Sleeping on the sofa for half a year, drinking filtered water to stop breathing, had to “cut off the blood” to divide the profits to save the business

“I used to stand for a long time at the Saigon Bridge with the intention of giving up everything, then suddenly my mother called to ask if I had eaten. So I climbed down, took the car home. That was probably the only night I had. slept well for the past 6 months.”

That is Duy Vinh’s confession (21 years old, HCMC) about his 20-year-old getting rich story.

20 years old, not finished secondary school and have a job in aluminum and glass in his hand and a little relationship, Duy Vinh decided to quit his job at the company with a salary of 14 million, borrow each dong to do his own business. For everyone, especially Vinh’s family, this is an extremely reckless decision. As for Duy Vinh, what does the guy say about his journey?

Been poor forever, miserable forever, now have losses – more debt is okay!

“When I was a child, my family was not as good as other people, only 2 things were ranked first: the poorest in the neighborhood and the most indebted. Also because debt piled up, but in 9th grade, I had to drop out of school, go to Ho Chi Minh City to help with the restaurant, earn money to help my parents pay the debt, take care of my brother.” – Duy Vinh shared about his family situation.

Without adequate education, Duy Vinh started making money at the age of 15 by running a table at a restaurant. After 1 year, he was accepted by an uncle who worked as an apprentice at an aluminum and glass factory in District 12. Initially, he was mainly an apprentice, so Vinh did not receive any salary, in return for his uncle’s food and accommodation. for Vinh for a long time. Later, when he got used to the job, Vinh was promoted to work as an auxiliary worker with a salary of 6 million.

Most of that salary Vinh sent to his parents in the countryside, I only kept a few hundred thousand. A young boy growing up, living in a strange city with no friends, no money to pay even for the essentials made Vinh think a lot about his future. The thought of earning money and changing his life gradually formed in his mind from now on.

After becoming the main worker, receiving a salary of 14 million for 2 years, Vinh decided to ask his uncle to let him quit his job to do his own business at the end of 2021. This decision of Vinh was not supported by anyone in his family because 2 reason: Vinh is too young and he really has nothing in his hand but this job.

“14 million is a number that when I first started working, I never dared to think that I would have one day. But when I was 20 years old, the expenses for life increased gradually, the responsibility to the family also became heavier and heavier, children That amount is not as big as I thought.In a month, when I take my salary, I send it back to my parents. The rest is not enough to pay for accommodation, and I don’t have money for meals.

Not to mention the social distancing period 2021, I went to work on a construction site in Dak Nong and was stuck there, the money and expenses were very high, almost all of my money was spent. saving money mine. At that time, I understood more and more about the value of money. Now that it is, 1-2 years from now, if there is something wrong with my parents, will that 14 million be enough to worry about? That thought stuck with me forever and also motivated me to take risks, even if no one supported me. I’ve been poor forever, miserable forever, what’s wrong with getting worse now?” – Vinh confided.

Said and done, at the end of 2021 after receiving the last month’s salary, Vinh collected 2 more personal projects for 30 million and decided to open a small business specializing in interior design and decoration services. advertisement.

This amount is of course not enough for the guy to do anything, Vinh thought of a way to ask a relative to stand up Bank loan help the amount of 60 million with an interest rate of 1.57% per month (33% per year) and ask that person to pay for it every month. Then, while renting an office space, lacking a deposit, the guy borrowed another 10 million from his cousin, bringing the initial capital to round 100 million.

Drinking filtered water through meals, sleeping on the sofa, saving every penny to maintain the business on the verge of dying

Get rich trading is not like a game, there isn’t any redo button if you go wrong. Stepping out to be independent, Vinh has just a job, a few relationships and enough capital, the rest of the experience is still at zero. Does this make Vinh’s initial start-up phase difficult? little hardship and bitter fruit.

“Registering a business, having a tax code, I rent an office first. In 2 weeks, I have only rented a small house in Binh Thanh District for 9.5 million, including a deposit, the total cost is 9.5 million. The cost I spent for the space is 20 million. The house has 3 bedrooms, but until now I still sleep on the sofa on the ground floor – where is the office because I have rented out all the rooms to the students to reduce my daily living costs. month.

