In Your View, What Is The Best Way Of Earning A Living L.o.s

[PattayaParent]

Due to the 'illegality' of YOU working as a cook in the kitchen, why not get your Thai missus to do the cooking courses, you could be there in the kitchen to supervise.

And while she's on the cooking course get yourself on a teaching course so that you've got something to do as well if money gets tight.

[cognos]

..I have a good idea, a real money maker.. but I am reluctant to share it with everyone...but i will give you idea number 2..

signed: on second thoughts.. thats how great ideas become no so great ideas

[garyh]

..I have a good idea, a real money maker.. but I am reluctant to share it with everyone...but i will give you idea number 2..

signed: on second thoughts.. thats how great ideas become no so great ideas

You can make money with number 2's?

[dttk0009]

A good philosophy is also to just get a job you love to do.

[sgunn65]

It is possible to make money here but you need a formula.

Do not rely on tourism.

Do not copy what other people are doing, there are enough english bars in Pattaya but there are no Ibiza style Cafe del mar type bars

Try to think outside the box. There are usually two reasons why something hasn't been done. One is that there is no demand the other is no-one has thought of it.

This is not ideal speculation. I have succeeded here. I came here with less than 3 million baht, sunk it all into a business that everyone told me I was mad to start. 2 years later it is a success and i have alot more than I started with plus I have a business that will continue to grow.

Good luck

[thaihome]

Get a job on an oil rig.

Get a job designing Oil Rigs from an office in Thailand ! Bugger that offshore <deleted>.

Or even better a petro-chem plant in Thailand. Takes much longer and you can visit the site during construction. Can last 4 years or so.

TH

[Nio]

It is very possible to start a business and survive in Thailand

1. Do a sound business plan before shelling out any cash or pay someone to do it for you. Better to lose a few bucks than a whole roll. The OP is another person that is destined for failure. Because they have an idea unsupported by facts or research. A business plan would probably prove to the OP that his idea would fail or not make a sufficient amount to survive.

2. Never borrow money. To survive in Thailand year after year, keep the business debt free. What this means is if you need something, you need to earn the cash through the business before spending the money. Spend money earned and no borrowing

3. Keep the overhead down. The lower the overhead the lower the amount you have to make to cover the business and stay in business. Rent is one area that kills people. People are always screaming location, location, location. But if your business is in the most expensive location, you can still not earn enough to survive. Find the lowest cost place you can successfully operate your business from.

4. Customer service. It is generally lacking in Thailand, however look around Buri Ram, Khon Kaen etc. at some of the farang businesses that have survived for years and you find good customer service, quality offerings, communication, friendship, fair prices and good value. Offering things like free wi-fi.

5. Look outside of Thailand for money. Meaning it is probably easy to make US $100 outside of Thailand than it is to make 3,300thb inside Thailand. You would have to sell 110 bowls of noodles at 30 thb each to make 3,300thb here in Thailand or you could make $100 mailing one gemstone at the post office through an EBay or online sale. The idea here is money can be made anywhere if you really try.

6. The best thing I have ever heard of is as follows and you either need to speak Thai or be with a gal that can present herself well. The idea is to visit factories, get price lists and catalogs and then you have a mountain of potential products you can buy without a middle man. Now you have the supply, go online and find buyers because there are always buyers around the world looking for factory direct pricing. At Christmas dinner this year, the topic came up of an Aussie here that was buying coolers from a little factory here in Thailand. No one at the factory could speak english and they had no other distribution except in Thailand. The Aussie was moving 8 to 12 containers per month of coolers to Australia and made a fortune.

7. Success is directly related to smart effort. The harder you work, the better the chances are of success. Maybe no one in Australia wanted coolers? No problem as your smart effort and factory visits yielded you 100 catalogs of things to sell. Now find a buyer. How hard you work at this determines your success.

Have you ever noticed that most people that own businesses and are surviving never tell anyone what there business is?

Granted if it is a restaurant or bar is one thing to get word of mouth going but you never hear what all the other people are doing?

Is it fear of the dreaded Thai Copy Cat Syndrome?

My last bit of advice is never let the naysayers tell you it is impossible

Space tourism will be a reality and as far as I am concerned that is a heck of a lot harder venture than making enough money to stay in Thailand

The question is, How Bad Do You Want to Live or Stay in Thailand? Where there is a will, there is a way

[dmax]

some good advice from people on here, so thanks, TOPIC CLOSED !

[eTiMaGo]

It is very possible to start a business and survive in Thailand

*snip*

The question is, How Bad Do You Want to Live or Stay in Thailand? Where there is a will, there is a way

Best post of the thread so far

[ricklev]

Maybe you can sell or rent your unused capital letters, apostrophes and all of the other punctuation and grammatical devices you eschew which my Mama taught me were gestures of politeness and kindness to the reader.

[GungaDin]

^^^^

[nasajsc]

a friend on mine did a laundry - with the added service of pickup and delivery - focus on

moobahns (villages), which have higher net worth individuals, offer 30 baht per kg to wash

clothes, plus charge 20-30 baht per delivery - saves them a trip and time...

have many laundry shops, but hardly any market, advertise to local westerners, or offer

delivery service - my friends does, and makes enough to live here.

[philliphn]

TEFL teach English.

[Neeranam]

Teach English. lol

Why's that funny? - it's a very good way to survive here - I did it for 13 years. Not enough cash if you have a family though.

