Want To Move To Thailand/open Bar

[davethailand]

Key money is a term for buying the lease contract, then you pay rent.

Girls salaries depend on the bars.

If I were you i'd make no plans until your back in LOS and have looked around and found out all the pro's and con's.

A standard beer bar probably won't make you any money.

[dannishgung]

Boy Canada you should save your 5 million. It will be gone in no time if you want to do bar business in Thailand. Sounds like you still very newbie to this tricky country. Just believe us, you most likely will be going home empty handed if you pour your money into the night biz.

Put your money in some good mutual funds or bonds and use the interests and dividents and have a good time in Thailand just like me and many other people. Get a one year multiple visa and just enjoy it. Thailand is not a place for some foreigner to do some little individual investment and hope to flourish. This is still a very backward 3rd world country not only in living standard and wealth but also in term of people's basic mentality, consciouness, knowledge, education, ect ect and the you will run into lots of problems that you never will dream of. So boy Canada, do lots of research before you invest in anything in any third world countries. Lots of people have already learn tough lessons.

[davethailand]

Boy Canada you should save your 5 million. It will be gone in no time if you want to do bar business in Thailand. Sounds like you still very newbie to this tricky country. Just believe us, you most likely will be going home empty handed if you pour your money into the night biz.

Put your money in some good mutual funds or bonds and use the interests and dividents and have a good time in Thailand just like me and many other people. Get a one year multiple visa and just enjoy it. Thailand is not a place for some foreigner to do some little individual investment and hope to flourish. This is still a very backward 3rd world country not only in living standard and wealth but also in term of people's basic mentality, consciouness, knowledge, education, ect ect and the you will run into lots of problems that you never will dream of. So boy Canada, do lots of research before you invest in anything in any third world countries. Lots of people have already learn tough lessons.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wise words

[srampersaud1]

Can you live well in thailand off of 56000bht /mth?

[davethailand]

Can you live well in thailand off of 56000bht /mth?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

You could live but at a limit Depends on your spending of course.

Where did you get this figure from?

[srampersaud1]

This is my residual profit/mth off of my rental properties in Canada.

[srampersaud1]

Do you think there is good money to be made opening a tour shop for a perfect english speaking person? ex selling tour packages and flights etc

[Leo_Moscow]

Boy Canada you should save your 5 million. It will be gone in no time if you want to do bar business in Thailand. Sounds like you still very newbie to this tricky country. Just believe us, you most likely will be going home empty handed if you pour your money into the night biz.

Put your money in some good mutual funds or bonds and use the interests and dividents and have a good time in Thailand just like me and many other people. Get a one year multiple visa and just enjoy it. Thailand is not a place for some foreigner to do some little individual investment and hope to flourish. This is still a very backward 3rd world country not only in living standard and wealth but also in term of people's basic mentality, consciouness, knowledge, education, ect ect and the you will run into lots of problems that you never will dream of. So boy Canada, do lots of research before you invest in anything in any third world countries. Lots of people have already learn tough lessons.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Hello to everyone, one question - what are high and low figures for Thai funds and bonds? Are they permited work bank-to-bank for foreigners/non residents?

Edited November 23, 2005 by Leo_Moscow

[johnnyk]

Can you live well in thailand off of 56000bht /mth?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, but not in BKK, Phuket or Samui.

Nong Khai, Khon Kaen yes.

Chiang Mai I think so but CM hands know the answer to that.

Forget the bar fantasy, you will get cleaned out.

Many bar woners on www.pattayatalk.com check them out for their advice/experiences and listen to davethailand on this board.

[surin]

Can you live well in thailand off of 56000bht /mth?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, not Bangkok though....forget about being tied to a bar that's losing money fast and from what most of us on this forum know who have a greater knowledge of Thailand than you....Take notice please!

[The Dude]

Hey Canadian dude, you ever consider teaching some English?

[dr_Pat_Pong]

Have not got a bar lined up yet still doing research on what and where. They try to sell you the key for a fee then they charge you monthly rental. The ladies I believe work for free unless they are drop dead gorgeous. Do you know if I would have to pay police or mafia someone mentioned that to me in a conversation.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

' the ladies work for free ' A rude shock cometh

[snoophound]

Spend Half a mill baht and live there for 6 mths

It could save you 5m

yes

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[RamdomChances]

Spend Half a mill baht and live there for 6 mths

It could save you 5m

yes

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thats pretty good advice IMO. If you've got 5 mill in cash, just come over, rent an apartment and get to know the place for 6 months. Look at lots of buisinesses and try and stay through the low season to get a good idea what they are like then. Learn to walk before you run.

Dont rush take your time you have some money and some income from back home get to know the area well, also 6 months you will have a good idea how much you need to make to live here.

