Opening a branch in Thailand or Vietnam ?

[Genix]

Hello,

I own a digital marketing company (registered in the US) and I frequent Thailand very often. 

 

I'm looking to open up a branch either in Bangkok or Vietnam simply to hire good work-force in the office which they'd work for the primary US company from designing, to data entry, to email marketing & etc.

 

We're defo looking for creative people who understand the western market.

 

1) Ultimately, which would be better? We don't want to do a 50% partnership with a local as this is an office branch

 

2) And would we have to pay tax on the profits? Or only workforce tax/salaries/office expenses etc?

 

3) Are there big obstacles, expensive registration fees & etc? I know for Thailand registering a company can be quite a headache.

 

4) How do salaries compare?

 

 

Just in the resaerch phase atm, still lots of research to do (obviously).

 

Edited January 15, 2021 by Genix

[ThomasThBKK]

Neither?

If you want english speaking westernized thinking people you are way better off in the philippines. 

[kingofthemountain]

18 minutes ago, Genix said:

Hello,

I own a digital marketing company (registered in the US) and I frequent Thailand very often. 

 

I'm looking to open up a branch either in Bangkok or Vietnam simply to hire good work-force in the office which they'd work for the primary US company.

 

We're defo looking for creative people who understand the western market.

 

1) Ultimately, which would be better? We don't want to do a 50% partnership with a local as this is an office branch

 

2) And would we have to pay tax on the profits? Or only workforce tax/salaries/office expenses etc?

 

3) Are there big obstacles, expensive registration fees & etc? I know for Thailand registering a company can be quite a headache.

 

4) How do salaries compare?

 

 

Just in the resaerch phase atm, still lots of research to do (obviously).

 

Hi

 

your interlocutor in Thailand for your project is the BOI

https://www.boi.go.th/index.php?page=index

they should be able to answer to all of your questions

 

Personaly i don't think Thailand is the best place for what you are asking for

but you write you ''frequent'' Thailand very often, so you probably know it already

 

 

[Leaver]

8 hours ago, ThomasThBKK said:

Neither?

If you want english speaking westernized thinking people you are way better off in the philippines. 

 

Where did he say they needed to be English speaking?  

[davemos]

I have a condo in vn and the electricity is a little random .I would love if that was rectified .But a high rise without water and elevators is not good .Thailand has better internet too .

 

[PGSan]

You are selling digits? 

[jasonsamui55]

Been there and done exactly that in Thailand, Vietnam and Philippines. In the end, they’re all bad options. Don’t hire locals unless you want headaches. And dont open an office and bypass all the government BS. And don’t hire locals as even if you find the most fluent English speakers of the bunch, they won’t be as western thinking as you had hoped. Instead hire expats that are “living the dream” in Thailand and hire them as contractors. Pay them from your US company bank accounts to their personal bank accounts either in Thailand or, better, back in their home country bank accounts where, unless they are American, they are no longer tax resident.

Offer them a wage much higher than they otherwise could ever get in Thailand and that allows them to keep on living the dream. They get to earn a more than livable wage in Thailand. And you hire English speaking westerners who think like westerners for about half or less of what it would cost you to hire the same English speaking westerners back in their or your home countries. And you skip all the foreign office setup headaches and all the tax and visa headaches. Let each of them worry about their own visa problems. They’ll figure it out if they want to keep living the dream. And you come and go as often as you like and meet them in your rented house or villa or hotel conference room when you come to town. Everyone wins except the stupid governments who made it all so damned near impossible that nobody wants to deal with their BS. 

[Iron Tongue]

If you want industrious people, look to Ho Chi Minh City.

But you said you want people creative people who "understand the Western market."

 

You won't be finding anyone like that unless you pay close to Western market rates as highly skilled & travelled people generally will work for multinationals.  Even then, you'd have better luck in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan.

 

 

[kingstonkid]

Op contact the chamber of commerce here in Thailand.  They can hook you up with experts.  As to employing Thais there are a lot of them that have the knowledge but I would definitely higher an expat that has been here awhile to run it

[MarleyMarl]

I run a digital marketing agency in Bangkok and have been doing so for the last several years. It's a real challenge finding good staff and then retaining them. They all have to be trained also, and works have to be closely monitored for quality control.

 

If you are based here it's another story, but trying to do it remotely would be difficult. A number of my staff have master degrees and even then their English is not strong enough to create viable English marketing materials without proof reading/editing first. You have to remember Thailand has some of the worst English skills in all of Asia. Salaries have also increased quite a bit over the years.

I think it would be more cost effective to build a remote team on a freelancer platform, that way you don't have to form another company, you don't have high overheads (office, accounting, power), also as they would be contractors you don't have to worry about labor laws, so underperformers can be let go easily. If you wanted to live here, serve Thai clients, could be alright, but due to you having US clients, there is literately no benefit to forming a company and hiring people in Thailand in my opinion.

 

Anyway there you go, good luck with whatever you decide.