--- title: "ESSAY: Hahoetal — A Lowly Employee's Great Escape 03" description: "A Seoul guesthouse owner reflects on the early daydreams before opening shop—what to sell, what felt authentic, and why chasing platform trends didn't fit. Commerce over code." published: 2019-03-04T00:00:00+00:00 author: "ONDA 편집팀" category: "Insights" image: "https://zqcfqfqgiyckyhazcfrk.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/webflow/6316f3f75130788ec2d762dd/65a9e120939a3be0dd683f1f_62e768172fdfe15c7980c69d_5e942c4d4596931d1e75bc82_puzzle-654958.jpeg" canonical: https://global.onda.me/en/blog?slug=essay-hahoetal---hacanheun-hoesaweonyi-talculgi-03 locale: en --- # ESSAY: Hahoetal — A Lowly Employee's Great Escape 03 **Writer** Jung Seung-ho, Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse **Editor** Somora Manager, ONDA ![](https://zqcfqfqgiyckyhazcfrk.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/webflow/6316f3f75130788ec2d762dd/65a8b23a7cd61102f3e9f94f_62e768172fdfe1724380c69e_5e942c4d459693bad875bc81_screenshot-16.png) ![](https://zqcfqfqgiyckyhazcfrk.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/webflow/6316f3f75130788ec2d762dd/65a8b23a7cd61102f3e9f962_62e768172fdfe1551d80c69f_5e942c4d333832071a4396cb_screenshot-1-2.png) [**Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse Dongdaemun (Main Branch)**](http://bit.ly/seouldbDDM) Address: 329-18 Changsin-dong, Jongno-gu, Seoul Room Types: Small Twin, Small Double, Standard Twin Facilities: Shared living room & kitchen, rooftop garden Nearby: Naksan Park, Heunginjimun, DDP, Changsin-dong Stationery & Toy Market, Dongmyo Flea Market [**Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse DDP Branch**](http://bit.ly/seoudbDDP) Address: 74 Jangchung-dong 2-ga, Jung-gu, Seoul Room Types: Double, Family (3-, 4-, 6-bed) Facilities: Shared living room & kitchen, rooftop garden Nearby: Jangchung Gymnasium, Namsan, Gwanghuimun, Cheonggyecheon **Seoul Dalbit Guesthouse SNS** Website: [http://seouldalbit.com](http://seouldalbit.com) Instagram: [@seoul\_dalbit](https://www.instagram.com/seoul_dalbit/) ## **03. Daydreaming** ### **— What should I sell? Filling my head with wild ideas** ![puzzle-654958.jpg](https://zqcfqfqgiyckyhazcfrk.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/webflow/6316f3f75130788ec2d762dd/65a9e120939a3be0dd683f1f_62e768172fdfe15c7980c69d_5e942c4d4596931d1e75bc82_puzzle-654958.jpeg) ### **What do I love? What am I actually good at?** No matter how promising a product looks on paper, if you don't love it, you'll lose steam. Even the most lucrative diamond of an idea is useless if you don't understand it or can't see yourself pulling it off. When people in their twenties start businesses, they often chase trendy ideas — platform plays, O2O services, that sort of thing. But even if something looks slick and has huge future potential, IT wasn't my domain. I had zero development chops. More importantly, it didn't spark anything in me. I wasn't interested in creating supply and demand in some virtual space. I wanted something tangible — goods or services you could see, touch, and sell to real people for real money. Old-school commerce. Clear. Fun. **I wanted to run what people call a "business" — in the street-level, trade-goods sense.** ### **So I started reading numbers everywhere I went.** At a restaurant I used to just think was delicious, I'd calculate: What do these ingredients cost? How many people are working the kitchen, counter, floor — what's the labor bill? How many seats? Average meal time? Daily covers? Turnover rate? ![](https://zqcfqfqgiyckyhazcfrk.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/webflow/6316f3f75130788ec2d762dd/65a8b23a7cd61102f3e9f959_62e768172fdfe114b780c6a0_5e942c4d06600f0a9cdc86ba_01.jpeg) Why is this place packed while that one's empty? Walking past a cute little craft shop I used to just admire on dates, I'd wonder: Do they sell online? Who buys this stuff? Do they run paid workshops on the side? I'd notice which neighborhoods skewed older or younger, male or female. How prices varied. How hidden gems got discovered. What non-F&B businesses were doing. Why some shops died after a few slow months. Most of these were just idle questions — daydreams, really. But asking questions opened up mental space. Answering them, even speculatively, filled that space. And gradually, the same streets started to look different. At the time, I lived in an officetel a couple subway stops from Dongdaemun. A little shabby, a little hectic — but close enough to the Jongno business district that new officetels kept popping up. Ever since I'd started my corporate job in early 2014, I'd noticed a lot of Chinese tourists on my commute. They were heading to nearby residence-style lodgings. Back when I was just another office drone, I'd think, **_"Huh, Chinese tourists even come to this neighborhood,"_** or **_"So crowded. They travel in packs."_** Fleeting observations. Nothing more. ![](https://zqcfqfqgiyckyhazcfrk.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog-images/webflow/6316f3f75130788ec2d762dd/65a8b23b7cd61102f3e9f96a_62e768172fdfe14f3f80c6a1_5e942c4d961046dfbc7f3e72_02.png) Once I'd decided to leave the company, I started seeing them differently. (Source: News1) Once I'd decided to leave the company, I started seeing them differently. #### **_"Where are all these people coming from? Why are they trekking out to this random neighborhood with no tourist attractions?"_** Then I noticed their shopping bags. Dongdaemun mall logos — M Shopping, D Shopping, all the big ones. So they were shopping in Dongdaemun, then hauling their bags two stops away — over 2km — to find a place to stay? I immediately pulled up booking sites and searched accommodations near me. Everything from small guesthouses to mid-tier hotels. Wide price range. But one thing was consistent: **almost everything was sold out for dates in the near future.** I got chills. #### **_"This is it. There's real business here."_** After weeks of vague what-ifs, a concrete idea finally clicked into place. Hospitality for foreign tourists — especially Chinese travelers. Location: near Dongdaemun. Once you have a solid thesis, you can layer observations and data on top. Daydreams become plans. Plans become fuel. I realized I shouldn't do this alone. And one friend immediately came to mind. Back in undergrad, he'd crowdfunded a year-and-a-half round-the-world trip — collecting tens of thousands of won from friends, sometimes hundreds of thousands. Then he self-published a book about it. Bold. High-energy. Exactly who I needed. If I'd just texted him to grab a meal, I'd probably have hesitated. But I had a real reason now. So I reached out right away. #### **_"Hey. Want to do something fun together?"_** **\[Series Index\]** [2019.01 Prologue](https://onda.me/magazine/25/post/1981) [2019.02 Eyes Open](https://onda.me/magazine/26/post/2102) **2019.03 Daydreaming** 2019.04 Observing 2019.05 Planning 2019.06 The Meeting 2019.07 Getting Excited 2019.08 Catching My Breath 2019.09 Doing the Math 2019.10 Lost 2019.11 Breaking Ground 2019.12 Taking Shape 2020.01 Grand Opening 2020.02 Epilogue — Quitting, Summarized ## [**View Full Magazine <<**](http://bit.ly/magazineon27) --- ⚠️ All rights reserved. Cite this piece as 'ONDA (온다)' when quoting.