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[Shishaboy]

Dear fellows~

i am planning to bring in Shisha business into thailand, i have supply of top shisha favors, huge varieties and plans to open beer garden chillout place with shisha. not intending to complete into the already very entertainment packed Bangkok, im planning to go into areas like slightly outskirt but still filled with highly populated higher end estates. skipping the details, i have some enquiry i wish to enquiry from fellow expats here.

1) I tried to find out some license information but seems to be very mess up information from everywhere. on hand, can someone advice how are the license fees like for selling beers & shisha in a shop(maybe a chillout shop selling some finger foods, shisha and beer. The owner of the business will be my wife, shes a local thai.

2) I need your views and comments on this business & maybe advices on areas and how should it be setup if what i suggested doesnt sound right. Positive or negatives remarks will be very helpful.

3) is there any other factors i need to be aware of other than licensing/locations/rentals?

4) i welcome anyone that is interested to invest this within Bangkok to chat up with me.

[mccw]

1) licences are tiny cost.

About 1500bht for booze and 200 bht tobacco

2) if nicely done ambiance with great food could be good but I wouldn't make the shisha 1 and only selling point. Thais like food, booze and pretty women - if you have plenty these 3 and add in shisha as an exotic bonus then you could be on to a winner. Not an easy market place though given the stiff competition and pricing but worth a crack if you can afford it sure, good luck.

3)budget- make sure you have plenty enough spare to run at a loss for 6-10months + think marketing and targets. A point at which to call it a day in case it doesn't work / how much you are prepared to loose and stick to it ; ie don't throw all your money down good after bad. Maybe 1 year limit to turn a profit or call it s day.

4) no thanks; but good luck to yourself

[Swiss1960]

Just my personal 5 cent: Shisha don't mix with beer, but rather with tea / cocktails. Shisha customers are less the Thai, but more the foreigners (also a price question), thus your location should take that into account. Finally, people who will smoke a Shisha want a quiet and comfortable environment, not too noisy around and they will sit for longer and not be the customers to order huge meals.

[Shishaboy]

1) licences are tiny cost.

About 1500bht for booze and 200 bht tobacco

2) if nicely done ambiance with great food could be good but I wouldn't make the shisha 1 and only selling point. Thais like food, booze and pretty women - if you have plenty these 3 and add in shisha as an exotic bonus then you could be on to a winner. Not an easy market place though given the stiff competition and pricing but worth a crack if you can afford it sure, good luck.

3)budget- make sure you have plenty enough spare to run at a loss for 6-10months + think marketing and targets. A point at which to call it a day in case it doesn't work / how much you are prepared to loose and stick to it ; ie don't throw all your money down good after bad. Maybe 1 year limit to turn a profit or call it s day.

4) no thanks; but good luck to yourself

Thanks for your valued suggestion, just a questions.

1) 1500baht for brooze/200baht for license tabacco, per day/month or year?

Just my personal 5 cent: Shisha don't mix with beer, but rather with tea / cocktails. Shisha customers are less the Thai, but more the foreigners (also a price question), thus your location should take that into account. Finally, people who will smoke a Shisha want a quiet and comfortable environment, not too noisy around and they will sit for longer and not be the customers to order huge meals.

thanks for the comment,

[BrianCR]

Don't you think that no smoking laws might slightly effect the business?

[fletchsmile]

Have a wander around Sukhumvit Soi 3 and Soi 3/1 to see and experience the places around that that offer that type of thing.

Where they would do well, is that that's an area where a large part of the traditional target market hangs out. It's part of their communityey and closely linked to other products, food and shopping that the target market would likely also be interested in.

Not really my cup of tea. Can't see it being of much interest to your average western expat or Thai. On the outskirts where you're thinking of, your challenge is building a market who would be interested in that, and what would go with it.

