This small family is building its business success on the brand name "Four Bears".

Looking back, it was commonplace after the 1997 financial crisis to see new businesses taking shape. It was a time when many families sought second sources of income.

Many "second sources of income" have been successful enough to become the families' main money-earners, and their owners will testify that success has come only through hard work and business vision.

The case of Parakorn Jirasophon, whose Four Bears business manufactures and markets teddy bears, is a good example of how a small entrepreneur can succeed.

As well as teddy bears, Parakorn's firm has made premium products for many leading companies, including Microsoft-Synnex, Kasikornbank, Nok Air, Teenee.com, Internet Thailand, Thanachart Bank, BMW and Sikrin Hospital. And teddy bears have also gone to the fan club for Academy Fantasia's Sakatud Kulpaisarn, better known as "Tar".

Before the financial crisis, the main income of Parakorn's family came from his full-time job. A secondary income came from three or four small tailoring shops run by his wife in shopping centres. The shops took orders for custom-made clothes, and his wife also got some manufacturing deals from well-known brands.

However, people began to buy ready-made clothes after the crisis hit, and eventually the tailoring shops were forced to close down.

This gave Parakorn's wife plenty of time to make teddy bears for her children's school, and due to the high demand, Parakorn saw it as a business opportunity. So his wife bought raw materials from a local wholesale market and began making bears on her own account. It wasn't long before they were able to contract professional manufacturers to make bears according to his wife's designs.

But while talent and passion gave them a foot in the door, it was Parakorn's business vision that that threw the door open to success. He began searching the Internet and reading how-to books to help him shape up the business.

Travel also helped. In the course of his main job, Parakorn went to Singapore and found a number of teddy-bear magazines in the bookstores. He recognised it as a trend that would soon hit Thailand. Moreover, Thailand had few manufacturers of teddy bears: the market would not be hard to tap.

In the beginning, the target group was people searching for graduation gifts.

"The market for graduation ceremonies all year round is huge," Parakorn says. "I also tried selling in places frequented by tourists, particularly those from Japan and Korea. We also opened up a small kiosk in the MuangThai-Phatra building, and we were making between 20 and 30 teddy bears a week to customers' orders."

Then the business began to diversify into related custom-made orders for other toys, ornaments, decorations and furniture.

After the business had been operating for two years, its prospects became clearer, and Parakorn decided it was time for his own brand.

"We had our own shop, so we needed to have our own brand name. Four Bears sprang to mind for the four members in our family. The brand was launched in 2002 when teddy bears celebrated their 100th anniversary," he explains.

Parakorn attributes the success of the business to his serious studies of the market and efforts to meet customer demand. There are more than 1,000 styles of teddy bear.

More recently, Parakorn began tapping into the market for corporate premium products, those gifts that companies hand out on big occasions.

"Our corporate clients might want say 200 pieces for just one press conference. Factories won't take orders that small, or if they do, the price might be too high. We are willing to supply the low volume at a reasonable price," he says.

Corporate clients provide about 40 per cent of Four Bears' income. The firm has 10 workers, and its monthly manufacturing capacity stands at around 1,000 or 2,000 pieces. Prices range from Bt100 to more than Bt1,000, depending on size and design.

Looking ahead, Parakorn plans to seek new teddy-bear markets in sports clubs, golf clubs and hospitals. Hopefully, when Four Bears grows strong enough at home, it will move into foreign markets.

Cheerawat Khongkaew

Bizweek