1. Lofty Bamboo
Background
Toshinori Takasawa, managing director of lofty bamboo, is passionate to preserve traditions and nature in villages under Fair Trade Philosophy. Lofty Bamboo joined as a member of World Fair Trade Organization ASIA (WFTO ASIA) in 2011. They work towards enabling disadvantaged producers to improve their livelihoods through Fair Trade by promoting handicraft products that have been crafted by villagers with new designs and send to world market.
How is Mr.Toshinori Takasawa an Entrepreneur?
As from our knowledge since we joined IMBA, Mr.Toshinori can be describe as a social entrepreneur. From our conversation with him he seems to really want to help out this indigenous people in various area of Thailand and he also see the potential business opportunity in this. The main value he is offering to his customer is that product in his shop are solely hand-made product which uses local material. The product that can be found is very unique because he and his team of designer gives them to the indigenous people and use their technical expertise in producing various items. Mr.Toshninori sees the gap in the market and therefore is able to capture some of the opportunity. However from our interview with him it seems that the shop is not as profitable as it should be due to the expensive rent he has to pay on monthly basis as well as the staff salary. Currently he has two shop in operation one in Khao Sarn Road and another one in MBK.
Source of products
1. Lisu Fabric
In the past, Lisu people liked to plant rice and opium in their villages. They try to locate their villages where they can have political independence and freedom from harassment. At the present they find means to earn sustainable cash from handicrafts. Traditionally, they have great skills for patchwork adorning their wonderful clothes represented by strips on their yokes, arms and sleeves. We take their local textiles in our leather items.
2. Karen Silver Accessory
Karen people like to live in mountain villages at a lower elevation than other hill tribe groups. Karen do not wear the heavy type of silver jewely used by some other tribal groups, instead they prefer to use simple silver bracelet covering their arms. Now, we introduce their excellent designs on modern accessories.
3. Karen Fabric
Karen women are outstanding for weaving skill of their daily clothes. They use simple looms, but their traditional designs are extraordinarily. Fabric design of E-sai village is recognized imcomparable from other villages.
4. Chainat Beads
Mrs. Bunchuai started to craft beads accessories for earning sufficient income in her village. She taught her friends and relatives to work with. Now her small business involves many people to get income and support students to study regularly.
5. INDIGENOUS
These intricately designed embroideries are hand woven by women from Thai and ethnic minorities. Muslim housewives learn traditional weaving techniques passed down from their ancesters. Thai housewives learn embroidery technique for their sufficient regular incomes.
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2. Sor Vorapin Muay Thai
Background
Sor Vorapin currently has two gyms, one is in Panakorn district and another in Talingchun district. Trainees in Panakorn gym are mostly going for short term training program, while Talingchun gym has more of long term training.
Success Stories
Below are list of only several champions under Sor Vorapin training.
1. Rattanachai Sor.Vorapin ( The World Bantum Weight Champion of World Boxing Organization W.B.O.)
2. Rattanapol Sor.Vorapin ( The 2 times of Former I.B.F World Champion 105Lbs.)
3. Rajasak Sor.Vorapin ( The 3 times Rajadumnern Former Champion 118, 122, 126 Lbs.)
4. KreingKai Sor.Vorapin ( The Former Rajadumnern, Lumpinee and World MuayThai Champion 147 Lbs.)
5. Kaichon Sor.Vorapin ( The W.B.O. Panpacific Champion 108 Lbs. )
2. Rattanapol Sor.Vorapin ( The 2 times of Former I.B.F World Champion 105Lbs.)
3. Rajasak Sor.Vorapin ( The 3 times Rajadumnern Former Champion 118, 122, 126 Lbs.)
4. KreingKai Sor.Vorapin ( The Former Rajadumnern, Lumpinee and World MuayThai Champion 147 Lbs.)
5. Kaichon Sor.Vorapin ( The W.B.O. Panpacific Champion 108 Lbs. )
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3. Suneta Hostel
The journey of entrepreneur
In the beginning the owner opened a small company about developing web-site and application. Not for a long time he felt bored in his work so he decided to open a small hostel for tourists but he wants to build a unique place for guests not just interior design but also the location.
