weelittletimmy

For those asking, I'd rather not say how to find my place, because I prefer to be able to speak my mind freely on this site without it coming back to bite me in the ass one day. It's a survival mechanism from working in the current tech industry where you can lose your job for something you wrote 10 years ago, lol. I was already in Thailand because covid made my job remote-only and I was attracted by the weather, beaches, cost of living, and safety. I found out the rent on a shop near my house was really cheap (10k/month), and gears started turning in my head. I go into this in my original thread, it has always been a desire of mine since I was a student, but I could never afford this in a western country. I haven't decided if I'll stay in Thailand. If I do, I will do other small businesses like this, and hopefully one day can quit my day job and just manage my places. If I don't, I'll sell and leave. "Tiny" was my original plan, for the first place I planned to rent for just a juicebar. The place I ended up renting is bigger, although still on the small side. I can seat 20 people, and I have space outside to add a standing counter like bars have if it ever becomes packed. I've seen good fast-foods blow up and expand, including my favorite restaurant back home. Rent is low IMO so I'm happy. No, I'm alone with the Thai staff. You're right that there's a big cultural difference, and I feel the need for a manager, but I can't afford one right now. One of the staff was hired as half-manager half-assistant cook (because he speaks very good english), but he didn't turn out to be the manager type, he's useless at it, and I don't have the heart to replace him yet. They lie about the smallest things, it's almost like even after months of nice behavior from me, they're afraid I'm gonna punish them. Just today one of them was late (only the 2nd time since being hired), when I asked her what time she showed up at work she lied and said she came 1 hour earlier than she did. I sat her down and explained "why bother lying about this? Just say the truth, it's not like you're late every day. When I'm late I just tell my boss I'll be late, it's no big deal, it happens. If it happens frequently and it becomes a problem, I'll tell you." I said this (well, Google Translate) in a friendly tone and with a smile to let her know she's not in trouble, but she was guarded the whole time. There's a few puzzling things like this where I keep having to repeat myself and it makes me think "this must be a Thai culture thing". I'm also worried some of my behavior might be accidentally offensive. Those that frequently ask me for advances, I keep grilling them about what they're spending their money on, ask to see their bank account weekly. I don't care that it wouldn't be proper in a western country to ask your employees how they spend their money, if we're going to be asking for advances then this becomes more of a paternal relationship, and I'm going to want to know why you're still broke after 6 months of employment, when you live with your parents for free and eat at work for free.

Good point, it could be that. We'll see how things fare after next high season, when I have made more marketing effort, have food delivery, etc. One thing I feel bad about is, what happens to my staff? I've known most of them since opening. They quit their jobs to join me, and can barely make ends meet. If I had hired them from the get-go agreeing that it was only for 6 months, it would be an easier decision. I actually have put very little time except during the opening weeks, because I am busy with my full-time job. So it's more of a hobby. I put in maybe 1 hour a day, and sometimes not even that. The only reason this business is open is because any loss is exceeded by the monthly salary of my remote job. If this was going to be my only source of income, then I'd switch to lower-stakes alternative: multiple small juice stands. I'm actually planning to do that if I end up staying in Thailand next year.

Thanks! It blows my mind that Kasikorn's own employees at their branch didn't know this. The first one wasn't sure, called another employee, and that one said "no it's only PDF".

