Ideas Wanted. Simple Business plan for wife and I

[seancbk]

The noodle cart lady across my street on a not-so-busy side soi is killing it for years. At 40 baht, she does 400+ bowls a day. Rent is 300 baht a day. She clears 4k usd a month profit, huge money in thailand.

Sells a bowl every 40 seconds, solid, for 10 hours straight?

8 hour day * 60 mins per hour = 480 minutes, which would mean to hit 400 sales she'd need to do one sale every 1.2 minutes. If she worked for 10 hours it would only be one bowl every 1.5 minutes.

According to your calculations she'd be doing 900 sales in 10 hours (36000 seconds divided by 40 secs)

[seancbk]

Big demand for tacos...but my idea is to meet that demand with tacos al pastor...marinated (in pineapple juice) cubed pork on a tortilla shell. Forget the beef and cheese...they don't put cheese on tacos in Mexico...pickled red onion, ground cabbage, salsa...yes. Otherwise, you are just acting as a tax collector. A stand or cart....not a restaurant...very simple menu...when you run out; you close. You might be able to do 2 for 60, and make 20 in profit...you need to sell to Thais and farang.......I've seen at least five businesses fail up here by CMU, that were opened with farang BF's money. There was this one dress shop, that was dead, except it sold bananas on a table out front, (the best! cheap). I was a regular customer. One day I walked in to ask where the bananas were, and a German guy was sitting there, and he gave me a very puzzled look, like they were doing it behind his back. Place was closed a week later. A number of coffee shops (in a saturated market)..they seem to think they can charge double by using fancier equipment...students won't pay it...the place 60 meters away with 25 thb house coffee and semi-broken chairs does 15 times more business. We have a successful fruit shake girl......she is putting in long, strenuous hours....10 per bag, 20 for shake..she sets up in front of a pharmacy. She might make 1000 per day in profit. The Omelet cart is also popular...I've seen him start the night with 17 x 30 or 510 eggs....2 egg omelets for 25 thb.

Great chefs fail all the time, same with carpenters...because it is more about cash management than cooking or building. Many people, in general, are bad with money, and it's no different in Thailand. Lower income people have kids at a young age, and never get ahead. Laziness is only a small part of it. The other parts are being suckers for consumer debts, and feeling obligated to support family member's bad decisions. How much do you think the average Thai smart phone user has saved in the bank? 10K? Maybe more like 2 or 3.

Just curious how you can say there is a big demand for tacos(besides from me) when there are hardly any places that sell them?

Hardly any places that sell them??? Bangkok is full of taco places.

[BKKdreaming]

Thats what she told my gf. Now that you mention it, seems unrealistic, even though your math is off by +100% Even one every 90 seconds is crazy. In her defense, even my gf claims her noodle dishes are the best in bkk, but we pass on them nearly every time as we don't want to wait in line. I impulse buy only when I see less than 3-4 people waiting.

And that is another problem ,

people LIE about sales , not just Thais

bragging that they sell so much everyday to gain Face ,

or saying how bad sales are and they have no money when they need to pay a bill

So believe your eyes , and even then do not take one days sales as an "average" day

and in the west , more than 50% of new start-ups fail in a few years , so do not expect miracles

[ozyjon]

Hot doggies, get your hot doggies here

Hot doggies,

Hot doggies, get your hot doggies here

Hot doggies,

we got them with onion, cheese, mustard, kim chee, som tam,

paint stripper, fish paste, hell we can even put 5 spoons of

sugar if you want, (the Thais will love it)

So Mario and Maria arrive in New York on a ship from Naples,

wandering around New York for the first time they were amazed

at how big and beautiful their new home was, felling a bit hungry

Mario notices a Hot Dog stand across the road with people

milling around eating something, he says to Maria, wait here I will

be right back,, after a few minutes he returns with a Hot Dog.

Look Maria '' I buy a hota doga ''

Maria looks at the Hot Dog,, looks at Mario and says,,,,

Mario,,, whata part of the doga you eat eh ?

[Nomyai]

Open a business consultancy for silly farangs. Anytime 1 wanders in charge him $99 for a boilerplate summary of why he shouldnt open or buy a business for his wife or gf.

Other than that id go with the cart that make $4,000 a month....................hahahahaha!

