Many of us may believe that many things
come unexpectedly. That’s why human beings created a term, “destiny”, in a
dictionary. Whether it’s true, many situations in our lives are unexplainable.
It is perhaps the same as Khun Nopthanan Kan-Nak, the owner of Dok Mok spa, a
mall spa located at Soi Rajvithee 18 or Soi Wat Apaithayaram. He wanted to do
it for a long time but there were many incidents made him put his dream on hold
and one day it happened to be right at his doorstep.
Tiring & Dreaming
“I’d
worked in a company as a normal office worker for 19 years. It was very hectic
and didn’t bring me anywhere. The income wasn’t high. I felt very bored and
tired with everything around me. To add the worse, I started to have my health
issue. That’s why I quitted.”, Khun Nopthana said. That’s when he started
to think about doing his own business. He started his first business, the
floral shop, at Nang Lerng market. He put all his saving into the business. He
rented an old classic building in that area. The first floor was the shop and
the second floor was his home. He told that the business went pretty well at
the beginning. He did everything on his own with a hired worker. However the
worker became his burden since he started to be not responsible to the work
although he was very talented florist. Later there were several protests and
demonstrations in that area. He had to close his shops many times in a long
period. The customers didn’t come. There was not income. The backup money was
run out. So he decided to close down the shop with nothing left.
He
started to look for a new career. What came up into his mind was to have a spa.
However it was impossible at stage since he didn’t have any capital left. He
decided to take a two month course of message at the Bangkok metropolitan
Occupational training center and applied for a work at the other spa. Not only
sharpen his skill as a therapist, it also allowed him to learn and absorb daily
operation including the problems of the business. After awhile, he had to leave
the job because of family issue. He needed to take care of his sick mother. He
was with her for a year and a half.
It’s All About Family
All
he has today comes from family support. That’s what he mentioned, investment
and everything. He finished a vocational school in sales and marketing, worked
for a company, which didn’t provide any further future, in addition to started
and closed down his own business. He has been through many things. The good
thing is he has a support from his family especially his sister. She invested
her own money for him without asking any specific questions but trusted her
brother can do something better for life. Perhaps he inherited an
entrepreneurship from his father, who was used to run a small construction supplier.
That’s why he felt that it was time for him to do something on his own.
Life
to him wasn’t that bad comparing to what he is today. “Selective” would be the
word that he described himself. He chose to rent a place for living in a
inexpensive area and not to be luxurious. He tried to be as economic as
possible to survive and to earn some savings for his future. And of course, there
is his sister, a big sponsor in his life.
The
most amazing thing is the trust that they have among family members. No doubts,
or even if but not to express, about his ability to run his own shop and
nothing. Only very best support and wishes for him to be successful.
Building Up the Dream and Moving Forward
At
the beginning that he wanted to open his own spa, he came to this place but
decided not to rent it because of the rental fee was too high for him at that
time. He refused. The building that he had an eye on was an apartment newly
constructed in Soi Wat Apaithayaram. He stopped by to make negotiation couple
of times but wasn’t successful. So he gave up. It turns that there was the
other persons who wanted to run the spa at the same place. The ladies rented
the place and asked him to work for them. He agreed so.
After
six months of the operation, most of the time he ran the place by himself. The
ladies were the investor who didn’t have a clear picture about spa business. Then
they decided to stop running the business on their own and asked if he wanted
to continue it. “I didn’t expect that I’d have this place after many rounds of
discussion and negotiation with the landlord. However she must see my strong
intention to do so. After all and all, she reduced the rental fee just for me
to continue a spa shop in this area.”, Nopthanan recalled.
Nopthanan
didn’t spend much both time and money in building up the business because it
was more or less taking over from the former owner. However he wanted to have
it according to his dream. It’s all built based on the idea of “Beautiful,
Clean and Cozy music.” He didn’t want to spend so much money to purchase any
luxurious and expensive products to his little shop but rather affordable with
good quality since he wanted the cost to be as low as possible.
Destiny is Business
“I started to hire these two therapists when
I decided to continue the place since February 2013. I knew one of them from
the former spa that I worked. He was very good masseur. I pursued him to work
with me but he didn’t respond. We lost contact numbers of each other.”,
said he. That’s how he started to tell a story of getting a team on broad. He worked alone at the beginning. He said his
current therapist knew only that he had a shop around this area but didn’t know
exactly. He kept looking for it after deciding that he should work with him,
Nopthanan. That would be a destiny to do the business together. They found each
other. And later he hired the other one as the part time.
