Setting up a night market store in Bangkok

[itoxify]

Hi all, I am a foreigner that is interested to set up a night market store in Bangkok at one of the tourist night markets. My partner is Thai.

 

I understand that there is a 250 THB per day rental fee, and the minimum rental period is 1 month. I am interested to get casual labour to operate the store.

 

I am just wondering if there is any need to register a business, set up business accounting, or do any other administrative matters to run this store?

 

Advice and opinions kindly appreciated.

[Tonyguy77]

I have no advice to add sorry but interested in reading the replies.

[seancbk]

As long as you yourself are not selling or doing anything obviously connected to the stall there is probably no need for any business registration at least not to start with.

Once the venture starts to make money then your partner might want to set up a sole proprietorship type business simply for tax reasons. 

Business accounting is important as you'll want to know what you are spending and what you are bringing in.  

Suggest your partner goes and has a chat with a few vendors at the market you are looking to set up in and ask them if they have registered businesses, I would be very surprised if many of them do though.

Best of luck, with the right product and the right pricing you could do quite well.

[khunPer]

On 1/8/2019 at 2:46 AM, itoxify said:

I am just wondering if there is any need to register a business, set up business accounting, or do any other administrative matters to run this store?

 

Advice and opinions kindly appreciated.

A foreigner cannot just open a business in Thailand; however, if you are US citizen, you can own a business under the amity treaty.

 

You can be business partner with a Thai, or you can be shareholder of up to 49% of the total shares in a Thai company limited.

 

If you have a Thai partner, let you Thai partner open and operate the store at the market. Your part could just be a private loan for the investment in the store, and advises. Officially you cannot be involved in the business, and you cannot perform any physical work without a work permit, which can be down to staying at the customer side of a counter. Furthermore a number of job are reserved for Thais only.

 

A Thai would presumably just pay the rent and open a business, if not selling products or services that require an authorization. As another poster advised, check with other vendors in the market...????

[JoePai]

As this is your wife's store and she will be running it (but you paying the bills) then get her to find about all the details

[me4175]

7 hours ago, JoePai said:

As this is your wife's store and she will be running it (but you paying the bills) then get her to find about all the details

What a lame response.

[ThaiWai]

12 hours ago, me4175 said:

What a lame response.

Great advice actually.  Let his partner go do some legwork, learn about the economics and logistics and legalities and come back with his/her findings report.  Nothing wrong with helping the partner get going but why not use her nationality and language skills in his/her home country to get the ball rolling?  To many Thai wives know the phrase "buy me this" but not enough know how to say "how do we work on this to make it happen together".  My wife has two successful businesses that were created with my primary financial start up support but team goal setting and effort and her hard work made them successful.  She is now self sustaining and if had more time could repeat her success elsewhere.  I have watched dozens of businesses fail around her from farangs handing over cash to girls to open salons and restaurants who don't know shit about hair or food.  If you want to help your partner eat, teach her to fish.

[me4175]

4 hours ago, ThaiWai said:

Great advice actually.  Let his partner go do some legwork, learn about the economics and logistics and legalities and come back with his/her findings report.  Nothing wrong with helping the partner get going but why not use her nationality and language skills in his/her home country to get the ball rolling?  To many Thai wives know the phrase "buy me this" but not enough know how to say "how do we work on this to make it happen together".  My wife has two successful businesses that were created with my primary financial start up support but team goal setting and effort and her hard work made them successful.  She is now self sustaining and if had more time could repeat her success elsewhere.  I have watched dozens of businesses fail around her from farangs handing over cash to girls to open salons and restaurants who don't know shit about hair or food.  If you want to help your partner eat, teach her to fish.

I called it a lame response because he puts a lot of assumptions in his one sentence: "your wife's shop", "she'll be running it", "you paying the bills". It may or may not be the case. There's zero value for OP in his reply except to show his arrogance.

[Ks45672]

9 hours ago, me4175 said:

I called it a lame response because he puts a lot of assumptions in his one sentence: "your wife's shop", "she'll be running it", "you paying the bills". It may or may not be the case. There's zero value for OP in his reply except to show his arrogance.

Less arrogance than common sense imo

 

A Thai lady will be able to chatter with other Thais a lot easier than her farang husband would to gain some info 

 

Even to another Thai, stallholders may be unwilling to disclose how much they are earning or how much they pay in official or unofficial "rent" nevermind their taxes ???? 

 

Every stall is probably not all paying the same amount per sqm either so she might need to go to the owner, tell him what you plan to sell etc to see what rate he will charge.... 

 

If he knows a farang is funding the venture the rent quote might double or triple so if i was the op id tell her to not mention anything about a farang husband lol

 

Also don't let anyone see you doing any "work" there, physically setting up the stall everyday or dismantling it, delivering boxes of inventory, food ingredients etc could be interpreted as working without a permit

 

Most Thais don't know how to run a successful business so if you start selling coffee for example and  in 6 months business is booming the other coffee sellers will probably not like losing money to a farang stall so factor in jealous rivalry from day 1 and don't give them any ammunition 

 

[NCC1701A]

my girlfriend in Hua Hin has had her shop for more that ten years in the night market. 

 

She is successful because she is SMART, has a skill, works really hard and is good at what she does. period.

 

She buys stuff in Bangkok and sells it for 30% to 300% mark up.

 

She does not pay taxes.

 

Does her accounting by hand written paper. All cash.

 

And I had nothing to do with her business and if I did all it would mean is for everything to be more expensive for her.

 

So Farang stay behind the scenes and you can be the loan shark.

Edited January 10, 2019 by NCC1701A