and best to keep your nose clean.
and best to keep your nose clean.
More to owning a bar in Thailand than most of us know, including myself. I owned a bar in a world class ski resort and had a great time. It was a local bar and already established so I did not have to "build" the business. The first thing I did was have the old owners announce that there would be some free beer given out on opening night. They did this for about 3 weeks before I took over the bar. I was 25 years old and thought it would be a good promotion. The night I arrived as the new owner, the line was around the block. The previous owner was there with two of his bartenders and the fun began. Instead of giving away three kegs, we gave away ten and the place was standing room only. This was the best thing I could have done. The next day I would be walking down the street and everyone said, "Hey Rick, how are you? Great party last night."
The things I have learned about a bar, is that it is usually good to purchase an already established bar. This way you do not have to build a clientele and there are always the alcoholics that come in at opening and leave at closing. The next thing is location, which is not anything new to anyone. My bar was at the bottom of main street and all the workers in the restaurants stopped off at my bar after work for a couple of drinks.
Another thing you can do is get involved with the community. I was on the Rugby team and the bar was the team bar during the summer months. Winter was already a lock since it was a well known ski resort.
One more bonus was there was a great restaurant at basement level of my building and my bar became the waiting area. It worked for me since I got free dinners for housing the customers and keeping them happy.
I guess what I am saying is that you need to have several other things going for you if you want to open a bar. You can't just remodel a place and expect everyone to show up. You need several "hooks" to bring the people in and keep them there.
I starting thinking about opening a bar in Thailand the first time I went there back in the 1980s. At that time in Phuket, Patong had a row of "tent bars." They were separated by canvas and you just walked from one to the next until you found a place that you liked and had the prettiest girls. I thought it was great.
I walked around Patong beach and I found a bar owner that wanted to sell. The price was 30,000 baht and I spoke to the owner for several days and was seriously considering it. I was working in Saudi at the time which is why I did not bite. You need to be in a bar you own most of the time, as Terry said, to make sure all is done the way you want it and to make sure the help is not pocketing the money.
Looking back on it, I am glad I did not go forward with my plans and have thought about owning a bar in Thailand many times. My custom bike painter wanted to open a bar/whore house and I told him all the bars in Thailand are whore houses. He wanted a swank place and I mentioned that it would be very tough to compete with the Thais in Thailand.
My advice to anyone wanting to start a bar in Thailand is that you better do all your homework and then rethink things over and over again. How much will you have to pay the BIB? How many other bars are in your vicinity? Are you going to have girls in the bar or not? My personal opinion is that you should always have female bartenders and they should all be 10+. It is one thing getting someone into your bar, but it is another thing to keep them there. What kind of music will you play? Will you serve food (a must for the hungry drunks). Will you have a Thai partner and can you really trust them? How much time will you spend in the bar?
These are just a few question to ask, and there are many more. To start a bar in Thailand is not an easy thing to do, so anyone who has the balls to try, I applaud them. I wish you the best and you never know until you try.
Last edited by rickschoppers; 27-10-2013 at 10:26 PM.
Rick i would say you have never owned a Bar in your life.
^
Then you don't know shit.
When you say compete with local Thais do you mean those bargirls who get their Farang boyfriends to buy them a bar that she can run while he is back in his homeland.
Of course running a profitable bar is feasible with the right skills.
But while i have experience from a customer perspective, I know well enough that it wouldn't be business for me.
I couldn't spend hour after hour being told be customer about "their time in the SAS" and keep a straight face.
I have a low tolerance for BS, listening to that all day would drive me spare, let alone the BS from the staff.
There can’t be good living where there is not good drinking
Peter better to humour them makes them spend more.
I did a visa run to laos and spent spent some time with a Scando who had brought a bar for his wife to run.
After 30 mins he was pleading for me to take it off his hands, he was happy to give it to me if i paid for the stock, "No thanks, I value my sanity"
can see your point, there are some bizarre punters about.
Sorry to disappoint you Jack, but I owned a bar in Park City, Utah during the 1970s and it was very successful. Out of all the bars on main street at that time, only four were able to stay open all year and mine was one of them. The name of the bar was the Forge and it was a good local bar with an established clientele. I added more customers when I played rugby for the town team and many workers on main street stopped by after they finished work each day to unwind.
I am not sure if you are just ignorant or just trying to troll, but you know nothing about my past and my ability to run a bar, so I would keep quiet, if I were you.
Starting a bar in Thailand is very different and I have never owned one in this country. I am not so sure it is the best place to put your money when you are a foreigner unless you are well connected. Either way, I wish the OP luck and wanted him to know he is fighting an uphill battle.
Instead of trying to criticize me, why don't you offer the OP some worthwhile advice?
You never offer advice to someone who is running a business, unless they ask. and then there's a consulting charge what may work for one person may not work for another.
You should know that IF you have ran your own Business.
thats your problem Rick the majority of your posts are offering advice on everything, you should become a counsellor
As a counselor, I would give you free advice to seek help.
its not me that fantasies about owning businesses and being a big shot
bye bye sweety live your dreams
^ Rick is American being a big shot is part of the territory.
I had a friend of mine relocate from Pattaya to Koh Tao and open a bar come restaurant. Not one of those fancy inside Irish or theme bars but a real basic open aired ones.
His wife organized the food side and he ran the Burmese staff and Bar side.
Instant hit from the get go, got all the dive instructors on Board, they would bring there students over, expats hung out there and then there was the walk in traffic.
Away from the tourist area dead smack in the middle of island, not what one would call an ideal location but punters flocked there all the same.
Real smart guy, owner of one of the first Dive shops in Pattaya back in the sixties, had his own offshore cable laying buisiness, could do anything.
What he could not do was look after his health, he was a fat bastard when I met him in 89.
Anyway, sitting in this friggin bar eating roasts dinners and cheese burgers was his undoing I reckon. Plus he liked a drink.
He lasted around 4 years on Tao and one day passed out in the shitter and died on the way to Samui hospital.
We always said that this is what would happen to him and it surely did.
Good guy as well. 62 he was. Dave Doll, Pattaya original.
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...... and this is another one .
Apart from the childish spatting competition between Yasojack and rick - this was shaping up to be a very interesting conversion thread .
With its different elements ....
The building job itself - { always interesting } - the costs - the bodges - the arrival of the mafia - the " tea money " - the tension of will it all become too much? - and then the intriguingnessocity of whether Yaso gets a viable business going ?
But the last news was in October 2 years ago .
So where are you Yaso ?
What happened ?
Photos Photos and story - please !!!
Wasp
He started a new business, online temporary chefs.Originally Posted by Wasp
I confused myself on this one .
And that's damned easy to do .
My query should have been directed to Bannokboy who was the one who started the thread and was undertaking the adventure .
And you were well into it Bannokboy ! Walls broken down ..... people with big hammers employed .
Two years ago .
So did it get done ?
Wasp?
Any proposed updates re the OP?
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