Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Ask us anything. Cambodia Expats Online has a huge community of long-term expats that can answer any question you may have about life in Cambodia. Have some questions you want to ask before you move to Cambodia? Ask them here. Our community can also answer any questions you have about how to find a job or what kind of work is available for expats in Cambodia, whether you're looking for info about Phnom Penh, Siem Reap, or anywhere else in the Kingdom. You're also welcome to ask about visa and work permit questions as well, as the immigration rules change often, especially since COVID-19. Don't be shy, ask CEO's community anything!
Barang chgout
Expatriate
Posts: 3065
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2014 11:36 am
Reputation: 677

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by Barang chgout »

Yep, now you have $4740, an old laptop, a young Khmer lady and no business......your time starts.....NOW!


Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk

eriksank
Expatriate
Posts: 295
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:25 am
Reputation: 24

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by eriksank »

Barang chgout wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:13 amYep, now you have $4740, an old laptop, a young Khmer lady and no business......your time starts.....NOW!
Ok. I put two peer-to-peer adverts at localbitcoins.com, market-making limit orders, seeking market takers:

Advert 1 : I buy bitcoins at the bitstamp.net exchange rate - 5%. I pay the seller by western union (WU), with the WU fee paid by seller.
Advert 2 : I sell bitcoins at the bitstamp.net exchange rate + 5%. The buyer pays me by WU, with the WU fee paid by the buyer.

That is approximately what, for example, Alex812 also does. Over 1000+ trades, in the 1.5 years he is in the market, apparently from Saint-Petersburg. If you rotate $4740 approximately 2 times per day, making a 2 x (5-1)% = 8% margin, i.e. $379, you should be absolutely ok.

You don't need to do BTC/USD, however. It is even more fun to do BTC/LTC (crypto to crypto) because you can do that entirely from your laptop without ever going to a bank office. At the end of the day, you can cash out part of your exchange margins by selling them for dollars.

By the way, this is not what I do for a living, but what I would do for a living, if I needed a way to quickly make a living, right now! ;-)
User avatar
Duncan
Sir Duncan
Posts: 8149
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2014 8:22 pm
Reputation: 2357
Location: Wonder Why Central

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by Duncan »

Barang chgout wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:13 am Yep, now you have $4740, an old laptop, a young Khmer lady and no business......your time starts.....NOW!


Sent from my SM-G570Y using Tapatalk

I would start by selling the laptop [ at a loss '] for $4000, rent some farm land , buy seed and fertilizer, pay someone to plant rice. Sit under a mango tree with the '' young khmer lady '' discussing how we would spend all the profits and the ,,,,,, , Hang on,,, You said time starts now,,,, how much time do we have ?
Cambodia,,,, Don't fall in love with her.
Like the spoilt child she is, she will not be happy till she destroys herself from within and breaks your heart.
User avatar
phuketrichard
Expatriate
Posts: 16790
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:17 pm
Reputation: 5733
Location: Atlantis
Aruba

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by phuketrichard »

eriksank wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 8:15 am
Barang chgout wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:13 amYep, now you have $4740, an old laptop, a young Khmer lady and no business......your time starts.....NOW!
Ok. I put two peer-to-peer adverts at localbitcoins.com, market-making limit orders, seeking market takers:

Advert 1 : I buy bitcoins at the bitstamp.net exchange rate - 5%. I pay the seller by western union (WU), with the WU fee paid by seller.
Advert 2 : I sell bitcoins at the bitstamp.net exchange rate + 5%. The buyer pays me by WU, with the WU fee paid by the buyer.

That is approximately what, for example, Alex812 also does. Over 1000+ trades, in the 1.5 years he is in the market, apparently from Saint-Petersburg. If you rotate $4740 approximately 2 times per day, making a 2 x (5-1)% = 8% margin, i.e. $379, you should be absolutely ok.

You don't need to do BTC/USD, however. It is even more fun to do BTC/LTC (crypto to crypto) because you can do that entirely from your laptop without ever going to a bank office. At the end of the day, you can cash out part of your exchange margins by selling them for dollars.

