A successful Journey by a Vietnamese business: Overcoming pandemic and Going further

Le Minh Khoa - CEO of Venus Trading Investment Company Limited.

Open opportunities

In 2008, only a few Vietnamese knew and used Facebook effectively. But four years later, this social network platform has become way too popular and became the go-to app for the Youth. Along with that, e-commerce and marketing activities were constantly growing.

Among the millions of Facebook users at the time, only a few keen people saw a business opportunity on the platform. Le Minh Khoa, an entrepreneur, CEO of Venus Trading Investment Company Limited, is few.
2011-2014 was the golden period for those doing business on Facebook: a large flow of users, low cost, little competition. For visionaries, this was an excellent opportunity to make money and quickly develop a business.

Mr. Le Minh Khoa is one of the few people who has seized that opportunity and started his brilliant career journey in 2013. Currently, he is running Venus and expanding the number of other business projects.

Establish a career in the age of technology

Mr. Khoa's journey from zero to a stable business has experienced many ups and downs. Everything went well in the first stages of his career. After that, he and his wife quickly expanded the business model, hired more personnel, and officially opened the company.

However, rapid development also comes with unforeseen problems. Slowly, there were more and more fierce competitors, ending his golden period.

His company was repeatedly in jeopardy and might have to close down because competitors were taking market share, and the company was not optimizing business costs. Undeterred, he always finds a solution to his failures.

For mass products, it is necessary to change effects that are not available in the market constantly. If the costs are so high that they lead to no profit, it is essential to optimize the costs.

The one lesson that Khoa learns and keeps close to his heart throughout his journey is to make himself “different”. Being different from other products and businesses is the key for customers to remember your existence in the market.

Mr. Le Minh Khoa with his family.

The business journey is always more arduous and bumpy than imagined. Fortunately, Mr. Khoa always has his wife standing beside him. Mrs. Nguyen Hang is his life partner and trustworthy business partner, and they built their own business together.

After eight years, Venus now has 100 employees, serving more than 200,000 customers, and a factory of 6,500m², meeting the GMP standards for future purposes.

In May 2021, thanks to its achievements and contributions to the distribution of products that benefit customers nationwide, Venus was also honored to receive the Top 20 Vietnam Gold Brand Award 2021, awarded by the Science Institute for Human Resource Development in Economy and Culture and the Center for Research and Application of Consumer Protection Technology.

Survive and develop in the Covid-19 pandemic

Since the Covid-19 pandemic outbreak, many businesses and Mr. Khoa’s have experienced difficulties. In 2020, Mr. Khoa soon realized that the pandemic would not end quickly and set a strategy to adapt to the situation.

Therefore, the company postponed the plan to expand the offline business and put all its efforts into promoting the online system and starting the shift to e-commerce. This strategy was effective and helped Venus generate stable revenue while many other businesses struggled.

Despite the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr. Le Minh Khoa promoted the signing of a lease of land use right to build a factory in Nam Cau Kien Industrial Park, Hai Phong.

However, in 2021, the prolonged social distancing measures caused the company to face more difficulties and challenges than the previous year. Because of the pandemic, transport circulation is heavily impacted, causing congested goods, reduced customer demands, factories, etc.

In the face of the country's everyday challenges, a decline in revenue is inevitable. However, with the efforts of the Board of Directors and all employees, Venus still maintains impressive business performance, and the company is seeing a quick recovery, especially after the Covid-19 pandemic control and preventions measures were gradually loosened nationwide.

Keeping a business afloat in the middle of a pandemic is not easy, but maintaining a stable and growing revenue is even more difficult. However, according to CEO Le Minh Khoa, at this point, we need to understand that we cannot wait for Covid-19 to be over before taking action. This pandemic won’t soon be over, and its effects will linger at least a few more years.

To overcome this difficult period, businesses need to accept the reality of “living with Covid-19” and develop new adaptation strategies soon. Hopefully, after a prolonged period of social distancing, Vietnamese businesses will learn from their experience, maintain their spirit, and rise in the coming time.

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