[garyh]

Teach English. lol

Why's that funny? - it's a very good way to survive here - I did it for 13 years. Not enough cash if you have a family though.

Thats just it, it's a way to survive but not much more than that.

[ericthai]

Teach English. lol

Why's that funny? - it's a very good way to survive here - I did it for 13 years. Not enough cash if you have a family though.

Guess you have not read the thread, the guy has a family. Also he has a little cash and looking to start a small business or get a good job.

[bonobo]

Teach English. lol

Why's that funny? - it's a very good way to survive here - I did it for 13 years. Not enough cash if you have a family though.

Thats just it, it's a way to survive but not much more than that.

But it would be a way to stretch out the baht.  The advice on how to live with a 5 mil nest egg is pretty solid, but if you supplemented that with teaching, you could do the same thing with a smaller nest egg. 

And unless you are one of the few who make money in a bar, restaurant, whatever, then the small teacher's income is better than the 80,000 or 14 mil baht losses about which others have posted, and probably with less work.

[howmuch]

Don't know why people knock teaching, i earn 50,000 Baht a month for 20 hours a week plus 22,000 baht a month from sub letting my flat in England and im more than comfortable with that.

[IanForbes]

Join the police force and learn how to use the "tea" money. It's out there for the taking.

[MegaRanter]

dONT HANG OUT WITH PEOPLE FROM SAME COUNTRY OR BACKGROUND LIKE YOU, GO OUT, MEET OTHERS, SEE WHAT THEY DO, AND THINK HOW YOU CAN ADAPT THAT TO SUIT YOUR NEEDS.

I was about closing shop after trying for about a year, when a friend asked me to come give her second opinion about an item in a korean shop, being a super nice guy, I went with her, and from just one product in that shop, I made almost 2 million baht hassle free profit and then went on to do half a million monthly for the next three years, I had only 2 staff members, Gf was one.

Since then, my business has been about selling things for thai people in a third country at a commission, which i personally set. When Thai people trusts you they will mortgage their house and hand you the cash. Other peoples money runs my business.

So many little things we see everyday can make a great impact if you ever stopped to think. Meanwhile I have always had everything in life, except good women, come easy to me.

Get Yours!!

[eTiMaGo]

Join the police force and learn how to use the "tea" money. It's out there for the taking.

yes! and being farang, you can demand more... after all, we pay more for a lot of stuff, why not the other way around?

[Neeranam]

Don't know why people knock teaching, i earn 50,000 Baht a month for 20 hours a week plus 22,000 baht a month from sub letting my flat in England and im more than comfortable with that.

It's an ego thing. Working your ass off running a bar or other business 7 days a week makes one better than an English teacher.

My last English-teaching job was 50,000 a month also in Isarn for 3 days a week. It was bloody easy work too, just speaking to people.

[MyphuketLife]

If you're losing money, it's because you're doing something wrong, not because of Thailand. Money can be made anywhere, but you can also fail anywhere.

Lets be honest.... The ods are stacked against you here.

[dmax]

Don't know why people knock teaching, i earn 50,000 Baht a month for 20 hours a week plus 22,000 baht a month from sub letting my flat in England and im more than comfortable with that.

i have a beautifull house in khon kaen with no rent to pay, if i could earn 30-50000 thb a mth i would be more than happy, if i needed money for extras then i would dip into my 2 mill nest egg. i would like in the future to do a tefla course but i must go back to colledge here in uk and get my english grammar, language up to date.

[howmuch]

"It's an ego thing. Working your ass off running a bar or other business 7 days a week makes one better than an English teacher.

My last English-teaching job was 50,000 a month also in Isarn for 3 days a week. It was bloody easy work too, just speaking to people."

Yep, Start at 8, home by 3. loads of holidays, a month off in April (paid + air ticket home)

[Alwaysright]

Get a job on an oil rig.

Live here on retirement!!!

[thaibkk]

start a forum for expats and put lots of ads

[phuketrichard]

Rob a mini mart or small bank.

After all thai's think all farangs look alike :-)

[robblok]

You said you have 2 million baht.

My suggestion for a long life in Thailand if never interested in making a lot of money.

Start with 5 million baht.

put 480,000 baht in a savings account = 40k Baht a month living expenses for a year

Invest the remaining 4,520,000 baht in several medium risk mutual funds offshore. Your target is to make 10% profit each year. Each Jan take out the years expenses and re-evaluate your funds.

I would suggest to get a job for someone while in LOS for the first few years to supplement your investemnets and some down years. Granted you will probably not get a job amking a lot of money but you said your goal was to live in LOS not to get rich while living there.

This is risky but it is also very plausible. Use the time between now and when you reach the 5million baht goal and start learning about the lesser risky funds that you can sleep at night. Start doing research and learn the real basics for investing in buy and hold mutual funds. YOu are looking for a very reasonable return.

Only a suggestion

This is NAILED ON! great Advice.

Depends on age and how risk averse you are but this is HANDS DOWN the best advice I've seen here.

Wow great advise.. i worked for 5 years at a stock traders office and to be honest i seen loads of money get lost more then they "professionals made". So what chance does a novice have.

[Tonto21]

Hi Demax, Good luck with your plans, I hope all works out for you, whatever you do out here.

I would also like to say well done for getting this far though the topic without the Nerd police ragging on you for putting Falang and not Farang… I really mean it! Well done.