By the way, this is not what I do for a living, but what I would do for a living, if I needed a way to quickly make a living, right now! ;-)
correct me if i am wrong, But i cant see a khmer lady doing this. and 2 trades a day???? sorry dont believe u could keep that going, lots of competition... i knew someone that started mining bitcoins 2 years his profits in the last 6 months dropped drastically.
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
User avatar
Jamie_Lambo
The Cool Boxing Guy
Posts: 15039
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:34 am
Reputation: 3132
Location: ลพบุรี
Great Britain

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am
eriksank wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 8:15 am
Barang chgout wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:13 amYep, now you have $4740, an old laptop, a young Khmer lady and no business......your time starts.....NOW!
Ok. I put two peer-to-peer adverts at localbitcoins.com, market-making limit orders, seeking market takers:

Advert 1 : I buy bitcoins at the bitstamp.net exchange rate - 5%. I pay the seller by western union (WU), with the WU fee paid by seller.
Advert 2 : I sell bitcoins at the bitstamp.net exchange rate + 5%. The buyer pays me by WU, with the WU fee paid by the buyer.

That is approximately what, for example, Alex812 also does. Over 1000+ trades, in the 1.5 years he is in the market, apparently from Saint-Petersburg. If you rotate $4740 approximately 2 times per day, making a 2 x (5-1)% = 8% margin, i.e. $379, you should be absolutely ok.

You don't need to do BTC/USD, however. It is even more fun to do BTC/LTC (crypto to crypto) because you can do that entirely from your laptop without ever going to a bank office. At the end of the day, you can cash out part of your exchange margins by selling them for dollars.

By the way, this is not what I do for a living, but what I would do for a living, if I needed a way to quickly make a living, right now! ;-)
correct me if i am wrong, But i cant see a khmer lady doing this. and 2 trades a day???? sorry dont believe u could keep that going, lots of competition... i knew someone that started mining bitcoins 2 years his profits in the last 6 months dropped drastically.
yep if it was that easy, everybody would do it, like playing the stock markets, buying and selling web domains, being a professional gambler in the casinos etc etc
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks :x
eriksank
Expatriate
Posts: 295
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:25 am
Reputation: 24

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by eriksank »

phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am correct me if i am wrong, But i cant see a khmer lady doing this.
There are three persons physically buying/selling bitcoins against cash; all of them in Phnom Penh.
  • cxvipex is obviously a foreigner.
  • coincambodia is certainly a foreigner. I actually already met him. He even advertises in this forum and also on khmer440.com. You will see [Khmer440 link removed.] his banner at the top. His site is this.
  • There is also ekongee. I think he is Chinese, but I am not sure about that. In fact, there are two other Chinese trading btc for cash, but I couldn't find them today. Maybe, they left the market? Possibly ...
Since it is true that I haven't seen one Khmer lady doing this up till now, I agree with that assessment. I have only seen westerners and Chinese in the market.
phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am and 2 trades a day???? sorry dont believe u could keep that going, lots of competition...
2 trades per day is 365 x 2 = 730 per year, which is 1095 trades in 18 months. If you look at the profile for Alex812 you can see 1000+ trades in 18 months, which is therefore, approximately 2 trades per day. That is not even particularly impressive because camylopez has apparently done 10000+ trades in 30 months. Before saying again that it is not true, follow the link to his profile first.
phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am i knew someone that started mining bitcoins 2 years his profits in the last 6 months dropped drastically.
Bitcoin mining is another specialized subject. I haven't dabbled in its economics at all. In other words, besides a few theoretical considerations, I know nothing about actively mining bitcoin. Some people make lots of money and lots of other people lose money, but that is the case for everything. The funny thing is that it is always the same people too, irrespective of what the subject is.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 12:36 pmyep if it was that easy, everybody would do it ...
If you want positive returns, there will always be a minimum level of complexity to overcome. So, indeed, all the truly low-hanging fruit will always immediately be gone. But then again, just understanding how to install and use a bitcoin wallet on their own laptops, is an insurmountable challenge for 99% of the world population. Bitcoin is absolutely not grandma-proof and will never be. In fact, I don't want it to be grandma-proof, because if you overcome its initial hurdles, it opens a large world of profits, capital gains, trade margins, and so on. If everybody were capable of overcoming the basic impediments, the profits would be much, much smaller indeed. Therefore, it is in my interest that it becomes harder to use, and not easier.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 12:36 pm ... like playing the stock markets, buying and selling web domains, being a professional gambler in the casinos etc etc
If in order to make money, you first need to understand how exactly Monero utilizes a system of traceable ring signatures in order to anonymize transactions, you can safely say that almost nobody else will be competing with you for those profits. It will just be a handful of people. Hence, after having overcome the initial hurdle, you can expect to swim in truckloads of money.

