Many foreigners ask about starting a business in Vietnam

But honestly, starting a business in Saigon requires more “soft-skills” than hard skills. All the legal structures, networking events or specific things you need for your business in Vietnam will be available online.

So I decided to focus on 3 advice I would give to a young entrepreneur today, and of course adapting to the context of starting your business in Vietnam.

Sometimes, you send me these type of questions:

a french entrepreneur asking me about starting his small business in design in saigon

Translation:

I hope you don’t mind me reaching out. I worked for several years as a UX/UI designer in Vietnam, and I would now like to start my own business, but I’m not sure where to begin. If you have some time, I would be delighted to chat with you about your experience and the entrepreneurial environment in Saigon. It could potentially give me some ideas and help me at the start of my entrepreneurial journey.
_ Paul

Advice number 1: Connect with the right people!

Who?

I identified essentially 3 types for my most successful projects:

1. guides:

They know, they have a plan, they have experience and they are volunteering to help you. They might be in your contact list or you might need to “go get them”.

Pro tip: seek among other entrepreneurs with similar businesses but different industry. For my former hostel, a person that helped me a lot was a blogger; we faced similar problems such as “animating a community”.

To avoid: Don’t ask anyone who has never opened a business in Vietnam for example. And this will be valid all along your journey; seek help toward people who truly know what they are talking about and avoid fake advisors or wannabe entrepreneurs.

2. supporters:

Everybody need supporters. the best supporters are people who are in your list of “people that can help you”, but it ca also be big fans like customers or your relatives.

“Here is how to identify them:

• If you have a bad news, they are the ones who will listen. They won’t try to advice or compare or blame you or try to cheer you up with their own story. They will listen to you.
• If you have a good news, they will help you celebrate!”

_Dr. Jordan Peterson

3. leads:

They are in your existing network, in your contact list already… you need to connect with them, understand their problems and solve it; turn them into customers. 

When you are building a project, it’s crucial to surround yourself with people who are either doing three of these things: give you advice, support your project or buy your solution.

How?

Start with your existing network. Ask them.

For the guides, supporters and leads: Prefer 1-1 meetings and messages rather than forums, especially for specific questions that needs specific answers.

Being on-site is 99% necessary if you are trying to open a business in Vietnam. It will truly accelerate the process of creation.

Then, you can find people in the numerous networking events, lunches, afterworks, masterminds, workshops.

A great way to connect with entrepreneurs in Saigon actually is to practice a sport or an activity of your choice. You will meet people in a different context or they can introduce you to their network.

But keep asking questions, reaching out to people; exactly like Paul did with me above.

Advice number 2: pitch your idea!

Should you tell your idea? Yes.
But somemone might steal it? No.
Are you sure? Yes, there is a big difference between having an idea and transforming it into a successful business. Because success to you looks different than success to me for example.

Also, there is one thing I’ve realized over the years is that by sharing your idea you have much more chances to turn this person into one of the 3 type of people above (a guide, supporter or lead) than a future competitor or ennemy.

Plus, you don’t have to share all the details of your project, but you should learn to pitch the bare minimum.

And finally, your idea will evolve overtime. By the time that person you shared your idea with get started, you’ll be working on a different version of the idea you pitched them already.

That’s how I ended up opening and running a hostel in Saigon actually.

How to pitch an idea?

Use this framework:

Target customer + Problem solution + End result:

Tell what problem you solve, for who how and for what end result. For me that looks like something like this:

“I help entrepreneurs to better understand their business so they can make smarter decisions.”

But my business is not ready…

Your project is never going to be perfect from your perspective. But by talking to people about your idea, you will practice introducing yourself and your business. And by seeing their reactions, you will learn a lot about “how you sound”…

If there is one thing that is very hard is to introduce yourself… Usually you do more than one thing and it’s hard to know what to say… Should you talk about all these future projects you are already working on? Or introduce some personal details?

The more you practice, the more you learn what to tell people when you meet them for the first time.

Advice number 3: Adopt a can-do attitude

Paul in his email is already trying to network and seek advice on Facebook groups for entrepreneurs and reaching out to people like me to get started.

And I believe this is one good way to get started but a great mindset to keep all along your entrepreneur’s journey:

• Be open-minded about what others can teach you.
• Always try to ask the right question.
• Be realistic; you are at the beginning of your project. There is nothing to be ashamed of. Tomorrow you’ll have made your first sale and you’ll be at the beginning of another step. And so one.
• And lastly, test your idea asap! That is what I was already advising in my other article on how launch your idea in 30 days.

Final advice!

Take actions now, even small steps!

Try to pitch me your idea (in the comments or by message) or to contact 1 potential guide, supporter or lead today. And repeat that everyday…

Do you need more specific answers? Ask in the comment or contact me.