connection freezes requiring disconnect and reconnect about 20 times a day, 2-3 random disconnects a day.
Oh well, it was good while it lasted, sum num na, time to find a new solution.
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It's not a bad little shop actually. It's one of those PC shops that just has stacks of boxes and cabinets full of components and stuff. Kind of the opposite of Airport!
Worth a look if you are into PCs.
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I actually have to give Airport a thumbs down.
They might be good for buying laptops and systems, but forget them for components. I had to speak to 4 different people in the shop before somebody could be bothered to show me where the hard disk drives were.
They only had a very small selection, and I was offered a 320GB drive for 5,000 Baht!
I said thanks but no thanks. Walked across the street to the small shop that is an internet cafe at the back and PC shop at the front (past the shoe shop) and was offered the exact same drive for 1,500 Baht.
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On the corner near Surin Plaza right? Coffee shop inside as well?
Yep that was going to be my first port of call.
There is also one up on the road that leads from the elephant roundabout out to the Buriram road, on the corner, that's my second port of call!
Thanks.
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Hi people.
The 2.5" HDD in my netbook died yesterday, need to find a replacement, anyone know of a decent computer shop which sells components?
I know of a few but no idea which one is the best.
Thanks.
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Yeah I can't get a decent route out of Thailand.
No EVE Online for me tonight
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Anyone else have problems visiting international sites? Actually even TV is not loading particularly quickly.
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I just went through the receipts for the materials I purchased for the bungalow I posted a picture of, here are the ones for just construction, not the electrics and false ceiling, I can't find those at the moment, so here goes:
Steel for roof frame: 29,000
Sheeting for roof: 18,000
Shera for edging and gables (is gables the right word?) 3,000
Glass blocks: 6,000
1500 concrete blocks: 4,500
1 truck of sand: 2,000
1 truck of stone/gravel: 2,000
5 concrete rings for waste: 550
9 x 4 metre reinforced concrete posts: 6,300
70 sqm floor tiles: 12,000
Bathroom tiles: 4,000
Grout: 600
110 bags of cement: 13,200 (very thick slab and rendering is also thick)
6 aluminium windows with fly screen: 15,000
2 x doors and frames: 1,800
Toilet sink and shower: 3,000
Double sink unit and fittings 2,900
That comes to 122,950 the labour was about 20k, lost track of that a bit due to the beers)
Then there was the wiring, the false ceiling and the painting on top, plus I had the kitchen rebuilt as I was not happy with the first layout. About 210k all in.
Hope this helps.
You have no rebar for foundation ?
The floor is 4 separate 4x4 sections and they constructed a sort of rebar from split bamboo tied together to form the grid. Saved a small fortune! Strong enough to stand on and bounce up and down before they added the concrete on top.
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Hi folks.
We have a pond in the garden, round(ish) and approximately 9 metres in diameter and 3 metres deep at the centre.
We have been rearing pla nin and pla duk in this as kind of a hobby (and very tasty they are too).
I would now like to add a fountain in the centre of the pond, this ill look nice and also add oxygen.
The thing is, I know nothing about pond pumps, what would be a suitable pump for this kind of use?
I would prefer an above ground pump, I have a small concrete cupboard built on the side of the house with a power outlet. I would also like to have some form of tap so that I can switch from pumping water into the fountain to pumping water to a hose to water the garden. Luckily we have access to multiple water supplies so we keep the pond topped off all year, so I think using the pond water to water the garden would be a good idea.
Aany advice please?
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I just went through the receipts for the materials I purchased for the bungalow I posted a picture of, here are the ones for just construction, not the electrics and false ceiling, I can't find those at the moment, so here goes:
Steel for roof frame: 29,000
Sheeting for roof: 18,000
Shera for edging and gables (is gables the right word?) 3,000
Glass blocks: 6,000
1500 concrete blocks: 4,500
1 truck of sand: 2,000
1 truck of stone/gravel: 2,000
5 concrete rings for waste: 550
9 x 4 metre reinforced concrete posts: 6,300
70 sqm floor tiles: 12,000
Bathroom tiles: 4,000
Grout: 600
110 bags of cement: 13,200 (very thick slab and rendering is also thick)
6 aluminium windows with fly screen: 15,000
2 x doors and frames: 1,800
Toilet sink and shower: 3,000
Double sink unit and fittings 2,900
That comes to 122,950 the labour was about 20k, lost track of that a bit due to the beers)
Then there was the wiring, the false ceiling and the painting on top, plus I had the kitchen rebuilt as I was not happy with the first layout. About 210k all in.
