buying a small business for girlfriend

[DILLIGAD]

A real good one. In a country where people need a calculator to subtract 20 baht from 100 baht, it's almost impossible that a Thai gf who went through such a great education be successful in running such a business.
 Even the noodle soup vendors have no idea if they make plus, or lose money until it's too late. 
 I'd even raise your number from 99 % to 99.9%.  

Hey, ajarngreg
You must have been to my minimart in Surin that nearly lasted 2 years! 555


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[DILLIGAD]

The main culprits are randy young 15 year olds trying to get a glimpse of a photo they persuade the younger children to send. They then may threaten to expose the pic if they do not meet or send more etc. That's the main sell point anyways but you can do all sorts with its turn phone into a Room bug or activate features remotely. Read all content and images on phone and of course as you said. Locate the phone via GPS. 

Yeah, spooky this stuff. In my bad old days, I had a g/f in Pattaya who could listen-in on other people's phones like a speaker even when they were not switched on! She proved it to me by letting me listen to a mate in another s/t hotel. Straight after that I changed my phone number!!!!

 

 

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[moto77]

Advice for buying a small business for girlfriend?
 

Don't.
 

[dotpoom]

On 15/04/2017 at 1:43 PM, tomwct said:

Ask yourself this question? Would you buy a business for your GF in your home country? No, then why would you invest in

a business here? 80% of new businesses in the world fail in the first year. With a Thai GF running the business the failure

rate would be closer to 99%. Now, if you watched over the business, such as taking the money each evening and taking

inventory each evening, you could monitor the profits and/or losses. When your in your home country, the business would

close once the inventory is gone. They don't understand you need to replenish the inventory after some is sold. All the GF

wants is the money for her family and Thai husband.

Not sure why you say a foreigner would not buy a business for his g/f back home (if can afford to) it's a horse of a completely different colour. 

The situation might not often arise though as women back home have as much money as the men.

   Agree with your other points though even though I have set up at least two women in business here.

  One thing however they did get from the experience was a very noticable improvement in their self confidence. One of them became so secure in her new found self confidence that she went on to get a fine foreign husband for herself (we still are good friends)..the other I married myself.

   I am grateful to this day that I was in a position to help these two ladies to evolve on their journey of life.

 Some may agree that "success" does not always have to be about money.

[yellowboat]

On 15/4/2017 at 2:28 PM, pumpjack said:

we will source the clothes from pratunam / chatachuk & bobae  markets in bkk and are going to have a look at these places on tuesday next week. 

Source as in resell ?  Bad idea.  If she is truly interested in selling clothing, perhaps she should work for somebody first and learn, rather than experiment with your money.  Invest in her education, not in her fantasies, mercantile fantasies.  Her non mercantile fantasies may be worth investing in.  Don't get pumped .

[oldcarguy]

17 minutes ago, yellowboat said:

Source as in resell ?  Bad idea.  If she is truly interested in selling clothing, perhaps she should work for somebody first and learn, rather than experiment with your money.  Invest in her education, not in her fantasies, mercantile fantasies.  Her non mercantile fantasies may be worth investing in.  Don't get pumped .

I think that is a good idea , to learn how the "Rag business" works ,  not as much "Face" as owning her own shop but much better in the long run ,

 

Plus I think  once you know the business you can have made unique designs to put you ahead of the competition ,

 

If she wants to sell to tourists ,  do your homework ,  go to a tourist area , the beach , JJ market etc  and watch  ( for hours ) what items tourists are buying and what they are wearing that looks like it was bought in Thailand , 

 

And watch  how much the busy shops sell and try and figure out how much baht they are selling in a day ,

 

if the GF thinks she can make 5000 baht a day profit  she needs to understand what it takes to do that  (near impossible)

 

Impulse buys are what are going to sell well , and KAWAII - Cute things

 

Good Luck

[SpeakeasyThai]

You stated your girlfriend wants to work in tourist areas. Can you not hear a deafening warning bell!!?

Edited April 17, 2017 by SpeakeasyThai

[SOUTHERNSTAR]

For any business anywhere of any size needs a businessplan. Take your gf and walk around the night markets and see how many people are doing it already. Try to identify something that will attract customers and will be a good business. If you go into clothing you will have mega competition. But if you must rather identify a young and upcoming designer and only sell his/her brand. Enter into an agreement with the designer to give exclusive rights in your area. This way you will avoid brand competition. Instead of going cheap go middle priced, affordable yet exclusive and advertise it as such. Women are suckers for wearing clothes that only they have. Here it is a status symbol. Only my thoughts.

