In Southern Thailand, tourism-related businesses and small-scale fisheries were among the sectors that were hardest hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Drawing on an extensive literature review, conversational-style interviews and an innovative recovery profiling methodology used in the most affected province Phang Nga, this chapter discusses the factors that enabled or constrained small enterprises in the tourism, fishery and farm sector in the process of recovering from the disastrous impact of the tsunami. We find that small businesses benefitted from individual support systems in their social networks and from a diversification of their business strategies rather than from government support and large-scale donations by international organizations. The second part of the chapter looks into the particular case of the expanding birds’ nest business in one coastal community that had suffered from nearly complete destruction by the tsunami. Our results show that the production of birds’ nests in specially designed buildings has primarily benefitted the wealthier and politically well-connected families in the village and outside investors who own more than half of the birds’ nest houses. We conclude that post-disaster economic recovery can deepen income disparities and may disrupt the sense of community if local elites and absentee business owners are able to take advantage of the lack of sound governance structures in the aftermath of a major natural disaster.