NICE FOR BUSINESS

Urban-NICE city living for people through creative business

Every business person knows, good business is all about the location. The location is correlated with many factors in the area such as travel routes, travellers, and community lifestyle. The urban city is a driving factor for the development of the small and larger economy. The more we support the development of the city, generate more income for businesses, and add more value to the community, the better the people’s lives and pockets. 

The interesting challenge for Bangkok Design Week 2023 urban‘NICE’zation is finding ways to urbaNICE the city for the business and make the lives of the people better, especially ways to generate income for smaller businesses or SME community businesses.

Today, we are also presenting groups in Thailand who are actively pushing new business ideas. Let’s see the variety of ideas that have to generate interesting business.

Together in the Community Business Model

Many big businesses focus on securing and strengthening their business and rid of their competitors. But right now, the coming together of small people forming networks and working together to help grow their businesses are formed. Though it is slow, they’re growing together, helping each other out, and having big smiles rather than shedding tears.

The Facebook page ‘Tum – Ma – Ha – Kin’, is a new generation collective of small business owners in the fashion industry where they intend to scrap the belief that ‘the secret to being successful is best kept a secret. But this collective tossed that thought aside and focus on sharing knowledge and resources for everyone to become successful. So, this page is full of knowledge and business techniques on the resources and materials for the page followers to learn and become experts as well as strengthen their business, create a strong network of producers and fair trade and equal job opportunities in the community. Starting business owners do not have to always go with a large-scale business which causes the smaller business to cease. The page movement has had a positive impact on the fashion industry as a whole, widening the industry, and producing more opportunities for smaller businesses.

Let’s also have a looking at the food industry. Due to the increasing use of food delivery platforms, the shops have a chance to grow and increase their income. But many shops in the community are missing out. A group of people came together to address this issue, forming ‘Tam sang – Tam song’ in the Lad Phrao 101 area, with the delivery fee equal to the price of a local motorcycle taxi. This new model of food delivery is formed from the community network of people, local food shops, and motorcycle taxis which helps strengthen and secure their jobs and income within the community.

Business Solutions for the City, as well as the People

When there’s a problem, people would need a solution. The sentiment inspires interesting ideas for a new business model which is building a business that solves the city’s problems as well as addressing the issue people face. 

Chumanee, a movable wash & dry truck is one of the businesses that conceive with this sentiment. The program is a collaboration between a large wash & dry franchise Otteri and Mirror Foundation under the project ‘Jang wan kha (Hire Me) where the project supports the hiring of the elderly and homeless to have income and get back on track and their feet. This program is also a solution for those elderly and homeless to be in good health and hygiene, and have a better life, through the campaign ‘Fashion Sunjon’. The campaign offers homeless people free clothes and wash & dry stations, as well as recruiting more people to join the project to earn income and get back on track and live a better life. Solving the issue of many homeless in the city as well.

On to another area, ‘We Chef Thailand’ is a platform for Food Trucks business owners in Thailand that try to help the industry grow without waiting for special events hire. Not only they’re trying to introduce and spread awareness about Food Truck, but they’re also looking out for spaces in Bangkok that haven’t been utilised to generate income for the area. By putting food trucks into underutilize areas, helping create the food truck ecosystem and generating regular income for the food truck owners, and not relying on inconsistent opportunities and income from special events.

A Business that keeps up with the World

It is common in business to keep up with the trends of the world, many interesting new businesses are popping up in Bangkok. The first business we’re talking about today is the business of making people, School of Changemakers, supporting people who want to make a change in the community. The School gathers people who have many different interests from various fields to create campaigns and solve issues like education inequality issue, violence and gender inequality, or environmental issue. Another interesting startup is TasteBud, which is interested in food consumption and environmental issues and also forms Future Food to help push and create a human food ecosystem that is more sustainable. By adhering to BIO Tech and Food Tech, together with the networks creating programs for people to get to know more about the future of food. 

Let’s now take a look at the fashion sphere. There’s ‘Loopers’ a platform with the slogan ‘Slow Fashion. In contrast with the ideas of the majority of the fashion industry where everything seems to be fast fashion, always keeping up with the trends. Loopers recognizes the issue and wants to find solutions and address the issue of environmental waste and labour from the fashion industry by advocating for people to buy secondhand clothes. The platform provides all the information for buyers, such as where the piece is manufactured, doing the due diligence for the clothing pieces, so that the buyer feels at ease, and also taking care of the delivery services. With Loopers’s business idea, the second-hand clothes industry is growing and becoming widely interested by many without using more resources in the world.

These are only a few of the new and interesting businesses that create a nice impact on the city. Everyone must already have some ideas. Please don’t forget to share with us at Bangkok Design Week 2023 urban‘NICE’zation. Let’s join together to make Bangkok a dream city.

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Bangkok Design Week 2023

urban‘NICE’zation 

เมือง-มิตร-ดี

4-12 February 2023

#BKKDW2023

#BangkokDesignWeek

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