The Thaipreneur: Bangkok Bonanza
The Entrepreneurial Journey: Identifying problems & providing solutions
This week I am going to tell you a story highlighting ‘Entrepreneurship’ from my travels to Thailand. Specifically about the famous Sky Bar in Bangkok where I met an intuitive & entrepreneurial human that I can only describe as ‘The Thaipreneur’.
Contents:
🔶 Who is ‘The Thaipreneur’?
🔶 What was the problem he had identified?
🔶 How did he provide a solution?
🔶 7 Key Lessons: Starting your entrepreneurial journey
Chapter 4: The Thaipreneur
🔶 Who is ‘The Thaipreneur’?
His name was Niran, which roughly translates to ‘eternal’ in Thai. He always had a smile on his face and was a natural problem solver. Driving his taxi during the day and doing a bit of almost everything else at night. However, the hustle I want to share with you today was the imperfect solution to a problem I think many tourists before me had come across…
Before I dive into what happened, I want to give you some context as to what I was doing there. I had come from living in Amsterdam for the past 3 years with my girlfriend at the time (now wife), and it was our first time in Asia. I had been before, but only as a child with my family and to be honest the memories are quite vague. I wanted to do it again but as a young adult, fulfilling my dream of travelling whilst also being able to make enough money to survive at the same time.
“What could I do to achieve this?” - It was a question I had spent many hours pondering. The solution I had decided on was teaching English. “How hard could it be”, I thought. I speak English, surely that qualifies me! How naïve I was…
Honestly, teachers don’t get anywhere near enough credit, it’s bloody hard! It takes heaps of planning, confidence, patience and social management skills to deal with all the different personality types you come across, all on top of the job at hand.
To all the teachers out there, know that you have my ultimate respect.
As you have probably guessed, you cannot just declare yourself a teacher. You have to at least have some basic training. ‘So how do you get this?’ - Well, the easiest way I had found that included the travel aspect I craved was a TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) qualification. Most teaching jobs require at least a bachelors degree, which I don’t have…but in Asia, I had discovered that it was seen as more of a ‘benefit’ rather than being mandatory, depending on the school & position your applying for.
I had saved up enough money in Amsterdam over 3 years to afford doing one of the courses in Phuket (approx €1,500-€2,000 inc. accommodation for 1 month, airport transfers, some meals, course materials etc), and by putting our additional resources together (around €5,000), we could buy the initial flights and have enough spending money for approximately 4-5 months.
We sat down to look at flights. One-way was all we needed which lowered the cost, and the plan was to figure out our next move when it came to it.
Flights booked, were going to Asia! Let the adventure begin…
When you step off the plane in Bangkok, the first thing that hits you is the humidity. Almost like being in a sauna, you start to feel the drips of sweat all over your body while it tries to readjust to your new surroundings. After getting through passport control and collecting our baggage, we jumped on the Skytrain to Sukhumvit road to try and find our hotel.
I had never seen so much compacted, but controlled chaos. The main road looked like it was a 12 lane highway, but the truth was that the cars, buses and motorbikes just utilized every last centimeter of space that was available.
We managed to find our hotel and decided on what the agenda would be for the next couple of days. The Skybar was on the list and we decided it would be a nice end to our time in Bangkok before heading up to Chang Mai on the night train.
It was around 6pm that we had planned to be there so we could catch the sunset. Taxi was on the way and we were deciding what to wear. Now, when I had been packing up all my life to head to Asia, the thought of taking anything smart besides one shirt (for special occasions) had not even crossed my mind. “What’s the point?”, I thought. I was heading for a life in t-shirts, shorts & flip-flops, right?
When we turned up to the Skybar, I was wearing a shirt, jeans and flip-flops. In hindsight, I completely agree with the security guard who laughed in my face & told me there was no chance of me getting in. But that was all I had.
The bar is located in the ‘financial district’ of Bangkok and there are not really any shops around. “What are we going to do?” I asked my girlfriend. We are already missing the sunset and its starting to get dark.
It’s completely deserted as we disappointedly walk back down the stairs to the street, apart from a lone parked taxi with a guy stood leaning against it, arms crossed and a cheeky grin on his face.
He started to slowly make his way over to us with an aura of excitement & opportunity in every step as he got closer. “Do you need shoes by any chance?” he asked. ‘Was our humiliation so obvious?’, probably. Or had he seen this play out before?
I have to admit, I was intrigued. We didn’t have lots of money to spend so the plan was to grab one drink, get a few photos and head somewhere else. If he provides us with a solution to do this, why not?
He walked round to the back of his taxi and popped the trunk. It was empty, apart from a single pair of fairly old, smart(ish) looking shoes neatly displayed in the center of this unoccupied space.
🔶 What was the problem he had identified?
I was obviously not the first person to use his solution. I’ll tell you why I’m 100% sure of that when we finish off the story below, but for now just trust me.
When starting on your entrepreneurial journey, identifying a problem that can be solved or a niche that you can cover is crucial. Here are some key things you can do and how our friend Niran had solved them:
Research your target market: The target market here were tourists. Not many young travelers take smart shoes on holiday, but will want to do things like visit a Skybar if there is one where they are going.
