Introduction

Those of you who have been keeping an eye on our Blog Site will know that we have been working on an idea to hire a room in a key location to do something with, for God. We have ideas of some of the services that we would like to offer, but are focusing on the concept of a 'Drop In Centre' to cover all of our ideas and others too.

We believe that this idea is from God, and have been praying about it a lot, and would really appreciate your prayers too.

The key thing about this project is that it generated out of a desire to hire a great location, provide a needed service, and then allow God to use it as he will. This means that we are incredibly flexible in what we could do. We, of course, have a good idea of what we should do with this location, but are willing to alter our ideas based on what Thai's advise (based on an understanding of their culture) and what God says.

We envision that this page will slowly become a complete business plan as the appropriate research is completed and the ideas become more substantial. Currently this page is broken up in to four important areas:

1. Location
2. Mission / Aim
3. Product / Service
4. Finance / Legalities

Please read this document as a work in progress, and feel free to offer any appropriate advice. We are eagerly looking for your advice and involvment in this project.

Location

Because of the number of possible locations we are looking at now, all options, photos, comments and considerations are now listed on our Drop In Centre Locations page.

Mission / Aim

Our current mission is three fold:

1. To provide needed services for free to locals in service to the people of Thailand. We desire to have an abnormal and shrewd Christian approach to this, which we have seen work elsewhere, where we would focus on serving people and providing their needs rather than on persuading them to become Christian. We want to see a successful *business*, providing good service, and then to be able to use a successful service to further God's kingdom. This is not to say that we will hide our Christianity or not desire to see people saved, but instead we want to see a successful service generate which can then be used with greater impact for God's kingdom at the right time.
2. To be a unifying influence within the local church. We would like to remain seperate from any one local church, but maintain great relationships with all of them. We would love to see them involved in what we do, and to offer them the use of our resources for their own brillant ideas.
3. Thirdly, but by no way least, we do want to see people saved and discipled and so want to make sure that there is always resource and people available for people seeking God, or wanting to further their relationship, at any level.

Product / Service

There are a few points to consider when deciding what Products / Services should be made available.

1. That we do not offer any service for free which others in our area are trying to sell. The biggest example here is teaching English
2. Who the customers are:
   • The largest number by far is the huge number of students from the local university
   • Those living in the area
   • The poorer living within 10 minutes of the proposed location
3. That there are a few key ways in which we want to use this resource, but we realise that for this place to be known and respected, we need an ongoing regular usage.

The way that we are considering using this resource as an ongoing, regular service is as an English study and drop in centre. This means that we can keep the place open most hours of most days and will be providing a much needed service, and also give us an easily believable and acceptable reason for offering a free service. A quick list of the needs that we would see this filling are:

• Providing a cool, quiet (not too quiet - most Thai's need a regular level of noise) facility with desk and chairs where students can study. Many students live 3-6 people to a 3m X 6m (9ft X 18ft) room which has little more than a bed, and certainly no air-con. Students therefore rely on malls, fast food shops and areas within the Univerisity to do their work and study.
• We would also be able to offer an 'English Help' facility. Even without offering English lessons, Thai students would still be eager to take up the opportunity to practise their English or ask their questions of an English speaking Westerner.
• A place to meet friends or relax and read a book away from the confines of home or University.
• We would also like to offer the use of a limited number of free computers for study/research only. All Internet cafes are full of game players and are always deafingly loud.

The services that we are considering providing (around our main ongoing service) include:

• Mother & toddler, Saturday morning group, specifically for the poorer families along the Khlong. Key draw cards could be: the comfortable aircon location, toys and professional advice, and the opportunity to have their children interact with native English speakers.
• Teaching English to under 8's. Learning English is a big thing, and we feel that offering to teach this age group for free will not affect the businesses of anyone else in our area.
• Creche / Mother timeout
• Cafe / music evenings. Particularly to invite in Chrtistian artists to play while usual activities continue.
• Church Events. We want to remain seperate from all churches, but in good and open relationship. We want to redirect people on to their services (both Christian and their English teaching programs), and allow them to make use of our facility. We dream of this resource having a unifying affect on the local churches, and allowing members of the various churches to pool their God given skills.

Some of the ideas above may seem great, or may seem silly. Our next step is to research these ideas and see what will work and why. There are so many cultural and other reasons why something might work or flop, and it is important that we listen to these reasons rather than what we think the Thai people need, and what we think would work.

Finance / Legalities

As foreigners, with out the appropriate visas, we are unable to start up a business, but we are more than welcome to hire property, employ people and to do charitable works and provide services for free.

As we are not (can not at this time) able to try and make a profit or to recoupe costs from customers, we have to be careful of which services we offer, as in affect, we will be giving them away. We do not want to steal customers from any others in our area who are trying to make a living by offering services similar to ours.

Naturally, this venture will not finance itself; we will need to raise funds. Emily currently has a good paying job which should be able to pay our rent (or most of it) if we live particularly carefully. Hayden is also working on a way to offer a 'document correcting' service to Thai organisations allowing him to work from our new location, and earn reasonable money. He is nearing a stage where he can begin to approach organisations who obviously need help with their English texts, but we have no idea whether this will be as succesful as we hope. Obviously, funding such an operation from funds provided by large Thai business would be a most shrewd and cunning plan .... ;)

The costs that we are estimating at this time are:

• Monthly
  • Rent: 8,000 - 16,000 bht (115-230GBP 340-680NZD)
  • Utilities: 4,000 - 6,000 bht (57-86GBP 170-235NZD)
  • Resources: 5,000 bht (70GBP 210NZD)
  • Advertising: 1,000 bht (14GBP 42NZD)
• Once Off
  • Refurbishment: (if required) 30,000 bht (420GBP 1260NZD)
  • Equipment: 10,000 - 40,000 bht (140-560GBP 420-1680NZD)
  • 3-4 Computers: 20,000 - 40,000 bht each (280-560GBP 840-1680NZD)
  • Furniture: 10,000 bht (140GBP 420NZD)
  • Resources: 10,000 bht (140GBP 420NZD)
  • Advertising: 5,000 bht (70GBP 210NZD)