roamer

OK, some info.

Billboard printing is an asset intensive business, and has several levels, as other posters mention.  At the bottom end, doing basic lettering and diecut single colour stickers with a plotter cutter up to massive oversized high resolution lightbox skins using 60m baht printers and fancy controllers.

At every level, the most important thing is connection to your customer base; as a foreigner you immediately cut down your ability to deal with clients by a factor of 100 unless you speak fluent Thai and can handle all the stuff like Thai fonts, proofing, legal regulations etc.  The idea of sticking up temporary signage (used a lot in the property industry) or looking at all the bill boards out there and thinking there is a bunch of work you could get is not true; almost all those services the printer and supplier of media is one and the same; JCD, Maco, Rightman etc all have their own access to printing so you won't get any of that work; there is indeed a ton of work there but none for the little one man band shop.  If you want to know further detail, actually it is quite common to sell the media (say 6 months) with a requirement that the printing is done at a certain price per sqm as part of the same contract; going further the reason for this is often that the landlord splits the billboard revenue 50 50 or some other arrangement with the media company...so guess what the media company does they lower the price per month and bump up the cost per sqm.

Setting up in a small shophouse, doing lettering for cars, boats, company signs etc, yes there is ok money in it and it's not hard to set up at that level and do ok business, but it is really only leveraging labour; the cost per sqm is VERY standardised for each grade so you will be buying the same 3M or Chinese sourced sticker material, printing and/or die cutting, then applying, for 400b, 500b, 600b, 900b, 1200b, 1500b per sqm approx, and off you go.  People will develop a relationship with you if you good, straight, accurate work and deliver on time, and so that helps, but won't enable you to bump your rates up as it is a highly cost driven business.

The biggest work; huge oversized billboards, I struggle to see how you would get it unless you really invest in very impressive unseen in Thailand machinery then go and pitch to the media houses....an example of a firm at this end of the market would be Pro Decal located in Yannawa/Rama 3 area; if you were to ask them to print you a 2m sticker of some sort  and go and pick up yourself then you can see the investment they have in machinery (I would guess 200m baht of equipment) and staff (20+?).  At that end they are doing the big high DPI skins used at the airport, lightboxes, luxury brand facades, etc all the way down to the lettering for a single colour shop house sign advertising Somchai Dry Cleaning.

Like anything, any business you can do if you understand the concepts of building a client base, investing in equipment and staff, delivering a superior client experience....;however it isn't one that stands out as being massively profitable.

Unlike the beer bar and 6 room guest house or Thai Restuarant sporting a name like Peter and Lek's Cafe.  Which I am sure are vastly profitable.

Thailand and education are 2 words which cannot exist in the same sentence.

Pib, on 2012-04-12 11:05:15, said:

May I add a few qualifiers to your accurate quote?
Endemic corruption, political instability and governments' indolence to prepare for and/or enact effective plans to lessen the effect of known seasonal disasters such a floods. The inaction of Thailand to the Dutch offer of help boggles the mind. They know a thing or two about dealing with water after reclaiming nearly 40% of their territory from the sea.
We have not heard it all yet from the foreign companies that are planing to pull out of Thailand. We will never hear again from the many small Thai companies devastated by the last floods.
Would you invest your money in such a country?

Life in a Thai jail is not as bad as some ex inmates like Fellowes makes out at all.

Yes they are overcrowded, and one's sleeping space is small but knowing the right people in the cell can get a bigger space. Most prisoners have either a mattress or blankets to sleep on, so no hard concrete for any foreigner. Rooms have fans as well. The jails are keep very clean and tidy inside.

Food is some jails is much worse than others but if a person has money, then they can buy all kinds of things at fairly reasonable prices.  If a prisoner has visits, then food can be sent in to him or her.

Every prison has a shop that sells a variety of things from soap to bananas etc.

No foreigner works, they are alowed to do as they please, within reason, all day, that would be from about 7 am to about 4 pm.

There are TVs around showing videos, usually on weekends and holidays.

Many jails also have markets inside, prisoners trading items on the pathways.

Prisoners run laundry services, haircutting etc all for very reasonable prices, so a foreigner can live okay.

Rape is very, very rare, as nearly all jails have katoeys who sell their services.

Guards beating prisoners is also quite rare, it does happen but not very often at all, and as for killing prisoners by brute force, no. If a prisoner has a contract out on him, then another prisoner will be paid to do the hit.

Thai prisoners are quite sociable to foreigners but they can get greedy if they see a foreigner has money or lots of goodies, and some will constantly beg.

Foreigners are left alone provided they follow the rules and don't fight or cause problems for the guards, like being rude, selling drugs, making alcohol, etc.

All jails have  telephones available for a price, so foreigners can contact people outside.

The police, courts are all corrupt as hell, so if a foreigner or Thai has money, then sentences can be greatly reduced or even made to disappear altogether.  Some guards are also very corrupt opening the door for illegal things to be taken in.  Money can get you just about most things in a Thai jail, so life can be quite relaxing for the rich if they are forced to do time.

Easy for the DM to slag off the fortunate few citizens, who have voted with their feet & common-sense, and moved elsewhere, rather than the governments & civil-servants who set the system up this way.

But then they're hardly going to lose many mug-punter readers, from the ranks of people living the 'good-life' overseas, on up-to 94 quid-per-week, are they ? Whereas pandering to the ignorance and prejudices of their core-market is a sure-fire winner !

Who in the right mind would want to share a hotel with Africans?

Now i make sure when i check in that no Africans are staying, if the hotel does have a African staying I will just WALK OUT, it's just not worth the HIV risk staying in the same hotel.

Thank God the Thais can stand up to the savages.

THAILAND DOES NOT WANT COCAINE DEALING SCAM AIDS RIDDEN SCUM LIVING HERE

This is my personal choice and I know plenty of higher class farang such as myself who hold the same views.

Although I  only stay in  5* hotels I might have to check this Nava hotel out.

And I am suprised a African teacher is on this fred, can i ask do you have to take a AIDS test before you work with thai children?







One would like to think of the HIV risk

From the original post of the mental giant called Chunky;

Quote

How strange!! Where I live & where I work, the exact opposite occurs...pay respect & you get it back, from all "classes" of people (I don't see "classes"...I just see "people").

Maybe I live in a part of Thailand that ignores Chunky's obscure assumptions?

Regardless of how rich Thais tr eatpoor Thais, I'm quite certain that failing to treat Thais as rational thinking adults with all the same strengths and weaknesses as the rest of us is at the root of why so many Farangs F-up big time in Thailand.

This has been my experience but you are welcome to state and argue a differentiating opinion. Essentially in Thai society rich Thais treat poor Thais in a very non-personal manner, therefore, if you treat a poor Thai person (your maid/driver/the noodle lady/employee) nicely they will take your kindness as weakness. In the West, we treat everyone as though they are deserving of respect regardless of social standing. In Thailand, note that everyone is not equal. You have social classes to heed. You can smile at them but do it vaguely while avoiding eye contact. If you have some extra fruit that you are eating, throw it in the garbage as opposed to spoiling them with it (unless it is close to a holiday in which case you can call it a bonus). Do not engage them on any personal level. Poorer Thais are easily confused and you should keep their tasks and the social order as simple as possible.