Edited November 16, 2015 by Nomyai

[WorkingTourist]

Many posters here mention that you need a 'unique idea' to be successful. Not sure I agree with that. Why risk the money to bring an untested product to market?

Some truth to that, though you should find out what your advantage is.

It can be something as boring as getting up at 4 a.m. to procure the best fresh ingredients for your cooking or it can be an unfair advantage like being beautiful.

If you have a Thai partner then you do have an advantage compared to most tourists in that you should know more about Thailand than they do (i.e. you can sell your “knowledge”, though perhaps indirectly), and being able to speak English, you have an advantage compared to most Thai vendors, so one idea could be selling Thai snacks to tourists, as many tourists will not seek them out by themselves, and most Thai vendors will at best just have an English sign saying something like “Sticky Rice with Mango: Famous Thai Desert”, they will rarely engage the tourists, and besides sticky rice with mango and roti, I haven’t seen many snacks sold in tourist areas, yet there are a lot of them, and something like sticky rice in bamboo or the things steamed in a banana leaf should (in my opinion) have higher tourist appeal (as they are more exotic).

Of course an actual skill would get you longer. For example someone mentioned overseeing construction, which is something I have also tried to get my friend into, as he has building experience from the West, and I believe that skilled workers with Western experience are in demand, as few Thais know about Western standards and aesthetics.

If you can’t figure out what your advantage is, then I would not recommend you start a business.

The successful food vendors mentioned above did have advantages, for example the noodle lady presumably does make some of the best noodles within a mile, and the juice stand mentioned being located just outside an office with lots of workers, so you can’t just open a noodle or juice stand and think you can replicate their success, as the markets are already saturated. But the market for premium quality is not, because that actually requires a bit more skill.

[MonkeyLoo]

The best and most successful business man all over the world will tell you- always invest with Other Peoples Money.

Find some fool to put up ALL the upfront costs, buy ALL the stock, pay the rent etc

work as least as possible for the maximum amount. Put all the earnings in your pocket.

give the fool back nothing until he realises he is being duped, then run away with the money

Find a new fool

rinse and repeat

In Thailand that strategy will get you shot. I know a farang doing exactly that, hes on his 4th turn over. Will he see his next birthday? I doubt it. Life is cheap here.

Of course the OP should be wary of becoming a victim of such characters and being the fool that puts up his money to get so easily duped by one of the many con men, farang and Thai operating in Thailand.

[DLang]

A mate moved to a townhouse in a long 2 soi moo bahn in outskirts bkk.

Missus was a hair salon girl. She moved her stuff up and opened in the bottom area of the house.

Not a good salon. Not a good salonist.

But in the 2 long sois there was not one other salon. She did a killing for the 18 months that they lived there.

So, find an in demand service, where there isn't one available, and you're good.

[Dassie]

Cooking is likely the way to go.

Get her trained up in one type of Western Cuisine - or one type of Cuisine Westerners like. Indian, Mexican, etc. Then make a food cart out of that.

A clean mobile unit selling decent - say Tacos etc, or Some Indian curries and samoas/bahjis etc. Would likely do quite well.

Keep it all very clean and hygenic, decent training in how to prepare the food so it's good.

Kunar's your uncle, Salma's your aunt.

Why try and cater for the few and fickle farang diners? There's plenty opportunities for doing Thai food for the locals. There's certain foods and dishes that are breakfast specialties and other that are lunch or dinner preferences. Choosing one or the other will dictate your market and your hours. Running a good jok (rice congee) shop could see an early morning and breakfast crowd and be done and dusted by noon. Alternately, it can also be a late night or all night stall giving you the whole day off. A noodle shop is pretty much 9 am to 3 pm.

If the OP's wife is a good cook, she should work with that.

Agree with Naenlaew and HappyGrumpy. Thais love street food. You may be able to get away with just one person to run it. There used to be an old Thai guy selling the most delicious simple Thai omelettes with a small bed of rice for 20 baht. You could also add a big scoop of a random hot wet dish on top for an additional 7 baht. The wet dishes changed daily, ranging from a variety of different curries with chicken or veges, and chicken cooked in sweet soy seasoning. He'd set up around 10am and be sold out before 3pm every day. A Thai lady who was previously selling only pork sausages and fish balls now does Thai style omelettes (not as nice as the old guys were), fried rice and noodles. She now has the busiest stall on that pitch.