Hope this helps.
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Hi folks, I think I finally managed to work out how to upload a picture!
OK here is our 8m x 8m bungalow, we built this to live in while we build the main house and then it will be used as self contained guest accommodation later.
It's not finished in this picture but the Mrs was living in it anyway! I will take some newer ones when I get a chance.
Total cost including western shower room and kitchen was a little over 200k.
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You mentioned (I think) that 70% of the income is derived from existing clients, but how do you get new clients and how did you get the existing ones in the first place?
Also, with a business such as this (as you compared it to web design) I would think that a large proportion of your clients are kept and maintained because of you personally, rather than your staff. If you are out of the equation, how would this impact on existing clients?
We are fed around 300 leads a day from various sources, out of these I pick the most promising looking ones and then put a proposal forward.
If I was into keeping this business I would exploit direct sales more and also put out a lot more proposals. Of the 300 odd leads I get sent each day, I only contact around 5 prospective clients, as we just cant deal with too many right now we are full up for months ahead with just the odd space in our schedule here and there. Staffing isn't a problem, I recently advertised for a couple more part-time people in the UK and had over 200 applications! So it would be very easy to expand but a heck of a lot more work for me. Well in truth when I say a heck of a lot more it would probably take me 4 hours a day instead of 2 but when you don't want to be working at all an extra 2 hours a day is worse than prison!
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Another thought is your revenue stream. Are the current customers on recurring billing for said service, or do you constantly have to go and get more customers. Everyone loves recurring billing customers.
A bit of both really, some clients will order $10,000 worth a month for a couple of months, disappear and then come back a few months later for some more. Overall repeat clients make up around 70% of revenue, in fact we have not had capacity to take on any new clients for a couple of months now, which means I really need to expand but don't want to as I would rather just get rid of the whole thing, I came to Thailand to retire not ending up working harder than I did in the UK! Ha!
Callum, if you were selling in the UK a good starting point would be to factor the net profit by 2-5 times depending on the goodwill in your contracts. If there is a track record of repeat business over 3 years than factor for 3. You mentioned gross profit rather than net, so assumming a net of $40k per annum and assuming the last 3 years were the same, you would value at $120k+. Add to that the value of any IP on the product you produce and assets you want to appropriate to the business.
Sounds like you are the key to this business, anyone buying the business would be aware that and that the staff used to deliver the service / product are not tied to the business. These are two factors that addresses would increase a sale value otherwise they are unknowns which introduces risk and reduces the potential value. If you haven't already, get the freelancers tied into some contractual retainer. For yourself you need to demonstrate you can extracate yourself from daily operations and your function within the business can be undertaken by another person. Simply put, be clear about what you do.
Sounds like it would be a better idea to work you arse off for 18 months though and exploit the potential yourself, as you are probably best placed to exploit this potential, and then sell. Do this expansion using a company in HK or Singapore and benefit from the lower TAX liabilities than you would otherwise experience under UK duristiction. The extra money would pay for a European Tour professional golf coach and you could make up lost time on your game as a result
I think we are singing from the same page GingerLing, this is now my plan and it still puts me where I want to be in 18 months so I can live with that!
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Another thought is your revenue stream. Are the current customers on recurring billing for said service, or do you constantly have to go and get more customers. Everyone loves recurring billing customers.
A bit of both really, some clients will order $10,000 worth a month for a couple of months, disappear and then come back a few months later for some more. Overall repeat clients make up around 70% of revenue, in fact we have not had capacity to take on any new clients for a couple of months now, which means I really need to expand but don't want to as I would rather just get rid of the whole thing, I came to Thailand to retire not ending up working harder than I did in the UK! Ha!
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Well, it seems you're getting nearer an answer, maybe this 'brainstorming' session will help you think it all out.