Last year I wrote this post: I ended up opening a breakfast and juicebar place. I'd like to give some random thoughts on how it went in case it helps others: The business made profit from the very beginning, since it opened during high season. It did about 4000 baht/day profit until March, where it gradually decreased until break even point. It lost money in April and May, now in June I'm back at breaking even. April and May almost cancelled out the profit made in the initial months. I initially planned for 350k setup costs. In the end, it was about 420k setup, which includes corporation, my visa and work permit, renovation, furniture, kitchen equipment. I also changed the concept to add meals, not just a juicebar, so I needed more kitchen equipment. I initially planned 25k/month for rent + 1 staff (150k for 6 months). (Note there are more fees, discussed below). It ended up being 43k/mo, because I rented a place twice the size at twice the price, and also hired 3 staff instead of 1. And even those staff, since I was hiring them in high season, I had to pay over market rate. Additionally there is social security fee for each employee (5k/month total), electrical bill (4-5k/month with always-on aircon), accountant's fees (3k/month), internet (700/month), and a couple of other more minor fees which you should plan for. Due to repeated warnings from many people about the unreliability of thai staff (that they can just stop coming in overnight and not answer your calls), I ended up hiring 1 extra staff, even though it only takes 2 people to comfortably run the place with our customer count. Last couple of months I've been in a low season slump with very few customers. My staff are idle most of the time. But I don't have the heart to lay off one of them since they live paycheck to paycheck, and would likely not be able to find another job at this time. I can take the hit, they can't. I know this isn't how you run a business, but what can I say, I'm not a real businessman. Let's see if next high season makes up for this slump, especially with the improvements I have planned. If I'm honest, in terms of food the place is a solid 7/10 to me right now. Review score is 4.1/5, with the sole 1/5 review being a Thai person I don't know and who never came here. Customers are all expats and mostly repeat visitors, but tourists are rare. I need to improve the outside sign, put signs of fruits and whatnot. I haven't been able to do any marketing or decoration due to lack of time with my full-time day job. I have not yet added food delivery even though it's a must during low season. Paperwork takes time, and dealing with Thai people is extremely slow and inefficient. Anyway, for people who might do this, know that you need a company bank account and a VAT number to apply for Grab. I had been using my personal bank account this whole time and had no VAT so I wasn't ready. Only Thai people can apply to Grab with a personal bank account and open a Grab account instantly. I generally sell meals at 200% cost. So if it costs 50 baht to make, I sell it at 150. The exception is coffee, which I sell at 700-1000% profit. All my Thai staff live paycheck to paycheck. They will get paid on the 31st, and one week later all the money is gone and they are likely to beg for a small advance, which I give out occasionally depending on circumstances (which might be lies for all I know), but I made it a point never to do it in consecutive months. I will soon switch to weekly salary payments because giving them a full month's salary in one go is like handing a 7yo kid a bag of candy and telling him to eat only one per day. I'm sorry if this offends any Thai people reading this, I base my beliefs on my personal experience, not any prejudice, and my belief is that Thai people are financially irresponsible. I realize this probably only applies to working class Thai people. Broke people living paycheck to paycheck will steal from you. Early on I had to fire a staffer I found out was stealing. Another one I had put in charge of the emergency change money (so we don't need to do a bank run in the middle of the day when we run out of change), used some of the backup change to pay for personal expenses when she became broke, figuring she'd pay it back in 3 days when she got her salary. Make sure you accept electronic payments ASAP to decrease usage of cash, use an electronic POS like Ocha, and have a security camera aimed at the register to counter bad behavior. Do a random spot check every week, which is how I caught both situations. Social media is important in this day and age, and how most young people find the place. They'll take a photo of their food before eating, post it on Instagram while tagging the place, then their followers might visit it based on that. It's mainly 40+yo people finding it randomly by walking around. Make absolutely certain you set up Google Maps and Instagram (link to Maps location). I'm not sure if Facebook had any impact. Overall it's been a pleasant experience, though it's not doing as well as I hoped. I think there's a lot of potential and I just need to put in more of my own time to achieve that potential. Thanks to the people who provided non-snarky advice in the last thread.

