From a 1-person company to the ambition of supporting micro-enterprises to go global

After more than a decade of helping many Vietnamese businesses, including small and micro businesses, apply technology to bring Vietnamese products to the world, iViet is aiming to sit in Vietnam and help foreign businesses do business in foreign markets.

One man company with big ambitions

Stemming from the desire to help many Vietnamese businesses develop their brands and bring Vietnamese products to the international market, in 2012, 8x businessman Bui Quang Cuong decided to establish iViet Business Development Solutions Limited Liability Company.

“iViet has many meanings. First of all, we want to convey the message “I am Vietnamese”. Along with that, the letter “i” also implies Internet, Intelligence, Impact, and further, Inspire – inspiring other young businesses”, Director Bui Quang Cuong explained the company’s name.

Mr. Bui Quang Cuong, Director of iViet Business Development Solutions Limited Company.

Starting a business with great ambitions, but the reality was not as dreamy as expected. “The date of establishment on the business license was February 15, the company started operating on February 25. February only has 28 days, the last 3 days of the month fall on the weekend, no invoices have been issued, we naively thought that we did not need to report taxes. Unexpectedly, the next month we received a notice for late submission of tax reports and had to pay a fine,” Mr. Cuong laughed as he recalled his “first slap in the face” with iViet.

In the early days, the company had only one person, no office, no employees, the regular "base" of the iViet Director was the Hanoi Library.

“Luckily, through an acquaintance’s introduction, I soon had contracts with some fairly large clients in 2012. The first client was a well-known fashion company in the domestic market. When signing the contract, the client had to go through many levels of approval, from staff to department heads and then directors, while on iViet’s side, I signed many steps by myself,” Mr. Cuong continued.

With the experience accumulated after many years of working in communications for a large corporation before separating to establish his own company, Mr. Cuong and his collaborators have supported customers in smoothly implementing a number of comprehensive communications campaigns, from consulting on communication channels, posting articles in which newspapers, running ads on which social networks... suitable for their "budget". Gradually, the name iViet became known to many people.

Like most other startups, iViet has stumbled many times, facing the risk of collapse. There was a time when it was "rising like a kite in the wind", in the period of hot growth, suddenly a series of customers left because of dissatisfaction, combined with a human resource crisis when many employees left, iViet was almost back to the starting line. Director Bui Quang Cuong once wondered whether to return to the old one-person company model to ease his mind.

But then, those who remained sat down together to find out the cause and find a solution. Things gradually stabilized.

iViet representative at a press communications training session.

After more than a decade of development, iViet now provides a wide range of services from media – journalism, brand consulting, marketing training and e-commerce… to help Vietnamese businesses sell their products in the domestic market as well as export. iViet’s team of experts includes both Vietnamese and foreigners.

iViet currently has more than 500 customers, including a number of ministries, sectors and large enterprises... In terms of training alone, more than 20,000 students have participated in training programs implemented by iViet in about 40 provinces/cities across the country.

Notably, with a team of experienced “real-life” personnel, iViet is also an active member of many international projects implemented in Vietnam. For example, the ISEE COVID Project of the United Nations Development Program supports social impact businesses in e-commerce; the “IIRV - Vietnam is ready for impact investment” project funded by Canada helps social impact businesses to call for foreign capital, etc.

Applying technology, small/micro enterprises can also export

Having worked with Vietnamese businesses for many years, the Director of iViet clearly feels the changes in the business environment: In the past, exporting was only a story for very large businesses, but now, even small businesses, even micro businesses, can export goods through digital platforms such as Alibaba, Amazon...

iViet was selected as one of Google's 10 most potential partners in Vietnam.

One of iViet’s core consulting contents for Vietnamese enterprises is the application of digital technology to spread brands and products, increasing business efficiency. Technology content often accounts for 60-70% of the total consulting content.

“There is a youth fashion brand that initially focused on domestic business. After listening to iViet's advice, spending time researching the market, changing designs and products to better suit the tastes of foreign markets, there were export shipments,” Mr. Cuong cited.

Having received support from iViet through the ISEE COVID project, Ms. Phuong's organic tea production group (Thai Nguyen) increased its revenue by 300% after 2 months of bringing products to the two platforms TikTok Shop and Facebook instead of selling in the traditional way before.

