starting a new business in thailand.

[fran01]

Hi, I was wondering what is the steps like for starting a restaurant business here in thailand legally. which is the right place to start looking / asking for information example like which government agency or department ? thanks

[speedtripler]

Best advice is don't.... 

Farang Busineses in Thailand rarely go well

But I know a couple of exceptions if you are determined enough.. 

[observer90210]

..and you might have to shell out quite a bit of profits for "tea money" to god knows who!!!...

[dotpoom]

We started at City Hall.

[seancbk]

Do you have experience running owning and operating restaurants outside of Thailand?

If you do then you will be fine.

Suggest you join some of the Facebook groups for Foodies in Bangkok and start asking there.

 

[DGS1244]

Simple answer DON'T, will not bode well in Thailand. I would suggest dome 90 % fail and loose money.

[NoshowJones]

7 hours ago, observer90210 said:

..and you might have to shell out quite a bit of profits for "tea money" to god knows who!!!...

We all know who will be first in the queue if they see an opportunity.

[seancbk]

Simple answer is don't unless you know what you are doing.

 

People who know what they are doing usually succeed.

People who just think they can open a restaurant because their Thai GF or wife can cook usually fail, or at best make a small living working damn hard.  

 

[Juan B Tong]

If you haven't heard it before, there is the  story about the foreigner who came to Thailand and opened a restaurant.  After a time he sold it and returned home with a couple of hundred thousand dollars.

 

Of course he came to Thailand with a million dollars!

[williamgeorgeallen]

business is extreamly difficult in thailand. i have had my business in thailand for 9 years and even though it has been profitable enough to live off it mostly was a pain in the ass. i still have it but it looks like it is now making very little money and i cant even sell it so i may end up loosing my initial investment.  i would strongly advise you to not have any business in thailand. PM me if you want to discuss this.

Edited June 28, 2017 by williamgeorgeallen

[TravelerEastWest]

2 hours ago, seancbk said:

Do you have experience running owning and operating restaurants outside of Thailand?

If you do then you will be fine.

Suggest you join some of the Facebook groups for Foodies in Bangkok and start asking there.

 

Exactly.

[Lucky mike]

This is probably the home of shattered dreams for budding restauranters How do you make a small fortune ? Start with a big one......

[Suradit69]

3 hours ago, possum1931 said:

We all know who will be first in the queue if they see an opportunity.

Probably the same sort of people who "allowed" so many builders in UK to use flammable cladding on high-rise buildings in England ??

 

Lot of blind eyes suddenly able to see as the tea money stops flowing there:

 

Quote

 

Flammable cladding has been found on 75 high-rise buildings across 26 local authority areas tested in the wake of the Grenfell fire disaster.

The so-called combustibility test has been failed by every building examined so far, Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said.

 

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/06/27/flammable-cladding-found-75-uk-high-rises

[bangkokairportlink]

Do not listen anybody here, just do it, but not in your name, only Thai girlfriend/wife name.

 

Manage the business but do not work there.

 

If you know how to manage any business you will know how to manage a restaurant, but only if your girlfriend/wife knows what means worming 12 hours daily.

 

Otherwise they are right, just give up !

 

 

[Suradit69]

19 minutes ago, bangkokairportlink said:

only if your girlfriend/wife knows what means worming 12 hours daily.

If she knows what "worming 12 hours daily" means, could she let me know.

 

I know of some presumably successful restaurants that open only for midday and evening dining hours. 

 

 

 

Edited June 28, 2017 by Suradit69

[khunPer]

I became unfortunately quite involved in a friend of mine, who started a restaurant. There might be other ways to do it – we had a law-firm to help with the set-up – and it was fairly easy to get done with (little extra in a white envelope for the kind officer grating permission for selling alcohol).

 

As foreigner you will need to establish a Thai company limited, which in itself can be little challenging, as you need at least one Thai partner owing minimum 51 percent of the business. There are various ways to limit the risk, but you need a lawyer help you with the best solution at present.

 

If you wish to work yourself in the restaurant business – which I will advise to do, if it's your money – you need a minimum of 2 million baht nominal shareholder capital in the company limited, and a Work Permit for the alien worker (yourself), and a minimum of 4 Thai employees. The work a foreigner can do is limited to management, or other position that cannot be performed by Thais. To obtain an extension of stay in the Kingdom based on work, you'll need to be paid a minimum salary of around 40,000  to 50,000 baht a month (depending of from where you originates, and the actual salary level).