Suneta @ Chaingkan, Loey
The first Suneta Hostel has established in Chiangkan, Loey where the time seems to be gone by slower than other places. Visitors can feel slow pace of life here and touch to truely Thai living style in 20-30 years ago. The hostel’s also decorated in retro-Thai concept. It reflects how Thai people live in the past and harmonize with community around there. This hostel gets quite a good feedback from tourists.
Cool design and service mind
The guests who come to stay here can flash back to their teenage period. The first Suneta hostel is well-known among the tourists rapidly. The pictures have been shared in Facebook and web-sites. There are many good reviews about how friendly of staff and gentle service.
Good feedback, Unsteady cashflow
However, the first hostel cannot generate income to him smoothly as businesses in Chaingkan are very seasonal. Tourists come to Chaingkan because they want to face with cool weather in here. After high season, the hostel rarely generates income whereas there are a lot of fixed costs such as rental or salary for staff.
There's no place like Bangkok
The owner reconsider about the location that would make money to him throughout the year. Bangkok!! Wherever foreigner tourists want to go, they have to come to stay Bangkok then fly to Chaingmai, Phuket or neighboring countries. In Bangkok there are many attractive places like Grand Palace, Wat Arun, Wat Pho . The tourists have to stay in Bangkok at least 2-3 nights per trip.
Khao San Rd, Backpackers' Destination
The owner headed to Khao San area which is the most well-known area for foreigners. There are a lot of night clubs and hostels here. He knows that it’s kind of Red Ocean to compete with them so he has many homeworks to do here to attract target customers.
Location, Location and Location
Not many steps from Khao San road, Bang Lum poo market has one building that owner want to rent out. It is kind of a peaceful place at night but not far from night life in Khao San road. It’s kind of a right place in his opinion. He decided to open the second Suneta hostel here but twist a little bit different concept from the first one in Chiangkan.
The First Capsule Hostel in BKK
The first Capsule hostel in Bangkok!! He applied capsule hotel concept from Japan to Thailand. In one bed LCD TV, headset, plug in for charging battery and lighting are provided in bed for guests. If they want to be private, just slide the door beside the bed. They will be separated from others who share the same room.
Clean + Safe + Experience = Suneta Hostel
The owner remains concept retro-Thai style in this hostel. Unlike other hostels, it’s obvious in lobby on the 2nd floor. It’s decorted like traditional Thai coffee shop and small local retailer (Show-Huay). Guests can feel warming like stay in old-fashioned Thai house that guests have never experienced in other hostels. In the morning, Suneta Hostel accomodates self- service breakfast that guests can prepare their breakfast like they do at home.
No Ads/ Promotion Here!!!
After opened for 6 months, he has got a very feedback from guests even he has never promoted or advertised in magazine or website. Many guests shared how good experience was in this hostel on the websites for travelers. Buzz marketing is his way for operating his business. He said that advertising is used for common stuff like soap or shampoo. Advertising doesn’t matter if you ‘re different enough !!!
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4. The Fabulous Bar & Desert Cafe
BackgroundModern French 'Fabulous Homemade Dessert Pastries', revive yourself on the prime location with the fabulous atmosphere setting in Khaosan Road, Nawamin Festival Walk and many fabulous locations in the very near future. "The Fabulous" makes a wonderful destination as our passion to be the ultimate place for unique people with pleasurable, and friendliness environment. "The Fabulous" offers unforgettable homemade dessert pastries such as Fabulous Signature, Fabulous Toast, Chocolate Satin, Crepe Cake, Vanilla Brownie, Pannacotta and many mores. With the best professional baristas, determined with delivery of the the best quality of coffee brewed from sicilly coffee, luxurious coffee originated in Italy.
How is "The Fabulous" unique compare to other coffee shop ?