RC

[Sunbelt Asia]

I have seen people make over a million dollars owning a bar and on the other hand, other owners were not successful at all, and lost it all.

What separates the failures and success?

A lot depends on the owners personality ( or hiring a good manager who is outgoing) and knowledge of owning a bar on how to avoid being cheated. ( Bartenders buying Johnny Walker and selling their bottle rather than yours, the maid sneaking bottles out in the garbage, Having six cash registers at the bar when you only bought and own 5 cash registers, etc, etc.

The biggest mistake you can make is having your girlfriend involved in the bar or shareholding. I have NEVER seen one case where that worked out. NEVER and believe me I have seen hundreds of cases. Girlfriend getting drunk being in the bar, taking the money out of the cash register, running tabs for her girlfriends and family for free all night, wanting the bar when the relationship fell apart, etc. All nightmare stories. Just do yourself a favor and keep her out of the business. If you don’t I put the odds at 100% of failing and it’s not nothing about your girlfriend. It simply won’t work. Your girlfriend will hate me for telling you this but maybe just maybe we save you from destruction. Love her, cherish her but keep her out of your business, if you own a bar!

Whatever you do, have a good lawyer so you have protection by having more voting rights and you control your investment.

The first step is to get a non immigrant visa. As you are looking to invest in Thailand, our firm can help you with that.

Then come to Thailand, do your due diligence and take your time till you are 100% sure.

Do you think there is good money to be made opening a tour shop for a perfect english speaking person? ex selling tour packages and flights etc

In my opinion, too much competition with brick and mortar. Online is where its at.

www.sunbeltasia.com

www.lawyer.th.com

[thebream]

all sounds good to me also young lad from canada. i am looking serious myself at similar. bars soi eric about 500000 baht, but u wont make anything unless something new and spectacular.

life great in thai, phuket sensational also but be wary. i have spent 3 years just looking and looking. havent spent yet.

best advice i can give is seek out venture where u sell to farang and not local and bear in mind the two tiered price systems.

sxxt. this is going nowhere. tooooooooo much to tell. i leave it to those with more experience.

good luck son

[WhiteShiva]

I suggest you read carefully the advise given in this thread. Then go to Phuket and spend every night in the bar (and taht bar only) from it opens in the daytime until it shuts. 7 days a week, for six months.

If, after six months, you still think it is a great way to make a living, go ahead.

Personally, I perfer to go to bars on my free time.

Come to think of it, what do bar owners do during their free time - visit offices?

WS

[Noel]

I am a 25 yr old male wanting to move to Thailand to open a bar. I have 5 million Baht in the bank.

<snip>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I believe the best advice has already been given above by several posters in advising you to take your time: come over for at least six months and do your due diligence.

I know the last thing you want to hear is the standard patter including the classic line: “The only way to end up with a small fortune in Thailand is to come with a bloody big one” that is trotted out with predictable regularity, so I will try and be positive and I apologize in advance if I come across as largely negative.

I actually doubt that your main motivator is to make a fortune of whatever size; I suspect that at the moment all you want to do is be able to live in LOS whilst not depleting your disposable cash. In other words, you may be thinking in terms of risking your 5 million in terms of some form of investment but you want that money to make a return sufficient to live on comfortably whilst leaving the capital intact and realisable should circumstances dictate.

I could be wrong about that, but bear with me.

So many people sit in bars on the paying side of the counter when they are on holiday and almost inevitably fall in love with not only a girl who is ‘different’, but also with many facets of the Thailand they perceive.

A well run bar looks effortless, but rest assured there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes that you may never have even considered.

Also, ask any bar owner how he is doing: few will tell you they are only existing thanks to private income streams. The majority will go into autobull mode and trot out standard lines to make out they are having a whale of a time and the money is rolling in. They will always have an answer as to why the bar looks as though it is dead.

There are of course exceptions and some ‘owners’ do very well, but if the truth be told the majority barely scrape by and might well find their time is only worth a few baht per hour if they bothered to work it out.

A successful bar owner has to have something over his competition. It can be the location of the bar, quality and attitude of the girls inclined to work horizontally, calibre of ‘vertical only’ staff, type of entertainment offered, food menu, the owner’s personality and so on. Most often the success formula will be a combination of many of these factors amongst others.

With smaller successful operations, the ‘owner’ typically is the bar. Customers will return largely because not only do they like the bar, they get to rub shoulders with the ’boss’ (particularly important with expat clientele). One point to bear in mind is that you as ‘the boss’ may have to put up with punters who could bore to Olympic standard and you may find yourself trapped in their company for hours on end as you wish you could go and watch paint dry as an escape.