[1FinickyOne]

If you are looking at a stall, they are not often big enough to have variety and stock... you need to stock both style and sizes of each item.  And if you only stock one of each size, after the first sale, you are out of stock of an item in that size... well, then you have to wait until you go back to Pratunam... and then, how many of each size? 

 

and sales are not worth the time to sit there... A store will be a larger investment but have a better chance... 

[SpeakeasyThai]

On 15/04/2017 at 2:56 PM, alleykat said:

Hey..what a good idea!
I wonder why no one else has thought of doing this before?
And another plus that I never thought of is that you yourself will be able to stop working, as she will make enough money for the both of you!

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....and the men in white coats with butterfly nets danced in the streets.

[The Deerhunter]

Phuket has had 4 disastrous tourism years in a row. Businesses folding left and right.  The idea of keeping her busy with lawful work is laudable  but is fraught with problems.  She will buy what she likes for herself not what sells.  If you must do it consider a coffee kiosk.  Still plenty to go wrong but a lot less risks and distractions than selling clothes.  She will still be running a business with no business background with someone else's money and little or no oversight.  RED FLAG!!!!!!

[Saladin]

If she's a good girl then I think you are doing the right thing. Many Thai women are good at running street stalls and they are happy to roll up their sleeves and put in the hours. Of course you have to be careful but don't take notice of the Farang knockers who will never start a business in their life as they can only see the pitfalls and not the opportunities. You might also look at Chiang Mai which is swarming with Chinese and Korean tourists year round. They are the ones spending the money, not the Westerners. Good luck to you - I hope it works out.

 

[bamukloy]

Another one about to bite the dust.

Do these guys ever read the countless horror stories on this site?

 

A business idea: put the money in a bank at 3%.

I reckon this crude business plan has saved (or made me) at least 2million by now.

 

Who cares anyway, same same as guys buying houses

he wont listen

[Penicillin]

Love makes people stupid and causes great regret,  post awakening. 

 

Anyone  that has to ask TV members how to spend money on a gf business is already a loser .... or it's just a fake posting to get the obvious reactions /responses.

Edited April 17, 2017 by Penicillin
Typo

[Kabula]

My recommendation is forget about it!

 

The clothing business is a nightmare.

 

What normally happens is when you buy wholesale over time you accumulate way to much inventory; styles and colors fall out of fashion, and will not sell.  The inventory gets larger and larger and then the women finds a better deal with another guy and leaves you with a stack of clothes.  Happens all the time.

 

Never invest in another person's business.

 

Tell her you are having money problems short term and if she disappears the next day, you just saved a bunch of money.

[mercman24]

buy her a bar, i have a lady friend in Pattaya, who has known this guy 15 days, and he has just handed over 1 million baht, and is off back to the UK, another one bites the dust lol !! isn't love a funny thing,

[LotusBoy]

5555555

 

thats all.......

[JSixpack]

1 hour ago, yellowboat said:

Source as in resell ?  Bad idea.  If she is truly interested in selling clothing, perhaps she should work for somebody first and learn, rather than experiment with your money.  Invest in her education, not in her fantasies, mercantile fantasies.  Her non mercantile fantasies may be worth investing in.  Don't get pumped .

 

Way to go. Apprenticeship first, know the business thoroughly, make sure she'll work. Then maybe take over a known profitable shop.

 

Lady o' mine once wanted to open a hairdressing salon. So I sent her to two "schools," one at a well-established shop in South Pattaya (cheap), the other at Fountain Of Life (free). Then she thought she was ready to open her own shop. :) When I told her she'd have to work in a shop for at least a couple years first, it turned out she was too lazy to do that. No, the plan was to sit back while her staff worked and collect the profits. Funny. Well, at least I got free haircuts thereafter.

[Saladin]

My advice is to stop listening to all the negative crap from Farang who have never started a business or taken a risk in their life and whose valuable time is spent drinking booze and denigrating all Thai women. 

[luk AJ]

Probable scenario..

Turnover for many Thai is equal to profit.

After 2 months she will be bored and ask for an assistant and from there you have another 3 months before closure. Classic business is coffee shop, selling clothes, food shop, hair salon, bar. Above scenario can be applied to all. As many posters advice better give her a monthly allowance than a business.