[williamgeorgeallen]

almost impossible to make money in Thailand. what ever you do keep your name off any business registration. if you are in any way associated with the business and get caught doing anything with the business you will have trouble. work permits are expensive and in most cases not worth the trouble. only invest the money if you are willing to loose it. better get your girl a job working for some other sucker who opened a business.

[fekman]

almost impossible to make money in Thailand. what ever you do keep your name off any business registration. if you are in any way associated with the business and get caught doing anything with the business you will have trouble. work permits are expensive and in most cases not worth the trouble. only invest the money if you are willing to loose it. better get your girl a job working for some other sucker who opened a business.

The labor dept describes work as "The exertion of energy or use of knowledge, whether for compensation or not". We are all violating labor laws by simply typing here.

[Ks45672]

The noodle cart lady across my street on a not-so-busy side soi is killing it for years. At 40 baht, she does 400+ bowls a day. Rent is 300 baht a day. She clears 4k usd a month profit, huge money in thailand.

Sells a bowl every 40 seconds, solid, for 10 hours straight?

8 hour day * 60 mins per hour = 480 minutes, which would mean to hit 400 sales she'd need to do one sale every 1.2 minutes. If she worked for 10 hours it would only be one bowl every 1.5 minutes.

According to your calculations she'd be doing 900 sales in 10 hours (36000 seconds divided by 40 secs)

Nobody think of the possibility she might have a couple of teenagers working for 200 a day on the busy days?

400 bowls a day is very possible imo

I've never counted but my local noodle stall is always very busy and they have 3-4 staff sometimes and someone washing dishes furiously....

Id be very surprised if they sell LESS than 400 bowls a day...

[fekman]

The noodle cart lady across my street on a not-so-busy side soi is killing it for years. At 40 baht, she does 400+ bowls a day. Rent is 300 baht a day. She clears 4k usd a month profit, huge money in thailand.

Sells a bowl every 40 seconds, solid, for 10 hours straight?

8 hour day * 60 mins per hour = 480 minutes, which would mean to hit 400 sales she'd need to do one sale every 1.2 minutes. If she worked for 10 hours it would only be one bowl every 1.5 minutes.

According to your calculations she'd be doing 900 sales in 10 hours (36000 seconds divided by 40 secs)

Nobody think of the possibility she might have a couple of teenagers working for 200 a day on the busy days?

400 bowls a day is very possible imo

I've never counted but my local noodle stall is always very busy and they have 3-4 staff sometimes and someone washing dishes furiously....

Id be very surprised if they sell LESS than 400 bowls a day...

This woman has a double liquid pot, and 3 employees! She mostly sits and repeatedly counts the money over and over. Its fascinating to see such a bust out business earning so much. Even if shes exaggerating, and only doing 200 a day, thats roughly 240,000 baht a month gross. Thats 100k + profit. Not bad.

[thaiduncankk]

The noodle cart lady across my street on a not-so-busy side soi is killing it for years. At 40 baht, she does 400+ bowls a day. Rent is 300 baht a day. She clears 4k usd a month profit, huge money in thailand.

Sells a bowl every 40 seconds, solid, for 10 hours straight?

8 hour day * 60 mins per hour = 480 minutes, which would mean to hit 400 sales she'd need to do one sale every 1.2 minutes. If she worked for 10 hours it would only be one bowl every 1.5 minutes.

According to your calculations she'd be doing 900 sales in 10 hours (36000 seconds divided by 40 secs)

Nobody think of the possibility she might have a couple of teenagers working for 200 a day on the busy days?

400 bowls a day is very possible imo

I've never counted but my local noodle stall is always very busy and they have 3-4 staff sometimes and someone washing dishes furiously....

Id be very surprised if they sell LESS than 400 bowls a day...

This woman has a double liquid pot, and 3 employees! She mostly sits and repeatedly counts the money over and over. Its fascinating to see such a bust out business earning so much. Even if shes exaggerating, and only doing 200 a day, thats roughly 240,000 baht a month gross. Thats 100k + profit. Not bad.

