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[Loaded]

If the wife is uneducated, it's highly unlikely she will be accepted as a franchisee of 7/11. Asia Technology vocational college runs a 1-year diploma course to train 7/11 employees, so to expect an ex-sex worker or poor village girl to have the relevant ability, skills and experience to make her capable of running and controlling this type of business is not realistic.

[fcgprg]

If you need to ask the economics of it all .It is not for you keep your money in the bank.

[uptheos]

If the wife is uneducated, it's highly unlikely she will be accepted as a franchisee of 7/11. Asia Technology vocational college runs a 1-year diploma course to train 7/11 employees, so to expect an ex-sex worker or poor village girl to have the relevant ability, skills and experience to make her capable of running and controlling this type of business is not realistic.

Not even if she has tears in her eyes, whilst rubbing your leg (or other body part) and telling you that you're the most wonderful person in the world?

[Loaded]

If the wife is uneducated, it's highly unlikely she will be accepted as a franchisee of 7/11. Asia Technology vocational college runs a 1-year diploma course to train 7/11 employees, so to expect an ex-sex worker or poor village girl to have the relevant ability, skills and experience to make her capable of running and controlling this type of business is not realistic.

Not even if she has tears in her eyes, whilst rubbing your leg (or other body part) and telling you that you're the most wonderful person in the world?

They have an advantage when it comes to putting hotdogs in buns.

[uptheos]

If the wife is uneducated, it's highly unlikely she will be accepted as a franchisee of 7/11. Asia Technology vocational college runs a 1-year diploma course to train 7/11 employees, so to expect an ex-sex worker or poor village girl to have the relevant ability, skills and experience to make her capable of running and controlling this type of business is not realistic.

Not even if she has tears in her eyes, whilst rubbing your leg (or other body part) and telling you that you're the most wonderful person in the world?

They have an advantage when it comes to putting hotdogs in buns.

Excellent

[wolf5370]

Heard similar stories many times over - between credit and her friends/family who didn't want credit - they just didn't want to pay, ever.

A lack of understanding that money received is not 'profit' - that stock costs money too

It's usually a case of "you buy the stock and I'll keep the takings"........not really a sound investment.

I'm never quite sure why people need to buy things like this 'to keep the wife busy'.......how about housekeeping, cooking, gardening a hobby, taking a course or volunteering somewhere.......or heaven forbid a little job.

Weren't these wives busy before meeting a farang?........ Nuff said

I send mine off to work in the UK on contracts (she's a UK trained private nurse)

[uptheos]

Weren't these wives busy before meeting a farang?........ Nuff said

I send mine off to work in the UK on contracts (she's a UK trained private nurse)

Good for her wolf, nice to see her doing something worthwhile and bringing in an income.

I'm referring to these lazy 'pseudo princesses' who once they meet a farang, their legs are unable to sustain them anymore and have to retire to the couch, unless of course it's a trip to the bank or gold shop.Foreigners have this wacky notion that these lazy sods need something to keep them busy, when they are as happy as a pig in sh1t and content laying around in pajamas all day watching soaps or on their iPhones. Of course if it's pushed the idea of a shop or bar usually comes up, where they can move from the couch to a chair or stool with a calculator, whilst hubby goes out and replenishes stock. Financial disaster usually follows.

They never say "I will get a job dear" - because they have no work experience (well maybe a little ). And hubby doesn't want them returning to the job he 'rescued' her from.

Edited July 10, 2011 by uptheos

[ThaiSold]

A mini mart type of shop is going to net peanuts per month unless you own and manage a bunch of them, you can open a 7 eleven for about a million baht, but your oging to need to own several of them to make a good income.

[afarang]

A mini mart type of shop is going to net peanuts per month unless you own and manage a bunch of them, you can open a 7 eleven for about a million baht, but your oging to need to own several of them to make a good income.

Rubbish. We have a mini-mart shop in Nikkom (a little "town"), Southern Buriram ,near Cambodia. She makes heaps. So much so, she has just demolished her shop and is rebuilding a new 2 storey building, Purpose built as a new shop. With huge living quarters upstairs.She runs ONE shop only.

[trainman34014]

A mini mart type of shop is going to net peanuts per month unless you own and manage a bunch of them, you can open a 7 eleven for about a million baht, but your oging to need to own several of them to make a good income.

Rubbish. We have a mini-mart shop in Nikkom (a little "town"), Southern Buriram ,near Cambodia. She makes heaps. So much so, she has just demolished her shop and is rebuilding a new 2 storey building, Purpose built as a new shop. With huge living quarters upstairs.She runs ONE shop only.

