Despite 2 failed startup attempts, Đỗ Thanh Tịnh confidently embarked on a third, choosing an online business model that now generates more than VND 20 billion in annual revenue.
After graduating from the college-level cultural studies program at Ho Chi Minh City University of Culture in 2003, the young man from Quảng gained practical experience in cultural products businesses at several companies. With industry experience and a small amount of capital, Tịnh decided to work independently, supplying books to shops outside schools and delivering newspapers to homes.
Seeing the work progressing well, in 2005 Tịnh decided to establish a business specializing in home newspaper delivery and children's books and stories. His market awareness and diligence quickly earned the young owner a reputation in the children's book market, especially in the south, when he was just 25.
‘Business was going well, so in 2008 I again took a risk and entered a partnership to publish an exclusive comic-book series. The outcome was unfortunate: the company distributed only a little over half, while more than 18,000 books remained in inventory and had to be sold as scrap paper. I officially went bankrupt with nearly VND 300 million in debt,’ Tịnh recalled.
Undeterred, Tịnh started again in late 2009 after almost a year selling rice cookers, kettles and gas stoves on the street… According to Tịnh, the opportunity arose while distributing comic books. Seeing electronics centers running many promotions, he bought rechargeable lamps to give to dealers. Recognizing the market's potential, he found suppliers and pitched to supermarkets, which often gave promotional gifts. He began wholesaling, then moved into retail after seeing good profits.
The electronics market was quite lucrative at the time, so Tịnh decided to sell land and rebuild his business under the name Tứ Hưng, specializing in electronics and home appliances. A favorable market, combined with his natural marketing ability, made the first store at the Gò Dưa intersection in Thủ Đức unexpectedly busy. With 16 sales staff working continuously, revenue reached VND 300-400 million on peak days.
‘I thought I was talented and knew how to replicate everything, so I rushed to open a whole series of stores. Within just two years, 12 stores were operating at the same time under the name Tứ Hưng Mini Mart. Monthly sales sometimes reached VND 3 billion, and peak revenue in 2011 was nearly VND 30 billion. However, because I lacked management experience and was young and overconfident, my once-stable business gradually lost liquidity because I was “creating liabilities rather than assets,” and “the profitable stores were supporting the failing ones.” I officially went bankrupt for the second time, owing nearly VND 3 billion,’ Tịnh said sadly.
This failure seemed set to exhaust the young owner as suppliers seized assets to offset debts and dealers hired gangsters to collect payments… Yet Tịnh kept his phone number so people could contact him, believing that ‘whatever happens, you must take responsibility for what you have caused.’ He regards this as a business philosophy every enterprise needs.
In 2013, despite having no money and mounting debts, Tịnh’s entrepreneurial drive remained undiminished. Just then, markets on social networks were booming and online shopping was highly efficient and convenient, so the 8x young man was determined not to miss the opportunity. Scraping together savings and borrowing a little from friends to take online business classes and study books on wealth building and How to Win Friends and Influence People…, Tịnh approached his 3rd startup cautiously.
“Starting over from a negative balance, I realized that online business was my only possible path back to my feet. I founded a new company, also called Tứ Hưng, but focused on furniture because the consumer-electronics market had become saturated and all the major players had already entered it.”
Explaining his expansion into interiors, Tịnh said some furniture suppliers had suggested selling their products while he was still selling electronics. But on researching the sector, he found high logistics costs could easily eat into profits. After calculations, he chose an online business model focused on the affordable segment.
“I threw myself into online research, created the website tuhung.net, wrote advice articles for the site, ran forum ads, and advertised keywords on Google… In just the 2 years of 2013 and 2014, I revived the business. At its peak in 2015, revenue exceeded 10 billion VND. In 2016, growth reached 100%, bringing revenue to more than 20 billion VND,” Tịnh recounted enthusiastically.
Once on the right track, Tịnh began combining online and offline business. “I positioned my furniture brand as inexpensive, but needed customers to see it as affordable and high-quality, so I applied 4 free services: free delivery, free on-site inspection (customers can decline the item if they do not like it), a free 12-month at-home warranty (some places provide warranty service only at the company), and free returns or exchanges within 7 days if customers no longer like the product,” Tịnh said. He added that customer care through the 1900 hotline was a major priority. After a purchase, customer care staff call to ask about product quality. With this approach, the repeat-purchase rate reaches 44% within 6 months.
‘Some partners have approached me about acquiring the brand, but I will not sell it because I had to sacrifice many things to achieve today's success,’ Tịnh said. He added that the plan for 2017–2021 was to build the system and brand and develop agency channels in other provinces and cities. The following five years would be devoted to opening a manufacturing plant and creating a closed process from production to the consumer.
‘Achieving annual revenue of VND 100 billion from 2018 onward is no longer difficult for us; everything is proceeding according to plan,’ Tịnh said.
Reflecting on his first failure, Tịnh highlighted two points for startups: “Identify a niche and become king of it, as I did in children's books. And the 2nd point: if you are doing well in marketing and trading, focus on that instead of moving into manufacturing without sufficient capital or experience. I ‘died’ by entering manufacturing, where I had no experience, for a product whose value I could not assess.”
Regarding his second failure, Tịnh said he learned another painful lesson: he lacked business management experience. This included inventory management (employees sold an entire refrigerator without handing over the money, and he knew nothing about it), personnel management (he was practically following his employees while they followed none of the company’s rules), and financial management. Sometimes he raised as much as VND 5.3 billion from suppliers but did not know what to do beyond spending it on liabilities. At the time, suppliers allowed up to 60 days of credit and credit limits of up to VND 100 million.
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