21 Years in Thailand: How This British-Thai Couple Built a Business Empire

Added: 2026-05-27

[00:00:00]I had that lightbulb moment that I have to be involved in this. Forget the rat race. Forget the materialistic things down at yeah back at home. And how's Steve's tie?

[00:00:11]>> [laughter] >> Very basic.

[00:00:14]Terrible. After 20 years. We called the number. Somebody came, opened up, and as we left and we were driving back to Bangkok, we were signing the contract.

[00:00:24]>> [snorts] >> I live in Cha-Am in just just north of Hua Hin about 180 km south of Bangkok.

[00:00:30]Where are you from originally, Steve?

[00:00:31]>> I'm from Coventry, right in the middle of England. About as far from the sea as you can possibly get. So, you live in permanently in Cha-Am or I am now, yeah.

[00:00:38]I've been kind of spending the last 18 months between Bangkok and Cha-Am, but for the last couple of months I've been here full-time. And what were you doing back in Coventry before you came over here? Before Before I came to Thailand, I was working in marketing and advertising sales for newspapers, magazines, that sort of thing, which was driving me absolutely insane. The rat race thing, 9:00 to 5:00, it was it was killing me. It was it was hard work, hard work. Good money, but it was hard work. How many years did you do that for? I did that for about 8 years, and then went on I took a sabbatical. I took 6 months off my job and went traveling the world. The first 3 months of that, I stayed in Thailand. I was volunteering over here, and it that completely changed my life.

[00:01:24]You fell for Thailand?

[00:01:26]Big way. Yeah, yeah. I I I came over very very long story short, but I came over here as a volunteer with a small NGO that was owned by a Brit. And me and him got on very very well. I was working up in Surin in with elephant villages, elephant communities.

[00:01:44]We were decorating schools, we were farming, building fish ponds, and all sorts of very rural farming type work.

[00:01:54]And it It it was living with these people in in wooden houses in the middle of nowhere where I had that lightbulb moment that I have to be involved in this. Forget the rat race. Forget materialistic things down back at home.

[00:02:09]I needed to be here doing this, working with elephants, working with these communities because they were the the best people on Earth.

[00:02:15]A bit different than Coventry, yeah? You could say that, yeah. It was It's chalk and cheese, it really was. It But it was I I I could bore you with tears with the amount of stories I've got about experiences and and being around um families who have nothing but they were the happiest people that that I've ever met. And it was it was just being around that positivity, 24/7 positivity that that made me think hard and deep about what I was doing and where I was going and and I just thought I've I've got to get out of that. Unfortunately, I got a job with the NGO.

[00:02:50]Um so, I I carried on my travels and then because my background is sales, he wanted me to be the UK contact for people who wanted to come to Thailand and volunteer as I'd done it. Um and that went very very well. So, he ultimately then said, "Would you like to come and try doing that role here in Thailand?" Obviously, the time zone is is a is an issue, but if I was prepared to work UK times here in Thailand, I could do so and and that's what I did 21 years ago. So, you've been here 21 years?

[00:03:19]>> 21 years now, yeah. Yeah. And you've never been back? I've been back.

[00:03:23]Obviously, I I miss my friends, my family, I miss good fish and chips, I miss football and a beer in the afternoon on Saturday.

[00:03:30]Um other than that, I I have no other desire to to go back to the UK. When I first moved to Thailand, I lived here in Cha-Am for the first 2 years.

[00:03:39]Uh we were working from my friend's home, small little village just outside of Cha-Am. We built the business to to such a level that I was commuting between here and Bangkok every Friday night. Uh to the point where I just said this is silly. I I I should be based in Bangkok.

[00:03:57]And so 18 years ago I left Chum, went to Bangkok, um helped set up the business there, a more substantial business, uh and then grew that for a few years, and then he decided to take that business in a different direction.

[00:04:10]Which didn't sit right with me. And so I went out on my own, started my own experiential travel business, um and did everything from there. So an experiential travel business is where people would come to Thailand, they'd join uh various projects that were set up by the government.

[00:04:27]So we would would supply labor, we'd supply financial support, that sort of thing to the projects. Um and then once they finished that work, we'd take them on a 1-week or a 2-week adventure around Thailand. So they're traveling, but they're also experiencing as well. Um and and I I had that business then for a few years.

[00:04:45]That business then I I kind of redesigned it. And I brought in a couple of business partners, uh and we we grew that business then to huge. We were operating in 17 countries, we had 197 staff, I think.

[00:05:02]Um I was more involved with the operations, so making sure that everything runs smoothly on the ground.

[00:05:07]Um my partners ran the marketing and the sales side of things. And uh we we built that business up to around 6,000 customers a year would would come to um all of the countries that we were operating in.