And there you have it. Not all business ventures end up failing if they are managed properly and the woman in the venture has just at least a little grey matter between her ears. I would suggest location has a lot to do with success or failure but if you own a successful Mini-Mart in a good area you better watch out for Tesco Express or 7-eleven moving in very close and screwing your venture.

[scorecard]

Take the time, do the research about what sells.

Take the time, visit lots of mini marts in the same and several similar villages and observe / note as best you can, ask silly questions to the owners/operators, about what sells and what stock has been on the shelves for a long time (no movement in 7 days is a long time).

Think seriously about operating costs and how they could be kept within acceptable limits. Electricity is one example, but don't skimp.

If there will be perishable products plan carefully to ensure minimum to zero wastage.

If there is lots of competition, think whether you want to have one or two loss leaders to get people through the door.

Global research (done again and again) produces the same numbers: 80 - 85% of new businesses fail in the first 3 to 6 months, the reasons for failure are numerous but the points I've mentioned above are key.

Best of luck.

[scorecard]

7-11 Franchise is pretty expensive; they also arrange quite a bit for that of course. I believe that's around 1.5 million.

For your own shop it's just the shelves and fridges inside, your inventory, and any cost in purchasing and transportation. You can do a good estimate by just plugging it all into Excel, that should give you a rough idea based on how fancy you want the shop to be. 500K should probably go a long way.

It's a typical 'piece of string' question though. You can basically spend what you want.

Best approach: Let the Mrs. plug it all into Excel. If she doesn't have a clue what to spend then she shouldn't be running a business.

Can I pick up on a couple of your points:

- The 7/11 ultimate global owners (CP is the Thailand master franchise holder) strongly reinforce location as critical to success.

You may know that CP (when they are not 100% convinced about the location of a new mart), often rent a premises for 3 to 6 months and do a quick/ cheap but pretty good 'tart up' job of the premises, then if the location proves good, they go to a long-term rental lease, quickly gut the premises and quickly rebuild the interior with quality work and fittings, etc.

- CP 7/11 give a lot of good training and spend a lot of time with francise holders to ensure there is a good chance of success.

- CP 7/11 are very strict about total 100% compliance with the franchise agreement, they need to be, because they are at rick of losing the master franchise for Thailand, and once gone they wil never ever get it back. Plus 7/11 global know well that there are many other Thai operators who could quickly step into the master franchise.

Lesson - A 7/11 franchise could be the 'discipline' factor which could well be the key to success

[scorecard]

A mini mart type of shop is going to net peanuts per month unless you own and manage a bunch of them, you can open a 7 eleven for about a million baht, but your oging to need to own several of them to make a good income.

Rubbish. We have a mini-mart shop in Nikkom (a little "town"), Southern Buriram ,near Cambodia. She makes heaps. So much so, she has just demolished her shop and is rebuilding a new 2 storey building, Purpose built as a new shop. With huge living quarters upstairs.She runs ONE shop only.

And there you have it. Not all business ventures end up failing if they are managed properly and the woman in the venture has just at least a little grey matter between her ears. I would suggest location has a lot to do with success or failure but if you own a successful Mini-Mart in a good area you better watch out for Tesco Express or 7-eleven moving in very close and screwing your venture.

Good point, 7/11 are continuously exploring good locations right across Thailand and they are good at exploring.

[afarang]

Then they goofed up in Nikkom .It is not a 7/11, it is a family mart.And is very successful

[Dellboy218]

7-11 Franchise is pretty expensive; they also arrange quite a bit for that of course. I believe that's around 1.5 million.

For your own shop it's just the shelves and fridges inside, your inventory, and any cost in purchasing and transportation. You can do a good estimate by just plugging it all into Excel, that should give you a rough idea based on how fancy you want the shop to be. 500K should probably go a long way.

It's a typical 'piece of string' question though. You can basically spend what you want.

Best approach: Let the Mrs. plug it all into Excel. If she doesn't have a clue what to spend then she shouldn't be running a business.

Can I pick up on a couple of your points:

- The 7/11 ultimate global owners (CP is the Thailand master franchise holder) strongly reinforce location as critical to success.

You may know that CP (when they are not 100% convinced about the location of a new mart), often rent a premises for 3 to 6 months and do a quick/ cheap but pretty good 'tart up' job of the premises, then if the location proves good, they go to a long-term rental lease, quickly gut the premises and quickly rebuild the interior with quality work and fittings, etc.

- CP 7/11 give a lot of good training and spend a lot of time with francise holders to ensure there is a good chance of success.

- CP 7/11 are very strict about total 100% compliance with the franchise agreement, they need to be, because they are at rick of losing the master franchise for Thailand, and once gone they wil never ever get it back. Plus 7/11 global know well that there are many other Thai operators who could quickly step into the master franchise.

