Pattaya's amazing Brit bar boss

[reader]

Stickman Weekly's lead article in the current (Mar.12) issue is well worth the read, especially if you're interested in Pattaya or the bar business in general. Stickman has an extended interview with a Brit who runs over 15 lady bars in addition to the hugely successful Pattaya Addicts forum with a whopping 104,000 users.

 

Fascinating is about the best way to describe Bryan Flowers and what he has accomplished in a dozen years.  He talks openly about the ins and outs running bars, managing employees and offers his own take on the local mafia.

 

Also of interest is his experience moderating the forum and dealing with the huge range of challenges members can present to a moderator.

 

Go off the reservation and give it a read; you won't be disappointed.

 

 

[Vessey]

And actually a nice guy.

[NIrishGuy]

Stickman Weekly's lead article in the current (Mar.12) issue is well worth the read, especially if you're interested in Pattaya or the bar business in general. Stickman has an extended interview with a Brit who runs over 15 lady bars in addition to the hugely successful Pattaya Addicts forum with a whopping 104,000 users.

 

Fascinating is about the best way to describe Bryan Flowers and what he has accomplished in a dozen years.  He talks openly about the ins and outs running bars, managing employees and offers his own take on the local mafia.

 

Also of interest is his experience moderating the forum and dealing with the huge range of challenges members can present to a moderator.

 

Go off the reservation and give it a read; you won't be disappointed.

 

 

  Any chance of posting a link to said article perhaps ??

[reader]

stickmanweekly.com

[NIrishGuy]

Thank you and yes interesting article, although I'd say there goes a guy who's either going to be a multi millionaire, bust and bankrupt and or dead at 50 from overwork and stress, I hope for his sake only the first option applies as he sounds like a nice enough guy.

[forrestreid]

Actually, contrary to what the OP states,  I think Stickman is actually fairly regularly read by quite a few posters here, including myself, I had actually read this article with interest before I saw the OP.

 

As regards what i thought of it, basically Nirishguy beat me to it, was going to post the same.

 

Flowers seems to have had a slow burn strategy up to this, and made clever use of social media (the business he started out with) to get people into his new bars, carefully supervising management, making sure the have the right farang staff, etc

 

Now he seems to be rather suddenly speeding up, if he really plans to buy a bar a month, he will find it nearly impossible to keep ensuring the quality of staff, never mind keeping a social media presence for them all.

 

The impossibility of expanding quickly and keeping up quality are why most big chains you have heard of, like MacDonalds, that want to expand fast go for franchising rather than owning.

 

He seems to be going for an all-or nothing strategy with the bars, buying them up like they are going out of fashion, remortgaging his house to do so, etc.

 

Either he has spotted that the bars in general are undervalued at current market and plans to quickly expand and sell off in two or three years (perhaps a clever strategy, if that is his game), or else he has spotted a magic formula to enable him to expand fast and maintain quality (more unlikely, imho)

 

Personally, I suspect he will burn brightly and burn out quickly, like Nirish says.

 

But unlike Vessy, I dont know him, so this is only me speculating.

 

I have to concede to him that he operates the biggest and best straight-orientated Pattaya chat forum in Pattaya-Addicts, so he is obviously no fool, and does seem to genuinely have a good reputation.

 

However, if I was thinking of investing in his business, that interview made him seem to have a rather "manic" personality, which would concern me a bit.

 

But best of luck to him anyway

[reader]

"Actually, contrary to what the OP states,  I think Stickman is actually fairly regularly read by quite a few posters here"

 

Exactly where did I say that in my post?

[Guest BryanFlowers]

Stickman Weekly's lead article in the current (Mar.12) issue is well worth the read, especially if you're interested in Pattaya or the bar business in general. Stickman has an extended interview with a Brit who runs over 15 lady bars in addition to the hugely successful Pattaya Addicts forum with a whopping 104,000 users.

 

Fascinating is about the best way to describe Bryan Flowers and what he has accomplished in a dozen years. He talks openly about the ins and outs running bars, managing employees and offers his own take on the local mafia.

 

Also of interest is his experience moderating the forum and dealing with the huge range of challenges members can present to a moderator.

 

Go off the reservation and give it a read; you won't be disappointed.

Thank you for your kind words. Its appreciated. I like sharing.

[Guest BryanFlowers]

Thank you and yes interesting article, although I'd say there goes a guy who's either going to be a multi millionaire, bust and bankrupt and or dead at 50 from overwork and stress, I hope for his sake only the first option applies as he sounds like a nice enough guy.

Thats very true although if i lost everything tomorrow. I can start again.

 

As for the stress i manage it very well. I have certain pleasures which neutilise that.

[Guest BryanFlowers]

Flowers seems to have had a slow burn strategy up to this, and made clever use of social media (the business he started out with) to get people into his new bars, carefully supervising management, making sure the have the right farang staff, etc

 

Now he seems to be rather suddenly speeding up, if he really plans to buy a bar a month, he will find it nearly impossible to keep ensuring the quality of staff, never mind keeping a social media presence for them all.

 

The impossibility of expanding quickly and keeping up quality are why most big chains you have heard of, like MacDonalds, that want to expand fast go for franchising rather than owning.

 

He seems to be going for an all-or nothing strategy with the bars, buying them up like they are going out of fashion, remortgaging his house to do so, etc.

 

Either he has spotted that the bars in general are undervalued at current market and plans to quickly expand and sell off in two or three years (perhaps a clever strategy, if that is his game), or else he has spotted a magic formula to enable him to expand fast and maintain quality (more unlikely, imho)

 

Personally, I suspect he will burn brightly and burn out quickly, like Nirish says.

 

But unlike Vessy, I dont know him, so this is only me speculating.

 

I have to concede to him that he operates the biggest and best straight-orientated Pattaya chat forum in Pattaya-Addicts, so he is obviously no fool, and does seem to genuinely have a good reputation.

 

However, if I was thinking of investing in his business, that interview made him seem to have a rather "manic" personality, which would concern me a bit.

 

But best of luck to him anyway

Thank you for the nice comments. Regarding the expansion. We have alot of structures, regulation, rules and staff in place. Our business is scalable. (With some limitations)

[Gwydion62]

I've never met him but agree that the interview came across as rather 'manic'.

His social media posts appear to be getting more boastful as well - important contacts, getting people out of prison, illegal activity, etc etc.

 

Can't help thinking he could be heading for a fall.

[forrestreid]

"Actually, contrary to what the OP states,  I think Stickman is actually fairly regularly read by quite a few posters here"

 

Exactly where did I say that in my post?

I think it was fairly clearly implied by your "get off the reservation" comment at the end.

 

I should have said "what the OP implies" rather than "what the OP states" I suppose, but it's a pretty minor distinction .

[reader]

Thanks, Forrestreid, for posting correction.

[forrestreid]

Thank you for the nice comments. Regarding the expansion. We have alot of structures, regulation, rules and staff in place. Our business is scalable. (With some limitations)

 

Hello Bryan,

 

Welcome to the board.

 

I didn't realise you would be reading the comments yourself when I wrote them, you picked a nice time to join the board!

 

Glad you took my comments in the fair-minded (albeit blunt) way they were intended.