Ease of Doing Business Index

Thailand is rated the 15th country in the world for ease of business via a report issued by the World Bank. Singapore came in first, which I expected, while Congo come in last.

The methodology for this list is broken down into the following:

• Starting a business - Procedures, time, cost and minimum capital to open a new business

• Dealing with licenses - Procedures, time and cost of business inspections and licensing (construction industry)

• Hiring and firing workers - Difficulty of hiring index, rigidity of hours of index, difficulty of firing index, hiring cost and firing cost

• Registering property - Procedures, time and cost to register commercial real estate

• Getting credit - Strength of legal rights index, depth of credit information index

• Protecting investors - Indices on the extent of disclosure, extent of director liability and ease of shareholder suits

• Paying taxes - Number of taxes paid, hours per year spent preparing tax returns and total tax payable as share of gross profit

• Trading across borders - Number of documents, number of signatures and time necessary to export and import

• Enforcing contracts - Procedures, time and cost to enforce a debt contract

• Closing a business

I haven’t had experience is setting up a company elsewhere so it’s hard for me to comment. All I say that if Thailand is ranked 15th, countries ranked down from 16 must be a nightmare to set up and manage.

What do you make of the list?

Elijah Cummings calls Neil Kashkari a “chump”

I don’t talk politics on this blog, but this is to good not to share.

I totally agree - What do you think?

Diet - Week 1 progress report

Okay, week 1 of my diet is over and I didn’t do to bad considering I was out on the town drinking twice this week along with being invited to eat at 2 great restaurants.

At the beginning of the week I weighed 78.1kg and my aim was to drop down to 76.4kg. I now weigh 76.7kg - So I was 0.3kg out from my goal.

The plan for the week ahead is to only go drinking the once and will try to get some more exercise in (I did 3 x 1 hour runs last week).

Wish me luck!

If you work online and your not on Twitter, your crazy

I seriously believe this.  If you work online and your not interested in networking with other people online, I think your missing so many opportunities.

I have been using Twitter for a couple of months now and wow… it has exceeded my expectations - purely for the networking factor.

There are 2 instances that really stand out:

The first is when Garry Vaynerchuck from Wine Library TV sent a tweet out asking for Feedback on FeedZa after I called him up for some advice. Within a few minutes loads of people started checking out FeedZa (700+ in fact from this one tweet) and started replying with feedback on how I could improve the site, it’s funtions and design! This blew me away.

The 2nd instance was a couple of days ago I started searching for a motion graphics designer. At that time I didn’t know such people were called motion graphic designers so after half an hour searching online using the wrong keywords, I sent out a tweet asking for help. I asked that I was looking for someone that could create an opening scene for my new video project, like Wine Library TV and DiggNation have. A few hours later Twitter user thejetset replied back with a link to the designer who created both opening Motion Graphics for the sites above!!

Here are just 2, of many, amazing networking experiences I have had from Twitter and I’m sure there’s many more in the future to come.

What ever business you are in, never underestimate the power of networking. The bigger your reach, the better.

A very strict diet

During the first year of living in Thailand, I lost loads of weight, then it went back on, then come off again. I’ve just got back from weighing myself and my heart sunk when I read that I’ve put on 8kg in 6 months or so! I’m the only one to blame… fatty foods, lack of exercise and to many beers when I go out… stress from work doesn’t help either.

I’ve just returned home and opened up an Excel Spread-sheet and drawn out a 6 week plan - I’m heading home for xmas, which is 6 weeks away, so the plan is to get back down to the best I’ve ever weighed which was 70kg - I felt great during this time and am determined to get back to that weight.

I have my targets set, a diary of exercises to do and I’ll be writing down everything I eat. My friend Denis over at Cigar Inspector recommends the one hundred push ups program - so I’m going to have a stab at that too.

I need to loose 1.7kg every week to hit my goal… from78kg down to 70kg in 6 weeks… It’s not going to be easy!

Bring on the bananas!

