She and her husband opted to cut out the cost of using a middleman, not just because they were cheated but because they had confidence in the quality of their seafood, which comes from Sureerat’s home province Surat Thani.

“We received orders from friends and used word of mouth to make deliveries because it is a low-cost channel and the large number of motorcycle taxis in Bangkok is enough to deliver steamed crabs to clients within one hour,” she said.

At first, she used leaflets to promote the delivery service but it didn’t work. She then opened aFacebook page, promoting her steamed crab as being different from other crab goods, and that generated a lot of buzz quickly.

Now, she delivers more than 100 kilograms of steamed crab per day after delivering only 15kg a day in 2011.

She said “people nowadays cannot wait” for her food, adding that her customers can afford to pay Bt600 or more.

Sureerat said social media were the right channels for small and medium-sized enterprises that didn’t have a merchant, as they provided interactive communication with clients.

She said SMEs had to improve all the time, adding that even though her steamed crab was popular, she had to increase the menu of steamed seafood she sold and also offer innovative dishes to appeal to consumers for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

The supply of seafood is a problem for her business. Therefore managing the inventory is important, and so is the quality of her central kitchen, she said.

Thanks to the influence of social media, JQ Foods has been contacted by investors in Singapore, Cambodia and Laos to launch the business in those countries. However, she admitted that the supply of crabs in Thailand was not enough to serve consumers in neighbouring countries.

“We are interested in expanding JQ Foods in AEC [the Asean Economic Community] but only in terms of know-how and seafood sauces. About 99 per cent of JQ Foods’ customers like our sauces. We are negotiating with the investors in those three countries to tell them they should use their own seafood instead of Thailand’s,” she said.

Sureerat is targeting annual sales revenue of Bt1 billion within three years from Bt350 million currently through expanding the business to franchise it upcountry.

“We plan to have 45 branches upcountry, from 19 branches in Bangkok currently. But the franchise business has to be cautious as well because we want franchisees to execute the steamed seafood [business] as an owner not as an investor,” she said.

If her sales revenue reaches Bt1 billion, Sureerat has the ambitious goal of listing the company on the stock market. But listing would not be to raise money, she said. She wants to bring esteem to her family and inspire the next generation to start their own businesses even if they come from a small family in the provinces.