From our visit and conversation with the staff, this place is like a hybrid between your traditional coffee shop (starbuck, true, black canyon) and cocktail bar. The interior of the shop is decorated in a retro-style with lots of weird old equipment and random stuff ( can be seen in picture below).
This is one of the few coffee shop that I think is pretty cool because you have a few drinks with your friend in a chill surrounding. The main customer are usually university and high school students, the place is very pack on weekend and reservation is reccommended.
Why is this shop an entreprenuer
This shop is an innovative entreprenuer because there are trying a new set of idea out which combining Bar and Coffee shop. I am sure there are other bar that offer coffee as well. This shop is testing out some assumptions and from our interview with them it seems like there are doing well too. The shop is own by the Buddy group so they have some experenice is running bars and restaurant before. From our first hand experience the cocktail they serve is pretty good, reasonable price and the cake they offer are very delicious as well. On every weekend they have a live-band playing and it is open till 1 am. Basically the buddy see the gap between a standard coffee shop like TRUE or Starbuck and traditional cocktail bar.
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Background Barn-Phou-Khan noodle house is in Banglampoo area. This restaurant is founded by Colonel Rangsan Sooksamosorn. He adopt the traditional formula of the noodle from his mom. There are many type of soup for the customers such as nam-prik, nam-ya, green curry. Moreover there are many types of Thai food too.
The restaurant decorates in the natural and relax style. There are two floors : the room upstairs has air-conditioned but the downstairs is open-air. Furthermore, there are the fresh brew coffee corner for the customers who want to fresh them up.
The differentiation point
1. The formula of the noodle is the real traditional style from the owner's mother
2. The decoration style of the restaurant is traditional Thai atmosphere which make the customers feel comfortable and relax
3. The food is freshly prepared
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6. Roadside stall selling handicrafts made of cans
7. Ethos Vegetarian restaurant
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Villa Cha-Cha, a new boutique accommodation for all ages of modern travelers, located in the prime landmark of Banglampu Shopping area, with easy access to numerous significant tourist attractions like The Grand Palace.
We think this place is an entrepreneur because they target a different customer. As we know that most hotels or guesthouse in Khao Sarn area will target a low budget tourists, Villa Cha Cha targets higher income tourists or family group and they can provide the atmosphere that suitable for this target group. Entering the entrance will make everyone feels like the whole new world, with a lot of trees and the pool which are different from noisy and crowd of Khao Sarn road. This place is almost fully booked all year from word of mouth of tourists who stayed before.
From this differentiate, they offer the right "Value to Whom" and they can charge with higher rates than the others.
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Nittaya Chili Paste is the shop located on Chakrabongse road. They started business with selling only chili paste at Nontaburi and have many customers from the delicious taste of their products. The owner, Khun Nittaya, noticed that her customers are from Bangkok, especially around Pra Nakorn area. So she decided to open the second branch here. Now, this shop has been opened for almost 60 years.
Not only chili paste sold in the shop, they also have many fresh foods - ready to eat in the bag, Thai snacks and household products from locals e.g. herbs shampoo. The shop is bigger and have more products than normal shops that sell foods in that area. We asked them and found that they always notice what customers want, and they will try to find and finally sell that thing in the shop. These make we think this place is an entrepreneur who always active and try to solve customers problem, and this make this shop has more customers than others.
The differentiation point
1. The formula of the noodle is the real traditional style from the owner's mother
2. The decoration style of the restaurant is traditional Thai atmosphere which make the customers feel comfortable and relax
3. The food is freshly prepared
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6. Roadside stall selling handicrafts made of cans
The stall locates at the front of
Wat Chana Songkhram near Khaosan Road. The owner buys the recycled cans
as raw material, cleans them and then makes them bag-shaped and tuk-tuk-shaped
handicrafts. The resource he has is so
limited that he has no money to rent a shop and to hire an employee, let alone advertising
for his products. However, he chooses a business with lower investments. His
products are quite innovative and eco-friendly. Most importantly, he knows
exactly his target group is the tourists and selects a good location for sale. Based
the descriptions above, we call him an entrepreneur, the survival entrepreneur.
