Choosing Location Of New It Business

[Daewoo]

I run a small business in Australia doing basic design work for Telecommunications Companies.

The work is mostly quite basic data entry work within the Telco Databases, and could be done from the moon if they have a reliable Internet connection.

I am looking to expand the business and set up an office in Thailand, the work still being done for Telco's in Australia.

I am wondering if the cost of living for staff would make the business more successful if it was located in a major regional centre like Kon Kaen rather than in BKK. The decider would be access to about 20 good English speaking staff, (or more precisely good written English) and reliable Internet.

The work is very difficult to teach, and relies mostly on experience, so therefore staff retention is key. I hope to be able to pay above average wages, but know that the Thai's will still go somewhere else for an extra $1/week. I hoped that access to good employment in their home town might make staff retention less of a problem.

Any advice or thoughts greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Daewoo

[Prakanong]

What are your primary factors?

Before staff retention you need good ie reliable and quick? connections!

Then you need to get these excellent English speakers before you retain them!

Satisfy both of these requirements then look at staff retention

I have worked in IT for quite a while and during the boom years in the late 90's we did a few things to retain staff. We used to employ locals as you are trying to do. We wanted them with families and mortgages. We also had a lot more women than average in IT and allowed flex hours to fit in with family needs

Of course the business has to come first but I would think in your game the hours could be very flexible so giving this will aid a heck of a lot in retaining staff.

Staff costs - I can only relate to you what a Thai colleague was saying to me on a recent trip to India when we were discussing staff costs.

We require a very high standard of English - it might be wrong but we only look at people with overseas education as having this level. We have to pay a premium for this and if I am not wrong the starting salary is 40K++. The person i spoke to says she has not had less than a 10% pay rise per year on top of the inflation rise.

People with the skills we require are being chased by recruiters all the time in Thailand - even with 6-9 months experience. I do not hear of this in other countries - I will ask about this at our annual conference which I am heading to in a couple of hours. I will also ask more about the English speaking staff we require just out of interest (btw these are not IT staff but research associates).

Well after that ramble I would put my business where i can get staff and has good infrastructure - think about how you will retain these staff ie wages and other benefits but remember the costs involved in the type of staff involved - there is a premium for overseas educated graduates in my experience YMMV

[Daewoo]

Prakanong,

Thanks for your input.

When the company I worked for operated in Thailand we had more women than men for similar reason to those that you outlined, i.e. generally better English skills, more stable employees, more open to Western management styles.

I agree with your comments about flexible hours, within reason. Of course the difficulty arises that Thailand is already 3 hours behind Eastern Australia, workers generally start about 8am here, and Thais closer to 10. That means that there is only about 3 hours a day where the staff would be able to communicate directly.

I was targeting a salary of around the 40K mark or higher. In Australia the work is done by semi-skilled staff, without any tertiary qualifications, at a salary of around 110K THB. My concern is that educated Thai's (BA) will quickly grow bored of the work, and less educated Thais will generally not have sufficient written English skills. This is why I started thinking that the work might be more attractive to someone in a major regional centre than in BKK, but I believe that this might increase the English skills issue.

The reason that I thought of Kon Kaen is that it has an affiliation with my Alumni (UTS), and seems to be a major education hub for that area.

Is Internet connections at about broadband speeds (1028K) available and reliable in major regional centres like Kon Kaen?

Again, thanks for your input, it is greatly appreciated.

Cheers,

Daewoo

Edited April 11, 2007 by Daewoo

[solo siam]

40k is a very very high salary in Khon Khaen and generally from my experience Thai's don't just jump ship for a little more salary - If you are worried about boredom you could always make it more exciting by offering the chances of for example a trip to Australia etc..

Your idea sounds good, but it would rely upon finding some very skilled English Language Thais, which is difficult - however if you are offering 40k baht a month you might be able to find people.

[Daewoo]

40k is a very very high salary in Khon Khaen and generally from my experience Thai's don't just jump ship for a little more salary - If you are worried about boredom you could always make it more exciting by offering the chances of for example a trip to Australia etc..

Your idea sounds good, but it would rely upon finding some very skilled English Language Thais, which is difficult - however if you are offering 40k baht a month you might be able to find people.

Thanks Ben.

The relative buying power of the salary is one of the things which led me to start thinking about locating outside BKK.

I live in Sydney which is one of the most expensive cities in the world... if it wasn't for family I would jump at the chance to earn the same money in a less expensive, more relaxed city.

Any other suggestions of where I would find reasonably skilled, reasonably good English outside of BKK??? Maybe I need to think more towards tourist areas like Chiang Mai or Phuket, but then you are competing against jobs with tourist $$$. Like I said, the only reason I was thinking of Kon Kaen is because my old University has a relationship with the University there, so I assume there must be some skilled people around.

Part of the plan would see some employees working in Australia, earning $Au42K/PA would still leave them banking the equivalent of their entire Thai paycheck each month.

Thanks for your help,

Cheers,

Daewoo