“EEBA Alumni: A Multi-business Owner”

Hi everyone! You can call me Bank (Panuwat Treeveeranuwat). To tell you a little bit about myself, I used to be a golf player back during my younger teen years with the goal of becoming a world-class professional player someday. Later on, I found that my outlook on life was changing and by 18, I wanted to become a businessman, and that’s why I chose to study in the EEBA program.

I decided on Logistics as my major of study. Within the EEBA program, I learned a lot of things. My friends and professors encouraged me to become a person of a good mindset. Most of the EEBA students are business owners. This was important and very helpful to me because, then, our topic of conversations would be about work and sharing ideas. We were able to expose ourselves to different perspectives, which made us have an open mind about businesses.

Time passed by quickly, and soon I was already in my third year. Back then, I still didn’t have a set goal on what I wanted to achieve in life and I wasted most of my time on unnecessary things. I realized then that I needed to do something. When I took the leap and pursued becoming an entrepreneur, I knew that I finally found myself. 

I started a small business with two of my closest friends. Our first idea was to sell dietary supplements, but it didn’t work out as we attempted to start it out without knowing how to promote it. For our second project, we thought of selling jewelries–lucky stone bracelets to be specific. We managed to pull through for half a year, but decided to end it.

After that, I found an advertisement for “car umbrellas” from the USA (Lanmodo). At first, I only wanted to buy it for its purpose, but it gave me an idea that this could be my chance. I emailed the company and 2 months later, I visited their factory for contract signing. Officially, I became an authorized sole distributor for Lanmodo in Thailand. 

Starting out as an entrepreneur, things were going great for me and I was invited to be a guest speaker to discuss Social Commerce in DAAT 2018 (Digital Advertising Association of Thailand). DAAT is the biggest stage for advertisements in Thailand.

By 2019, I graduated. I found a new business opportunity–being a service and warehouse provider for online sellers. I established another business with my two partners, the ShipSpace Fulfillment company. It’s a solution for online sellers in terms of the storage, packaging and delivery of their merchandise. We provide service to help retailers through all these processes.

In 2020, I had a problem with my first venture. As more and more people look into car umbrellas, the competitors decided to cut the price; this was normal for all businesses, but this had an effect on my sales of Lanmodo in Thailand. And so, I decided to make a local brand of the product, CarColoni. This brand was aimed to cover all demands of my customers who are not willing to pay for the higher-priced, Lanmodo. In addition, not only is CarColoni more affordable, it also sells other car accessories.

This year 2021, with the ongoing Covid-19 situation, many companies are still suffering losses, some are even selling their own businesses to survive. This was a new problem yet again. Nowadays, in the market, we all know that there are real estate agents who sell different properties and areas but there are no service agents for selling SME businesses. Owners want to sell their business because they’re operating at a loss, but the problem is that they do not know how to sell it at a reasonable price and fast. With this idea in mind, I started a new company, FlipSpace. Here, our goal is to become a Business Seller Assistant for SME. During this time, I am also proud to mention that I decided to be a sponsor of FJGT (Future Junior Golf Thailand).

I own four businesses at the moment — Lanmodo (car umbrella), CarColoni (car accessories), ShipSpace Fulfillment (warehouse and service provider), and FlipSpace (business seller assistant for SME). I manage my family business (2 apartments for rental) as well. I also have investments in real estate, stocks and mutual funds. With the current circumstances, Covid-19 has made an impact on real estate markets making its prices go down. I must say that it is a good time to invest in condominiums and get capital gains. Fortunately, the pandemic has not affected any of my businesses, that is because my operations and sale channels are all moving online. 

My main goal is to continue expanding my ventures. For those of you who are currently studying in the EEBA program and those that are planning to start your own business, you’re choosing the right way. My advice would be to put your efforts and focus on it. You have to be willing to accept and explore what you don’t know yet, take risks, and learn more about it, so that when the time comes when you’ve made the foundation for your business, you’ll be competent to handle the uncertainty that comes with it.