It would appear that it could be valued much the same way as any other business, just without all the fixed costs like buildings, permanent staff, utilities etc.
Yes thanks to all of you who have replied to this post, I've now been able to find several examples of valuations for similar businesses by applying the web design analogy.
You are correct bifftastic, pretty simple really, rule of thumb figure seems to be around $250,000 which is about what I expected in the back of my head.
Thanks very much folks you have all been a great help.
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If you want to see what it's worth, put it out there at a price point and see what kind of bites you get.
Actually you really helped me here, you gave me an idea of how to find a decent way to value the business.
If we take my web design analogy further, then the situation is almost identical.
Let's say a group of web designers work for a business which has no physical office, they all work from home, the business has an excellent reputation, proven revenue and bookings into the future. How would the owner work out a valuation? This fits my situation entirely except we are nit in web design!
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I thought you sold a tangible product based on what you said above and this is why I thought you outsourced the work seeing as you said you were brick and mortar, without the bricks and mortar
. Is a service a tangible product?"we produce a tangible product which sits within the B2B marketplace."
Yeah it gets a bit confusing. Probably the easiest way to describe it is that our clients employ us to perform a service for them, the result of this service is the delivery of a tangible product. A good analogy would be something like web design, is web design a service or a product based model? It's a bit of both really, as the end result of the service is delivery of the product.
You can probably see why I am having a tough time working this out, it's not exactly a traditional business model!
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If you expect to get more than a couple of years 'proveable' real profit from your business and it is not very passive income then I suggest you will be very disappointed. In general most would not offload a high growth income producing website unless the funds are desperately needed. Good Luck.
Cheers Jay
HI Jay and thanks for your comments.
Once again, I would like to stress that this business does not revolve around a website, we do not actively promote our website in any way, it's simple a shop window so that if clients decide to look for us on the web they see we have a site, nothing more.
I started this post to get some helpful advice on how to work out a valuation, not to engage potential buyers.
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Thanks for your answers
Well, I guess it comes down to how much you want for it? How much of a hole will not having it make in your pocket? Add the legal fees and the price of whatever you can do in 2 or 3 hours a day that will stop you missing it (ok the last one could be very expensive!
)We're not helping much, are we?
Thanks for trying to help though, I think you can see how difficult it is to put a price on this. As for the hole in my pocket, it won't effect me that much, I have other business ventures that look after themselves, this one just kind of grew out of nowhere and I ended up in the hot seat. If I wasn't thinking of retiring very soon I would probably keep it on but I set myself a goal of stopping all business and work related activities at the age of 45, so now its time to start cashing in and think about taking up golf again
I think my best route might be to incorporate off-shore, then produce proper account for the next 12-18 months that can then be used to prove the business as you would any other bricks and mortar setup.
Complicated! Oh well, thanks for the input anyway, you did give me a few ideas.
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So you're outsourcing the work then having a dropshipper ship? Everything seems so vague it's hard to get an idea of your actual biz model.
You seem to be fixed on the concept that we sell products like a retailer, we do not, we are in the B2B arena. We provide a professional product/service to other businesses.
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Thanks for the reply, probably easiest if I answer your questions in-line so I'll put them in red below.
Why do you even want to sell it if it's making good money?
If you have other things you'd rather be doing why not get someone to run it for you on a percentage, that way you can still have some input, the person you get in to run it can get a feel for it and at a later date you can work out a price together, assuming, of course, it's still running smoothly.
I considered this, but I am one of those people who can't leave well enough alone, I would end up still wanting to run things day to day.
Businesses are normally registered and have assets that can be bought and sold, if yours only has customers and income potential that may be why you're having a hard time putting a value on it?
I operate as a sole proprietor but have been considering registering a company in Hong Kong in recent months. The assets of the business could be seen as its excellent reputation, customer base and proven past income.
How do you see a potential sale of this business actually happening? Is it a limited company (or whatever version of that status businesses have wherever it's registered)
Is it even a 'real' business or is it more like an 'activity'?
It is a real business although not incorporated (see above).
What I mean is, if it's just some economic activity you've been doing, which makes money, that would make it difficult to define as an entity which could then be sold.
