After traveling widely within Vietnam and to Cambodia and Laos and experiencing three failed startups, Phan Bá Nam remains undaunted as he develops a project to distribute an herbal tea.
Below is an article in which Phan Bá Nam shares his story of failure after three startup attempts.
I was born in 1982. In 2006, at age 24, I decided to enter business by opening a fast-food stall at Kỳ Hòa night market in Ho Chi Minh City. However, the product I chose to sell at the time was in a fairly premium segment: Turkish kebab sandwiches.
At the time, an ordinary bánh mì cost only about 4,000–5,000 VND, while my product used premium ingredients and incurred high premises costs, making it relatively expensive. Most visitors to Kỳ Hòa night market were ordinary people such as workers and students…, so my Turkish-style sandwich business failed.
In 4/2007, I returned to employment. After nearly 5 years working for others, I advanced from marketing employee to CEO of a subsidiary. During this time, I also saved nearly 500 million đồng.
Although my job was stable and well paid, I decided to stop here and begin my second startup journey with a harder challenge.
On the other hand, my partner at the time was young and competitive, daring to challenge wealthy local distributors with extensive connections and power at major wholesale markets in Phnompenh, such as Orussey, Olympic, and New Market... In January 2012, with 500 million dong in capital, I went to Cambodia to open my own electrical equipment distribution company. I rented a warehouse in the suburbs, about 10 km from central Phnompenh. During six months specializing in distributing electrical equipment across 18 provinces and cities in the neighboring country, I felt my hair turning gray from the stress of waking up every day wondering where to find the money to buy stock and cover daily and weekly fixed costs... Meanwhile, unfair competition in Cambodia was increasing, making it an almost unequal battle for me.
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Mr. Phan Bá Nam said that after fulfilling his promise to the lightbulb company's General Director to successfully develop the Northern and Central Highlands markets, he would focus on pursuing his own dream. |
At that time, I declared I would push back wholesalers at Olympic Market and Orussey Market within 6 months, and drive back Philips' official distributor in the country. Seeing our products gain good coverage in Cambodia, many ethnic-Chinese wholesalers there joined efforts to defeat us. When my sales vehicle passed, other businesses would send tax authorities to seize the goods, vehicle and people for informal, untaxed cross-border trading. After several such seizures, I was almost out of capital, business became increasingly difficult and reached a dead end.
In 7/2012, I had to stop distributing electrical equipment in Cambodia because cash turnover could not keep up. I also realized that small-scale cross-border trading involved too many risks.
Gathering what remained—an old 12-seat Hyundai with the seats removed for cargo—I set off with an employee, also a distant Khmer relative from Sóc Trăng, carrying some remaining electrical goods from Phnompenh straight to Pakse, Champasak, Laos.
There is a large overseas Vietnamese community here, and I began my third venture amid enormous difficulties. With nearly all my capital gone, I had to sell my old car at the border crossing between Laos and Cambodia, along with a little remaining inventory in it. With around 50 million đồng gathered, I imported goods from Vietnam to peddle in Laos, including clothing, 502 glue, incense, electrical goods and Lao skirts…
After a month, my younger distant relative, unaccustomed to living away from home and feeling very sad, asked to return to Vietnam. I was then left alone in a foreign country. I missed home and my loved ones terribly, but thinking that returning then would leave me empty-handed again, I stayed.
During this period, I attended almost every Bun festival in Laos to sell goods. On days peddling at temples, a corner of Đào Hương Market, the km 8 and km 14 markets, Paksong Market, and elsewhere, I remained bareheaded in the scorching sun, calling out in the local language. Returning late to sleep in the cold night, I worried about losing my belongings because I was alone.
Business was initially decent, but gradually more and more Vietnamese people came to Laos to do business, creating unfair competition, while Chinese traders had substantial capital… As a result, small-scale trading like mine became increasingly difficult.
Every day, I traveled around the markets in Viengchan, Savannakhet, Attapeu, Saravane, Sekong and Champasack. Sometimes, when there were few customers and I sat alone thinking in a corner of the market, I felt desperately homesick. But how could I return in such humiliating defeat?