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7. Ethos Vegetarian restaurant
Ethos locates at 85/2
Tanao Road (behind Burger King), Banglumpu, Bangkok. It is well-known
for its organic and vegetarian cuisines, which cater to the health-conscious
life style of customers. Therefore, even though its location is quite hard to
find, it attracts more and more tourists from all over the world. The owner
aims to create a tranquil and chilled out atmosphere for tourists, especially for
the vegans and vegetarians, which makes it differentiates from other
restaurants with party atmosphere around Khaosan Road area. Besides, the owner
pays attention of the details of the operation to create a decent customer
experience. Such as the big comfy cushions for the tourists after a long trip,
play list carefully chosen, a good collection of books and personalized travel
tips, free wifi access, AC power available at all tables, menu with simply
color coded and etc. Last but not least, the owner runs his business following
the concept of the name of the restaurant. With ethical values, caring about
the healthiness of the food served, caring about where the raw ingredients come
from, and paying staff a decent wage and compiling a Sustainable Living Directory to connect travelers with organic and permaculture
projects in Thailand is the main reason getting the popular sustainably. We
call the owner is an entrepreneur since he realizes the importance of ethic,
one of indispensable characters of entrepreneurship.
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8. Nappark hostel
This hostel locates at 5 Tani Rd., Taladyod
Phranakorn Bangkok. We all attracted by its cute logo at first glance,
especially its name which make us want to walk inside and find out what it
looks like. The hostel provides satisfying accommodation service with 4 E,
including Explore, Experience, Exchange and Express, providing not just a
clean, convenient, save place for tourist with reasonable price but also a
community of travelers in which they could play game, share experience and make
friends with each others. Nappark
actually is the name of each sleeping units which are efficiently arranged with
functional bed, clean bathrooms and amenities, an individual locker and wifi
internet access for each guest. There is
ladies only zone in particular. Out of the room, the guests could pick out an
interesting book from its library, reading and take a nap at the lobby, which is
decorated in a very Thai-chic style with huge mattresses and Thai-style
cushions. In this way, plus with baring the feet walking in the hostel, the
hostel provides the guest with a realistic thai life experience. We call the
owner as an entrepreneur since he knows exactly what his target customers needs
and makes every effort to meet those needs.
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9.Villa Cha Cha
We think this place is an entrepreneur because they target a different customer. As we know that most hotels or guesthouse in Khao Sarn area will target a low budget tourists, Villa Cha Cha targets higher income tourists or family group and they can provide the atmosphere that suitable for this target group. Entering the entrance will make everyone feels like the whole new world, with a lot of trees and the pool which are different from noisy and crowd of Khao Sarn road. This place is almost fully booked all year from word of mouth of tourists who stayed before.
From this differentiate, they offer the right "Value to Whom" and they can charge with higher rates than the others.
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10. Nittaya Chili Paste
Nittaya Chili Paste is the shop located on Chakrabongse road. They started business with selling only chili paste at Nontaburi and have many customers from the delicious taste of their products. The owner, Khun Nittaya, noticed that her customers are from Bangkok, especially around Pra Nakorn area. So she decided to open the second branch here. Now, this shop has been opened for almost 60 years.
Not only chili paste sold in the shop, they also have many fresh foods - ready to eat in the bag, Thai snacks and household products from locals e.g. herbs shampoo. The shop is bigger and have more products than normal shops that sell foods in that area. We asked them and found that they always notice what customers want, and they will try to find and finally sell that thing in the shop. These make we think this place is an entrepreneur who always active and try to solve customers problem, and this make this shop has more customers than others.
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11. Surattanadharm Meditation Center
This meditation center located across Nittaya Chili Paste on Chakrabongse road. They would like to invite Buddhist to practice the dharma by offer a free course for meditation. They will have a pray leader who can speak both Thai and English. Therefore, tourists or foreigners are also welcome here.
We think this place is an social entrepreneur because they target a new segment of customer, foreigners. They have opened for only one month but number of participant is increasing.
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