[00:05:20]But then we figured out that the company is actually losing money. It was paying a ridiculous amounts in advertising that I had no idea. I I knew nothing about this. Um they uh were were doing things trying to shield me from it.

[00:05:35]So again, a long story short, I decided I'm going to leave this company and take the operations element away from what's going on. Uh and they took the marketing and the sales side away and they then hired my company to run things on the ground for them once the customers arrive. So, you still got the company in Bangkok now? Still got the company in Bangkok, yeah. That's being run by the team that is there.

[00:06:01]We've got a team of 13 up there now. Um and they they can manage without me. The role that I have in the company, I can do remotely. I can do from anywhere. Um they run the operations, they run the finance and and all that side of it. I deal with inquiries, um any kind of sales, that that sort of stuff. Uh but I can do that once I finish my normal or my 9:00 to 5:00 here, I can then go home and I can jump on that when I need to.

[00:06:29]So, what made you decide to come down to Cha-Am?

[00:06:32]Because you run a coffee shop down here now. Yeah, there is that the coffee shop element to it, but what I really enjoy what what what we used to do a lot of weekends would we would come down to Cha-Am anyway because Cha-Am is probably one of the reasons that I fell in love with Thailand. I lived here for 2 years. It's such um quiet, sleepy, friendly, approachable place. It's affordable.

[00:06:56]And so my heart there's always a little bit of my heart was here. So, we'd come down very often at weekends. Uh my wife and I love coffee and so a couple of years ago we were just driving along the beach and we saw that where our coffee shop is was available.

[00:07:10]So, we stopped the car, we called the number, somebody came, opened up, and as we left and we were driving back to Bangkok, we were signing the contract.

[00:07:20]And we just thought if we don't do it now, we're never going to do it. So, we just decided let's do it. And and we did it. And in Phetchaburi? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, it's it's one of those things where looking back, perhaps we should have thought about it a little bit longer, but um it's my therapy because having been in Bangkok 18 years, my blood pressure is up here. That that city is growing at an exponential rate and the infrastructure is struggling. And so even taking the kids to school can be a 3-hour round trip and that's their school is 8 km from our front door.

[00:07:53]And so I I've just I've grown to hate Bangkok and I never ever thought I would. So I thought I've got to leave.

[00:08:00]So I'm now down in Cha-Am full-time running the coffee shop and doing bits and pieces for the travel company as well.

[00:08:08]Tell us about the the location here because it's right opposite the beach.

[00:08:11]The location is it's perfect really.

[00:08:14]There's there's one main road from from the highway to the beach and that main road stops directly at our front door and then you've got Cha-Am viewpoint where whenever there's a festival, that's the epicenter of the festival and so passing trade is is always walking past our shop. So it's it's a busy shop. It's a busy shop and it's what? 20 m is from the beach. So it couldn't be a better location really.

[00:08:43]Absolutely. And what kind of do you do food here as well as coffee or drinks?

[00:08:46]>> we do the usual sort of light snacks, wraps, toasties, homemade cakes, vegetable curries with rice.

[00:08:56]We don't we're we're not a restaurant.

[00:08:57]We're a coffee shop that sells snacks and cocktails and things like that. So the the main kind of focus for us was coffee comes first.

[00:09:07]As it does the minute I wake up, coffee comes first.

[00:09:11]But we also sell beers. We're but we're not a bar. We're just we're a classy joint that sells cocktails, that sells beers. If people want to go and party, there's a small party street. But if you just want to enjoy a a beer and a view of the sea, then you can come here, sit on the deck and and Absolutely. It's lovely. Watch the world go by, yeah.

[00:09:30]So what time do you open and close? We open 8:30 in the morning and we close usually around 7:00 in the week and then maybe a little bit later 8:00 or 9:00 at the weekend. It just depends on the passing trade. There's no point staying open if there's nobody out. So, it we let the people tell us how long we're going to stay open.

[00:09:49]Do you get a lot of foreigners coming into here or is it Yeah, it's bizarrely it's mostly foreigners.

[00:09:54]Um and and we've been told by some of the locals that they're put off by the fact that when they look in, they see foreigners. And they're a little bit kind of shy on that. So, we want to attract more Thais. We speak English, Thai, and Chinese in the shop. So, we've got those bases covered. Um and I can speak a little bit of Thai enough Thai to to work with with Thai only speaking customers, but they see me and they do get a little bit kind of concerned that I'm not going to understand them.

[00:10:23]There's going to be some kind of mistake. Um but I've I've been here long enough now to understand really what what they're after.

[00:10:30]And how long's this been open, the shop?

