Why I'd Buy a Business in Pattaya Rather Than Start One

If you want to run a business in Pattaya, my advice is to buy one that's already trading rather than start from scratch. The main reason is time. Starting from nothing takes a lot of it, and the risk is much higher.

You don't know if there's a market

When you open something new, you're guessing. You don't know whether there's a market for what you're selling until you've already spent the money on the lease, the fit-out and the staff. A business that's already trading has answered that question for you. You can see it works and you can see the customers coming through the door.

Building a customer base takes about three years

This is the part people underestimate, and I've been guilty of it myself. People assume that because they've opened the doors, customers will turn up. They don't, or not in the numbers you need.

My rule of thumb is that it takes about three years to build a core of regulars. By that I mean people who come back religiously and have formed a habit, so that you're just their go-to place. That's three years of paying rent and wages while you build it. When you buy a business, you're buying those three years.

Will the regulars stay when you take over?

It depends on the type of business and how it was run. If it was founder-led and the owner was the face of the place, you will lose some customers at first.

Hemingways Jomtien used to be a restaurant and bar called Shenanigans. The manager there was a guy called Stuart. He wasn't the owner, but he was very good at his job and very popular, and people went there to see him. When we took over, some of them stopped coming because he wasn't running it any more.

Within a few months most of them had come back, and we didn't do anything in particular to win them back. A few took a bit longer to warm to the place, but it wasn't nearly as long as you'd think.

The reason is habit. If you've been going somewhere regularly, the habit stays even after the person you went for has gone. You don't consciously decide to go back. Your habits just take over again. So when you buy a business, you're buying the habit as much as the business.

It can still go wrong

Buying doesn't remove the risk. More businesses fail than succeed anywhere in the world, and here you're also dealing with a different country and a different culture. But you're starting with customers, staff and a business that works, and that's a much better place to start from than nothing.

This is part of my series on buying a business in Pattaya: why buy rather than start, how to value a business, leases, landlords and paperwork and taking over: the first few months. For the basics, including foreign ownership rules, read starting or buying a business in Pattaya.