Mr. Trirakit Opaskaruna, Clear Vision Eyeglasses Shop, Siam Eyeglasses Shop, started from working abroad until he had the idea that “I want to try doing something of my own.” What was the turning point? And why did it have to be an eyeglasses shop business? Follow the clear life story from Mr. Trirakit Opaskaruna, Clear Vision Eyeglasses Shop, Siam Eyeglasses Shop, right now.
We office workers who are sitting with our backs bent working in front of the computer screen and our fingers are typing away at the keyboard passionately, at one point, I believe that many people or maybe most people do not want to be office workers for the rest of their lives. Many people have a reason for entering the path of being office workers in order to find some capital to open a path for themselves by becoming business owners. If we were to say that having a successful business of your own is the highest goal in working for many people, it would not be wrong.
Working for other people’s companies for a long time, what we get is seeing the advantages and weaknesses in management or various work processes. Sometimes those feelings can become the starting point for us to want to have something of our own, which is called we mold it with our own two hands and make it successful by ourselves. Before having the Clear Vision eyeglasses shop, Mr. Trirakit Opaskaruna or Mr. Bright, the shop owner, also started from this feeling.
The beginning of an eyeglasses shop
We have to go back to when you, Bright, were still studying in the United States. At that time, you were studying while working. As for the income, if compared to Thai baht, it was considered a very high amount of money, even though the work was in service or hired at general restaurants. When thinking of returning to work in Thailand, the question arose, what kind of work would you have to do to earn the same amount of money as working in the United States?
“I want to try doing something of my own.”
When the idea of returning to work in Thailand became clearer, the feeling of wanting to try doing something truly your own began to follow. Since you, Bright, used to work in service industry before, you wanted to return to Thailand to work in service industry because you thought it was something you were good at. And from your past experiences, you understood what each person who came to use your services wanted.
“It’s the rhythm of life.”
At first, when he had the idea of working in service, Bright told us that he didn’t have an eyeglasses shop in mind. But at that time, Bright’s mother’s younger sister, who worked as an optometrist, wanted to try opening her own eyeglasses shop. Bright’s mother asked Bright if he was interested in trying it out. While he was trying to figure out what to do, he still hadn’t found a good choice. Bright agreed to give it a try even though the work didn’t match his field of study. But once he made up his mind, he had to do his best.
“If you ask if it’s difficult, for me it’s not difficult at all because I didn’t set a goal that it had to be good.”
When deciding to do a business related to vision, Bright himself had to start studying about eye measurement, taking various courses in related subjects to get a certificate from the ministry, taking both direct and shortcut courses, which when speaking in summary may seem easy, but Bright himself took more than 2 years to study. Even though it was a business in a field he had never done before, Bright himself did not think it was difficult at all. The difficulty of working depends on our goals. From Bright’s experience, from trying many jobs, he found that doing something by yourself is not easy to begin with, and it will be even more difficult if we set goals beyond our means. Therefore, for Bright, with starting a new business, just surviving every month while the business owner can survive is enough.
“When I didn’t set any goals, I just kept doing them. Before I knew it, I saw how far I had come.”
It was really a matter of life’s timing that brought you to this point, because you weren’t interested in glasses from the beginning. You told me that working here also had a turning point, because when you came to study glasses and eye measurement, they gave you homework to do, which was you had to practice measuring people’s eyes as much as possible. The more the better, so you would become an expert and skilled.
Bright himself had the opportunity to measure his mother’s eyesight and found that his mother’s eyesight had a problem. One side was not working and she could not see clearly like a normal person. This made him wonder what happened? When he tried to find the cause, he found that his mother had had this symptom since she was a child. It was a disease related to the retina. If he had known that she had it since she was a child, he would have had the opportunity to receive the correct treatment. She would have been able to use it normally by now. But because he did not know, he missed the opportunity to receive treatment. This incident was the turning point for Bright.
“This makes me think back to the fact that it’s not just a business that you buy and sell.”
That incident changed your thoughts and perspectives about your Bright glasses shop. This business is not just buying and selling and then it’s over. It requires many steps and processes. Perhaps if someone could warn people who have retinal diseases like your Bright’s mother while they are still able to receive treatment, that person would have a chance to have normal vision.