Complete bullshit.

[BKKdreaming]

it would not seem logical that your noodle sales would be the same for 8-10 hours straight ,

and do they eat the noogles there so you need chairs and tables or do they take them home ( containers and plastc bags needed)

I have no doubt it is a good business , just the numbers and the added costs

[MobileContent]

Invest the money in education for your wife. It cost you around 600,000 Baht for an almost 9 months course.

Your wife might has a chance to take a loan for 250,000 from the bank if you put the 350,000 Baht as a down payment.

After 9 months your wife would hold a Le Cordon Bleu diploma and should have no problem of finding a job at a good hotel or restaurant that will hire her with a starting pay of 30.000 Baht.

Since she likes cooking that would be a good option.

Their is also a cheaper course for Thai Cuisine at around 460,000 Baht.

http://www.lecordonbleudusit.com/thailand/thaicuisine/en

Just my 2 cents

[bangmai]

Marriott started with a hamburger stand in Washington DC.

[LostTourist]

Self dragging flip flops!!

[LostTourist]

almost impossible to make money in Thailand. what ever you do keep your name off any business registration. if you are in any way associated with the business and get caught doing anything with the business you will have trouble. work permits are expensive and in most cases not worth the trouble. only invest the money if you are willing to loose it. better get your girl a job working for some other sucker who opened a business.

The labor dept describes work as "The exertion of energy or use of knowledge, whether for compensation or not". We are all violating labor laws by simply typing here.

"The exertion of energy or use of knowledge, whether for compensation or not". well that rules the thai's out then, as they can check the boxes on all of the above.

[williamgeorgeallen]

almost impossible to make money in Thailand. what ever you do keep your name off any business registration. if you are in any way associated with the business and get caught doing anything with the business you will have trouble. work permits are expensive and in most cases not worth the trouble. only invest the money if you are willing to loose it. better get your girl a job working for some other sucker who opened a business.

The labor dept describes work as "The exertion of energy or use of knowledge, whether for compensation or not". We are all violating labor laws by simply typing here.

"The exertion of energy or use of knowledge, whether for compensation or not". well that rules the thai's out then, as they can check the boxes on all of the above.

they don't have to pay for work permits and therefore don't have to work so hard. but seriously I have had some good thai staff.

[mmh8]

entertainment idea, why not practise farting to produce tunes. then add to the spectacle of the farting orchesture with setting them alight

[daveyravey]

The negativity of some TV posters make me wonder why they just don't join the Thailand Flying Club and end ALL our misery.

To the OP i say 350k is plenty enough if you find the right niche. Food is always a winner but aim it at Thais as your potential market will be 100 times bigger and most Thais eat out a lot.

Maybe a small guesthouse with food stand at the front in a tourist area. 350k would be enough for that.

[TerminalVelosity]

+ Bought the food cart/motorcycle "used" but in great shape. Stainless steel was nice.

Cost was 23,000THB.

+ I'm teaching them to keep food costs between 30% - 38%. It depends on the drink.

Some drinks have better margin than others.

+ Of course, there's a zillion other carts around them, but no one else doing Iced Coffee Drinks.

+ Next Step: Get them a chest freezer. I found some "freezer bags" on Mainland USA. I want them to freeze their own ice.

Use bottle water, fill freezer bags designed for 5lb to 25lb blocks of ice. Easy. Will save time and money.

+ To open a KKreme donut place would cost millions and millions. Don't do it.

+ They initially had a little bit of "push back" from local school about selling Coca-Cola. Sugar. The issue was sugar.

Now -- they focus on Iced Coffee Drinks.

+ I will get them a machine for Fruit Smoothies soon.

NOTE: This is not a great picture. It is my sister-in-law. The cart looks a lot better.

I'll see if I can get a better picture to show you the stainless steel. It is very nice.

How Happy does she look, man she looks like she wants to do back flips, break out the karaoke machine and sing welcome to the hotel California!!!

[TerminalVelosity]

The noodle cart lady across my street on a not-so-busy side soi is killing it for years. At 40 baht, she does 400+ bowls a day. Rent is 300 baht a day. She clears 4k usd a month profit, huge money in thailand.

Sells a bowl every 40 seconds, solid, for 10 hours straight?