[00:10:32]We opened December the 7th, 2024. So, coming up for 18 months. Okay. And business-wise, how's it going? Is it ups and downs or >> year was tough, but I'm in that lucky situation where I've got another company that can support it. And so, that we knew that the first year we it was all about building our name, building a a relationship with the community.

[00:10:53]Um and now I think we're at the point where we've done that. And somebody described our shop a week or so ago as a landmark. And I thought that's exactly what I want the shop to be. I want people to to to talk about us as "Oh, you know Karma?"

[00:11:09]Yes, and that's that's us.

[00:11:11]So, I noticed downstairs when I walked in, there's like a big charity sign saying you've raised a lot of money for charity. Yeah, tell us about Yeah, so I've I've always been whilst I've been in Thailand, I've always been involved with helping other people and um really putting their needs before mine. Uh hence the name of the shop. And when we when we came here, we had a short list of projects, local projects that we wanted to support as a local business.

[00:11:36]Um and for the first 6 months, I think it was, 6 to 8 months, our coffees were free.

[00:11:43]We asked people to make a donation.

[00:11:45]So, so you could have paid 10 bar for a cappuccino. 50% of that donation went to support the local hospital. 50% went to support our running costs. And uh the hospital approached us and asked if we could help raise 80,000 bar to buy uh an electronic defibrillator machine.

[00:12:07]They only had one at Cha-Am Hospital.

[00:12:10]The average age of the community here in in Cha-Am is fairly old. They're the the kind of um community that really would help you by using one of those, by having one. So, we committed there and then to helping them buy that. And we've raised about 45,000 bar now. We donate regularly to the hospital. Um and then once once we've raised that for the hospital, we will then perhaps look at doing something with the local school.

[00:12:37]They want sports equipment, sport kit for the kids.

[00:12:40]Um but there's there's lots of needy projects around here because it doesn't really benefit from having Hua Hin just down the road. It it it's very sort of self-sufficient community, and so there are a lot of people who who are struggling.

[00:12:52]Um and and within the shop, everything that we sell is locally sourced or or worse, it's Thai sourced. So, we we do whatever we can to support local businesses or Thai businesses. So, even even the things like the alcohol, we use a Thai importer. So, it's that's it's that was always very important for us was to make sure that we helped as many people as we could. Um and and we've committed to it, and we stuck to our word, and we did it.

[00:13:21]I was born in the southern of Thailand, Nakhon Si Thammarat.

[00:13:26]But uh because my family are all like um government officers, so we were assigned to move to Bangkok since I was 7, and the whole education and grew up is in Bangkok. So, you're based in Bangkok Monday to Friday?

[00:13:42]I'm based everywhere. Based everywhere.

[00:13:44][laughter] >> [gasps and sighs] >> Uh my base would be three main city, Bangkok, because I work there all the time, and uh the headquarter of the company is there, the main house is there.

[00:13:57]But But I also based in Chonburi and down here in Phetchaburi.

[00:14:02]Uh Cha-am, because my job also dealing with clients for both city.

[00:14:08]And they are equally important for me, so like I'm I'm I'm everywhere in the week, but I manage to be here uh on the weekend or some consultation in the middle of the week if I have to.

[00:14:23]So, business in Bangkok, uh it's a travel company that we have has been having since 2000 and 13. This year, I think it's 15 16 years.

[00:14:36]I'm a company director, and um I run the registration and license for the business.

[00:14:44]Uh that has been ongoing for a long time. Up and down, uh that's the backbone. And then what I have done all along the way is Thailand Visa Agent.

[00:14:54]And that was from the the business itself.

[00:14:59]A company director responsible for every action, activity, and every signature.

[00:15:06]So, um for me, having a non-Thai passport husband and the kids and the non-Thai passport staff working in the office, I need to understand the law and regulations of what I have to submit and sign to get it right and continue. So, when I mentioned earlier that I work in Chonburi, it's because we run uh visa department for uh joint company, Japanese and Chinese company, car factory. You know, the investor that came to Thailand and have um companies and factory.

[00:15:44]So, those are like uh the clients part as well.

[00:15:48]And down here, we also run for general visas, you know, of course retirements, uh Thai spouse, student, kids, anything to do with living here.

[00:16:00]Yeah, and then lastly is this place that we consider as home. And that is the the retirement, you know, like activities that we do ongoing.

[00:16:11]So, three business, I would say. And that support each other.

[00:16:15]I heard you say before you you're doing Thai classes in here sometimes now a bit as well. I do. I do. Um Is that something you just started or It it I started 2 3 months already.

[00:16:28]That was because I feel that Well, we say that this is like community place. This is like friends house. So, when people come to visit Cha-Am, they they visit us here.

