by Dr. Iain
Corness
May Nointara is a small Thai woman who sits in a small
office in Chaiyapruk Road in Jomtien, but she is a lady who runs a very
successful burgeoning business!
May was born almost 50 years ago in Nan province, the
second eldest in a family of six children born to two government
schoolteachers. They were not a rich, and when her father died suddenly
when May was 11 years old, there were even greater strains on the family
budget.
She was a good student and won a year’s scholarship
to the Nan Christian College; however, for the following two years she had
to work after school as a dishwasher at a restaurant to be able to afford
to continue, but at age 14 it was time for her to leave. She had wanted to
be a nurse, but was too young, so followed her parents into teaching,
enrolling at the Uttradit Teachers College.
She gained her teaching diploma in two years and worked
as a teacher upcountry until she was 19. Despite meagre wages she had been
thrifty and had saved money towards going to Chiang Mai University,
gaining her teaching degree in 1976.
By this stage, she was a self determining adult and
would come to Bangkok and meet with other students. 1976 was also the year
of bloody battles in Bangkok in the name of democracy and May was to lose
a much loved boyfriend. The panic at Thammasat University she described
poignantly, “We were running together and then we were parted. It was
the next day that I read his name in the list of those killed.” This was
obviously a cataclysmic moment in a young woman’s life, and the grief
still showed. I asked her if she were still a radical, but she has
tempered the youthful ideals. “You never got as much as you hoped for. I
now know how much it is possible to get.”
She stayed in Bangkok and took a job teaching at one of
the technical colleges. Again the pay was not such that she could afford
many luxuries. The students were coming to school in Mercedes Benzes and
May, the teacher, was travelling on the bus. She reviewed her position in
life. “I needed extra money. If I wanted to own something I knew I had
to work to earn the money.”
At was at this time that her widowed mother’s
influence and teachings were to stand May in good stead. “She was a
teacher and did dressmaking after school and then ran a pig farm as well.
She taught us children to be competitive, even giving us all a pig to rear
and then would have a competition to see who had the fattest pig! She gave
us bank books and we would compare how much we had every night.”
May left the college and for the next 6 years took on a
bewildering array of jobs, mainly in the sales and marketing fields,
including housing project sales. Money that she saved did not just sit in
the bank, as she realised the financial benefits of private loans which
she would extend to people she knew.
By this stage, her family felt that it was time for May
to “settle down” and she was introduced to the man who eventually
became her husband and the father to their only son. Unfortunately, this
marriage did not have the depth that either of them needed and they
parted.
May threw herself back into the sales and marketing and
property business again in Bangkok, driven by a need to get on in life.
She was not content with the “secure” existence that most of her
family had aimed for.
Then in 1996 there came somewhat of a turning point.
She wanted to spend more time with her son, a situation that was not
possible in Bangkok with so many hours eaten up just in commuting, and
when a friend offered her the post of principal of a new college in Laem
Chabang she took it. Mother and son moved to Chaiyapruk Road in Jomtien.
However, after two years as an employee, her
entrepreneurial side took over. May opened up her first Internet access
business and English language training centre. This took off and as the
numbers increased, she moved further down Chaiyapruk to larger and even
larger premises again.
By now there was no stopping her. Noting that
girlfriends of the Internet users had nothing to do, she opened up a small
restaurant called Baan Chaiyapruk to cater for them (reviewed in the
Dining Out Guide 2002). Requests for web design did not fall on deaf ears
either, and she studied this in Bangkok and then offered it to her
clients. The Internet side grew larger and a new company, Clickme2000, was
formed and opened up in South Pattaya adjacent to Mr. Mac’s Hotel. One
client requested some help with bookkeeping for his restaurant. This
resulted in May becoming a partner in the restaurant and then opening up
another one called Cafe Cosmo (also in the Dining Out Guide 2002).
By this time she had a large staff, and a large staff
problem. She advertised for workers and became inundated with good people
looking for work. Never one to miss an opportunity, May could see these
people deserved good employers and Mayday Personal, a job agency was
created.
Was this the end of the expansion? No! Both she and her
own staff could benefit if she had handy accommodation, so she leased the
building opposite, but then the street level floor was unused. Answer?
Start a massage business! I asked this dynamic woman what was next, but
she dismissed the idea of more businesses and says she is now
consolidating.
For May Nointara, success follows experience. She is
proud of her success that she has produced without external help. This
really is someone who has, in the words of the song, “Did it my way.”
