Any other ex-pats living here in Thailand conducting business as an Amazon FBA merchant, or contemplating it?

[WaveHunter]

There was a thread (pre-covid) about this on the forum that was pretty popular a few years ago, and I want to start it up again. 

 

As a "digital nomad", there are a lot of challenges to managing an FBA business from outside of your home country.  Just being able to connect to Seller Central with a Thailand IP address can get pretty challenging with all the new security measures for example.  There are a number of other issues that can be difficult to deal with; some that are financial, some that are logistical, and some that are legal.  In my experience, the ones I encountered were all able to be solved...with the help of other like-minded people sharing information, ideas, and advice.

 

When I first moved to Thailand in 2017 there were many other like minded digital nomad types living in Chiang Mai.  Many of them were Amazon merchants, and we were all a pretty close-knit community sharing information, strategies, and helping each other solve problems.  In the wake of COVID...not so much anymore.  I just think it would be nice to have that sort of community again.

 

Whether you're a seasoned seller, or just someone contemplating it for the first time, I think we could all benefit from an online community like this. If you're interested, let's chat about it here.  Perhaps we could set up a private thread or something like a facebook group, so that only like-minded and serious people could participate.

 

[Saphan]

Why would someone give away their sales secrets? Just kill their own business.

[CharlieH]

MOVED to Business

[Startmeup]

Interested to know what visa your on?

[WaveHunter]

2 hours ago, Startmeup said:

Interested to know what visa your on?

Irrelevant, from a legal standpoint, and from a business standpoint.  You can be on a tourists visa or a long stay visa and still conduct your own business back in your home country with your laptop.  You're not violating any local immigration regulations, and no, you do not need a work permit because you are not "working in Thailand", as in taking away any jobs from Thai Nationals.

[WaveHunter]

4 hours ago, Saphan said:

Why would someone give away their sales secrets? Just kill their own business.

Who's talking about giving away secrets?  Someone who is an entrepreneur doesn't need to work secretly in isolation.  In fact, I'd say it's a rare thing to get anywhere in business without interacting with others.

[WaveHunter]

4 hours ago, CharlieH said:

MOVED to Business

Sorry, I thought that was where I posted to...my mistake.

[Saphan]

2 minutes ago, WaveHunter said:

Who's talking about giving away secrets?  Someone who is an entrepreneur doesn't need to work secretly in isolation.  In fact, I'd say it's a rare thing to get anywhere in business without interacting with others.

Ebay businesses arent the same as a normal business.

[WaveHunter]

2 minutes ago, Saphan said:

Ebay businesses arent the same as a normal business.

Business is business.  You don't get very far trying to work in a vacuum..  You can keep certain things proprietary and still have give and take with your competition.  One hand washes the other, ya know?

[Saphan]

1 minute ago, WaveHunter said:

Business is business.  You don't get very far trying to work in a vacuum..  You can keep certain things proprietary and still have give and take with your competition.  One hand washes the other, ya know?

Successful people dont learn from people making 10x less. They learn from people making 10x more.

 

 

[CharlieH]

You can help without being competitors.

 

Sharing resources and ideas and tip n tricks whilst working in a foreign environment can be beneficial to many. Wish I had that when I started out instead of learning the hard way and making many mistakes and wasting alot of time and resources in the early days.

[WaveHunter]

21 hours ago, CharlieH said:

You can help without being competitors.

 

Sharing resources and ideas and tip n tricks whilst working in a foreign environment can be beneficial to many. Wish I had that when I started out instead of learning the hard way and making many mistakes and wasting alot of time and resources in the early days.

I totally agree!  When I lived in Chiang Mai back before Covid, there were so many "location-independent" entrepreneurs (I hate the term "digital nomad" LOL) and they all hung out at coworking spaces, the best of which was called Punspace.

 

I met a lot of FBA merchants there and it was really rare that one would not take the time to help someone out if they were stuck with a problem.  I learned a lot from many of them, and I think I was able to help a lot of them in return.

 

Chiang Mai attracted "digital Nomads" from all around the world when I first moved there from the States, and it was like a real close-knit community back then.  It wasn't all about business either.  He hung out together, we played together.  It was like it was back in my college days.  Everyone was highly competitive, but at the same time, highly supportive of each other.

 

That was one of the things that I really missed when I moved to Pattaya.  There are no co-working spaces like that down here, and I think I may be moving back there for that reason, among others...but in the meantime, it would be nice to have something like that online.