 

You'll need a permission to sell alcohol, and you may need other registrations by local authorities. Your lawyer, or accountant – you'll need an accountant for the company, and an accountant will often be able to help with registration work, and the often needed "meeting reports" in Thai for various applications, such as opening bank account and applying for permissions – should be able to advise about what's needed in your area.

 

If you are married to a Thai, you can make a partnership with your wife (I don't know enough to give advises), which is a more easy business construction than company limited, and I think only require 2 Thai employees, of which the wife can be one, for your Work Permit.

 

If a Thai open the business alone, it can be just a personal business. 

 

Based of my experience with my friend, don't expect it to be an easy task; it requires a lot of Work – and a (relative) lot money, depending of where you are located, and the concept of the restaurant – my friend unfortunately did not do that well. Even he had many really good ideas and the intention of creating something little special, he did not work hard enough for the project, and spend to much time holidaying on the beach. I know a number of foreigners that have been doing restaurant business, some (few) has been extremely successful; some has survived for a while (often a few years), before giving up; and some lasted only six month, or less, before more-or-less loosing their investment.

 

So just to add a personal advise: Think well, before you head into restaurant business – especially if you have no prior restaurant management experience – I wish you good luck with your project...

[Saladin]

55 minutes ago, bangkokairportlink said:

Do not listen anybody here, just do it, but not in your name, only Thai girlfriend/wife name.

 

Manage the business but do not work there.

 

If you know how to manage any business you will know how to manage a restaurant, but only if your girlfriend/wife knows what means worming 12 hours daily.

 

Otherwise they are right, just give up !

 

 

Good advice. Starting a business anywhere in the world is difficult. It's a safe bet that most of the contributors on TV have never taken a business risk in their life and try to justify it by pouring cold water on anybody with the guts to give it a go.

[seancbk]

24 minutes ago, khunPer said:

I became unfortunately quite involved in a friend of mine, who started a restaurant. There might be other ways to do it – we had a law-firm to help with the set-up – and it was fairly easy to get done with (little extra in a white envelope for the kind officer grating permission for selling alcohol).

 

As foreigner you will need to establish a Thai company limited, which in itself can be little challenging, as you need at least one Thai partner owing minimum 51 percent of the business. There are various ways to limit the risk, but you need a lawyer help you with the best solution at present.

 

If you wish to work yourself in the restaurant business – which I will advise to do, if it's your money – you need a minimum of 2 million baht nominal shareholder capital in the company limited, and a Work Permit for the alien worker (yourself), and a minimum of 4 Thai employees. The work a foreigner can do is limited to management, or other position that cannot be performed by Thais. To obtain an extension of stay in the Kingdom based on work, you'll need to be paid a minimum salary of around 40,000  to 50,000 baht a month (depending of from where you originates, and the actual salary level).

 

You'll need a permission to sell alcohol, and you may need other registrations by local authorities. Your lawyer, or accountant – you'll need an accountant for the company, and an accountant will often be able to help with registration work, and the often needed "meeting reports" in Thai for various applications, such as opening bank account and applying for permissions – should be able to advise about what's needed in your area.

 

If you are married to a Thai, you can make a partnership with your wife (I don't know enough to give advises), which is a more easy business construction than company limited, and I think only require 2 Thai employees, of which the wife can be one, for your Work Permit.

 

If a Thai open the business alone, it can be just a personal business. 

 

Based of my experience with my friend, don't expect it to be an easy task; it requires a lot of Work – and a (relative) lot money, depending of where you are located, and the concept of the restaurant – my friend unfortunately did not do that well. Even he had many really good ideas and the intention of creating something little special, he did not work hard enough for the project, and spend to much time holidaying on the beach. I know a number of foreigners that have been doing restaurant business, some (few) has been extremely successful; some has survived for a while (often a few years), before giving up; and some lasted only six month, or less, before more-or-less loosing their investment.

 

So just to add a personal advise: Think well, before you head into restaurant business – especially if you have no prior restaurant management experience – I wish you good luck with your project...

 

 

Good advice.

The important thing is, if you have no prior experience running a restaurant, then Thailand is not the best place to try and figure it out.

If on the other hand you have extensive experience doing it outside of Thailand then by all means do it here, your chances of success are much higher.  

Most of the naysayers on here probably have no experience working in F&B, let alone running a successful restaurant.

 

 

[NoshowJones]

4 hours ago, Suradit69 said:

Probably the same sort of people who "allowed" so many builders in UK to use flammable cladding on high-rise buildings in England ??

