Setting Up A Small Family Business

[Mrbiggus]

Hi I’m new to this game so if I sound naive (well that’s because I am).

I’m thinking of setting up a small 3D Computer Animation Training Centre in Bangkok.

Something like 5-8 machines so taking on 7 students a week for 3500 baht each doing short one week courses; Beginners, Medium and Advance. I’ll do the talking and showing in English and my wife who is Thai shall do the translation.

Am I on to a winner?

Would a young Thai guy be interested and be able to fork out the dosh or am I asking too much?

I’ve been training in 3D software for 6-7 years.

All remarks appreciated

Edited June 30, 2005 by penzman

[~G~]

Hi I’m new to this game so if I sound naive (well that’s because I am).

I’m thinking of setting up a small 3D Computer Animation Training Centre in Bangkok.

Something like 5-8 machines so taking on 7 students a week for 3500 baht each doing short one week courses; Beginners, Medium and Advance. I’ll do the talking and showing in English and my wife who is Thai shall do the translation.

Am I on to a winner?

Would a young Thai guy be interested and be able to fork out the dosh or am I asking too much?

I’ve been training in 3D software for 6-7 years.

All remarks appreciated

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Did you consider advetisement expenses? Take "NetDesign" for example - a school for web design - they advertise EVERYWHERE - in most Thai internet sites, in the skytrain, they hand leaflets - their advertisment expenses are huge. And their courses are long - In the best case all of your students will do 3 weeks - meaning that every 3 weeks you need to find NEW students. How do you plan to do that?

You/your company has no reputation in Thailand - ask yourself whether you are willing to operate it if you'd be able to do only a course a month or every 2 months in the first year.

[Upcountry]

You'll be mixing it up with Thai animation companies. Animation is a government "sponsored", or encouraged, industry here, so you should keep that level of competition in mind as well.

I'd think very carefully before jumping into computer animation in Thailand. Be sure you have something unique to offer and that you can get strong support from Thais who will need to be part of your business.

I'm not an expert, but this is what I've gathered from reading the news and other thaivisa forum threads about starting businesses here.

[Mrbiggus]

“Be sure you have something unique to offer and that you can get strong support from Thais who will need to be part of your business”

I fully agree, and it is this that I fully need ‘support from the locals’ who inevitably will be running the business after my training.

From what I can see 3D seems to be relatively new in Thailand. All the learning/training web sites and CD/DVD are in English.

So if you are Thai and can’t understand things in English that much then terms like ‘deformer attribute editor’ will really stop you from doing having a go.

My approach is to give these guys a chance to see if they really like it.

I’ll be on a sort of a mission to get things moving.

Then if all goes well in maybe two years a proper structured course which maybe helped by the government can be setup.

The initial idea is for the people who are interested to be given some proper training.

In the USA these courses are $1000 a week admittedly my course would not be that intense but pretty packed.

[Dr. Burrito]

I can tell you from first hand experience, it is very, very difficult. If you want to PM me, we can talk over a beer.

[Heng]

2 centavos:

Own your location and you'll do okay, cutting out much of your overhead, especially in a service business.

Rent your location and you're rolling the dice (especially if your biz has a low barrier to entry, as the locals will soon be doing what you're doing, but cheaper).

[samran]

just remember a decent salary is about 12-15000 per month if in the private sector, depending on where you are, and for a civil servant, about 7000 to 9000 per month.

So 3K for a course is relatively alot.

[Thai_dye]

I'm Thai and have taken some computer courses at Hyper Media and Netdesign. 3k is quite a reasonable price and affordable (assume, your training experience can give the best knowledge to your students)

The first course I took in 1996 was Adobe Photoshop on OS and the fee was 5k something.

Flash action script course taken 2 months ago at Netdesign cost 6,800 baht.

I hope this info will you some idea.

Cheers,

EF

ps. I used to teach graphic at Pantip Plaza. Feel free to contact me if you need assistance.