I opened a restaurant a few months back and need to create a company bank account. I'd like to be able to quickly analyze the transaction data, for example "show me all incoming Grab payments in the month of August 2023" or "show me all incoming Foodpanda payments". To do this, I need my account's transaction history to be viewable in Excel, where this query would be a simple date + account name filter. I spoke to the customer service people at Krungsri and Kasikorn, and they both said they only let you export transactions in PDF format, which cannot be used in Excel. My lawyer who owns two restaurants herself told me she opens a different bank account for every restaurant and every delivery service, so she can do the accounting more easily by seeing the bank account's totals. This seems much more busywork to me than having a single account and simply doing filters in Excel in 5 seconds. In case you're wondering why I don't copy-paste the PDF text, I got my hands on a friend's statements from Krungsri and Kasikorn. Kasikorn's PDFs paste into a single cell with the column and entries in the wrong order compared to the header columns. Krungsri has a column called "Withdraw/Deposit" where the values are actually written spaced over 2 columns as a positive number, so whether it's a withdrawal or a deposit the line is "previous-column 100", making it impossible to automate the import. If all the banks are like this then I'm thinking my only option here is to have a friend write a computer script to convert a Kasikorn PDF into CSV data, but I feel I'm getting ahead of myself here, it would be mind-boggling if there's really no CSV export for a company's transaction data in Thailand. My bank's website back home has had a CSV export option since I was a teen, even for personal accounts. Does everyone else have a data entry clerk doing things by hand or something?

The reason I don't post my name and origin is because I think it's personally identifiable info (even if partial) that I don't want to leave behind for someone to connect the dots and identify me in the real world. I already know you won't get it. You're a boomer who grew up in a tiny world in the 80s or or whatever, you think the Internet is like a pub, and there's nothing wrong with posting whatever comes to your mind under your real name on Facebook. I live in an entirely different world. I can get fired for something mildly controversial said 5 years ago that I don't even remember, if some motivated troll goes through my history and sends some old post to my western employer whose HR department is obsessed with political correctness. It's happened to someone I know. So I can either post personally identifiable information but limit myself to only writing the most bland of comments, or take precautions to remain unidentifiable and be free to speak my mind on any subject. I prefer the latter. Given how proud you are of scrubbing your toilet on all four to save a couple of hundred baht, I expect you will also have an exaggerated sense of importance/pride for the fact that you don't take precautions online like I do. Whatever. It just tells me you have nothing to lose (retired boomer) or never have a controversial take on any subject (most young Brits today, as a result of being raised in a surveillance state).

Here's a single month's recurring costs as planned and vetted by a friendly farang restaurant owner: -Rent = 5k (already have a verbal agreement, will sign next week once I speak to the lawyer) -1 employee = 12k total for salary, 1k total for social security = 13k -Electricity = 10k if I leave the AC on all day, a few k less with no AC -Taxes = 3k -Water = 1k TOTAL = 31k/month I will likely need 2 employees because I'm told I cannot rely on local workers 100%. So it may be 44k/month. Administrative (accounting/etc) was included in the upfront costs. These are all the fixed fees AFAIK. What is WP? About the mafia and police, that seems inevitable in Phuket. My friend said as soon as you start making good money they will come by. But the amounts to pay are rather low. There isn't. This has been a personal idea of mine for a few years now, and now that I'm here the good mix of "place I enjoy staying at" + "low costs to start/run a business" + "big potential" has pushed me to do it. Put it in some boring investment account? I already have a little in those. ???? I want to test the viability of a specific idea I have, and here I have the opportunity to do it at a low-ish price in a place with potential. Thanks. I've spoken to a couple, and am being advised the most by one I've become friends with. Most of them suggest caution, all agree I should do it. Thank you for this exhaustive response. I will take this advice to heart. I will make it a priority to find a reputable lawyer next week. Unfortunately I don't have US citizenship. There's an American I would trust (distant relative, very wealthy) but to talk him into flying to the opposite end of the world and getting into something he knows nothing about is a hard sell, especially for what is a toy project relative to his usual business. I will discuss this with the lawyer. Perhaps all can be arranged remotely. About your last paragraph, I'm glad you get it. I'm optimistic, but realize the money can be lost. Either way I will have gained a lot of experience from it, and most importantly, I will not think back with regret 10 years from now. It's been a personal fantasy of mine to open a restaurant even before I was a student. I always thought "I'll graduate, work for a few years to save up, then open a place" but life being what it is, friends/gf/family/laziness/etc taking up the time, I saved less than I should have, I remained a salaried employee and never started a business because it was just easier. (Also I had moved to America where not only is it more expensive to open a place, but you'd be competing against much more talented people who make some of the best food in the world) Thanks ???? I have more but wasn't planning on using it unless I start seeing something positive. I'll get out if it starts feeling like quicksand. We'll see. I know. It cannot be avoided, it's not like I can buy the land around me. Hopefully by the time it comes to this, I will have more experience and can beat the competition with quality. One positive sign: from what I've observed, the people here don't like a race to the bottom, so I won't be driven out with aggressive pricing: -I drive by dozens of huge empty restaurants every day that would rather stay empty than adapt and lower their prices temporarily from 400 baht/meal -Before I got my motorbike, taxi drivers (who've been sitting all day outside Family Mart without a single customer) would rather refuse me as a passenger than agree to the rate I tried to bargain for. I was offering 350 which was 50 over the Grab rate, they wanted 800, wouldn't come down below 700. I still see them now every time I drive by, sitting all day without any customers. Other than the "mobile" part, you read my mind, that's exactly what I'm planning. It will start as a health-oriented juice bar, which is hard to mess up. It will double as an ice cream parlor soon (reselling local ice cream), since the only investment required is a large freezer. This buys me time to focus on the food. I've never seen a mobile restaurant here, except for Thais on a motorbike selling soup to local employees, and the stationary stands like 5 King Chicken or whatever outside Tesco. Certainly haven't seen the equivalent of the American "burrito truck". Do mobile restaurants really exist in Thailand?

