Janne Miikkulainen, Managing Director of Raya Divers, seems to have the dream job based on his own scuba diving firm in Thailand. However, few remember that running a company requires hard work and long days, even in the sweltering tropical heat. Lolling around on a beach is strictly for tourists.

Photo: Janne Miikkulainen / Raya Divers

A fish out of water

Sunbathing with tourists on the deck, relaxed dives and a mai thai beach bar with one's colleagues to round off the day- such an idyll is shattered by Janne's description of a typical working day, "More like drowning in paperwork in my office! The chance to get wet feels like a luxury, and I'm more likely to pull on flip-flops than flippers on the way to work."

Janne's working day begins at 7 a.m, the period until the office opens at 9 a.m. being the ideal time to check and reply to his e-mails. Once the office is open, the phones start to ring and the bustle begins.

Early autumn is a particularly busy period, devoted to preparations for the oncoming season: planning the programmes, scheduling and logistics must be attended to full-time, in addition to routine organisation. With the preliminary issues out of the way, the daily routine settles down to ensuring that things work as they should all the way through to the end of the season.

Janne accumulates around 100 "submarine" working days per year, beginning with collecting the customers from their hotels and transporting them to the boat. This is followed by two to three dives before returning to shore in the afternoon. Sometimes, Janne also leads 4 to 5-day diving safaris.

Adding an extra day to the week

The hottest season lasts from October to April, when the working week is 24/7, sometimes longer. "During the winter season time is reckoned anew: referring to an eight-day week does justice to the volume of work," Janne affirms.

The work is based on a good team spirit, each of the four Raya Divers centres being led by a local Operative Manager in charge of practical issues. The bookings team and, of course, diving guides, also play an important role. "Without their expertise, we'd be lost," Janne sums up.

When in Rome

The Thai operating environment adds its own spice to running a company. Janne characterises adapting the Western idea of time to the Thai approach as the most challenging issue: "In the early days in particular, my blood pressure used to rise when timetables didn't work as well as in the West," Janne reminisces. "The Thai tendency to live less by the clock than Finns proved challenging to logistical organisation. Nowadays, things run smoothly."

Various permits, bureaucracy and other, similar problems encountered by foreign firms cause most headaches nowadays.

However, Janne characterises Thais as happy, smiling, relaxed people, with whom it is a pleasure to work. Seeking to support the local economy, Raya Divers sources services from the local network as much as possible: the skippers, drivers and administrative staff are locals.

Only the diving instructors are Finnish, guaranteeing a quality, safe dive for Finnish tourists.

Raya Divers provides a five-star diving experience

Raya Divers is one of Thailand's biggest PADI 5-star dive centres. In the last decade, what started out as a two-man, four scuba-diving set boutique has grown into a firm with around 50 employees with centres in four of southern Thailand's prime holiday locations.

The firm's customers cover the full range, from snorkellers on one-day snorkelling trips to experienced scuba divers on 4-5 day scuba safaris. "Our four locations guarantee that we can provide something for everyone. For experienced divers, we warmly recommend safaris to the amazing Similan National Park, for diving at its very best! You can get there from our Phuket and Khao Lak outlets, which are close by."

Learn more about www.rayadivers.com.

Recharging one's batteries with salt liquorice

... but diving entrepreneurs are only human. The seasonal nature of the business allows a month or two's holiday between May and September. In general, Janne spends his holidays technical diving or surfing in various parts of Asia.

However, Janne hasn't utterly forgotten Finland: "It's worth going home for an annual dose of rye bread and salt liquorice once a summer."