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#Post#: 47--------------------------------------------------
"Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in Pattaya
DIR By: CD Pat
Date: September 24, 2019, 1:04 am
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Typical scenario playing out in Pattaya. Great happy hours at
these places.
(mostly a shophouse down a soi)
How many free beers has he given out to appear wealthy I
wonder....pool tables ain't cheap too
HTML https://www.pattayaunplugged.com/why-do-most-bars-and-restaurants-fail-in-pattaya/
Bill from the UK dreams of living in Pattaya, he will take
larger risks than he would normally because he is addicted to
Pattaya, Bill gets a redundancy package from work and decides
to set up a bar in Pattaya, Bill has no prior business
experience but he has a Thai girlfriend that he assumes knows
everything because she is Thai and hes had alot of practice
sitting in bars.
Bill doesn’t know the true cost of running a business, but he
thinks he knows how much it is to start one. Soon he’s on a
learning curve and his money is lower than he expected.
Bill has worked out all the costs in his head but he hasn’t
factored in many costs that will keep his business strong, going
through low season, fixing unforeseen problems, theft, dodgy
landlords, unexpected tax bills, floods, reinvesting in staff,
paying staff right, training, marketing, protection. Bill has
brought himself a job without knowing it, but he’s not set
aside a fair amount to pay himself.
Bill has no successful business friends but he may think he has,
the problem is that Bills friends tell him to keep his prices
low (market by price) and he is assured he will get an increased
volume of customers. Bill is bullied online and by all of his
friends if he argues that the price should be more, the problem
is that Bills competitors have subsidised pricing because they
are inexperienced business owners and they are simply blaming
the world economy for lack of profits, this leaves no margin
for problems, promoting to keep the business strong, to grow, to
renovate, Bill subsidises his drinks like his competitors which
means dipping into savings, living upstairs, skipping out on
advertising, not paying staff enough, not paying himself, so
Bill has little staff retention, cant afford good staff or to
train and the business suffers.
Bill’s friends point out that Brexit is to blame and he’s
outnumbered by bullies and so-called experts about his pricing,
Bill leaves his prices low, sometimes lowers them, which makes
the pain worse and finally Bill taps out when his savings have
gone.
There are hundreds of Bills arriving weekly to offer subsidised
drinks/food in bars/restaurants. Only 10% of businesses are very
successful in these areas, they know that fair pricing is key
to keeping the business going long term, anyone lowering prices
to attract more customers is hammering the last nails in their
own coffins.
But customers/friends won’t listen because business owners are
outnumbered and they will come and go. All the successful
businesses are priced to last, they will thrive and be around
forever. But if you are looking for cheap drinks, meals, there
are tons of Bill’s around that are making it cheap by suffering
financially. There is a never-ending supply of Bill’s so why
would people care anyway… Please think next time you abuse
business owners for fair pricing that you say you are friends
with. Business owners aren’t a charity, but if they are your
friends please advice them properly.
If they are experienced business owners, they will price it
right, reinvest and strengthen their position. But why should
the average tourist care? There is always another person
opening a business and stringing it along….. but it cannot be
ran as well as someone that makes money and is passionate about
running a good business.
It’s a buyers market, so enjoy it.
(For this article we are assuming that the business provides
value and that the business isn’t a very large one – you can
market by price with a very large business at scale)
#Post#: 48--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: CD Pat
Date: September 24, 2019, 5:50 am
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How my dream of owning a bar in Thailand became a nightmare
I read various forums and message boards a lot and it seems a
lot of folks have a dream of coming to Thailand, opening a bar
and retiring happily with a steady income from the bar. You see
some successful bars and bar owners around (although it’s less
than it used to be with the current exchange rates) and think,
hey, I can do that. It looks like fun, sitting in a bar,
drinking, chatting and having a good time every day surrounded
by beautiful women.
Right? Well, I thought so.
But turned out I was dead wrong. This is my story.
Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I’m in my late
fifties, retired early from successful real estate in the past
and have been coming to Thailand since I was about thirty. I’m
married now to a Thai woman and have one child, as well as an
adult child from a previous marriage. We have been married for
about a decade and although we have had our ups and downs I
would say for the most part we are happy. I still live in
Thailand, although relocated to Hua Hin about five years ago.
