Paveepat Wattanasiriseth

Qualiwood

It seems like the universe can feel the burning desire of a man who was raised into a normal family. He was not rich, but he comes with a big dream to improve his family wellbeing by doing business. This thought brought him to meet his old friends from his college time. It brought him to get his hand on marketing work despite him studying engineering and brought him to work with his dear junior. He fought his way through until he could finally set his thought free and turned the dream into reality on this path that everything starts from zero.

Inheritance from parents –A compass of life

A young man with a name Paveepat Wattanasiriseth or Naj, was born from a family with his father a government officer, and his mother working as an office worker. The income of his family does not allow his family much luxury. The inheritance that is given by his parents is the fighter spirit by teaching him to “know the hardship since he was young”. So that he will learn to work for what he aims. If he sticks to comfort, on the day he faces obstacles or at the lowest stage of his life, he would not be able to survive and would not know how to move on.

During school break when he was young, Naj would always get to visit his parent’s house in Songkhla. He traveled by third-class train departing from Bangkok and arrived in Hat Yai. It took almost 16 hours to complete the journey. If he felt sleepy, he would have to lay the floor with newspaper and sleep under the seat. He needed to get used to taking public buses without air-conditioners and walked a distance home instead of taking public motorbike. Apart from the hardship given by his family's condition, his father instilled determination into him. He told Naj that “if there is an opportunity, you should build a business to improve the family’s wellbeing”. His father’s words kept resonating within the mind of a young boy who was once wanted to become a teacher, become a government officer like his father. He changed his mind and chose to study engineering at university. He was full of passion to start a business and ready to change his life.

Tiny people with a big dream

A small sprout that underwent the fight with soil and water of tolerance, had grown up to become strong. After Naj graduated, he took the time to find himself while started various kinds of business by trial and error for many years. He was a university lecturer, opened an outsource company, and checked quality of the vehicle parts. One day, his old friend who is now an owner of a company contacted him to come up with a marketing plan for pallet. A pallet is an organizing tool or a tool to move products in manufacturing. Naj then invited Pae Ekkaratchai Supanthuchaikul, a former underclassman, to help in this project to expand the market together. After spending a certain time in this project, Naj came to like a wooden pallet very much. He saw the way to further expand the market and, thus, asked Pae to establish a wooden pallet company with him. People whom he knows told him that “he needs 10 million baht to start a pallet business”. But for Naj and Pae, both of them only had about a hundred thousand baht and if both of them took out every single cent, they would only have 1.5 million baht altogether, which was still far from the amount they needed. In addition, the export business was shrinking, products that are used in manufacturing like pallets were not very popular at that time. However, a man with the blood of warrior flowing in him chose to follow his dream. Since he found a business that suits him and saw a chance that it will grow, his desire had victory over fear. The words of others that say it is impossible turned into a power that urges him to succeed in this business with an idea that “easy things are done by other people, but if we want to succeed, we have to rule the market”. His determination back then turns the friend who asked Naj to help with marketing into his best friend that is ready to support and advise him.

Newbie with stable soul

The pallet business of Naj and Pae when they first opened did not even have a factory, machinery, or laborers. They started by renting a small plot of land about 460-meter square to build a factory. Their very first machine was a second-hand. They bought and installed it themselves at a price of 25 000 baht. They recruited 5 employees in total. Moreover, with insufficient capital, they had to present their profile with suppliers to ask for credits. It was as if the universe has set it up, the young men met with the suppliers that saw the burning passion in their eyes, felt their brimming determination and thought that their way of business as possible. Also, their friend that was in the pallet business helped to guarantee. Surprisingly, the suppliers agreed to give them credits. Even those that have never given credits to anyone, they gave their first to Naj.

Business Model Canvas was drafted by Naj, himself, and immediately tested it out. He did everything from designing quotation form and tax invoice, learning to drive forklift all the way to learning how to use the machinery and tools, and passed the knowledge to those employees that did not have any experience like himself. It was true learning by doing. Despite feeling a little worried, the words that always come out of his mouth are “I have never felt discouraged. My parents taught me to understand hardship since I was young. If our goal is big enough, all the obstacles will be small.”

