weelittletimmy

13 hours ago, bignok said:

Sounds like a 6 month business. 

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.

13 hours ago, OneMoreFarang said:

And when you have to put more of your own time into this to make it profitable, how do you calculate that?

I.e. if you calculate your own time with 1000B per hour, are you then still making money?

And is it then a business or a hobby?

 

Good luck!

 

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.

24 minutes ago, OneMoreFarang said:

K-Bank

Login and go to

https://kbiz.kasikornbankgroup.com/menu/account/account/recent-transaction

Select a date range, at the bottom right is a button download. If you press it, you will get a .csv file.

 

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".

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?

20 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

If, as you say, you need three hours a day to cook and clean, I'd suggest that you are doing something wrong and need to consult a time and motion manager.

 

Strange that, common with many posters on this site, you hide where you are from and refer - several times - only to 'my country'. I find that weird. I'm from the UK. London. And I do clean my toilet, but not on my knees. I was brought up to be able to take care of myself.

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).

On 7/30/2022 at 4:22 PM, DezLez said:

How is 150K going to cover both rent and Salaries for 6 months?

That does not even include all your other monthly recurring expenditure like your tax/WP/Elec/water/SS/ accountant fees etc if you are doing it legit!

 

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?

On 7/30/2022 at 4:24 PM, TravelerEastWest said:

If you need to pay the Mafia don't start the business.

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.

On 7/30/2022 at 4:40 PM, transam said:

Is there a female involved in this somewhere....?

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.

On 7/30/2022 at 5:18 PM, KhunLA said:

Surely investing half mill baht into something you 'know' would be a better idea.

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.

On 7/30/2022 at 5:50 PM, Cardano said:

Best advise I can give you is go and talk with the expats running successful businesses in Phuket.

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.

On 7/30/2022 at 5:55 PM, timendres said:

Gold

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)

On 7/30/2022 at 6:04 PM, marin said:

I wish you all the luck in the world but make sure you have a lot more than 500,00 to invest, there are going to be over runs on most things you have budgeted. Brave dude to start up a business with so little knowledge of Thailand. 

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.

On 7/30/2022 at 6:27 PM, 1FinickyOne said:

But, business anywhere has its risks... mostly that if you are successful there will be 3 similar shops coming soon - don't expect any business anywhere to be hassle free... you will have to deal w/employees, competitors... etc etc.. 

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.

21 hours ago, Hummin said:

I would have started with a mobile juice bar, and invested in a cool good clean looking juice/ice cream bar concept, and if I managed to make money on that one, upgradedcto the restaurant part of the idea. Do not go all in, work up some experience first. 
 

After all the juice bar car, you can own in your name, its mobile and you can sell it if you want to give up, and only loose small start up expenses instead of having a year contract, deposits and more

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?

21 hours ago, marin said:

Not here unless you like Thai food, and most maids anywhere in the world dont cook. They clean, wash and iron that sort of thing. You are in Thailand not Imaginary Land. 

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.

21 hours ago, grain said:

It's Thailand, you eat out mostly. But surely you enjoy cooking some things yourself. But if you do want a maid. Find an old gal. DO NOT get a sexy gal or a massage gal and think you can bonk her too. That is heading for a heap of trouble. 

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.

20 hours ago, scubascuba3 said:

What's your job?

Project coordinator (like an assistant to a project manager), working remotely for an American company.

19 hours ago, rumak said:

indeed.  if this is a real person ,  then it would sure be interesting to know something about him.  OP?      

Age,    life experiences ,   a weight lifter of just a dumbbell ?  

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.

21 hours ago, Bangkok Barry said:

I'm a little confused. You're an adult but appear unable to look after yourself. Unable to cook or clean or do laundry. If you are able to do those things yourself you don't have to worry about how much or trustworthiness or security.

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.

19 minutes ago, marin said:

...

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.

5 minutes ago, scubascuba3 said:

How long have you been in Thailand? your two threads make you sound very naive, so alarm bells are going off

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. 

11 minutes ago, Upnotover said:

How do you do that in a wok?  I would love to see the 1st results of her efforts following some youtube instruction.  You might be better doing the cooking yourself and leaving her to the washing up - they do have small feet for a reason.

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.

4 hours ago, Tapster said:

Lastly, and least helpfully, there is exactly the restaurant you're looking for ... in Rawai!

Sorry, but it's maybe a bit far away for you. Nevertheless, it's called Cheap Ass Thai Food (no shit!) and it is fresh, plain and simple Thai food with no MSG and no sugar, if you ask.

Thanks. 

I found it here:  https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g297934-d7222257-r354032064-Cheap_Ass-Rawai_Phuket.html

I might not use it for daily meals, but I'll check it out for occasional self-indulgence.

(This is not about favorite restaurants, but about finding any restaurant that meets the requirements)

I'm looking for a nearby place that is clean and serves big grilled vegetable plates at cheap prices. Like this but even bigger: https://i.imgur.com/qJbidQC.jpg , and ideally more greens. I haven't been eating enough vegetables since I got here.

I live on Fighting Street but have a motorbike to get around, though I want to avoid anything further than 5 minutes away.

Fighting Street is expensive. The cheapest place I found, near Phuket Top Team, is 70 baht for a rather small grilled veggies + chicken plate. This would be fine if it were bigger, but as it is, it takes 2 meals to satiate me, so it's more like 140 baht. I'm sure there's better places to go to off Fighting Street, but I don't know the area.

I know it would be cheaper to cook at home but I don't want to.

Any suggestions?

I was planning to go to Tiger Muay Thai in 2 weeks. Should I care about this news? What's the consequences of heavy rain? Flooding, danger, what?

Just now, NCC1701A said:

Dude! That is it.

 

Get below 20% body fat and your penis will work again.

Well that's the plan too. ????

I expect to drop 60 lbs while I'm there training, 10 a month. So you'd wait until that was done before even seeing a doctor?

I'm a bit cynical cause I know several guys fatter than me don't have these issues.

It's really just this one issue I'd seek medical care for, how is it a basket of issues.

I don't drink or smoke, and although I'm overweight at 240 lbs, surely that can't be it? People way bigger than me have no problem using their dick.

You seem to have a really poor opinion of Thailand's medical system. I heard good things when googling "medical tourism". Is it just paid marketing?

I'm in my early 30s and for the past ten years I've had major erectile issues, as in total absence. Viagra pills did almost nothing, barely a half-chub. The doctor I saw told me I'd be like this for life, but in my country they really make no effort.

I want to do an MRI down there to see if there's something that could explain the issues I've been having, other than "that's just how it is forever" or "what if it's mental? try a psychiatrist". Based on the MRI results, and whatever other diagnostics Thai doctors recommend, I might go for something more, such as treatment or surgery, again per their recommendation.

I recently lost my job and am using what's left of my savings on this extended trip primarily to lose weight but I'd also like to hopefully fix my sexual issues which have prevented me from having the normal 20s/30s other people have.

But I'm worried Thailand is the sort of place where they'll just take you on a ride and run unnecessary diagnostics (or worse: unnecessary "treatments", especially surgeries) just to drive up your bill, and I'll leave broke but no better off. Or with some new issue due to complications from some surgery they told me to get.

Am I right in having those worries?

Also, I'll be in Phuket, is their Bangkok Hospital the best place to go for this? I care more about quality care, but at the same time I'm not rich, I have about 25k USD to last me for 6 months in Thailand.