Seeking a cameraman and feedback on a new project idea

About a year ago I came up with a project idea that ties in 4 of my biggest passions: traveling, internet/social media, marketing and food. It’s a dream project for me, and now that I have more time on my hands I’m starting to really consider starting this project in 09.

The idea is pretty simple, I visit restaurants and work in their kitchens for a day… they can get my doing anything from sweeping the floor, cutting onions to cooking complex dishes. The point is to learn more about how food, from all over the world, is prepared, cooked and presented in restaurants. I’m not just talking about high end restaurants, I want to learn from both ends of the scale, from the best restaurants in the world to the lady selling fried bugs at the end of my road.

The cameraman will get to travel around SE Asia, meet lot’s of interesting people, will have a lot of fun and will help create a product that I hope, will entertain a lot of people. I will be funding this project myself with limited funds, meaning that I’ll only be able to cover living and travel expenses - so the ideal person needs to want to work on such a project for the fun of it and the traveling aspect rather than for the money.

I’m just in the planning stages at the moment, looking into the logistics of running such a project, but I’m really interested in talking to anyone that knows how to work a camera, is good at editing video, is a great communicator and above all, knows how to have fun! If you know anyone that may be interested, I would love to chat with them.

On the other side of the coin, what do you think about this project idea?

Thanks!

Missed my flight

Got up at 5am this morning to catch my flight to Laos… thought I had time to get a coffee after checking in but it turns out I wrong! The airline staff say they called out my name however I was sitting in the outside area of a cafe having a ciggie so I didn’t hear them.

I fell gutted as I re-arranged my work schedule, gave people time off and my friend in Laos had taken a day off work too. Bummer.

This isn’t the first time I’ve missed a flight and probably won’t be the last. Better luck next week.

Have you ever missed a flight?

English lady get’s caught drug smuggling out of Thailand documentary

I remember reading a book titled “forget you had a daughter” earlier this year about a British lady who got caught smuggling drugs out of Thailand. I’ve just discovered that her story has been made into a documentary as part of a series in the UK called “Banged Up Abroad”, which I’ve included here via YouTube.

This is not the only book or story I have read about foreigners getting caught up in drugs, especially smuggling drugs in and out of Thailand. I know a lot of people think they should get everything thrown at them but I generally feel sorry for them. To do something so stupid in the first place, one has got to be pretty low on life. We all make mistakes, and most of the time we get the opportunity to sort them out but for these guys, their well and truly fucked.

There is a 17 year old English guy serving 25 years for smuggling a few pills into Thailand… 25 years! A young guy who made a huge mistake and has now got to pay 25 years of his life for it. That’s to much to pay for a mistake in my opinion. Don’t get me wrong, those who do wrong should be punished otherwise the world would be a far crazier place than it is now - but Thailand, along with a select few other countries in the world, go way over the top.

What do you think?

Great Farrari Commercial

This is a great advert made by Ferrari and Shell, costing over $4million to produce. The commercial contains different formula one cars from 1952 to today taking to the streets of Rome, New York, Rio, Hong Kong and Monaco.

Do yourself a favor and turn your speaker up before you press play

You can see how the movie was made here.

I miss traveling

Next week I’m of to Laos for a few days to meet up with some friends who I used to hang around with - super excited to see them.

Since planning this trip, I’ve been thinking about all the countries I’ve yet to visit and explore… and all the good times I’ve had while on the road. I thought I’d share one of my favorite images from my travels. In a small town in Burma, I was having a beer and the street and I met this young lad who invited me back to his families house for dinner. I bought beers on the way and we ending up chatting for most of the night. His family were lovely and accepted me into their home with open arms.

No, I didn’t pee my pants.. The rugs I was sitting on were soaking wet. My new friend is in the middle, along with his Dad on the left and younger brother peeping through.

For those who haven’t visit Burma yet… now’s the time to go: the scenery, the history and the kind people make this one of the best, if not the best, countries I’ve ever visited.

I miss traveling.