 

Lot of blind eyes suddenly able to see as the tea money stops flowing there:

 

http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/06/27/flammable-cladding-found-75-uk-high-rises

Sorry mate, but I'm a bit puzzled as to what your reply means where starting a new business in Thailand is concerned. Maybe I have missed something somewhere.

[Mister T]

20 hours ago, fran01 said:

Hi, I was wondering what is the steps like for starting a restaurant business here in thailand legally. which is the right place to start looking / asking for information example like which government agency or department ? thanks

What type of restaurant and proposed location?

[kurtmartens]

On 6/28/2017 at 2:57 PM, Saladin said:

Good advice. Starting a business anywhere in the world is difficult. It's a safe bet that most of the contributors on TV have never taken a business risk in their life and try to justify it by pouring cold water on anybody with the guts to give it a go.

You took the words right out of my mouth.  As soon as I saw this post, I knew the OP was just going to get message after message saying don't start a business here ... nothing ventured, nothing gained and just because some the the TV posters haven't been successful doesn't mean the OP won't  Instead of being negative I really wish folks would provide sound advice.

[seancbk]

10 hours ago, kurtmartens said:

On 6/28/2017 at 2:57 PM, Saladin said:

Good advice. Starting a business anywhere in the world is difficult. It's a safe bet that most of the contributors on TV have never taken a business risk in their life and try to justify it by pouring cold water on anybody with the guts to give it a go.

You took the words right out of my mouth.  As soon as I saw this post, I knew the OP was just going to get message after message saying don't start a business here ... nothing ventured, nothing gained and just because some the the TV posters haven't been successful doesn't mean the OP won't  Instead of being negative I really wish folks would provide sound advice.

 

Thank you.  

 

[moonseeker]

Listen to the people who say Don't Do It.  A nightmare running a business here. Talk to people who run businesses. MS>

[TommyTucker]

It might be an idea to confirm a few points so that Members with experience in running a restaurant can answer/help you.

Are you married (legally) to a Thai ?
What kind of visa are you currently holding?
Will you be at the restaurant everyday?
Where are you thinking of opening a restaurant?
What type of restaurant are you thinking of starting.

There are many restaurants that have failed soon after opening, but there are a few successes. In Bangkok there is the Smoking Pug, a hugely successful American restaurant run by a lovely American couple. There is also Cocotte, another very successful restaurant run by a French couple.
Both of these started from scratch in the last few years and are currently in the top 10 restaurants of Bangkok on TripAdvisor!


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

[MrSnow]

10 hours ago, TommyTucker said:

It might be an idea to confirm a few points so that Members with experience in running a restaurant can answer/help you.

Are you married (legally) to a Thai ?
What kind of visa are you currently holding?
Will you be at the restaurant everyday?
Where are you thinking of opening a restaurant?
What type of restaurant are you thinking of starting.

There are many restaurants that have failed soon after opening, but there are a few successes. In Bangkok there is the Smoking Pug, a hugely successful American restaurant run by a lovely American couple. There is also Cocotte, another very successful restaurant run by a French couple.
Both of these started from scratch in the last few years and are currently in the top 10 restaurants of Bangkok on TripAdvisor!


Sent from my iPad using Thaivisa Connect

 

Those are two examples of successful restaurants.   There are many many others.  The key is having been a restaurant owner before coming to Thailand and having a clue how to run a successful F&B business.   

 

[MrSnow]

14 hours ago, moonseeker said:

Listen to the people who say Don't Do It.  A nightmare running a business here. Talk to people who run businesses. MS>

 

Why listen to people who had no idea what they were doing or what they are talking about?

Talk to successful people.

 

[TommyTucker]

 
Those are two examples of successful restaurants.   There are many many others.  The key is having been a restaurant owner before coming to Thailand and having a clue how to run a successful F&B business.   

 

I know of a couple who own and run a successful restaurant.
Amazing that neither of them had any experience of owning or running a restaurant previously.
This is an exception to the general rule I admit, but it shows with passion, hard graft and a little bit of luck, it is possible.

[fran01]

thanks for all the advice from all. i understand that everyone meant well whatever the reason given. been involve in the hotel & restaurant business since 18 years old where i started working as young waiter in the hotel in singapore for nearly 12 years then another 11 years plus in privately run chain restaurant also in singapore. so i do know how difficult it's to start & run a restaurant. still running through ideas but definitely will starts small where it won't take a huge amount of money involved. but 1 thing i do understand very well is that here even if you have a work permit one is not allowed to be physically involve in working only managing the business thats make it very difficult. but i do wondered how about those foreign chef who starts their own restaurant - do they do cook in the kitchen since the law say you can't right ? anyone care to share how this overcome ? thanks