In this time of the American economic crisis (translated to mean = Americans are finally getting smacked in the face with the truth of a most basic law of economics which is that one cannot continue to overspend on meaningless stuff which they actually cannot afford without one day realizing they must pay the bill), the looming $700 billion government bailout (translated to mean = you and me digging into our own pockets to bail out the greedy bankers and corrupt politicians), and the Presidential Debates (translated to mean = a practiced and scripted performance of ego versus rhetoric, which hardly even touches on the original purpose of discovering who is really best suited for the job)….I can’t help but be deeply impressed with the entrepreneurial spirit of the Thais. Unemployment rate spikes. Loss of jobs. No jobs available…. These statements don’t seem to bother many of the Thais. I have loved observing how many of them just go out there and create their own job. For example….
Have a car? Make a big poster with all the most famous tourist spots around town on it, including the airport and then put a sign on your dash that says, “Taxi.” Have a motorbike? Well, now you’re a motorbike taxi driver. Don’t want to be a taxi driver because you prefer a more culinary focused career? Build a storage box on your motorbike and sell any kind of snacks that you could possible think of from it, such as eggs that you bought at the store and hardboiled, fresh roasted peanuts, or a huge range of homemade snacks you bought in bulk at some mysterious outlet (because everyone seems to have the exact same ones). Build a mini bar-b-que instead and drive around selling some grilled chicken or fish balls on a stick. (Don’t ask me exactly what’s in a fish ball. From my basic biology class, I certainly don’t recall that fish have balls, per se. All I know is, they’re in the shape of a ball and stink like fish).
Alternatively, build a contraption that holds ice and sell fresh fruit, ice cream bars, or perhaps you’d like to make and sell the most popular salad in Thailand, Som tum (fresh unripe papaya with shredded carrots, green beans, and tomatoes garnished with peanuts, dried shrimp, fish sauce, lemon juice, and a bit of some mystery sugary sauce for a splash of sweetness to balance the sour of the lemon juice…I love it!)... make it fresh right there on your cart for the enjoyment of the locals and tourists alike!
Don’t have a motorbike? No problem, a regular ole’ bicycle will do just fine. (You’ll just miss out on your potential customers whom are sunbathing on the beach…. But that is fine; there are plenty of hungry customers walking around town that you can target.) Speaking of walking, don’t have a motorbike nor a bicycle? No problem, just tie a basket on each end of a stick, carry it over your shoulders, fill the baskets with local tropical fruit, freshly grilled corn, fried bananas, hard boiled eggs, roasted peanuts… whatever snack suits your fancy, and sell that! Feeling lazy and don’t really want to have to move around? No problem. Just spread out a blanket on a busy sidewalk, buy some sunglasses, ties, jewelry, or any various apparel at some bulk outlet store, display it artfully on your blanket, and sell it to passer-buyers at at least a 300% mark up. Now we’re talking!
Again, if you are desiring a more culinary focused pursuit, find a bank that closes at 5pm and then use the sidewalk in front of it to set up a full fare restaurant, fully stocked with a bar-b-que and ice boxes to keep the drinks and salad fixings cool, and open it for business starting right after the bank closes with your friends and family. With the enticing scents emanating from the bar-b-que, you’ll be sure to even get folks driving by to stop in for a bite!
Can’t find a patch of sidewalk to run your restaurant? No problem! Just use the front room of your house. Or for that matter, sell whatever you want from your house! Be a mini department store, a mini mini-mart, or even a hair salon…or a massage parlor, or a laundromat, or an alterations shop, or… Perhaps you’d prefer to work on the beach? No problem! Just set up your business in the sand under a nice big umbrella to allow for some shade for you and your customers….massages on the beach are a big hit. But hey, you could just buy a bunch of lawn chairs, lay them out nicely each morning, and then charge all the tourists on the beach to use them…meanwhile, set up a little mini-restaurant to sell snacks to your customers as they lounge away the day, willing to pay almost any price for a little snack delivered directly to their lawn chair….Doesn’t that sound nice right now?....Ahhhh….
Now, if you’re really organized, contact a few hundred other like minded entrepreneurs, approach the owner of an empty field near town, or a parking lot, or a street that doesn’t need to be used after 5pm, and set up a weekly or even nightly market, which then becomes a highlighted evening event for all. Locals and tourists alike! Set up an area with table and chairs to allow customers to enjoy a place to sit down as they eat their freshly prepared dinner with their friends and family, and then provide an endless array of items to peruse after dinner….such as knock off sunglasses, illegally copied CDs & DVDs for $5, men’s clothes, women’s clothes, lingerie (hey, why not?), shoes, postcards and mini-buddhas for the tourists, cheap house wares for the locals… If you run a farm, bring all of your meat and produce to sell, which then will allow everyone in town access to fresh, locally grown food to buy on a nightly basis. This will eliminate the need for huge, sterile, chain grocery stores spread all over town, (think: most every town in America, which sell primarily processed food in boxes or that has been picked weeks earlier and then sat for days in crates as its delivered thousands of miles away from where it was originally grown). This also makes grocery shopping a fun, evening event for the whole family, (instead of just another errand to somehow fit in).
The entrepreneurial spirit isn’t only found in the lower class… Another idea is to open up an elegant spa that you originally intended as a weekend resort for all of your wealthy friends around Thailand…but then your sharp entrepreneurial mind asks the question, “Why limit my target market to only Thais? Why not include people from all around the globe?” For your work force, hire locals, (which expect to get paid an extremely small salary…in Western terms that is) but charge extremely high prices (because hey, you’re clients probably wont look at the price much anyway). And then Voila! There you have it….an extremely well run spa with guests from all around the world, and Naturopathic Doctors who are willing to leave their home country and fly half way around the world to work at the spa! Because hey, why not?! (Then write a blog about it so everyone at home can live vicariously through the stories!) More to come!
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