This is why Bright started to be serious and passionate about his work to make this eyeglasses shop better. Bright changed from not setting goals to setting business progress or growth that every year everything must improve by 10%, whether it is the number of customers, profits, or income, etc.
Obstacles along the way
Bright said that if we talk about problems that cause discouragement or obstacles, they actually happen every day. It may be because Bright himself is a sensitive person, but he is in a position where he has to deal with all the problems behind the scenes, has to make decisions, has to make plans, which these problems that affect feelings are bound to happen because we work with care.
“These things happen every day. It just depends on how much or how little they touch our feelings each day.”
When it comes to service work like an eyeglasses shop, what you will encounter is that customers return the glasses and are not satisfied. They may be too loose, uncomfortable, or uncomfortable to wear. When customers are not satisfied, the seller himself will also be uncomfortable. Sometimes it may be a small process where the mistake may have occurred during shipping or other factors. But when the customer is not satisfied with the service, you, Bright, will feel uncomfortable as well.
“What can we do to prevent this problem from happening again?”
When faced with a problem, you feel bad. At first, Bright himself felt bad and discouraged for a long time. There was definitely a feeling of not wanting to do it. But after opening the shop for 9 years, I discovered that the problem was actually the same old thing. This problem had been solved before. This problem was similar to the problem from the month before. When we have solved this problem before, we should think that even though it touches our emotions, we have encountered it before. We were able to get through it at that time. Now, we can’t stop because it happened again. Why can’t we get through it this time? What we have to think about next is how to prevent these problems from happening again. If we try to think about these things first, we will start to feel comfortable and look for solutions rather than caring about our emotions or bad feelings that arise.
Impression
Mr. Bright explained that the success of many people might be branch expansion, high profits, or increased sales growth each year. But for Mr. Bright, it’s still the same. He just wants to survive in terms of money. But Mr. Bright’s success now is when people come to get their glasses and they are happy. The shop’s glasses can help solve their problems. The happy reaction of customers when they receive their glasses from the shop is considered a success in their career.
Why choose Essilor?
Mr. Bright said that during the first year, he was like everyone else, thinking that customers must like cheap products. So the shop chose to use lenses from China because it emphasized price competition. But when the shop received feedback from customers, it was found that customers thought that only 60% of them were good and 40% were not good at all. This is because some customers’ lenses peeled and scratched easily. In addition, lenses from China could not be claimed.
Bright tried to find quality lenses, so he started to observe people who were recommended by friends or old customers who came to buy more glasses. When he tried to open their records, he found that most of them used lenses from Essilor. From this information, Bright started to realize that customers did not want cheap products, but they wanted good quality products like Essilor. Even if the products were a bit more expensive, it didn’t matter if they were good, worthwhile, and could solve their problems. The customer feedback made him think that it was reasonable for both the store, the customers, and Essilor itself. When the lenses were good and the customers were comfortable, it was easy for them to decide to buy.
Message to the New Generation Salaryman Page
Many people, when doing business, like to say not to quit their regular job yet. Try to find free time like Saturday, Sunday or other holidays to try doing extra work. If the income is good and stable, gradually reduce the hours of regular work and start to be serious about extra work. But Mr. Bright thinks the opposite. If you have a business that interests you or want to have something of your own, don’t be afraid to take risks. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone. Step out of your regular job and go all out. If you don’t succeed, consider that you have done your best and don’t have to regret it later.
But if we take both paths, we will feel that even if the side job is not successful, there is still the main job to get by. In the end, we are not as dedicated as we should be. Therefore, turn to do what we want, focus and do our best with only one thing. If we focus on one thing, even if the first round is not successful, we will keep trying, find a way to live with it. Every human being, when trying, can get through it. It just depends on how we get through it, whether it is very tiring or not.
“I don’t believe that people can do two things well at the same time.”
Siam Clearvision Eyeglasses Shop, a center for eyeglass frames and lenses.
Address: The shop is located at A La Art Building (old 29 Plaza). Tel. 097 994 6246
Clear Life: Starting a Business from a Plan Without a Plan l Vision Mission
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