[00:16:41]I would like them to feel home. I would like them to live here and know that there is a place for them to always go and feel welcome and feel to extend safe, you know, because most of us are the the newcomer.

[00:16:58]And for us, we feel that if it was us, we want to have somewhere that we can, you know, go for. And living in the country, not only adapt for the culture, the tradition, way of life, regulations and that, it would be good if you have that additional thing that you understand the basic level of language and that's where we started. And I mean like people come here, they would chat to people next table anyway. That's just how it works here. They chat with us, they check chat with um different uh people in the shop and I think it's a good thing that the language would not only benefit them in term of living here, but then they that probably expand to the friends network or a community network and you could maybe exchange some information or some knowledge that live uh when you live here. So, I think language is a good thing.

[00:17:56]And there's no pressure because it's not a paid class, you know, it's a it's a volunteer thing. And I get to spend some time, sit down and relax and in the environment that people can just have a go of what they think it would make sense and then, you know, sometime have a laugh together. Sometime we talk about things like that. Mm. And how's Steve's Thai?

[00:18:21]>> [laughter] >> Very basic.

[00:18:23]Terrible? Terrible. After 20 years um living here. It is tricky. It is tricky, but yeah.

[00:18:29]>> Oh, I I give up. I give up and >> ever teach him?

[00:18:33]I did try when we first married. Uh-huh.

[00:18:37]I he's a good listener of uh of me morning. Um it's difficult uh for him. He has so much he has to do and we have uh uh a worker. So, we work a lot each day.

[00:18:52]Sometime it's a bit too much if we try to set that like a routine like so focused about that. So, I just leave it to him to pick up and maybe he bring it up to talk to the kids or or me when he want to know and want to be explained.

[00:19:10]But with with the clients, with people who visit us here, I think you know, with no pressure, I think it's good for them to have a go. And we actually having people that move to Cha-Am interested in uh trying and attending the class. And then you happen to find someone that live not too far from you and, you know, have something in common, which is a lovely thing.

[00:19:35]>> as well, not only learning Chinese.

[00:19:36]>> Yeah, it's a lovely thing.

[00:19:38]>> Connection, yeah. Chai, chai, uh And what do you think about the You were just saying about the air quality here?

[00:19:44]Is it pretty good year-round?

[00:19:45]I would say 80% in a year.

[00:19:49]As we sit here, on the app, usually green.

[00:19:53]Worst case would be in January, you know, February, that you get a little bit of the next level up. But it's inland because Phetchaburi and near Cha-Am, we have got the mountain as well. So, sometime it trap the the the pollution, but it's not long, and then it will go away. So, I would say most of the time it's it's lovely. It's cleaner.

[00:20:20]Uh Steve used to have a lot of respiratory problem, you know, like the cough and bronchitis and stuff like that because um we live in Bangkok and he ride motorcycle to city and out. But here, you don't get that at all.

[00:20:39]And he can do out out door um sport as well. So, that that is the indicator of what we see. Mhm.

[00:20:48]What's happening with the cuz I've heard now there's a lot on the news now about the 60-day visa going to 30 days now?

[00:20:54]It's changed over. Huh. Is that implemented now? Uh you have to wait for uh this to go to the get the royal cassette.

[00:21:04]Okay. So, it's not implemented properly yet.

[00:21:06]>> Not yet. I'm I'm expecting sometimes probably mid-June. Because after implement in the Royal Gazette, it is another 15 days before effective.

[00:21:19]So, um the government try to inform people in advance so they can prepare, they can adjust.

[00:21:26]But to be honest, this this is not the first time.

[00:21:30]Uh everything that you know, change, they always give you some period of time to to adjust accordingly. And for me uh it doesn't stop you traveling in term of okay, I got this paperwork, this approval.

[00:21:47]I can go or I cannot go. It's not like that. It's just about how long you could be here and how do you manage your stay. If you want to stay longer, uh which you have time to do some research. It is actually for me the same thing.

[00:22:05]The number of days uh the same.

[00:22:09]But how we approach it is different this time.

[00:22:13]It's like petrol price, you know, we moan about oh, so expensive right now, but we still drive car right now after a month of what happened.

[00:22:23]So, we we we will understand it later.

[00:22:27]I just want to say a massive thank you to Stephen Pye for the interview today.

[00:22:32]And if you're planning to move to Thailand, I've set up a direct connection email below.

[00:22:37]Pioneer team here have over 15 years of experience on the ground here in Thailand and they can help you with visas, housing, health care guidance, and even things like pet relocation if needed. So, if you'd like help getting started, just email the team directly below.

[00:22:53]And mention that you came through the video.

[00:22:56]Thanks for watching today. I'll see you on the next one, guys.