Good to know, thanks. That's not the case in my native country, Maids (usually from India, Sri Lanka, etc) learn to cook our local food. You're paying someone to act as a household helper, why would they only help with one aspect only? Anyone can be taught to cook, and unlike my native country's recipes, the meals I'm asking for are very easy. Thanks for the advice, I'll follow it. ???? I've been eating out at least once every day since I've been here, but am toning it down and started cooking myself. I want to be able to closely control macronutrient (especially protein), calorie count. Also the average restaurants doesn't give large amount of vegetables, or the really healthy kind (raw kale, spinach, etc). The best way to eat healthy is home cooking. Project coordinator (like an assistant to a project manager), working remotely for an American company. I am shocked at this shock. You'd think I've just landed from a spaceship. ???? Is everyone here American or European perhaps? I think there's a culture shock going on here. In the rest of the world, especially countries with low salaries for labor jobs, it is common for middle-class households to have a household maid (perhaps upper middle-class in the poorest countries). You've seen other people in this thread say the same. I have a completely average middle-class background in my country. Son of 2 public school teachers, who owned one house and one car. I have similar friends from Africa, South America, Asia. About half of us had a maid growing up. But not one of my American or European friends had a maid, because only rich people can afford one in those countries. If you bothered to read my reply above you'd know. But I'll repeat it: I can do all of the above, but I have a full-time job + other time sinks. If I spend 3 hours a day cooking and cleaning, I will lose money compared to hiring someone to do it. It would be financially idiotic for me to do this in a country with such low labor costs. I hope this answer is worthy of the manly independence you demonstrate every week when you get down on your knees to scrub your toilet.

Well it's a part-time job. I imagine someone out of a job, or a part-timer, may prefer making less money working 3 hours a day. I linked the agency I planned to use in my post. I want a cook primarily, a maid secondarily, and the massage is an optional bonus I only mentioned in one specific context (hiring a massage girl) that you can ignore. A single person can easily be a cook+maid, that's what maids do in most of the world in fact. I am single, and might leave Thailand in 1 year. We are not the same.

2 months. What's the problem? I can't wait until I've been here 5 years before I try to do the things I want to do now. I'm a big believer in learning from trial and error (within reason). I will use trial and error to learn how to run a small restaurant and business in Thailand, where the consequences of failure is a couple of <deleted> off customers, having to pay some random supplier a bit more for a few months, buy a replacement frige, etc. But it's not a valid approach for the legal foundation of your business. My choices now are to: a) stick to the support/advice I have now (lawyer, random local farang businessmen), b) use all the people from #a, and on top of those get advice from this forum. I choose B.