Lesson - A 7/11 franchise could be the 'discipline' factor which could well be the key to success

I would like to make clear that this post, attributed to me, did not in fact come from me. Please be careful when you reply to posts and edit the content!

[grin]

Here's another small shop success story. My wife has a friend from north of Chiang Mai whose older sister has had a small shop for about 10 years. She started with a shed-like structure attached to the front of her house and a used pickup truck. She now has a new house and a new car for which she paid cash. She also employs 4 younger sisters and a brother. She used to drive down to Chiang Mai once a week to buy stuff at Makro. The brother now is sent down two or three times a week to fill up the pickup. She emails lists to the sister in Chiang Mai for all of the stuff that they don't buy at Makro. The sister buys all of that and has it ready so that when the brother comes down he only has to stop at her house and at Makro. Last but not least the store has enabled her to leave her deadbeat husband.

I think one of the things that makes her successful is that she takes orders from customers for specialty items that they don't sell at Makro. She even keeps small amounts of some of these items in stock. This seems to me to be a good service as it saves people a trip into Chiang Mai. If you have a small shop in a remote area this might be a nice value added service.

[afarang]

Here's another small shop success story. My wife has a friend from north of Chiang Mai whose older sister has had a small shop for about 10 years. She started with a shed-like structure attached to the front of her house and a used pickup truck. She now has a new house and a new car for which she paid cash. She also employs 4 younger sisters and a brother. She used to drive down to Chiang Mai once a week to buy stuff at Makro. The brother now is sent down two or three times a week to fill up the pickup. She emails lists to the sister in Chiang Mai for all of the stuff that they don't buy at Makro. The sister buys all of that and has it ready so that when the brother comes down he only has to stop at her house and at Makro. Last but not least the store has enabled her to leave her deadbeat husband.

I think one of the things that makes her successful is that she takes orders from customers for specialty items that they don't sell at Makro. She even keeps small amounts of some of these items in stock. This seems to me to be a good service as it saves people a trip into Chiang Mai. If you have a small shop in a remote area this might be a nice value added service.

Nice one. That will stuff up a few farang.!!!!

[wolf5370]

Same with any business venture - if you don't put in the time or effort then it will fail - its a very rare business that runs itself (at least from day 1). Owners have to be committed and have something (at least) over the competition (be it location, price, friendlies, special services, availability, opening hours, credit card acceptance, ATM in the wall, etc).

My sister-in-law inherited as cafe - only a small place, but in a good busy location - it was already doing well. She could cook OK and at first things went well - however within a couple of months she started closing earlier and earlier until she was closing at 6pm before the commuter evening rush - then she started missing the early mornings too. However, lunch time still kept the business afloat. Then she cut the menu down to just a few dishes and started closing for a week here and a week there for trips with her new boy friend (who started working with her). Often the drink fridge would be empty and dishes were sold out (no stock). In the end she had to sell it as she could not afford the rent any more - she went down from 30k profit a month to less than zero (had to start skimping on stock). Some people are just not willing to put in any effort - she paid nothing for the business and run it into the ground in less than a year with lack of commitment. Now she is unemployed.

[OlafStapleton]

Here's another small shop success story. My wife has a friend from north of Chiang Mai whose older sister has had a small shop for about 10 years. She started with a shed-like structure attached to the front of her house and a used pickup truck. She now has a new house and a new car for which she paid cash. She also employs 4 younger sisters and a brother. She used to drive down to Chiang Mai once a week to buy stuff at Makro. The brother now is sent down two or three times a week to fill up the pickup. She emails lists to the sister in Chiang Mai for all of the stuff that they don't buy at Makro. The sister buys all of that and has it ready so that when the brother comes down he only has to stop at her house and at Makro. Last but not least the store has enabled her to leave her deadbeat husband.

I think one of the things that makes her successful is that she takes orders from customers for specialty items that they don't sell at Makro. She even keeps small amounts of some of these items in stock. This seems to me to be a good service as it saves people a trip into Chiang Mai. If you have a small shop in a remote area this might be a nice value added service.

Now give example of success when white man bankroll Thai woman!

[afarang]

Certainly. A Pommie friend of mine provided the seed capital for his wife, to start trading in rubber. First her own farm. now making good money producing sheet.paying her tappers daily. Second , she buys Latex from other small scale rubber farmers, turns it into sheet.For both ,she has her own drying sheds(built by him).Sells sheet , makes very good profit. In the non-tapping season, does some paddy trading. A nice little earner. Runs a pickup ,with a driver, pays her daily,too.She is a WORKER.