On the very rare occasion I've been interested in this, or should I say have friends who are, we'd just head down to Soi 3/1 for the full "authentic" experience, combined with the food and so on. The shisha isn't really the selling point and something I'd go out of my way for even if I liked it - just something tagged on to existing activities. Maybe a bit of a novelty factor at first. After that though it would be like choosing an evening out, based on where stocks the best cigars - not really the highlight of the evening, nor of interest to friends who don't smoke.

Not sure what you'd add to differentiate yourself.

Fletch

[mccw]

(The licences are per year)

[Scottish Gary]

Might be a bit pricey for rent but would this sort of thing not be better suited on the Kao San Road or Rambuttri Road.

The young backpacker crowd would be into it i would imagine. Some cafes do shisha on the Kao San but none have the chilled out ambience that you want to create.

The hippy vibe real or contrived that you find in these areas would be ideally suited to a chilled out Shisha cafe.

Edited April 12, 2013 by Scottish Gary

[Baerboxer]

Make sure you check out all the rules applying to foreigners opening a business in Thailand too.

I don't see Shisha a being a big differentiator here. Good wide choice of food and beverages, ambience, location, etc. But who is your target market and how will you differentiate your offering.

I recently went to a nice, well away from the beach, Thai restaurant in Pattaya with a group of Thia friends. Typical open air Thia BBQ restaurant with several very large TV screens showing EPL, great food and very reasonable cost. They also had shisha. Several groups of Thia customers, male and female, were smoking these. This was an exra rather than the main draw though.

Good luck and let us know if you open up.

[breadbin]

Ah, the op wants advice and then the stung in the tail is he offers an invite to investors!!!!

Not exactly a business that's never been thought of in Los is it?

Think again sir when asking for investors. In my eyes you have no USP.

Good luck anyway,

[soinowinbkk]

Have been a shisha customer for over 2 years, having started here in Bangkok and just about every place I travel now.

First, I have been told by many managers in places that shisha is not legal in Thailand ("not Thai custom"). As well, indoor smoking is illegal.

That said, there must be 20 - 30 places in the Nana area alone, as above, and another 10 or 15 in Khaosan Road. A few - very few - are also indoor. Therefore, there will be no licence directly for that, as far as I know.

The prices vary from 150 baht per pipe (with unlimited charcoal refills - last about 1+ hour) to 300/320/350 baht. This is among the cheapest anywhere I have found in the world (US ranges from $10 - 25; Hong Kong and Seoul about $30; KL about the same here - and also available everywhere). Price will be very important here.

Thai people generally do not go to the places that I go to. However, Thai youth do ... and I have been told that "many" Thai dance clubs offer shisha. It's a very, very popular 'fad' among young people. I was astounded that there was at least 1 and often more places in EVERY city I was in when visiting family and friends last year in the US (from Sarasota - Orlando-Jacksonville, FL to Atlanta, GA to Asheville, SC to Washington, DC to the East Bay, CA!). And the same goes for Asia - KL, HK, Seoul, Jakarta, Bali, Singapore and of course all over India and all other South Asia countries, where it's part of the custom.

Note too there is an outfit out of Phuket that sells all supplies via mail order. You can easily find them online.

Good luck and hope it hits for you!

[mccw]

There's an idea

If you have links for "the best shisha" maybe you should look to supply the existing businesses + online mail order supply. Much less money on the line for overhead/ rent / set up/ staff etc etc potentially larger profits and you get to have fun travelling around promoting your product rather than stuck in one bar all the time and a lot less head aches for sure. Could start like this and do the bar later after a stable income secured as aback up + combine office and distribution with the bar premises once you reach a size where the outlay makes sense.

[Shishaboy]

ill go down Kao Shan road and sol nana this weekend to look around. i been there but not really doing research previously.

indeed, im still at the starting up phrase, planning and looking for the right location before i can start to calculate my cost and other issues. which i hopefully get it start by this year.

any places i should go take a look as well, ill be in bangkok 19-22 this weekend.

im not exactly looking for investor, just open up if someone is interested to co-operate, its good if someone familiar with this market would be keen to join in this venture.