Interesting, that's two people paying 800-1000 a day for their maid. So that "full-time maid for 4000 baht/month" on Ayasan is wishful thinking? Before I saw that site I was expecting it would be 6000-8000 per month for 3 hours a day tbh. I have a tabletop oven that's good for grilling (air fryer). I expect anyone to learn to grill meat to near-perfection with some trial and error. I just don't have time to cook, I have a full-time job + other things to occupy me.

Sorry for the wall of text, it's not a simple subject. I have decided to open a tiny restaurant/juicebar in Phuket. Nothing huge, it would be a total of 500k baht investment, 350k for all setup fees (business creation, renovation, kitchen equipment) and 150k for 6 months of rent + employees. I have no experience running a business in Thailand. I know this is a red flag but considering I won't go bankrupt over 500k, I still want to give it a shot. I'm more worried about things going wrong after I put in the effort and becomes as successful as I hope. The location I found is 90% of the potential, it's in an up-and-coming area I feel will be full of wealthy tourists within 2 years. There will definitely be sharks circling the water at that point. The sort of things I'm worried about: 1) Having the company taken from me or shut down using some technicality. I'm being advised and encouraged by a friendly farang who owns multiple restaurants, and he says not worry. For example "you own 49% of the business and an invisible paper thai partner 51%, but don't worry, the lawyer takes care of the 51% and you keep all profits". And "law says you must invest 2 million baht to open a business, but don't worry 500k is enough, the lawyer takes care of it". That's a lot of faith in this lawyer. My intention here is to have a 2nd independent lawyer look at any papers before I sign, but is that enough? 2) Having the space taken from me by not renewing my rental contract. As I said the location is 90% of the potential. "Move somewhere else" would be the end of the business. I was told by my acquaintance I can sign rental agreements that give me the option to renew year-on-year up to 9 years, with price control. Can those be enforced in 18 months when someone offers my landlord double/triple the rent to not let me renew? 3) Someone pulling strings so my work visa is not renewed. It would be an easy way to close my business. Any chance of that happening? Gotcha stories I have been told by expats with business that I've chatted to and which are worrying me: One told a story of the lawyer writing the farang's name slightly wrong when writing it in thai on the contract (eg, Georgie being written as George), which is later used to say you're not that person The "invisible silent thai partner" deciding he wants more money or he pulls the plug. Apparently this is why Tiger Muay Thai in Chiang Mai didn't open 8 years ago, even after they built all the buildings. I was told you have to pay off both police and mafia, but only after you become successful. This is the least worrying tbh.

I'm staying at Surin beach for a couple of months and need someone to cook and clean a few hours a day. Ideally they should speak basic english so I can explain what to cook (western-style healthy grilled meat and veggies mainly, I guess I can use Google Translate for that, Youtube videos, etc). I googled "phuket maid service" and found https://www.ayasan-service.com/en/location/maid-phuket , and was about to pull the trigger but thought to ask here first. Question 1: I was warned by my farang neighbor to be careful and that he wouldn't do it because "they" can't be trusted. I was planning to give the maid a copy of my house key, so she can prepare things even when I'm not around, or when sleeping. The only things of value I have at the house are 20k cash backup in my closet, and a laptop. That's literally it, everything else is gym and beach gear with no resale value. Nothing to be paranoid about, right? What are the odds of waking up one night to a home invasion by her boyfriend and his friends? Thailand seems extremely safe to me but my neighbor has been here 10 years and he says there's lots of crime and I just don't see it. Question 2: Ayasan's pricing page says 3600 baht/month for a part-time maid, but they list a single price for all of Thailand. Given that Phuket is the most expensive area in Thailand, I expect it will be more. How much can I expect to pay? Question 3: initially I planned to hire a local massage girl, figuring I'd be getting free daily massages on top of cooking/cleaning, my experienced farang neighbor said absolutely not and it would be unsafe because they are so untrustworthy. He's the one who told me to look for a maid agency "at least" to have some vetting (he doesn't really trust agency-vetted maids either). Is that such a bad idea? Question 4: anything else you think I should know? I've never hired a maid before. I don't even know what else I should be asking.