No it's not simply an economic activity, we operate as any business does, find customers, produce the product, get paid.
Do you have contracts with suppliers/customers/employees, or is it all fairly 'unofficial'
Yes to varying degrees depending on the size of the client. Employees are bound by an NDA although we all know how useless those can be.
If someone was to consider giving you cash in order to take over what you're doing they'd want some kind of assurances. Otherwise there'd be nothing to stop you selling this business and then carrying on doing it yourself with all your current contacts, customers and suppliers.
If you could see how we operate, then you would understand that once I were to hand over the keys so to speak, I would not be able to exploit past clients and relationships. I would effectively be locked out.
All these things would help to define the value.
If someone were to consider buying a business, especially one that isn't in 'bricks and mortar' as it were, there'd need to be lawyers involved, due diligence carried out etc.
All gets kinda complicated. If you just want someone else to do the work and you get some money, you might be better off looking for a partner.
I've tried the partner route in the past, never been comfortable with it, call me a control freak
By the way, how many hours a day does it take when it isn't running smoothly?
Good question, never more than about 3! Although one of my character faults is my inability to delegate effectively so sometimes I get involved where I shouldn't!
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It depends how long the biz has been around and what the revenue stream is, as well as where all of your traffic comes from. As a general guide, it is anywhere between 6 months to 2 years of income (not revenue) for a regular site, while a well known mainstream site makes much more than that ( just look at the Huffingtonpost sale).
Depending on where your traffic is coming from and your income stream? Are you selling a tangible item, or information, or is your income from adsense and selling links? Is the traffic from Search Engines mainly, or paid ads and paid links?
Hi there, thanks for the reply.
Probably I did not make things clear enough in my original post. This is not a business based around a website, there is a website as part of the business but traffic to this site does not produce revenue, it is simply a store front (but could be exploited more). Revenue does not come from any form of advertising, we produce a tangible product which sits within the B2B marketplace. So basing this valuation on the math used to value a website is not right, web base sales (direct through our website) make up less than 1% of the revenue, although it could be a lot more if it were exploited.
The business has been around 5 years, with the last two years seeing some expansion, in truth there is room to expand a lot more, I have spreadsheets that I have created to show me income levels at various stages of expansion and at the current rate we could be hitting $1,000,000 turnover a year at 40% GP within 18 months. Most people would think me foolish for considering selling this business but it is time to retire for me and I want to clear the decks.
This is basically a bricks and mortar business without any bricks or mortar, kind of weird to evaluate as I am sure you understand.
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HI folks.
One of the businesses I own is entirely web based.
No it is not a website selling dodgy ebooks or get rich quick schemes.
When I say web based I mean that all of the employees work remotely, all clients are procured on-line and the business can be run from anywhere as long as you have a laptop. I have not had to make a business call for three years, everything is done with email or occasionally some form of instant messenger.
Staffing levels are fluid based upon workload, typically 4-12 part-time employees at any one time.
Now I can't work out how I would go about selling this business, I am even having problems with the valuation of the business.
Let me give a quick financial run down:
Last 6 months revenue = $100,000 at a 40% GP.
Next 6 month forecast = $120,000 at 40% GP.
The business has a track record going back 5 years and has a reputation which positions it amongst the top businesses selling this service in the world.
When everything is running smoothly it takes around 2 hours a day to administer and requires nothing more than the ability to use a PC and a little marketing savvy.
Somebody willing to put in a few more hours a day and implement some plans I have for diversification could possibly treble the revenue within 6 months.
Anyone have any ideas on how to work out a rough valuation of this business?
Thanks in advance.
. Is a service a tangible product?
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Cheap Thai Style Apartment Needed In Surin
in Isaan
Posted
I think The Orchid is a bit over budget for the OP but I have heard good things about it from a few people. Got any pics?
6-7Baht a unit is the norm for most apartments. I have a thai style apartment in town that I use as a getaway from the village for a couple of days a week, that's even 7Baht a unit, written into the contract, the same contract all my Thai neighbours have so its not just an example of overpricing for farang. Daylight robbery when they are buying it in at around 4Baht a unit. My guess is a lot of these places never bother to have the electricity supply switched down from construction rate.