The first page of history

5 August 2014 was the date that Naj and Pae can never forget. Their very first batch of wooden pallets after the company that they poured their hearts and souls to build since the beginning of 2014 was ready to be delivered. These young men were over the moon. They held on wooden pallets tightly and took a photo to record this moment of their company’s history. Everything was tangible. They produced wooden pallets with quality like how their company name suggested, “Qualiwood” which comes from the word ‘quality’ and ‘wood’. For Qualiwood, quality comes first. The service must be swift, punctual, and comes with solutions to solve customers’ problems.

Their top-class service brings an about a memorable story. Naj told us that there was a big car company that urgently needed to use the wooden pallets and wanted the products to be delivered within 3 hours to be able to make it for shipping. In times of crisis, the customer’s problem was also his. Naj came to save the day and delivered the pallets on time. Up till today, “Qualiwood” has become the only company that gets to provide service for this car company.

Announce the goal and achieve it

There are always problems in doing business from the very first day up until today. But for Naj, “Every problem has a solution. If you gave up you remain charcoal, but if you fought the pressure, you turned into a diamond”. Since they started from a very low budget, but they have to build a business that people say 10 million baht is needed, they have to be seriously careful in spending. A loophole as small as an eye of an ant can cause severe damage to the company. Naj meticulously checked his bank account, so that he can analyze and prioritize different types of expense systematically. A business owner like himself survives by hopes and dreams. The first set of employees were equally had it hard on them, but everybody fought against the odds with him. Therefore, the most important expense for Naj is none other than “employee salary”. It has to be paid punctually because daily needs are important. A man who went through hardship from a young age like himself understands it well. To gain employees’ trust, he needs to show them and succeed. Every year, Naj will announce the goal of the company and achieve it. When there is trust, everyone is willing to move forward together. Employees who were with the company from the very beginning are still the important forces of the company today and this year, Naj has already announced the goal. He will become a “young billionaire”. He believes that this business is not a sunset, but a sunrise business that as long as the sun is rising, it can still grow. Nowadays, Qualiwood does not only produce wooden pallets, they have wooden crates, wooden wheels, wooden containers, and on-site packing service. All are manufactured using machines with the highest accuracy with a green manufacturing system to reduce harm against the environment. There is also a quality control that is of international standard.

A bird with feathers will fly high. A human with friends will go far

Apart from having old friends as his best friends, Naj also has a capable business partners like Ekkaratchai and SCB that he uses the service since the day he started his business. For Naj, SCB is not just a financial advisor, but SCB provides knowledge, connection, and business management tools that meet his demand completely.

• Academic is the knowledge provided by SCB. He gets to attend IEP Programme that helps him to improve the important business skills that cannot be found from anywhere else.
  
  
• Banking is the financial aspect that SCB comes in to provide advice. SCB recommends loans that are suitable for newly opened business that needs cash flow and provides a relationship manager (RM) to take care and advise him.
  
  
• Connection Network is the business opportunity that SCB came in to establish business matching by matching business partners for customers and suppliers. Besides, he gets to know the business network of wood business and others, allowing his business to strive. More importantly, he gets to share his experience with his businessmen that are fellow entrepreneurs.
  
  
• Digital is the system and tools that SCB brings in to help in financial management. There is SCB Business Anywhere that will help to automatically pay salary for employees and allows him to complete financial transactions conveniently and quickly. This saves costs for the company very well.

The law of attraction might lead to the phenomena of the work of the universe. But if the first step is not taken and along the way, he gave up, he could never discover and bring his business to the point it is today. It is just like a block of carbon. If it cannot tolerate the pressure, it will just become coal. If it can tolerate through pressure, it will turn into a diamond that will shine brighter and its value will increase endlessly! 

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