dddave Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 Methinks troll, but in case you are serious, use the search tool, catagory: "nightlife", subject: "Cathouse", Search post one year. Read the posts regarding the sale of Cathouse for an education in buying a bar in Bangkok. :)+ :: Soon after: :yikes: :o :tophat: :doah: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted October 7, 2005 Report Share Posted October 7, 2005 of course a lot of fellow boardmembers (and i recognize always some old hands throw in their same perceptions each time this topic pops up) will take the piss out of you for such a question! probably an act of enviousness as they want to own a bar in LOS for a long time but never dared to get serious on that! there are a couple of bar owners on this board who post more or less regularily: Tomcat, Torrenova, Simon(something) (not sure if he has been banned), edenpapa and the one who owns Tony on SC (can't remember the barname); there are some more but they are not disclosing their identity. drop them a private mail to hook up. on your next visits to such kind of bars ask a BG who the owner is and talk him/her up. there are very successful bar owners and then there are hordes of foreigners without much knowledge about the biz and the environment coming to LOS opening a bar for a living or for their BG-GF and vanishing within a couple of months. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 Thanks to some of you for your advice, I have managed a bar here in Oz before but Thailand, no doubt has a different set of rules and regulations that we may not be aware of. I'm thinking more of government red tape and any hidden ( dare I say it ) corruption that may bring us unstuck. Of course we are researching what we buy but we are not planning to make a million dollars, just a small bar, gives us a good excuse to visit a couple of times a year and who knows, maybe make the permanant move, Lapaz62 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whosyourdaddy Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 I know a few bar owners, about 40% were successful. The successful ones tend to be real hard asses and money driven. The others tend to have stories of the staff ripping you off, corruption and other problems that affected their businesses. You can certainly make it in the bar business, but you need location, money for advertizing and be able to be at the bar all hours of day and night. Good luck Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pattaya127 Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 remember that without a work permit, you can't be caught doing anything remotely concerned with managing, accounting, and active supervising. Old hands with some connections may do just that, i guess, but as a newbie, you are prone to denounciation, and if the cops decide you were caught working, they'll have the last word. Basically they won't come to check if that's the case, but to shake you down, pure and simple. IMO, not IME, though.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 A fool and his money are quickly seperated. I was in a bar in Soi Eric in Phuket in june. My mate and I were drinking with his girl when his girl told us that the female owner of the bar was looking to score a customer as her husband and financial backer for the bar had slept with another girl. the wife sat with a japanese fella and they were chatting away when hubby arrived. he was quite pissed and even more pissed off. He started barking and getting in the faces of all the patrons who were just relaxing with a beer when he gave his wife a good old fashioned whack to the chest. all the farngs in the bar were on the verge of clobbering this guy when a group of thai guys came to the bar and told him he better leave. the thais looked quite scared as the guy was a reasonabely large guy and was clearly not in the mood for someone to start something with him. anyway, the conversation with the wife went on and apparently she had been ripping him off for quite sometime. now theres a surprise. only a fool or someone with plenty of money to burn would start up a bar in thailand. besides how boring would it be to spend years chained to a bar that propbably isnt going to make money and you couldnt take your eye off the cash register for a second or the money would dissapear. then you have the police, thai mafia, BG's and their bullshit, drunk farangs, thai politicians who might grow a conscious at anytime and change the law, closing time gets even earlier, etc etc etc do something more constructive with your money...... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nervous_Dog Posted October 8, 2005 Report Share Posted October 8, 2005 Lopaz, given you've been in the industry before, I would suggest you would stand a better chance than the average mug. Goo about your reearch as you would in Australia, contact some business people like sunbelt who may/may not be able to help you with rules and regs, whatever they tell double check, and see how you go DOG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted October 10, 2005 Report Share Posted October 10, 2005 I am probably not really adding anything to this discussion, but I have known some bar owners pretty well over the years. Some are very successful and others fall by the wayside. The ones that fail are as a rule boozers and do it more as a "fun thing" to do. The successful ones run it like a business. Many of them will not drink in their own bars.. for example, a few of them get together at Fanny's and have a drink in the early evening .. partially to just get away from their own bar (it is a 24/7 kind of business) and also to exchange ideas, etc.. If you can get a Thai partner (preferably someone in the police) and cut them in for part of the action, you will increase your chances of success. Finding a good Thai partner is not easy .. Frankly, unless this is a lifestyle that you really enjoy, fergitaboutit .. you will probably burn out in no time .. reselling bars is a losing proposition .. although there are some guys who make a nice living selling their bars now and then to guys who think it would be neat to own a bar .. then buy it back for pennies on the dollar .. or just repossess if they carried part of the purchase price as a loan .. You can make a damn good living if you do the job right.. but is is a full time JOB and you better plan on being on the JOB all the time.. esp at first.. everyone will be trying to pick your pockets ... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kwai_hai Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 Oaktoad said:The successful ones run it like a business.. If you can get a Thai partner .... Finding a good Thai partner is not easy .. Frankly, unless this is a lifestyle that you really enjoy, fergitaboutit .. you will probably burn out in no time... everyone will be trying to pick your pockets ... Oaktoad - true words of wisdom here mate. Regards, Kwai Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samak Posted October 11, 2005 Report Share Posted October 11, 2005 true words of wisdom? are you also already burned out, kwai_hai? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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