Like I said above, when I first moved here full time, about ten
years ago, I decided along with my wife to open a bar in
Pattaya. For a few reasons, I don’t want to name the bar but it
was a basic beer bar located in a large complex that many folks
know in Central Pattaya.
Ten years ago the exchange rates were higher and, at least to
me, it seemed that there were more tourists in town and the town
was more lively. I had read some of the warnings from other
folks that the best way to make a small fortune in Thailand is
to start with a large one but I felt I would be different (Don’t
we all?). I’m a people person, I like a few drinks, I have been
successful in real estate and understand finance and my wife was
willing to help me run the bar.
All good, right?
Wrong.
First of all, nothing prepared me for the hours. I thought that
I could pop my head in and out and the bar would basically run
itself with our mamasan and our lineup of girls. My wife was
also present often but, at first, we thought we could let our
mamasan basically run the bar. My wife did the hiring and
recruiting and made the mistake of hiring her friends. I’ve now
read this is a common issue.
The truth is, if I wasn’t at the bar, it failed. Some nights I
would be lucky to make one thousand baht if I decided to take a
night off without being there hosting. That was with over a
dozen girls working for me most nights. So, I quickly began
working seven days a week….much more than I had before my
retirement.
We opened around 3 or 4 in the afternoon and usually closed at 3
or 4 in the morning. As time went on, I would need to be there
every hour of the day or something would inevitably go wrong,
even with our mamasan, who in retrospect was a poor hire and a
large root of the problem. So, here I am, working twelve hours
a day, seven days a week, with no free time to myself, living
the dream.
I enjoyed the customers, at first. As I said, I like to think I
am a friendly guy, but running a bar even the friendliest and
most extroverted folks are tested. It became a dreg, my own
personal nightmare, coming in every day and having to entertain
and be the source of enjoyment for a group of generally drunk,
generally boring people. I thought that the girls would be the
source of entertainment but it turned out that many folks just
want other people to talk to in English and so many folks
started coming only to see me and ignored my staff.
I lost count of the number of times a drunk didn’t want to pay
his bill or wanted to challenge me to a fight over a small
amount. Some of these were even so-called friends of mine.
The drinking caught up to me. I enjoyed drinking, but now
drinking felt like a job. I would come in hungover and these
so-called friends would want me to do shots with them. I’m a
cider, beer and now and then whiskey drinker, but these folks
seemed to get some sort of devilish pleasure off of me getting
drunk and downing drinks I didn’t want to drink.
The hours and drinking began to put a serious strain on the
relationship between me and my wife. I became verbally abusive
and lost sight of who I was. I began to consider my drinking
companions as more important than my wife, who at this point
mostly stayed at home with our young child while I got drunk at
the bar every single night.
With the rift between me and my wife and a lazy mamasan who for
some reason I continued to employ, we lost most of our girls. We
always seemed to hire more, but retaining them was a nightmare.
I’ve seen the term herding cats used to manage Thai girls but I
would say that is generous. It’s more like herding rocks, who
don’t want to listen, don’t want to move and have no respect for
the owner. If I had known some Thai or spent time directly
managing them, I might have done better.
This tale doesn’t even begin to get into the number of times
local officials demanded more cash from me simply to stay open,
false promises and poor maintenance from repairmen, or the
constant headache of bar politics in which the owner of the beer
bar near me seemed to hate my guts simply because I was busier
than him and would constantly try to sabotage me or challenge me
to fights.
So, here I am, stuck with the same group of so-called friends
every day, who in reality were takers (Often asking for us to
order free food, complaining about everything in Thailand, not
buying lady drinks, pushing me to give them free drinks, etc)
and not true friends of valuable customers. I was working over
eighty hours a week at the bar, my relationship with my wife was
in the gutter and I thought I could fix it if I just worked a
bit longer, etc. We were down to about four girls near the end,
all over forty and friends with the mamasan.
One night, I had enough of the mamasan and her poor performance
and fired her on the spot. She had been deserving of it for a
long time, but I made the mistake of doing so drunk. She left
and took the entire staff with her.
