Lack of business sense

[garygooner]

I often walk around my neck of Bangkok.

I notice new shops, cafes, restaurants, beauty clinics, hair salons etc. 

I say to myself, that one won't be here this time next year, and I'm usually right.

I understand people like the idea of having their own business, but seriously ... the location is poor, not enough market, too much competition, prices too high, too many locals & not enough tourists. But, many people still want to try. 

[scubascuba3]

Usually their boyfriend/husband funds it, keeps them off the streets for a while

[Magictoad]

1 minute ago, scubascuba3 said:

Usually their boyfriend/husband funds it, keeps them off the streets for a while

" keeps them off the streets for a while"

[Jim Blue]

Whenever I see another  "Bobby 's Bar " I always wonder what happened to Bobby ?

[Cameroni]

1 hour ago, garygooner said:

I often walk around my neck of Bangkok.

I notice new shops, cafes, restaurants, beauty clinics, hair salons etc. 

I say to myself, that one won't be here this time next year, and I'm usually right.

I understand people like the idea of having their own business, but seriously ... the location is poor, not enough market, too much competition, prices too high, too many locals & not enough tourists. But, many people still want to try. 

 

Yes, a lot of people struggle to survive in Thailand. So they follow their skill, what they can do, they will try. Sometimes there's not a lot of business analysis behind it, they just throw their energy into their new project and hope for the best.

[BoganInParasite]

Have seen enough before and since COVID to say that 15-18 months is about the expected lifetime of the majority of these types of small businesses. I've got pretty good at predicting those that will not survive. You look at them and ask yourself what are they offering that will stand out in a saturated market, where will the customers come from...foot or motor vehicle, where is the parking, adequate signage, no website/Facebook, not on Google Maps or if they are, without the correct or any GMB categories.

[garygooner]

I saw the opening of a beauty clinic in a plaza/office building. The owners & staff were so excited. Friends arriving with gifts & flowers. Less than a year later it was gone. Same happened to a hair salon in the same building. Lack of customers & rent would have been high.

Another place was a sukiyaki kind of restaurant near where I live. The problem was it's a Thai area, there are many street vendors & a local market not far away. Thai people will usually pay just 40/50 baht. The sukiyaki style place lasted about a year. 

[jas007]

I sometimes feel sad when I see people opening business that are obviously doomed to failure.  

 

Wishful thinking? Stupidity?  Failure to do basic market research?  Or, maybe they just don't care and they want to run money through a business, with or without customers. 

 

 

[save the frogs]

it's not that easy to come up with an original business idea

it's not that easy to put in the hard work to keep a business running

some people are too greedy and the pricing is stupid

a lot of jobs suck or there are no jobs, so people are trying their luck

maybe borrowing from family ... 

 

 

[Harrisfan]

Cafe in Khon Kaen

Down an alley

Large expensive chairs

3 staff

Only us as customers

No food other than chips

 

No thought into the business

[Denim]

My first Thai wife was like this. In her tiny little mind she had the idea that as long as you had the goods and shakles that had the appearance of a business , you had a successful business. Learnt the hard way twice that you need to do research and be brutally honest.

[Colabamumbai]

Well when they need a calculator to figure your change, what would you expect? 

[scorecard]

On 4/25/2025 at 11:29 AM, garygooner said:

I often walk around my neck of Bangkok.

I notice new shops, cafes, restaurants, beauty clinics, hair salons etc. 

I say to myself, that one won't be here this time next year, and I'm usually right.

I understand people like the idea of having their own business, but seriously ... the location is poor, not enough market, too much competition, prices too high, too many locals & not enough tourists. But, many people still want to try. 

 

Correct. I've taught many / various business courses at bachelor and masters level at many unis here in Thailand, in Singapore, in Vietnam (in a joint program with a famous business uni from Melbourne), and in China.

 

Many times students have come to me as individuals or a a group asking me to review their business plans for a new venture and comment.

 

99% of the time I would study their business plan and say 'this will not be successful' and of course give a reason. The reasons quoted above (the location is poor, not enough market, too much competition, prices too high, too many locals & not enough tourists) all relevant and more. 

