Bus Attendant Killed After Falling Under Moving Bus at Prasat Station

[davejonesbkk]

When setting up a new company from scratch in Bangkok I was wondering what kind of time frame is usually needed from applying for the limited company to actually opening for business?

These are the steps that we would be taking:

Setup a limited company

Choose an office location

Post job advertisements (4-5 staff, IT and sales positions)

Furnish office and purchase computers

Conduct interviews

Open for business

I'd like to hear from other small business owners of their experiences. Have I missed anything from this list? Any possible snags or hold ups that we can expect?

[davejonesbkk]

Anyone?

[monty]

Actually most depends on yourself!

Setup a limited company

About 10 days can be done, including the company name reservation.

Choose an office location

Depends entirely on yourself. Look 1 hour a day and it might take weeks till you find the right place. Make a full time job out of it and you should be done in a week or so.

Post job advertisements (4-5 staff, IT and sales positions)

Again, posting in newspapers takes a while, but going to schools/universities which have a job placement department might have you staffed quickly. Also depends how good you are networked. A lot of the staff get/change jobs through word of mouth. This is probably the most difficult to put a time frame on.

Furnish office and purchase computers.

Go into shop, order, same or next day delivery!

Conduct interviews

All depends, same as looking for the staff

Open for business

Depends, do you have customers/jobs lined up...

My guess if you set the wheels in motion for forming the company, by the time it's registered and you have the paperwork, much should be accomplished. You have confirmation of your company name about 3 business days after doing the name reservation.

[quiksilva]

Setting up the firm can be done in a month (or less if you have all your ducks in a row)

Finding the ideal location can take one day to 2 months depending on your requirements, and can be done parallel with the establishment of the firm providing you have an alternative temporary registered address (like say your lawyer's office).

Negotiating business and lease terms again can take one day to a month or two (I have had governments and major MNC's take well over a year to negotiate terms), again it all depends on you.

Furnishing the office depends on the size of the space, what condition its in once you receive it and what you intend to do with it. For firms less than 100 sqm its fairly safe to assume no more than a month. (General considerations: Is the space being delivered with or without internal partitions, is there furniture, a reception desk etc ?)

Recruiting staff again can be done in parallel with the above steps. (Although recruitment is THE bugbear for many organisations in the service industry!)

So all in, if determined, I'd say it could be done about 2-3 months, perhaps less. However it very much depends on you (or your firm's decision making process), the size of the office and what has to be done.

If needs be you could always get a temporary office for a month before your main premises are ready.

Edited May 27, 2009 by quiksilva

[WarpSpeed]

When setting up a new company from scratch in Bangkok I was wondering what kind of time frame is usually needed from applying for the limited company to actually opening for business?

These are the steps that we would be taking:

Setup a limited company

Choose an office location

Post job advertisements (4-5 staff, IT and sales positions)

Furnish office and purchase computers

Conduct interviews

Open for business

I'd like to hear from other small business owners of their experiences. Have I missed anything from this list? Any possible snags or hold ups that we can expect?

Phone lines, phone number and Internet service?? Could be tricky and time consuming depending on business location.. Be sure to ask!!

[Valjean]

Setup a limited company

This is easy and takes about a month with a good law firm. I'm sure it could be done faster but there's paperwork and going back and forth.

I use, and continue to use, Seri Manop and am very happy. They might be a few thousand more at the onset but I've used the smaller budget firms focused on farangs and you can and should do better. There is paperwork everywhere and just go with the flow. Much in Thai so you need to be sure you have good people as you sign away.

Choose an office location

Like above depends. The best thing is to know your area and what type of office you are looking for and drive up and down every street with someone who speaks Thai. Motorcycle is best. Just stop and ask and look for signs.

I did the Regis in All Seasons for a few months and that's great if you want to move in today. Furnished, internet - ready to go. 10 sq meters $30,000. They will give discounts - ask. Not a bad option if you want to get going and have a place to work while you're doing all this. I btw got a 3 floor double wide shophouse - about 96 sq.meter per floor for 30,000. Nice building and area. About 200,000 for air con and fix up (open plan). More space than we need but many office buildings were that much for 25% and less space.

Post job advertisements (4-5 staff, IT and sales positions)

I've had good luck with Jobs DB. Many people are going to give 1 months notice and while I hate to wait for a good person I also note they will give me this consideration sometime.

Furnish office and purchase computers

Fast - I went with a quality desk system from Rockworth and that was about 2 weeks order to installation. I just "cash and carry" all my PCs from IT City. Server from Dell was a week or so.

Conduct interviews

I've done dozens of interviews the past 8 months to build a current team of 8 - mostly web-related. This takes time - be picky! From placing the ad in Jobs DB - I'd say a week or two to have a good selection of resumes. For standard IT jobs you should have 20-30 to chose from. You can also search their database and contact people - I send a message to everyone that fits. After that 1-2 weeks I'd say 2 weeks to interview. So if things go fast and you make it a priority - it could be 2 weeks and could be 4 before you have someone you'd hire.

Note on scheduling interviews and hiring.

A lot of candidates never show up. At first I'd respond to their resume by mail, offer an interview and if interested schedule. This is unproductive. Now I have my Thai manager call everyone we're interested in and set things up. Still I'd say 20% to 30% no show.

If you can get 1-2 very qualified people (Thai) who are your rocks in terms of skills, experience, English level and trust, then if possible hire young. Bright out of school with perhaps a few years of work have been in my experince good. The suggestion for the universities is good - they just finished school and many on the market. Keep in mind English levels will vary, you'll likely need your "rock" to help communicate.

One observation from managing here for 4 years; in a multi-national with a team of 20-25 and in my own company. This is a generalization but for that rock above all things being equal I’d hire a woman over 30. Likely she’s single and has lived overseas for school or work. For the younger junior man or woman doesn’t matter a lot but I’d tilt to the young guys. I shared this with my Thai wife just yesterday and she agreed 100%. Her view is the young gals are still shy while the guys are more go-getter. Over time the women get tougher and the guys get settled into their groove. Or to her words “lazy” but frankly that’s not quite it, many work very hard but in their settle way – hard to explain but now I’ve experienced a lot. The strong, experienced woman can help you a lot with the team – what’s going on, cracking the whip and telling you how it is. Of course generalizations based on age and sex are dangerous, often wrong and unfair at the individual level but there you have it for what it is worth.

Lastly if you don’t have experience working with Thai’s read every book you can on managing Thai’s, Thai culture and relationships. It’s different. I don’t find it a problem – just very different at times.

Edited May 31, 2009 by Valjean