Seriously, from a particular minimum level of complexity, everybody in this realm swims in money.

Bitcoin is easier to understand and to master, so, you will probably make less money. If Monero's gamble on traceable ring signatures is truly good to go -- still unproven at the moment -- then there are billions, if not trillions, to be made with it.
User avatar
Jamie_Lambo
The Cool Boxing Guy
Posts: 15039
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:34 am
Reputation: 3132
Location: ลพบุรี
Great Britain

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

eriksank wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 5:58 pm
phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am correct me if i am wrong, But i cant see a khmer lady doing this.
There are three persons physically buying/selling bitcoins against cash; all of them in Phnom Penh.
  • cxvipex is obviously a foreigner.
  • coincambodia is certainly a foreigner. I actually already met him. He even advertises in this forum and also on khmer440.com. You will see [Khmer440 link removed.] at the top. His site is this.
  • There is also ekongee. I think he is Chinese, but I am not sure about that. In fact, there are two other Chinese trading btc for cash, but I couldn't find them today. Maybe, they left the market? Possibly ...
Since it is true that I haven't seen one Khmer lady doing this up till now, I agree with that assessment. I have only seen westerners and Chinese in the market.
phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am and 2 trades a day???? sorry dont believe u could keep that going, lots of competition...
2 trades per day is 365 x 2 = 730 per year, which is 1095 trades in 18 months. If you look at the profile for Alex812 you can see 1000+ trades in 18 months, which is therefore, approximately 2 trades per day. That is not even particularly impressive because camylopez has apparently done 10000+ trades in 30 months. Before saying again that it is not true, follow the link to his profile first.
phuketrichard wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 11:40 am i knew someone that started mining bitcoins 2 years his profits in the last 6 months dropped drastically.
Bitcoin mining is another specialized subject. I haven't dabbled in its economics at all. In other words, besides a few theoretical considerations, I know nothing about actively mining bitcoin. Some people make lots of money and lots of other people lose money, but that is the case for everything. The funny thing is that it is always the same people too, irrespective of what the subject is.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 12:36 pmyep if it was that easy, everybody would do it ...
If you want positive returns, there will always be a minimum level of complexity to overcome. So, indeed, all the truly low-hanging fruit will always immediately be gone. But then again, just understanding how to install and use a bitcoin wallet on their own laptops, is an insurmountable challenge for 99% of the world population. Bitcoin is absolutely not grandma-proof and will never be. In fact, I don't want it to be grandma-proof, because if you overcome its initial hurdles, it opens a large world of profits, capital gains, trade margins, and so on. If everybody were capable of overcoming the basic impediments, the profits would be much, much smaller indeed. Therefore, it is in my interest that it becomes harder to use, and not easier.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 12:36 pm ... like playing the stock markets, buying and selling web domains, being a professional gambler in the casinos etc etc
If in order to make money, you first need to understand how exactly Monero utilizes a system of traceable ring signatures in order to anonymize transactions, you can safely say that almost nobody else will be competing with you for those profits. It will just be a handful of people. Hence, after having overcome the initial hurdle, you can expect to swim in truckloads of money.

Seriously, from a particular minimum level of complexity, everybody in this realm swims in money.