Look for inefficiencies: Allowing people to buy/rent a pair of shoes for this specific situation was an inefficiency that could be solved.
Identify customer pain points: He had obviously seen this be a problem before and perhaps even been advised to address it by a previous customer (whether as a joke or not), which gave way to an untapped revenue stream.
Monitor industry trends: As a taxi driver, he was well aware of the most popular places to go and is going to be up-to-date with any changes or new locations that pop-up.
Conduct competitor analysis: As I have mentioned above, there was literally no one else around, he had a monopoly.
By doing the above, you can gain a deeper understanding of your target market, their needs, and pain points, and identify opportunities where you can provide a better solution to an existing problem.
🔶 How did he provide a solution?
After a bit of a back & forth about whether I wanted to fully acquire this desolate pair of shoes, we settled on me renting them on an hourly rate. I had said I only needed the hour, but he insisted that if we went over the time limit, he would be forced to charge me for another full hour. It also came with another condition, for the integrity of the shoes, I needed to wear socks (which I didn’t have), but guess what? Niran was on hand with a solution. “One pair of socks sir” he proclaimed.
The price negotiation started, but he was holding all the cards. There was no one else around and time was pressing on. We settled on a whopping 200 THB (€5.50) for the hour.
We made our way up and had a drink whilst looking out at the view. It was an amazing experience which I highly recommend, take a look at the bar below:
Bangkok Tourism Guide’s Top 25 Rooftop Bars:
https://www.bangkoktourismguide.com/attractions/rooftop-bars-bangkok.html
🔶 7 Key Lessons: Starting your entrepreneurial journey
Let’s look at this for a moment as someone who is starting out on their entrepreneurial journey. Providing a solution to a problem which addresses a target market can be a challenging and rewarding experience.
Here are 7 key learnings to keep in mind when building your product or service:
Define your target market: It is important to clearly define your target market and understand the needs, preferences, and behavior of your potential consumer. Conduct market research and gather feedback to better understand your customers and refine your product or service accordingly.
Solve a real problem: Your product or service should provide a solution to a real problem that your target market is facing. This will help ensure that there is a demand for your offering and that customers are willing to pay for it.
Develop a unique value proposition: Your business should have a unique value proposition that differentiates it from competitors and clearly communicates the benefits of your product or service to your target market.
Focus on customer experience: Providing excellent customer service and experience can set your business apart and help you build a loyal customer base that in return creates recurring revenue.
Stay adaptable: Be prepared to adapt and pivot your business strategy as needed. Monitor your progress and make adjustments to your product, marketing, and business model as necessary.
Build a strong team: Surround yourself with a team of talented individuals who share your vision and can help you execute your business strategy.
Be financially savvy: Stay on top of your cash-flow and develop a clear understanding of your business’s revenue streams and expenses. This will help you make informed decisions and ensure the long-term sustainability of your business. A business does not go bust from a lack of profit, but a lack of cash.
Now let’s get to the somewhat unfortunate ending to this story…
I had started to feel pretty uncomfortable in my rented footwear and the hour was coming to a close, so we started to head back downstairs. Niran hadn’t moved and was chain-smoking cigarettes leaning against his taxi. After some small talk, we concluded the rental agreement with a handshake and I gladly took my flip-flops back.
It was still fairly early, so on our walk back to the hotel we decided to stop in on another bar to have a final cocktail before we left Bangkok the next day. By this point, I was feeling really unsettled and my feet were itching like crazy. My girlfriend was brushing it off and telling me to stop complaining, which I did like all good subservient men in relationships with partners they know are too good for them.
When we finally sat down I couldn’t take it anymore, I said to her there was definitely something wrong and rolled up my jeans…
My feet had doubled in size, and from my toes to ankle the whole area was covered in small red sores, my skin was cracking and the itchiness was unbearable. It was horrendous. I was embarrassed, shocked and just wanted to run back to the hotel as fast as possible, crawl into a dark hole and never come out. We quickly changed our order to take our cocktails to go and darted for the exit.
At this point I started to search on Google for a picture which would represent how they looked, but after 10 minutes of scrolling, some light nausea and a couple minutes of dry heaving, I think I will save you the trauma and let you use your imagination.
After getting back to the hotel, I spent the next hour and a half in the shower relentlessly scrubbing my feet over, and over, and over again while my girlfriend went to the pharmacy to procure some magical creams to bring the swelling down and go to war against whatever bacteria had set up camp.
🔶 Life Lesson: Never rent a pair of socks from a guy called Niran outside of the Skybar in Bangkok. Wearing dirty socks can lead to a buildup of bacteria, fungi, and other microorganisms, which can cause irritation, itching, and even infection.
Every experience in life, good, bad or down right disgusting is a unique part of your story. When you reminisce on each and every one, there are incredible takeaways and learnings you can discover.
Our stories have the power to break down differences all over the world.
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I loved the story! I don’t know about you, but I’m gonna carry a pair of socks in my backpack from now on when I go on trips! Thoroughly enjoyed your unfortunate pain 😂
Man, Imma fan of this story <3