“At the beginning when I looked for my own
shop, I came to this area. I saw that there were couple of hair salons and some
restaurants. And there was no spa at all. I thought that it’d be a good place
to do here because people around here are more or less labor workers. Perhaps
they need to relax.” That’s what he described how he chose the location and
reasons behind that. Actually the price of the spa services here are not
expensive comparing to the one in business district or a big complex. He said
he did a research about the price and a simple principle that he used to set up
the price was “market price”. It’s important to study the market price in order
to be competitive even though there are no competitors around the area but
people know the price. They perhaps later talk behind his back and spread the
news.
Sorting
out the products is also a crucial part. As mentioned earlier, he chose the one
that is reasonable price with good quality, not excellent, because the market
is not for that. He did a research by knocking the doorstep of the spa
suppliers in Chatuchak area and compared the price. “Of course buying in a big volume may reduce the price but I go to
Chatuchak every weekend, I don’t need to do that. I don’t even need to stock
anything. My stock is basically last for a week. That should be enough at this
stage to supply the demand of the customers at that moment.”
Business is Business But Growing the
Business is to Build Entrepreneurship Mindset of Employees
“I let him involve when we decorated our
shop. We call it, “our shop”. If he didn’t like anything, I’d just let him
redecorate the way he wanted. I wanted to make him feel that it’s his own.”
“I guarantee his minimal incomes and
anything extra, we divided it in the equal shares, three of us. I want them to
feel comfortable working with me and they really belong to this place.”
Nopthana
is a person who can distinguish between normal friendship and business
friendship according what he told. He could go to have a drink in the evening
with his subordinates but comes back in the morning and gave a strong comment
about their poor performance. He mentioned that the business growing with two
reasons, the therapist’s skill and personal relationship with the customers. He
said the sales keeps growing noticeably every month. He doesn’t have any
statistic but from the income point of view, he can see it. His shop has many
returned customers while he tries to outreach the new customers but still has
no ideas what to do. Most of the customers come here because of words of mouth.
They like the service there in all aspects. Some even just stop by and chit
chat with him with any kinds of story. He knows that it comes from everyone,
three of them.
“I ensure that they are involved in any
management and decision in our shops. I encourage them to talk openly to me. I
think what we have today, our small success, is because everyone in Dok Mok Spa.”
2P – Problem and People
“I spend, like, double or triple of efforts
to manage the shop and especially on people. In the company you enforce company
regulation, things end. Here you can’t. We meet in our small shop. We have only
three people and I can’t afford to lose any of them at this point. Not only
because money makers but partners to me.”
Every
business has a problem. Either it’s big or small scale, they’re the problems
and required the same principle to handle. In spa business, besides the daily
operation, people are the main issue, the therapist. Even if there are only
three persons including Nopthanan, the issue has been so much on people,
majorly his therapist. They come with their own issues and issues with the
customers. He said he lose some of his customers because poor customer service
skill and mindset of his therapist. These people are sometime they are
unpredictable. Of course he knows that they work with him by heart. They think
they own the place, which is good, but it doesn’t mean they want to do anything
they want. There was one incident several months back that he had to call to
his customer to make apology because his therapist “felt like” not to serve
him. The customer service mindset among his employees is quite crucial but he
thinks it can be improved by putting extra effort to communicate with them.
They are partners and he needs them.
“For sure they know that I want to blame
them. We are so close to one another. Even though they know, I still need to
talk to them nicely to make them aware about the situation and not to repeat
it. I don’t know if it’s going to work
but will need to do.”
Future May Hold for Me
Many business owners may think about
expanding once it grows one day but for Nopthanan doesn’t see that at this
point. He knows this business inside and outside, thoroughly. He knows if he
expanded, he would fall into the same situation like the other big spa, which
they have to spend so much effort in managing the therapists. He doesn’t want
such burden. So at this stage he’d like to continue as it is and let’s see what
the future hold for him.
Last Word
Before
conversation ended, he would like to leave a message for anyone who wants to
get into this business, “You need to gain
experience from the (spa) business first before starting in term of daily
operation, employees, employees’ living, and so on. You also need to understand
the spa products, cost as well as market understanding.”
The
last summary was given by him. He said, “I’m
so exhausted by doing everything on my own but I’m happy. I am very happy.”
Key Competence of Khun Nopthanan
- Seeking and Acting on Opportunities
- Persistence
- Information Seeking
- Commitment to Work Contract
- Problem Solving
- Self-Confidence
- Persuasions
- Use of Influence Strategies
- Concern for Others
