A work permit in Thailand cost about 500TBH a month in addition to the set up cost.

You don`t always have a need for a work permit your Thai partner can run the bar or you can provide non-executive guidance.
Many times i have seen the owner sit at his bar barking out orders and keeping an eye on things

Some good business advice from Bryan Flowers who owns half a dozen bars in soi 6 Pattaya.

I can't believe how much guys value themselves at the start of a business paying themselves good salaries using investers money before their business actually starts making a profit, this causes friction between investers and between business partners.

You need to build up the business, lots of guys pay for sex here which is great, if your doing it 3 or 4 times a week it's going to eat into any money you've got, leave it until your start making money.

Bryan is the guy with the shirt on.

Before you buy a bar make sure it hasn't a 5 year alcohol ban,has a liquor license and check that you can rent the whole building and not just the ground floor.

i can't imagine investing in a lady bar in thailand. soi 6, walking street, cowboy, nana, etc... better to invest the money elsewhere.

they are great businesses to launder money recvd from other operations. but they are not great at making real profits that go into your pocket.

think about the dollhouse on cowboy. a decent go go for a long time but the owner was flat broke. some claim a one million baht medical bill gave him a real hit. one would hope to have alot more in the bank than that after a long run with a 'successful' business.

That's interesting Buick about the Dollhouse, Bryan above did say he couldn't go around drinking and barfining because he was so poor when he first started and I'm sure he isn't laundering money,not that I know of haha.

We only see the success we don't know what's happening behind closed doors. Have you anymore info on the Dollhouse guy?

Gogo tragic story.

A guy bought a gogo on soi 6 on his ladies advice, when they opened they didn't have a license or know any police, they would pay them if they came along.

The business wasn't doing very well, lots of local business owners and customers were offering advice he wasn't interested. On their opening night they had got over a 100 girls from an agency and were offering the first drink for free so guys left after the first one.

He kept parking his car in front of the gogo so customers couldn't see if it was open, he started selling beer at 39B,he started to let others run the place who were robbing him blind he then paid police and lawyers to get his money back from them but they didn't or couldn't do anything.

In the end he just walked away from the business, the problem was he didn't seek advice, trusted people too much and expected too much, I did try to help (Bryan Flowers) the guy he wasn't interested.

Buying a bar in Thailand, here are a few tips from Bryan Flowers to help you.

Learn Thai.
Live here for a few years.
Surround yourself with relevant bar owners.
Have a deep understanding of psychology (I think he means knowing people so they don't rip you off)
Learn about pattaya or the place where your buying a bar.
Learn about the business your doing.
Learn about Thai people.
Get contacts and numbers of good builders plumbers.
Find trustworthy Thai's and build relationships.
Learn about business law.
Structure the business in mind for growth.
Offer to help at relevant businessess for free.
Try and get a managers job.
Make sure you don't turn into a alcoholic.
Host parties for free at friends businesses, you promote and host them to build up a following.
Run bar crawls on a regular basis this is where you meet people.
Start a Facebook community group.
Gather followers by posting content about pattaya with news pictures and debates.
Get to know local police and afficials.
Be prepared to work long days.

In other words, it takes experience and skill, knowledge to run a successful bussiness anywhere in the world, not just Thailand.

Whenever there's some money to be made everyone and their brother and 3rd cousin thinks they can jump in and get their share, how hard can it be, right ?

Seen it many times in my days, my friend and his partner tried renovating and flipping a house during the housing bust, he wouldn't listen to my advice and found himself in court with faulty workmanship all over the house.

Doing something because you think you can apply common sense to do it, is a very hard lesson for some.

the main issue with owning a bar in the 'red light' areas of thailand is the bribes required to keep the business operating. if your business makes more money, the bribes required also go up. so you can work hard and make something happen and you won't enjoy the reward for very long. i can only guess but i'd say there are a 100 people who've failed for every 1 that succeeded.

redbus, per your question on the dollhouse, he had a tough last year or so of life. he did a base jump off of his condo and snapped his lower leg. about 6 months later, one of his employees was sent to jail for life (22 yrs old). this guy was like a son to him as he'd taken him off the street and given him a job. the kid used to sell flowers on soi cowboy. then, the 'fixed' snapped leg got infected.

he didn't have the money to pay the bribe to keep the kid out of jail. he didn't have the money to pay to fix his leg again. he watched the superbowl at a bar with friends. his home team, denver, won the game. said he'd pay the bill, left to go to ATM, never came back. instead he jumped off the roof of his condo. the published story was he locked himself out of his condo and tried to cross over from a neighbors balcony. but no one in bangkok really believes that.

the story most believe is he didn't have the money to pay the police to keep his employee out of jail nor did he have the cash to pay to fix his leg. he even had a party at the DH where the proceeds were supposed to go to the guy in jail. very few believe the kid got the proceeds.