By Anja Latacz
Telegraph (UK)
In times when there is so much written about corruption and illegal businesses in South-East Asia, it is uplifting to learn about the successful career of a hard-working businessman in Phnom Penh.
I walked into a relatively new bookshop in town, right next to the famous Ounalom Pagoda, one rainy Saturday afternoon, in search of something to enjoy with a latte at one of the many pleasant riverside cafés.
I had been posted in Phnom Penh by an Australian consulting firm responsible for managing development projects in the areas of rural and social development. I had just submitted a new project proposal to the Ministry of Environment and welcomed a weekend off. The look of this new shop and the friendliness of the owner was very intriguing, so we started to chat.
"It is all about the money," Chea Sopheap said with a twinkle in his eye, but we both knew he did not really mean it.
Mr Sopheap, 36, has a passion for physics and mathematics (the shop is named Bohr's Books, after the renowned Danish physicist Niels Bohr), a passion he felt he was unable to pursue professionally for long in Cambodia. A child of farmers with five siblings, he was the only one to go to university in Phnom Penh, 250km from the rural town of Kampot, where he grew up.
For a short while he was a high school teacher, earning less than US$50 a month. "This money was certainly not enough for one person to survive in Phnom Penh, not to speak of a family," he explains.
Mr Sopheap has an entrepreneurial spirit and is not afraid of taking risks. Some eight years ago he quit government service to work for an expat-run second-hand bookshop in Phnom Penh, which paid about four times the amount the government service would pay him. He stayed for four years.
In 2003 he read, and was impressed by, a book entitled Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! , written by Robert T Kiyosaki and Sharon L Lechter, which encouraged him to open up his own business. "The essence of the book is if you want to become rich and successful, you have to find your own business," he explains.
"I started from zero. I left my job and spent my time buying book stocks here and there from leaving expats with savings made over the previous three years. I built up a stock of about 600 titles at home. I opened my own second-hand bookshop two years ago, and now I have 4,000 titles in stock."
Four years of on-the-job training at the book store was sufficient for him to understand all the requirements of running a private business and providing good service to customers.
Mr Sopheap enjoys chatting with customers, who might be foreign or Khmer, expats or travellers - even French Buddhist monks visit his store from time to time.
His business principles, excellent knowledge of writers and titles, great service and reasonable prices have made his book shop very popular among the expatriate community in the second-hand book market.
"My dream is to earn the reputation of the biggest and best book shop in South-East Asia, but this may take some 10 years.
"I also plan to offer new books along with second-hand ones," he adds.
"When did you break even?" I ask. "Oh, this was some time ago," he smiles.
"So when will you buy your first BMW?" I ask, but Mr Sopheap is nothing if not pragmatic.
"A car at this stage would be a financial burden. I'd rather keep my motorbike. Spare parts for cars are difficult to get and gasoline prices are going up. The motorbike is just enough for me, my wife and my two children."
It is always a pleasure to pass by his shop, have a look at the latest books, and sit down and have a cup of coffee and a chat.
And who knows; maybe his son, often seen sitting in his shop reading children's books, will one day open another branch, in Phnom Penh or elsewhere.
I walked into a relatively new bookshop in town, right next to the famous Ounalom Pagoda, one rainy Saturday afternoon, in search of something to enjoy with a latte at one of the many pleasant riverside cafés.
I had been posted in Phnom Penh by an Australian consulting firm responsible for managing development projects in the areas of rural and social development. I had just submitted a new project proposal to the Ministry of Environment and welcomed a weekend off. The look of this new shop and the friendliness of the owner was very intriguing, so we started to chat.
"It is all about the money," Chea Sopheap said with a twinkle in his eye, but we both knew he did not really mean it.
Mr Sopheap, 36, has a passion for physics and mathematics (the shop is named Bohr's Books, after the renowned Danish physicist Niels Bohr), a passion he felt he was unable to pursue professionally for long in Cambodia. A child of farmers with five siblings, he was the only one to go to university in Phnom Penh, 250km from the rural town of Kampot, where he grew up.
For a short while he was a high school teacher, earning less than US$50 a month. "This money was certainly not enough for one person to survive in Phnom Penh, not to speak of a family," he explains.
Mr Sopheap has an entrepreneurial spirit and is not afraid of taking risks. Some eight years ago he quit government service to work for an expat-run second-hand bookshop in Phnom Penh, which paid about four times the amount the government service would pay him. He stayed for four years.
In 2003 he read, and was impressed by, a book entitled Rich Dad, Poor Dad: What the Rich Teach Their Kids About Money - That the Poor and Middle Class Do Not! , written by Robert T Kiyosaki and Sharon L Lechter, which encouraged him to open up his own business. "The essence of the book is if you want to become rich and successful, you have to find your own business," he explains.
"I started from zero. I left my job and spent my time buying book stocks here and there from leaving expats with savings made over the previous three years. I built up a stock of about 600 titles at home. I opened my own second-hand bookshop two years ago, and now I have 4,000 titles in stock."
Four years of on-the-job training at the book store was sufficient for him to understand all the requirements of running a private business and providing good service to customers.
Mr Sopheap enjoys chatting with customers, who might be foreign or Khmer, expats or travellers - even French Buddhist monks visit his store from time to time.
His business principles, excellent knowledge of writers and titles, great service and reasonable prices have made his book shop very popular among the expatriate community in the second-hand book market.
"My dream is to earn the reputation of the biggest and best book shop in South-East Asia, but this may take some 10 years.
"I also plan to offer new books along with second-hand ones," he adds.
"When did you break even?" I ask. "Oh, this was some time ago," he smiles.
"So when will you buy your first BMW?" I ask, but Mr Sopheap is nothing if not pragmatic.
"A car at this stage would be a financial burden. I'd rather keep my motorbike. Spare parts for cars are difficult to get and gasoline prices are going up. The motorbike is just enough for me, my wife and my two children."
It is always a pleasure to pass by his shop, have a look at the latest books, and sit down and have a cup of coffee and a chat.
And who knows; maybe his son, often seen sitting in his shop reading children's books, will one day open another branch, in Phnom Penh or elsewhere.
3 comments:
Good luck with your business Sopheap. The book that you read is the best book I have ever read in a long time. Very up lifting and moving! It's my bible almost.
How can someone open a store and get away with it? This is just impossible! AH HUN SEN just put one Cambodian professor in jail for writing a book! To AH HUN SEN books represent ideas and democracy! AH HUN SEN even go as far as to ban all writing by any Cambodian authors without approval from his government ministry of education! I hope AH HUN SEN don't play double standard here while allowing only foreign books to flood Cambodia market and ban all Cambodian books by Cambodian authors!
To 6:29pm
Good point. Well then, may be we all of us should learn to read foreign book. It wouldn't hurt anything to understand another language. would it?
That man is stupid. He won't know what kind of a book we are reading:) Then we all be very smart about everything. Fool!
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