 

Many times it was obvious the students wanting to start the business were very disappointed with my comments so I sat them down with a whiteboard and write  the start of a graphic portraying the steps in the value / revenue / costs chain, then asked each student to come to the white board and complete each detail in the chain.

 

Again and again a 'roadblock' e.g. 'Why are we including electricity in the value / revenue / costs chain? We have to pay it anyway.'

 

So my response would often be: 'Imagine that you start a laundry service with a big customer / dirty laundry base, and it needs to have professional washing machines. But you don't pay the electric bill and your electric supply is cut. Can you continue the business? Will you make any profit? 

 

Then of course 'but never mind I'll ask my dad to pay the electric bill'. Then lots of 'no no, that's not fair, why should your dad pay the electric bill, he's not getting any profit.

 

By this stage most of the group are seeing that this is all wrong and they need to rethink many aspects of their business model or realize that it will never make a profit.  

[edwardflory]

My niece ( via marriage ) and her boyfriend had a fabulous idea to take over a restaurant for 100,000bt.

 

( I am the only farang in family of 6 siblings )

 

I ask the niece:

How much rent, 

How much utilities,

How old is equipment, what inventory is included

....she couldn't answer....

 

Ok, so I decided to go to the restaurant and count customers.

 

Located on a major soi, NO parking,

Walked passed ...5... other restaurants to get to shop.

From 11:30 to 13:30 ... 6 LUNCH TIME customers ( 2 were wife and me ) Our cost for our meal 120bt including 2 water bottles.

 

Need I say more?  I saw no future.

[NativeBob]

12 minutes ago, edwardflory said:

I am the only farang in family of 6 siblings

Respect! Which language do they speak with you?
[if I may ask]

[cdemundo]

6 hours ago, jas007 said:

I sometimes feel sad when I see people opening business that are obviously doomed to failure.  

 

Wishful thinking? Stupidity?  Failure to do basic market research?  Or, maybe they just don't care and they want to run money through a business, with or without customers. 

 

 

I used to see a failing Chinese restaurant in a little strip mall in LA  that was very near to a thriving Chinese restaurant.

The workers in the one that wasn't making it were often standing in the shop looking out the front windows hopefully, sadly, but seldom any customers.

I felt it was so sad to see them looking out and waiting for customers that didn't come.

 

[decca60]

It s not reserved to small individual businesses. Many times when I'm in front of a national chain store during the rush  hours, i mean huge ones  with huge assets in building, land,energy needs, inventory  etc... and the over staffing most of the time incompetent they have, and I'm considering the number of cars  of supposed customers) on the parking lot my first question is ; what the hell could be the profitability of such a business..

[NoshowJones]

19 hours ago, jas007 said:

I sometimes feel sad when I see people opening business that are obviously doomed to failure.  

 

Wishful thinking? Stupidity?  Failure to do basic market research?  Or, maybe they just don't care and they want to run money through a business, with or without customers. 

 

 

Just down from where I live someone had a new coffee shop built from scratch and is painted all in black, it looks like a funeral parlour. I knew it would not last, it lasted less than a week and that was months ago. The building now stands empty and is just an eyesore.

[CanadaSam]

So there are 10 customers for a weed shop in a particular neighborhood.

 

The owner is making a decent living off these 10 customers.

 

9 other weeds shops open on the same street / neighborhood, (seeing the first shop doing well).

 

Now, you have got 10 customers for 10 shops in the same area.

 

Everybody goes bankrupt.

 

That, in a nutshell, is Thai business sense, seen day in and day out, all over the country!

[garygooner]

There's also an ice-cream parlour not far from me in the mostly Thai area. Hardly any customers. There's a 7-11 across the street with much cheaper ice-cream. I'll be surprised if it's still around next year. 

[BRUFC]

I haven't been 'home' for some years but I understand that now some UK High Streets have many 'Turkish' Barber Shops, Nail Salons and Vape Shops..and the layman's suspicion is that, although they may actually do a little business, their main role is to launder money for various criminal activities. Secondly, and please put me straight if my thinking is wrong...is it possible that someone with a thriving business can perhaps start a duff business which loses money but can somehow put the losses against the successful business' tax liability?