Well this little side note got me to laughing and should be enough to get me over the fear of that damn centipede, that just ran behind my computer and vanished, ending up in my bed tonight and crawling up my chest towards my face… :s ahh shoot i just scared my self again~~
Oh well time to hang it up for the night~
You may want to look at this thread: viewtopic.php?p=497313#497313
And this one: viewtopic.php?f=29&t=55842
Okay, maybe that business had a different focus, but the fact is the foreign newbie market is not that big, and the internet age is only increasing the amount of free information available. Besides, most guys moving here are very willing to get a girlfriend right away, and those girlfriends will reduce the need for most of your friend’s services.
I’m not saying you’re friend’s idea is absolutely going to fail, but it’ll be hard to pull it off and be successful. If she doesn’t require a steady or decent income, then it could work, but then again that would be more of a hobby than a business.
I haven’t read the whole thread but here is an idea.
How about being a concierge?
I know people who would pay someone to arrange a knock-out weekend for them and their partners. Someone to turn to when looking for something interesting to do with the kids over a weekend. Can you get me an invite to such and such an event?
I’ve lived here for over 12 years and I still can’t keep up with what is happening in the events I care about. Perhaps I could pay her a small monthly fee to send me gallery openings, music performances, kids events, clothing sales and etc. to my iPhone in English. There is a ton of information out there in English about where to get drunk or banged or listen to loud music but perhaps less about the things that people I know care about.
I had someone ask me recently if there was a Taiwan version of Steven Pettifor’s Bangkok Art Map. I could only point him to a well done Chinese blog. She may not be not be art critic but she could translate gallery openings and their reviews.
Most if not all of our information about ‘what to do this weekend in Taiwan’ comes from local friends or by chance. Perhaps she could be that network for those who don’t have that network.
Chub… sorry that you took my previous comment to heart, it was more a response to Toasty’s remark that this information was freely available through going out and greeting the wide-world.
You will also note that I did post a serious reply below, in that if she wants to help people she should look where the money is and not where the money ain’t. English teachers may well seem numerous, but their meagre earnings, support and youth make them less then willing adherents to your friends business idea. They may actually resist such help since it is restricting their experience and they need some good anecdotes for the bar.
If your friend means to earn say 80~90k (75% her current earnings) that means she is looking at about 80-90 people paying her 1000nt every month. So this is obviously unworkable. If she were to specialize in housing it may be possible to take one month’s rent as a finder and negotiator’s fee so making about 10-15k per find or 6-9 cases a month, this is partially realistic, but would still need to diversify.
As you can see from the number of responses here already, the number of nice people willing to lend a hand are numerous so a business based on helping foreign teachers would be unstable at best.
This is why I suggested looking at the tourist market - as was reiterated by the previous poster. My parents recently visited and would have been unable to get around without my help. If they were here for more than a few days I would have loved to know that a person was available to get them around, give tours and other such, since they are on holiday 5k a day (9-6) would have been a paltry sum to them, but get her within the estimated earnings threshold.
Wish her and you all the best
Or maybe via email also?
Wait… wouldn’t that be getting paid for spamming? A genius is who manages that!
I accept your apology and will accept it as a misunderstanding or something.
She/we whatever, weren’t thinking of these as being retainer services. More like some body comes in says hey I saw your site, I need help with negotiating with my landlord about some crazy fee. I don’t want to retain a lawyer or drag the FAP into this unless it becomes and ugly deal. And by having my friend’s company services they would have detailed records of everything that was said and happened during these meetings in the event that it should require legal services.
Even though I said in the beginning that it was aimed at New teachers, it doesn’t have to be only people, there are a lot of long term teachers and foreigners here that still require assistance doing things. Like earlier this year I attempted to buy a house because I plan to live in Taiwan long term. And I really went into the whole thing blind, and almost got my self screwed over, had it not been for the kindness of the home owner. I read a lot of the information about this topic here on this site, and few other blogs of teachers who have been here 10+ years, so I thought I was good. I took a friend who could speak Chinese for me, but still I ran into problem after problem. If there was someone to help with that other than a real estate agent, I would have willingly paid them 5-10K for helping through the process.
I can see this idea, because I had to deal with this issue when my brother came over last year, I had to work and he was stuck being tired to my neighborhood until I came home from work. It would have nice if he had someone else to take him around during the day. I will suggest this idea to her as well.
Or maybe via email also?
Wait… wouldn’t that be getting paid for spamming? A genius is who manages that![/quote]
Getting paid to spam. Interesting idea. 
Or maybe via email also?
Wait… wouldn’t that be getting paid for spamming? A genius is who manages that![/quote]
It’s not spam if I request certain information be sent to me.
Or maybe via email also?
Wait… wouldn’t that be getting paid for spamming? A genius is who manages that![/quote]
It’s not spam if I request certain information be sent to me.[/quote]
Right. It’s electronic masochism.
