Korean Job Discussion Forums

[rawiri]

Just thinking.....my korean buddy back in my home town is about to become a golf pro once he finishes a few exams...he isn't thinking of coming back to Korea in a hurry and i'm not thinking of leaving in a hurry, so between the two of us we were mulling over trying to start up some kind of golfing holidays tour package, where he could host/instruct the punters. I would be handling the admin/marketing stuff on this side.

Has anyone done tried anything along these lines?, or what about operating a business like this in Korea, aside from what i gather would more than likely be a pretty swamped market ( why think about it then?, because having a good reliable friend as a pro to herd round the punters would give me a bit of an edge i'm thinking) what other cons are likely to crop up, i.e Koreans reluctance to do business with foreigners or anything freaky like that?

Just thinking really, nothing serious at the moment but hey you have to make plan's aye?.

[itaewonguy]

yes the idea is being done alot here..
doesnt mean it wont work for you..
you will need something exotic and playing on professional beautiful worldclass courses..
emmmm.. even taking them to new zealand 7 days 7 nights golf tour..
you play 6 courses across the country. they only have to worry about there slice. you arrange all other stuff. food, travel, rooms etc..

hawaii, north america . etc.. something like that will work..
the only thing is.. most of the punters will already be good golfers not pros but well enough to enjoy, and nothing beats local caddys..
they dont fly across the world for a vaction to learn golf.. they go to play golf.. so keep that in mind too..
anyway.. give it a go..

[chiaa]

Here is my two cents. If you speak Korean (a bit better than knowing a few words), I think you doing the marketing is a good idea. Having my own business, and being a foreigner has it helped a lot. Koreans, really love the service that foreign owned companies give (comparing it to a Korean company). I tend to think that the western view of valuing our customers does not take place in this country. I could give a million examples but that would go off topic.

People will also be a lot more willing to talk to you when you approach them. I am sure that one of your ideas to get the word out would be to go to the driving ranges and talk to people. People would listen to you just because you are a waegook and getting your foot in the door is half the battle.

I also tend to think that Koreans in general do not trust Korean salespeople but do trust foreign ones a little bit more.

Best of luck!

[Ryst Helmut]

Ra,

Sorry, we 'had' a discussion group about businesses owned and operated by non-Koreans in Korea (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/koreanbiz/), but it seems that it no longer exists. Too bad, there was a lot of really good info. for you to glean.

My wife and I entertained the idea of tour guides for a spat, but....

Search Dave's...maybe some of the threads weren't deleted during spring cleaning, loads of good stuff was discussed here as well.

!Shoosh

Ryst