The Myanmar Entrepreneur

From this initial stage of asking for quotes, you can truly differentiate friend from foe, people and companies whom you can decide if you should be working together in the long run. For a 2 storey approximately 1500 square feet premises, we got several quotations which can blow your mind... Do keep in mind, we are just doing minor alteration, painting, wiring and a single partition with glass doors. In Singapore, that usually costs around USD10,000 or if you are a newbie, USD 20,000. But over here... 1) USD 50,000 quoted by a supposed "friend". I do not know if he also charged us on a foreigner basis. 2) USD 35,000 quoted by a company that does major renovations for franchise cafes. This is on a professional basis, and by far the fairest quote as they do have a certain standards in Myanmar. 3) USD 15,000 quoted by a company which is headed by a malaysian guy. Of course we jumped at this. After the down payment, cashflow is really limited to do any other thing here....

After the incorporation, comes the hardest part of all businesses... To find the location for a shop front. It took us 15 viewings and 3 months to finally settle on a location. On top of that, rental is paid up front in advance of 12 months! Yes, 12 months, this is probably the only country with this practise. It will probably kill off half your cashflow right at the get go. That is also not forgetting the 1 month commission for the agent. This is my take away in order of rental cost, if you are still interested to venture further into the fatherland.  1) Proximity to Downtown. The closer you are to downtown, the more expensive the rent regardless of condition of place. By downtown, I would take the Strand Hotel as a benchmark of the epic centre. Because it's the most expensive hotel in Yangon, and surrounding it, all the highend burn a hole in your wallet kind of restaurants.  2) Furnishing The better furnished locations will of course cost more, ceteris paribus. ...