Okay, stop, let’s focus on the subject here. Hm… servicing teachers…
I think a gal in Taiwan can only let them teach English or sleep with them. There is not much else she can do with them.
[quote=“Chububobcat”]Even though I said in the beginning that it was aimed at New teachers, it doesn’t have to be only people, there are a lot of long term teachers and foreigners here that still require assistance doing things. Like earlier this year I attempted to buy a house because I plan to live in Taiwan long term. And I really went into the whole thing blind, and almost got my self screwed over, had it not been for the kindness of the home owner. I read a lot of the information about this topic here on this site, and few other blogs of teachers who have been here 10+ years, so I thought I was good. I took a friend who could speak Chinese for me, but still I ran into problem after problem. If there was someone to help with that other than a real estate agent, I would have willingly paid them 5-10K for helping through the process.
[/quote]
Ok, not a bad idea, in theory. But, again, how many people are we talking about REALLY? Could you build a viable business on something like this? Of the long-termers who would be doing any of these things, how many do you estimate would have spouses, relatives, friends, students, parents of students and so on that could assist them for free? Were I to buy something, don’t you think I’d ask my wife, father-in-law, adult students or a host of other local associates (many of whom specialize in these kinds of things) I know who would look after my interests before turning to a stranger I’d have to pay? How many long-termers do you think would lack such connections?
Not trying to constantly rain on your parade, but you seem to see loads of people where there are few, untapped markets where there aren’t any.
Um, so what difference would someone be getting from your friend? From what you’ve told us, her area of expertise is middle management in a print company. How does that equate to, say, real estate? Plus, you’d be PAYING for her service. How is she going to persuade people that she has the necessary skills – especially in such a wide range of services – when you’ve already found out to your cost that simply speaking the language isn’t NEARLY enough?
does she know where i can buy some cream cheese?
So it’s 2:40am and I am trying to organise my own business before taking off for a few weeks, so I’m procrastinating by adding not much to this discussion.
Maybe instead of looking English teachers, who generally come here looking for some experience at settling themselves into a foreign country, and maybe don’t want to or have the means to pay for this service, or care if they can’t find the comforts of home right away, your friend could look at assisting expat families who come in with a company or to work in a local company. It seems to me that more and more of these families are left to do a lot of stuff alone, like look for apartments, find shopping places, restaurants, hospitals, and so on. Companies don’t seem to provide this service very well. And people are a bit shy to ask new friends all the time, and we probably dont’ give the best answers all the time, either. These families have motivation to get organised smoothly and may be more willing to pay.
She could go to the Center and talk to staff there to see if there is a need. She could contribute articles to Centered on Taipei or This Month in Taiwan in return for links to her information and description of her services. Instead of setting up her own company, she could work with other companies that provide information to the foreign community and they could both grow together.
I just watched two series of Shark Tank, and I think it’s a great show for small-business owners or entrepeneurs. It will motivate and also get you thinking a lot about your own idea or current business. I think the important thing from that show for a start-up is, invest any money super carefully. Don’t be overoptimistic. Listen to people telling you won’t work and go and research to see who is more likely to be right.
All the best!
She would be basically just like a friend who is helping you, with maybe no particular expertise in whatever she’s helping with. My Taiwanese friends were often a great help, but sometimes they couldn’t do much, simply because they themselves didn’t know how to do whatever.
Also, she makes so much money at her current job that I can’t see giving it up for this. Personally, I wouldn’t pay more than 300 NT an hour for this kind of help, unless it was for something extremely distressing and complicated. But helping me find something at the night market, coming with me to the bank or hospital, helping at the FAP - friends or someone at the buxiban will do it for free.
But one thing I wish I had had when I first came to Taiwan was someone to take me to tourist places. Maybe if she had advertised a Sunday tour to the beach at our buxiban, enough people would have signed up to make it worth her while.
One service she could provide would be “rental” of cell phones and/or SIM cards. She could get data services at the subscription rate, for example, and then rent them weekly or monthly to visitors, with an appropriate deposit to protect her. I’d definitely go for a service like that to handle my temporary Internet needs while I’m visiting Taiwan for 3-4 weeks at a time.
Hell, I’ve thought before that someone could make a few bucks setting up a phone rental shop at Taipei airport. But I’m not in Taipei.
How about sitting with people next to a computer and helping them look for apartments on 591.com.tw or Tsue Ma Ma and going to help them get the place they like? With clear rates for handling problems later, and what her limit of assistance would be?
Or going through yahoo auction or ruten and helping people buy furniture? Again, sitting next to the person and letting them make the decisions, but helping with the communication?
Calling the taxi company and setting up an account so the Chinese information is there and they can just use the account number to get a taxi from home?
These are tasks I imagine people would like help with, but I am not sure who would pay or what the rate would be.