3 days after starting the operation, thanks to my cousin, I received the first project: Decorating, setting up a pub in District 12 with a contract value of 250 million. At that time, I was very happy, I wonder why everything went so smoothly and smoothly” – Vinh shared.

Although the contract value is high, Vinh only takes the customer’s deposit of 20 million in advance. Unexpectedly, there was no longer a “protector” uncle, the contractor did not accept to work first, pay later for Vinh like before. This wrong move caused Vinh to withdraw more than half of the remaining meager capital to advance.

This mistake caused the guy to lose capital, leading to many other consequences. A project usually lasts 1-2 months, during that time Vinh received a few other works of smaller value but did not have enough money to advance for materials and workers.

Not to mention, some works because of hiring workers according to the project, do not guarantee the skills, so the progress is delayed, customers are not satisfied. Bank interest, contractor asking for money to continue working, workers asking for wages, daily living expenses … but the partners owed, failed to pay in time, unstable work, no efficiency, Vinh was helpless to complete whole.

Disobeying his family, determined to go out to borrow money for his own business and then fell and hurt right after he started. Vinh was exhausted both physically and mentally. There are days when he only drinks filtered water to hold his breath even though he still has money in his account because he doesn’t know what he will have to pay tomorrow to maintain the business, so he doesn’t dare to spend even a dime.

“Working for a salary of 14 million, I only need to work 6-8 hours a day to return. As for business and debt, 24 hours, even when I sleep, I have to think continuously. Thinking about how to borrow money make money but pay off debt, have more income to develop business.All difficulties keep coming, I’m exhausted both physically and mentally but I don’t know who to call but dare not call anyone. How can I have money to help? My relatives have already borrowed money from the bank, how dare I borrow it? When I was most desperate, I stood at the Saigon bridge for a long time, just wanted to jump off it. But my mother called and pulled me. myself again.

That night, I turned off the phone, ignored the problems of work and debt, and went to sleep well. The next morning, when I woke up a bit, I began to carefully consider where I was wrong, what needed to be changed. The first thing I do is contact the contractor, transfer the other 250 million contract, do not do it anymore, but only take 10% of the commission. I’m sorry, but that’s the only way out for me right now. Thanks to getting back the advance and the commission, my dying business can be ‘pumped with blood’ to continue to survive.” – Vinh shared.

From that mistake and solution, Vinh learned a great lesson. With high-value contracts, which can bring big profits but can’t afford, the guy is not greedy “trying to swallow” anymore, but accepts to transfer to other parties only for commission.

On the other hand, he also actively connects with many different construction contractors to get more works and “cut off” profits for the parties. With partners, Vinh also clearly agreed that he would have to advance at least 30-70% of the contract value from the beginning, depending on the contract value.

“The amount of advance from the works and the commissions transferred to the contractors is enough for me to manage other projects I am doing as well as a small amount to settle debts, cover the cost of maintaining the business. However, I know this is only a temporary solution, in the long run, if it is just that, it will still be out of breath and the business will die.” – Vinh confided.

To completely solve the problems of the business is not a matter of day 1 but will have to be a long process. After receiving enough bitter fruit, Vinh began to slow down, seeking advice and advice from many predecessors to make better decisions at work.

The problem of machinists, instead of choosing to only hire part-timers to save money, Vinh has begun to spend more money to hire full-time workers. A little more expensive but ensures no problem performance, no delay in the progress of the project or project.

At the same time, Vinh also accepts the story of “making money” less when calling for investment, increasing mobilized capital from contractors and sharing less profits. Up to now, Vinh’s business is gradually stabilizing.

Although not yet profitable, it has been much less difficult and the financial burden is also reduced. In the near future, Vinh also intends to increase corporate capital by settling old debts and taking larger loans from reputable banks.

“Getting rich at the age of 20 isn’t scary. The scary thing is that my direction is going wrong. I used to be too greedy, I outlined all sorts of things but didn’t take into account that just one step in that plan went wrong, the whole thing went wrong. Everything I hoped for would fall apart.

My lesson after more than 6 months in business is that you should do everything slowly, think carefully, earn a little but in return will have a solid foundation for other things. If you go fast, be greedy, plot all kinds of things and get nowhere, you will definitely fail immediately.” – Duy Vinh concluded.