I came into the bar the next day without a single staff member
and I was well aware that this was, in many ways, my fault, but
I wasn’t prepared for the sheer number of problems, politics,
girl issues, bribes, hours, drinking and toxic environment. I
had enough. I went home and had a long, sober chat with my wife
and we ended up closing and selling the bar.
I write this not to scare folks off, as its clear some folks
here do run some successful bars. However, in talking to many
others, my story is not that unique and it seems the majority of
bars fail. I was doing this when the town was much busier, I
couldn’t imagine anyone wanting to do so in this current
environment of lower tourism arrivals, currency exchange issues,
etc.
For me, closing the bar was the best decision I made and I’m
sure there are other folks currently stuck in the same nightmare
I was, I would encourage them to sell and move on with your life
and be happy as well. I have now repaired my relationship with
my wife and child and relocated to Hua Hin where I would say
life is much better. I love this country, and love living here,
but you could not pay me enough to ever run a bar in Thailand
again.
I hope you enjoyed my story.
#Post#: 55--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: Smeg
Date: September 26, 2019, 12:08 am
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Sounds like you won't be opening a bar anytime soon then Pat.
Such a missed opportunity, not.
#Post#: 57--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: CD Pat
Date: September 26, 2019, 12:58 am
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I could legally work there and own it
Apart from that I doubt I could be bothered.
These guys seem to think theirs is different despite the track
record of failed farang place
#Post#: 66--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: Mr Tinkles
Date: September 26, 2019, 9:56 am
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Talking to a man in his 50's from Millwall yesterday that
admitted he was a football holigan :D He owned a bar in Pattaya
for 18 months 5 years ago before selling up. A bit cagey as to
why he sold up but its likely for the reasons described above.
Travels 1/2 dozen times here every year to see his girlfriend,
doesn't want to live here but happy to visit
#Post#: 79--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: Smeg
Date: September 26, 2019, 3:11 pm
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I can't imagine what would drive anyone to open a bar in
Thailand other than the mists fall and they imagine themselves
in a paradise of beer and pussy for the rest of their days.
#Post#: 82--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: CD Pat
Date: September 26, 2019, 10:51 pm
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That was understandable maybe 20yrs ago when Pattaya was a
bargain fun place when the white man was king of the pile
But no way nowadays. An idiot and their wallets are soon parted
not long after their teerak's legs first parted
#Post#: 122--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: Wankenstein
Date: September 28, 2019, 3:59 am
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If I compare it to another career/business path, like
programming... if you had no background in it in your own
country, how would you begin to be able to offer it as a
service?
You need to know all the stages of the workflow from start to
finish, and what resources you need, and what realistic
parameters you're operating in; most of all, you need a least
one client to start with, and to increase that over time by
building a good reputation.
Transfer this to running a pub... people think it's easy because
you walk in and just see someone standing behind a bar pouring
drinks and taking money, and that seems to be all there is to
it, but like any business, there's loads of stuff "under the
bonnet" that goes on and needs to be done right.
I might fancy running a pub in the UK, but I've known people who
have and it sounds exhausting - it's a lifestyle choice. Doing
it in a foreign country, you're really need to know what you
were doing, and I'm sure there are foreigners in Thailand who do
know the business and treat it as one.
#Post#: 267--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: Mr Tinkles
Date: October 18, 2019, 7:05 am
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Popped into a beach side bar in Bohol Philippines in the
afternoon & saw the same pattern as outlined by OP. Farang pub
owner having the 6 hour afternoon happy hour with his half dozen
regular 'mates' just lounging around sipping on their lagers,
some drinks cut to 50peso ($1US) to get some revenue in, at the
same time I saw him shout the regulars a free shot of rum each.
Can't be making a lot of money during the happy hours. Perhaps
it changes at night, wasn't there to find out
#Post#: 268--------------------------------------------------
Re: "Owners" of bars and restaurants that fail in
Pattaya
DIR By: CD Pat
Date: October 18, 2019, 9:28 am
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Many farangs open bars in sex tourist ghettos to keep an eye on
their teerak, so she doesn't wander back to her beer bar while
he toils behind the bar counting check bins.
Teerak becomes 'mamasan' employing her mates who sit about, or
give Dave the dustman from Wigan a head massage for 100 baht.
Dave is a friend of the owner, until he closes the place down of
course.
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