 

 

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[philliphn]

Invest in her education. This way she can get a job and earn a better living. Pay for her to learn to speak the English language proficiently.

[Khon Kaen Dave]

Also does she understand (because some Thai people don't) that what goes in the till is not all profit, and not to go in her pocket.Does she understand that rent,overheads and buying stock, has to come out of it. Also the business will be subject to a simple double entry book keeping system, which you can learn, if you dont already know.Its important that you keep the books.Oh! and dont forget to have receipts printed, and given for every sale. None of this."i cut price down for her/him. so i not give bin"

I hate to say it too, but i also think you are wasting your time.We had 2 bars in Patts for five years, and that was hared enough,  and when this junta took over, i saw the writing on the wall. We sold and got out at the right time.

But, good luck.

[binjalin]

7 minutes ago, Saladin said:

My advice is to stop listening to all the negative crap from Farang who have never started a business or taken a risk in their life and whose valuable time is spent drinking booze and denigrating all Thai women. 

yup don't listen to all this negative crap from us farang

 

1. buy her a business with a smile
2. trust her every word
3. have a joint account and fill it up - she will only take what she needs after all
4. give some gold to her mom
5. get her a new IPhone after all she needs it for the business
6. sit back and watch all those profits roll in from that great new business idea 'selling clothes'

[KC 71]

Never Invest In Something That You Are Not Prepared To Walk Away From !
(I.e loose all the money) a guy in Thailand told me that years ago.


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[JSixpack]

2 minutes ago, KC 71 said:

Never Invest In Something That You Are Not Prepared To Walk Away From !
(I.e loose all the money) a guy in Thailand told me that years ago.


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That's just one of the shrewd, street-smart TVF Poster Three Primal Laws Of Survival In Thailand that I codified years ago.

 

1. Never invest in anything you aren't ready to lose;

2. Never own more than you can carry with you;

3. Keep your suitcase packed at all times.

 

Quoting one or more of the Laws, as you have, gives you ten (+10) points of valuable TVF posting cred from the peanut gallery. Congrats.

 

[BruceMangosteen]

15 minutes ago, luk AJ said:

Probable scenario..

Turnover for many Thai is equal to profit.

After 2 months she will be bored and ask for an assistant and from there you have another 3 months before closure. Classic business is coffee shop, selling clothes, food shop, hair salon, bar. Above scenario can be applied to all. As many posters advice better give her a monthly allowance than a business.

 

 

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Turnover(aka revenue) is profit when you are hungry.

 

FYI there are "Key Money" requirements for even the most obscure market stalls. It can be 30,000. Baht upwards. There are also daily rents based on weather you are open or closed.(200-500 Baht). 

 

Clothing bought at large Bangkok markets then sold at markets in more rural settings while has some appeal, usually results in losses due to theft and credit extended to friends or even unknown people. You need something no one else is doing/selling.

 

Good luck. Focus on how you could compete with 7/11's and if you can't, don't. God Bless You and OO. 

[Emster23]

" Way to go. Apprenticeship first, know the business thoroughly, make sure she'll work. Then maybe take over a known profitable shop. "

 Amen to that. Does she have ANY sales experience? In clothing retailing? Have her do at least a six month stint in existing business to learn the ropes, see what people like, etc. A walk by at JJ ain't gonna do it. If she is not willing to that, you can bet she is not serious about business. Maybe even sign her up for accounting classes, marketing.

 If she is not willing, I would guess her dream is like 9 year old wanting to open lemonade stand in front of house.

 If you care not to take good advice, then buy her a medium size business. Like Levi 501's, she can "shrink to fit"

[chuang]

OP follow your heart and your head.....after all it's a small investment....if you ask advice from TVF most will say you are stupid trusting your wife/GF.......they will ask you to dump your partner first....

[BruceMangosteen]

19 hours ago, Halfaboy said:

300.000 baht is 30 times a monthly allowance of 10.000 baht. In the end she (and you) will be better off.

 

Have fun....

10,000. Baht a month is never enough. Most young and attractive ladies in Pattaya get at least 100,000. Baht a month and even then run out of money early in the pay period. No mate, you can't begin to do things in a rational manner at your age and with your background. God Bless You.

[oldcarguy]

Who taught all the successful Thai businesses  how to make money ?

 

Did they all take business classes in University ?

 

it just seems that when I revisit shops after years they are still there and doing OK  ,  do they all have Rich Uncles ?