There are also the times where there is not a customer to be seen: you can only read the daily paper so many times or watch television for so long…

Recruiting and keeping good staff is another key area, as is controlling them. I can assure you that many girls who only have a minimal education can be as cunning and devious as shithouse rats when it comes to finding ways to rob their employer and/or cheat customers or their colleagues, however good the systems and financial controls in place are. The best any owner can hope to achieve, in my opinion, is to keep ‘leakage’ down to an ‘acceptable’ level.

The above only scratches the surface of what is involved: we are talking minefield territory.

That brings me on to running a bar with your girlfriend as your business partner. I am not sure where to begin on that scenario so suffice it to say, a recipe for disaster is a phrase that springs to mind.

Whatever you end up doing, I wish you well but before you decide what that might be, please do take an absolute minimum of six months living in the area in which you plan to operate before you decide to ‘invest’ in any form of business.

[TAWP]

In the end...his income of 56K TBH/month from back home might give him a better life then spending all of his savings on a bar and working all days...

Besides, don't listen to hard to some of the fellows above regarding that you cannot survive with 56K TBH/month in Bangkok. Sure you can. it all depends on how you want to live. A big house, 2 cars, maid? Well, then it get's harder...

Bring your monthly income over for a long holiday and feel the place out. It's _completely_ different staying here for 3 weeks in a fancy hotel and living and working here...so don't go all 'holiday' on your long stay either.

It might look like the paradise, but it isn't.

[srampersaud1]

Thanks for the advice, I think I will do that first.

[The Dude]

56K gets me by for 2 weeks, no car no healthcare; I'm sure that 100K/mo could get you by ok w/o car/healthcare. 56K will get you a BKK life in a closet if that's what you want. It sounds to me like you're pretty well off enjoying a nice life so I would not consider the living on 56K thing as it amounts to a peasantlike existence

Edited November 24, 2005 by The Dude

[Firefan]

Great post Noel!

And generally good advise here - come, test the waters, try to live here for 56k/month and see how that fits you.

As for whether 56k is enough - it most certainly is for most I know. A typical budget for some of my English teaching friends would be around 12k serviced studio centrally located (VP tower in BKK or similar) food/ groceries about 12k/mth too, followed by 4k in transport(taxi/bts Etc.) and some health insurance (you can chose local to keep it cheap or international). Rest is for beers, eating out, travel, visas and so forth.

Personally I use about the same - but I do not pay rent as I own so would be a bit more if had to pay seperate rent.

Cheers!

[sniffdog]

Good advice, Sunbelt! Here's some more advice:

Ask her Thai boyfriend/husband to join, then you got two partners sucking you dry!

[solo siam]

Why not come over, buy a shophouse with the money, live there and open a bar perhaps later on the lower floor.

[CMguy]

Don't rent a whole bar just rent one bar stool, minimal investment, no long term commitment , all the fun without the headaches ( perhaps a few hangovers) .

[Trebor]

Just a thought. 56,000 seems a lot of money in Thailand. Can you give me a brief breakdown of where this money goes. Is the main outgoing on rent? Because food and drink seem to be reasonable.

I may have to revaluate my ideas on retiring there. I could muster 100,000 a month.

[Noel]

Just a thought. 56,000 seems a lot of money in Thailand. Can you give me a brief breakdown of where this money goes. Is the main outgoing on rent? Because food and drink seem to be reasonable.

I may have to revaluate my ideas on retiring there. I could muster 100,000 a month.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Click on This thread amongst several others to see the subject discussed at some length with widely differing views.

[Heng]

Why not come over, buy a shophouse with the money, live there and open a bar perhaps later on the lower floor.

Excellent advice. Small businesses paying rent.... the owner wakes up in the negative column everyday. Say you're paying us 30,000 a month, that's 1,000 Baht you have to make before you even take a piss in the morning.

[udon]

Can you live well in thailand off of 56000bht /mth?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes, if you aren't a big noter and it seems that you are not.

Forget the bar mate, and just get here and "learn" the ropes, it may take a couple of years but you will still have your 56Kb income and assets back in Santa Claus land.

Good Luck!

PS Good advice from Noel & Sunbelt, copy and paste both posts and print it out, whenever you get the urge to invest in LOS read it.

Edited November 26, 2005 by udon

[raro]

Indeed excellent advises in here! As for the g/f involved in the bar, I'd like to extend this to any kind of business you're planning to pursue: Keep them away from it as far as you can!

Many years back, I thought it was a brilliant idea having my g/f doing the secretary job. Came home one day from a sales call and found new staff in the office that she just hired. And so on and so on...finally the relationship broke up and the comapny almost went bankrupt.

As for the 56k: Yes, you can live on that but not on the sunny side of life.