Bitcoin is easier to understand and to master, so, you will probably make less money. If Monero's gamble on traceable ring signatures is truly good to go -- still unproven at the moment -- then there are billions, if not trillions, to be made with it.
So all this information is helpful to the poor farm girl who wants to open a small $5k business because...
were suggesting possible job opportunities, not crazy ideas that only 1% of the worlds population can master/profit from
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks :x
eriksank
Expatriate
Posts: 295
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2015 11:25 am
Reputation: 24

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by eriksank »

Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:24 pmSo all this information is helpful to the poor farm girl who wants to open a small $5k business because...
It is not helpful to her. It only proves that the problem is not the starting capital. The reason why she fails at doing business is not because she doesn't have $5k, $10k, $50k, ... or whatever amount of money. The business I depicted only requires a $50 smartphone and $5 credit to subscribe to the internet. She won't be able to do it, however. That's true. She won't be able to any other business either.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:24 pm... were suggesting possible job opportunities ...
There are no job opportunities below a particular level of sophistication. These jobs are increasingly mechanized and automated away, also in Cambodia. So, indeed, we are sitting on a disaster. I really wonder what 85% of the world population will be supposed to do in the future? They want idiot-proof jobs, while we now have computers for those.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:24 pm... not crazy ideas that only 1% of the worlds population can master/profit from ...
I agree that this looks like it will be going wrong in the not-so-far future ...
User avatar
Jamie_Lambo
The Cool Boxing Guy
Posts: 15039
Joined: Mon Apr 20, 2015 10:34 am
Reputation: 3132
Location: ลพบุรี
Great Britain

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by Jamie_Lambo »

eriksank wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:35 pm
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:24 pmSo all this information is helpful to the poor farm girl who wants to open a small $5k business because...
It is not helpful to her. It only proves that the problem is not the starting capital. The reason why she fails at doing business is not because she doesn't have $5k, $10k, $50k, ... or whatever amount of money. The business I depicted only requires a $50 smartphone and $5 credit to subscribe to the internet. She won't be able to do it, however. That's true. She won't be able to any other business either.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:24 pm... were suggesting possible job opportunities ...
There are no job opportunities below a particular level of sophistication. These jobs are increasingly mechanized and automated away, also in Cambodia. So, indeed, we are sitting on a disaster. I really wonder what 85% of the world population will be supposed to do in the future? They want idiot-proof jobs, while we now have computers for those.
Jamie_Lambo wrote: Mon May 01, 2017 7:24 pm... not crazy ideas that only 1% of the worlds population can master/profit from ...
I agree that this looks like it will be going wrong in the not-so-far future ...
i can tell youre a smart computer literate guy, who is probably successful in the hi-tech world, i respect that
i come from a background where i can earn decent money without the need for computers and shit
i do agree, technology will take over many jobs in the future,
but it will be a while yet before all that takes over the small businesses in Cambodia
:tophat: Mean Dtuk Mean Trei, Mean Loy Mean Srey
Punchy McShortstacks School of Hard Knocks :x
User avatar
phuketrichard
Expatriate
Posts: 16790
Joined: Wed May 14, 2014 5:17 pm
Reputation: 5733
Location: Atlantis
Aruba

Re: Can you start a business in Cambodia with $5k?

Post by phuketrichard »

best job i ever had was a Victorian house painter in San Francisco. WE ONLY took jobs that had a min of 5 colors on the exterior.
average pay/day was in excess of $150 ( bear in mind that was 1976)
the first 20 minutes was spent toking up on some excellent thai sticks

Hate computers, but did have a good run with them in the early 2000's with affiliate porgrams

PS; there will always be jobs for anything health related and lots of there jobs that do not require computer literacy

ON topic, plenty of business if she wants ( and that is a BIG IF) to work and no need to spend $5,000
In a nation run by swine, all pigs are upward-mobile and the rest of us are fucked until we can put our acts together: not necessarily to win, but mainly to keep from losing completely. HST
Post Reply Previous topicNext topic
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: ExPenhMan, Newinkow, Phazor11387, steevee, truffledog, yongchi and 331 guests