Stickman Readers' Submissions August 5th, 2017

You Think I Don’t Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like A Millionaire

One of the most tedious things I’ve found in Thailand is the poor service in some stores and restaurants. I dare to think how hard it would be open a business in Thailand with such a labor force. Even if someone spent a good amount of money to train staff would they perform as required to give a good level of service especially for the foreigners on their vacations?

My biggest and hardest quest would be building a business where the Thai labor force will be a minor factor. Automated factories maybe? But even so, who will control the automated machines and the controllers? Building a factory will not come cheap and I believe government restrictions and laws would be an issue.

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Online businesses are already too crowded and I believe are not in a high demand nowadays. Being a Vlogger gives some status but the payoff is low if someone only depend on Youtube monetization. <I wouldn’t be so sure, some make very good $$Stick> New Vloggers lacking ideas are condemning to failure future projects before they see the light of the day. Most of them are using the same old formula and that’s why most of them are failing or not having the desired outcome. Asking for donations looks rude and can turn off most of the target market. there are many cases of relatively little success with Vlogging and I subscribe to 2 or 3 characters who I have followed for years. After a few months I get tired because they started to loop and can’t get away from preconceived ideas and the same old stuff. Many have followed a script that comes around the internet and have success. Bangkok112 and Bangkok69 are 2 characters who have found a winning formula and are never boring. I can watch the most of their videos and sometimes even more than once. One case of big success is Mark Wiens and his eatology Vlog and his well-known quote, “Mai phet, mai khin”. This guy is a huge success! He’s making good money with his Vlog and his site where he sells some merchandising. He even edited a book or 2 about what he likes more: food! He had struggled for years on a tight budget and now he already has sponsors. Finally it started to pay off. This guy was persistent for a decade or so and he got rewarded. There are other kinds of Vloggers I particularly don’t like. They mostly ask for donations to support their way of life in Thailand making private videos for their supporters. They are the biggest cynics and hypocrites I have ever seen. All they really want is paid vacations in a tropical place. Their Vlog content sucks most of the time.

Stickman’s site looks outdated even with the facelift that occurred late last year. It doesn’t have the looks but ot does have the right content and that’s why it still has a lot of loyal followers. It can be rated as a relatively successful site. It could have much more improvements and new features but his decision was to keep things looking the same, what is a decent decision. He’s keeping up with the winning formula, because sometimes when you start making a lot of changes you can blow out your business. Some sites compete with him with similar names which is odd to me, but they are failing because don’t have the right contents. It looks like a collection of stories about Thailand withdrawn from local and international press. Even so, some of those types sites are relatively successful.

Recently, I learnt that to have strategical planning you need a market analysis first and most of the businesses are lacking that click. In my country is not unusual to see 2 or 3 shops of the same business branch within meters of distance. Sooner or later 1 or 2 or even all 3 shops will close. Depending on the business some questions should be asked:

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– Who is your target market?
– What are their needs?
– Who can provide the raw materials (if needed) or sell your goods?
– Are the prices reasonable for the region?
– What’s the maintenance fee and rents if applicable?
– What is my margin of profit?
– It is doable?

It is doable should be the first question asked. Some people think with their heart when comes the time to open a business. It should be a rational decision and not emotional. This is where Thais can fail and the foreigners operating in Thailand fail. By nature, Thais are emotional. I remember some stories I read in the press about how emotional Thais can be and how frustrated they can get if things go wrong. That’s why they aren’t very disciplined in their work.

This year the junta started talking about Thailand 4.0. Remember one submission of mine talking about one big shot (Prayut himself) talking on Thai TV about Thailand 3.0 last year and how it’s a plan for the next 20 years? After about 1 year of planning Thailand 3.0 is made, they are starting to plan Thailand 4.0? Don’t have any patches like Thailand 3.1.4 in between, for example?

Thai people have a lack of focus and when the lack of focus starts with their own government, how can they expect their subjects will be focused on improving the country?

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Having ambition is one thing, having a leg bigger than his footsteps is another completely different thing. The same could happen with business in Thailand. Baby steps to success? Surely not! Knowing the steps needed and being proactive are big advantages. First, the need to understanding the bureaucracy and the Thai laws are mandatory. But, like always in Thailand, has other factors you can’t control, like corruption, laziness in the public sector and last but not least: “Thainess” or the Thai way of do things. Thais, by definition, are lazy. I don’t know many hard workers there are in Thailand. There may be some, but I don’t know them and I surely don’t know where to find them neither.

One thing I know is that for me to invest in a business in Thailand I need to make big prospects first and eliminate the labor force as much as I can. They are hard to train and don’t have any curiosity to deepen any subject until full understanding of the reason, in other words: intellectual curiosity they don’t have! In this particular aspect of Thai society I agree with some readers and contributors of this site, regardless of what other readers might think or their own experiences might tell them.

I can’t see many businesses branches where I can apply my ideas and concepts except the industrial factories and that kind of business is not for me. I can’t run a factory! I don’t have the experience needed and don’t have any knowledge of the industrialization process and standards.

Some ideas will pop up in the future, I am sure. Although I already had some ideas I can’t put them to paper yet because of the perception of corruption regarding Thai authorities.

The author can be contacted at : ky0t0_1981@hotmail.com

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