Why is Russia such a cesspool?

[charliebadenhop]

I have a Thai friend who owns a number of houses.

She has a really hard time finding people to come in and do small repairs and maintenance.

Anyone know of anyone?

And in being here four months so far, I think that running a temp agency for domestics and skilled laborers could be an excellent business opportunity for someone.

Any and all thoughts welcome.

Charlie

[dotpoom]

I have often thought of the same idea as you. When I was building my house here I couldn't for the life of me get ordinary everyday labourers (they all wanted to be contractors, all or nothing). When I was a "lad" I emigrated to London and signed up with a company called "Rent a Staff". It was fantastic all round experience. I worked at things like moving "Moon Dust" in Museums that was on exhibition to moving skins at fur auctions...the more expensive the fur the bigger the tips. You would get tips from the guys who first came to check out the quality and grade of the skins and then more tips when the actual buyer came. They might only want to see one grade in one trolley or you could be with them all day showing the 30 trolleys up.

We worked in factories in parks and the most unusual places you could think of. Tried to get the missus interested in getting it set up but she is not the business type.

Thanks for the memories and sorry for drifting off the point.

[rethaier]

Starting a temp business, IMHO, would be a waste of time and effort. If everyday Thais can't get help what makes you think you could muster a stable of ready to work people. Even if you had 10 on call I reckon that when you needed them to work you could not depend on them.

[charliebadenhop]

I myself am not considering this business, but...

I have started, run, and sold numerous businesses in my life.

In my way of thinking about things, IF there was an easy solution to the situation, it would likely not be a good opportunity because others would be able to do the same as me or you.

In my neighborhood many of my Thai neighbors have difficulty in finding temp workers, and my Thai friend says that almost everyone has this problem.

So that is the opportunity.

The challenges to overcome-

Finding dependable people, and little by little offering them training.

I think it works like this in the beginning-

You pay the worker maybe B500 a day if they have some skills, and charge the client say B1,000 a day.

In the beginning there will likely not be enough work, and you will be lucky to break even, because you will have one or two workers on staff that you pay full time.

But after word of mouth builds and you hand out flyers in different neighborhoods, then things could pick up considerably.

When I was quite young I did the same kind of business in lawn maintenance and landscape design in the States. I never made it into something big, but-

Temp agencies can be very profitable when run well, and some of these agencies wind up being very big businesses.

Anyway, just thinking out loud, AND I would love to know of people that could be hired here in Chiang Rai when various things need being done around the house.

Related- As more and more families have two breadwinners, they wind up with a lot of tasks that never get done, and they would likely be willing to have someone come in and do these tasks, including house cleaning.

Also, most Thai houses are not built to high standards and thus many Thai people often need their roof fixed, electricity rewired, etc. etc. The list of needed repairs is quite long.

[charliebadenhop]

One other thought (don't know how to edit my previous post)

I lived in Japan for 30 years.

In Japan the number of temp workers has been growing every year for quite some time now.

Many people work through two of three different temp agencies, and they claim to like the freedom such work offers them.

[8OA8]

Worthwhile looking at.

A few years ago I was in a position that needed to shed 100+ workers from lack of orders, as soon as the larger orders came it was a quick call for temp staff and less than 10 days later 80+ semi skilled workers were there being brought up to speed by the remaining 200 workers. Ok we had to pay an over the norm rate, but well worth the money.

[dotpoom]

I think you have the rates about right OP. London being such a hugh city my company gave us traveling expenses every morning to get to whatever job they had for us, in the evening we returned to pick up our days wages. Often, due to the tips, we didn't need to collect our wages for some time.

PS. The "Edit" spot is at the bottom along the "Report" line.

Edited October 23, 2014 by dotpoom

[henry15]

In Thailand they have the "nai Chang" system. Its a kind of contractor who work with independant or day labours. You just contact this person and he send the apropiate workers. Bit like in all bussinesses they are trustworty Nai Changs and cowboys.

But a good one, have excellent and skilled workers at hand. They can build a house, factory, shop or do some smaal repairs. In short a kind of middleman.