8 hour day * 60 mins per hour = 480 minutes, which would mean to hit 400 sales she'd need to do one sale every 1.2 minutes. If she worked for 10 hours it would only be one bowl every 1.5 minutes.

According to your calculations she'd be doing 900 sales in 10 hours (36000 seconds divided by 40 secs)

Nobody think of the possibility she might have a couple of teenagers working for 200 a day on the busy days?

400 bowls a day is very possible imo

I've never counted but my local noodle stall is always very busy and they have 3-4 staff sometimes and someone washing dishes furiously....

Id be very surprised if they sell LESS than 400 bowls a day...

My Wife was working for Ace Insurance selling Bupa products, 8 hours per day, 5 days per week, in a air-conditioned office, uniforms supplied and earning 12-16k per month.

However having said that, she does have a uni degree(pre requisite for employment) and was always in the top ten sellers in Thailand every month.

[WorkingTourist]

After 9 months your wife would hold a Le Cordon Bleu diploma and should have no problem of finding a job at a good hotel or restaurant that will hire her with a starting pay of 30.000 Baht.

From where are you getting that starting salary?

Even with an engineering degree it would not be easy to get a starting salary of 30k/month.

[MobileContent]

After 9 months your wife would hold a Le Cordon Bleu diploma and should have no problem of finding a job at a good hotel or restaurant that will hire her with a starting pay of 30.000 Baht.

From where are you getting that starting salary?

Even with an engineering degree it would not be easy to get a starting salary of 30k/month.

Sheraton Grande and Dusit Thani Hotel if you hold both diploma for French cuisine and Thai cuisine If you just hold the Thai Diplome you start at 20000 Baht.

Many even work at Dusit in Dubai for 1500 USD per month (tax free).

You should visit LCB at the Dusit Thani Building and look at the signboard of all those hotels throughout Thailand that are hiring directly from Le Cordon Bleu. The top 10 graduates have a job confirmed before they even have the diploma in the pocket.

For a waitress/waiter the price is already on average between 13-20k per month. Wages of an engineering degree from AIT in Bangkok starts at 40-50,000 Baht. LCB is on of the leading culinary schools in the world. Its the same if you hold a degree in a Hospitality Management School such as Dusit Thani College (4 years) or even the Swiss schools. Thais get for a start around 50-75,000 as a Deputy GM or GM for a start and foreigners at 140,000 - 250,000.

30k is absolut possible, specially with English knowledge as many top chefs at the kitchen are foreigners.

[huawei]

The negativity of some TV posters make me wonder why they just don't join the Thailand Flying Club and end ALL our misery.

To the OP i say 350k is plenty enough if you find the right niche. Food is always a winner but aim it at Thais as your potential market will be 100 times bigger and most Thais eat out a lot.

Maybe a small guesthouse with food stand at the front in a tourist area. 350k would be enough for that.

The negativity is that this is one of the questions asked since time began..

No work experience, no business experience, can't read a p/l or a cash statement. No real idea, no idea of the law, competition etc....could go on..and the times I have seen businesses go under..( mostly food related)..employ family..cash out of the till..theft..

Next question we will have , what jobs can a foreigner do here!!

It ain't simple..its be realistic not negative..

[Chao Lao Beach]

Cook real Pizza.

[MauiSteveBKK]

If you're in BKK .... head over to Soi See Sukhumvit Road.

After about 8pm or 9pm .... just outside the "Nana Plaze" area and by Soi See .....

There is a very nicely done food cart that sells a good hamburger.

It has a "Franchises Available" sign -- so you could check on the Franchise Fee and Royalty ....

but most importantly -- look at the stainless steel food cart. It's nice and he's grilling burgers on a flat-top.

I have to wait all the time for a burger, and it's pretty good.

There's money to be made late at night near bars as guys drinking beer always want tacos, burgers, hot dogs, etc.

Good Luck.

[williamgeorgeallen]

you better check she actually wants to work. you probably will have a hard time getting a straight answer as she will probably just say what she thinks you want to hear. if she does not want to work then you are wasting your money. you need to ask her in a way that it looks like you don't mind what she wants to do. I got my girl a job when our boy started school, her response 'I have ferang, I don't need to work'