By 12/2012, sensing that things were going wrong, I changed my business approach. I thought of Vietnamese companies seeking to enter Laos and Cambodia that needed knowledgeable staff to develop those markets. So I decided to search online and submit my profile. My efforts paid off: after nearly a week, several businesses invited me back to Vietnam for interviews and discussions about work.
In early 1/2013, I returned to Vietnam and was hired by a lighting company needing an international market development specialist in Myanmar. In month 3, I went to Myanmar full of excitement and anticipation. I threw myself into work, devoted everything to the job and overcame each difficulty and challenge. The company promoted me twice in less than two years. I am now market development director, equivalent to the company's deputy national sales director.
In 10/2014, I planned to join another company as business development director, with Nigeria as the main market. Before changing jobs, I took a month's leave to relax. During that time, however, I discovered I had diabetes, while the Ebola outbreak in West Africa showed no sign of subsiding. Thinking, too, about going to Nigeria and only returning to visit my family every 6 months, I changed my mind. At the same time, because they had not found a suitable replacement, the light bulb company's management invited me back to work in Vietnam with better terms and benefits.
Regarding my illness, when I was diagnosed with diabetes, my family was very worried. I did not despair; I always believed that however serious or difficult a situation might be, there would be a solution. I gradually learned about my condition, exercised more, ate regularly and in moderation, and used herbal supplements to support treatment. I knew this was a chronic illness requiring lifelong medication. Long-term use of conventional medicine can damage the liver and kidneys, not to mention the considerable cost of treatment.
After repeatedly trying products brought by relatives, from wild bitter melon vines boiled into a drink to traditional Vietnamese herbal remedies, I still did not feel well, so I searched for information on treating this illness myself. Fortunately, on a distant business trip, I encountered an herbal tea and dried tablet product made from dây thìa canh. I found it effective when taking it. The product was researched, manufactured, and commercially developed quite successfully by scientists at a leading Vietnamese university.
From this, I saw enormous demand for affordable natural-herbal products to support treatment of chronic diseases, accessible to everyone. I acted on the idea, and in less than 10 days built a website specializing in teas and herbal products supporting treatment of cancer, gout, diabetes, liver disease, and high blood pressure… I then sought quality suppliers and took on exclusive distribution across southern Vietnam for the product supporting diabetes treatment.
In the early days, my partners and I went everywhere sharing information, introducing products and offering free samples. Even during the first 3–4 days, when we visited facilities offering blood-glucose tests to give products to patients, most were reluctant to try them—even free—because they feared others would discover their illness.
I did not lose heart. I kept introducing the tea and offering samples through personal contacts, friends, email, and other direct and online marketing tools. After those days of tireless effort, I now have supportive customers. When I made my first sale, even though it was only VND 200,000, I felt very happy because my efforts were beginning to pay off.
In the initial stage (1-2 years), I plan to sell existing products through direct sales and online channels, tapping into the internet's potential. In the second stage, I will have products made under my own brand for export while increasing added value, such as introducing convenient canned and bottled refreshments made from 100% herbs (not flavorings or colorings…) to support treatment of chronic diseases, liver conditions, cancer, diabetes… at the most reasonable cost.
With the mindset that I have nothing to lose and people live only once, I will continue pursuing my passion. So after fulfilling my promise to the light bulb company's General Director to successfully build the northern and Central Highlands markets—something no manager had achieved in nearly 5 years—I will focus on realizing my own dream.
I always dream of the day this product becomes widespread not only in Vietnam, helping patients here, but is also exported to many countries around the world. ‘No one taxes dreams. If you are going to dream, dream big.’ I love this saying by former FPT Group General Director Nguyễn Thành Nam.
To those planning to do business, I simply want to say: “No one can expect perfection from the outset. Every journey of ten thousand miles begins with footsteps. Let us open that long, deep path together with the mud-covered footsteps of Vietnamese farmers.”
Collected
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