A representative of Green Alliance Production and Trading Company Limited also said: “After being consulted and trained by iViet, we have greatly improved the product packaging images associated with the business story, our brand is displayed more on platforms such as Facebook, Google Map, TikTok, so our revenue has increased by 80% compared to previous months”.

Ms. Vuong Thi Thuong, owner of the Hong Treo Gio Toan Thuong production facility (Lang Son) shared: "When participating in the consulting and training support program, we were like a kite about to fall to the ground but were lifted up by iViet". In the coming time, this production facility will apply the knowledge learned to all of its products and improve more to design more eye-catching product packaging, master the way to shoot videos, take photos, apply GPT Chat, build sales channels and e-commerce platforms such as: Shopee, Lazada, Tiktok.

“The reality is that digital platforms that support Vietnamese businesses to bring Vietnamese products abroad are still mainly foreign platforms. Although we really want to advise Vietnamese businesses to use Vietnamese technology solutions, when most of the businesses' customers are often active on Facebook, Tik Tok, Amazon, Alibaba... we still have to advise them to bring Vietnamese products to those platforms to be able to sell more products,” Mr. Cuong noted.

Many small and micro enterprises participating in the ISEE COVID Project of the United Nations Development Program have been consulted by iViet to bring Vietnamese goods abroad.

Recently, the Government has encouraged the development of “Make in Vietnam” platforms, and some domestic enterprises have become more confident in opening e-commerce platforms to support Vietnamese exports.

However, the Director of iViet frankly admitted that the contribution of "Make in Vietnam" platforms to supporting the export of Vietnamese goods is still not large. In addition to being inferior in technology compared to international "giants", Vietnamese digital platforms are also "inferior" in the "race" of financial investment. In fact, it took Amazon 20 years to report a profit, while Alibaba took about 15 years. Whether Vietnamese digital platform operators can survive until they become profitable is still a long story.

The Director of iViet also pointed out some limitations of Vietnamese enterprises when applying technology to bring products to the international market. Many small enterprises think that technology is something very "grand" and expensive, so they are afraid of technology and do not dare to use it. Many larger enterprises boldly invest in technology but make the mistake of thinking that just spending money to buy software can be successful, while the decisive factor in the effectiveness of technology application activities lies in the team of personnel implementing the technology application. Some enterprises invest in technology by buying a shirt that is too big, then feel it is an unnecessary waste. Other enterprises save money, gradually buying individual software, but later cannot integrate with each other. "Wearing a shirt" that is too big or too tight is not good.

The basic mistakes of Vietnamese businesses when selling on cross-border e-commerce platforms include: Not paying due attention to trademark registration; Not having specialized personnel, implementing internal/external traffic activities after paying operating fees on the platform... In particular, Vietnamese businesses are lacking attractive stories about products to increase the spread when promoting and communicating.

In the context of increasingly fierce competition in the enterprise communication solutions market, iViet's outstanding advantage is the ability to combine many tools to find good "solutions" to the "problem" of conquering the international market.

Suppose a business wants to bring Vietnamese goods to a market in America, iViet's team of experts quickly uses a combination of many analytical tools from Google, Facebook, Alibaba, Amazon, We Are Social, AI tools such as ChatGPT, Bing Chat, Google Bard... along with market reports to learn about consumer trends and updated data of that market to advise businesses effectively.

“Many people know about available online tools, but how effective they are depends on each person’s skill in using the tools. iViet is confident in its team of experts who are skilled in using many tools at the same time,” Mr. Cuong emphasized, and also revealed: “iViet will continue to focus on consulting activities for Vietnamese businesses going abroad in the near future. We are writing a book to share export experiences for Vietnamese businesses. Hopefully, the book will be completed in a few months.”

Sitting in the country helps foreign businesses sell products "overseas"

By chance, he heard a friend in the US say that he had a spa chain and wanted to make a logo, website, fanpage... and an advertising media agency in the US quoted a price of up to 20,000 USD. Director Bui Quang Cuong realized that iViet was still doing this every day and could do it for that acquaintance right in Vietnam at a lower price.

iViet itself is also supporting acquaintances in Canada to run ads on online channels to sell food, attracting a lot of customers.

iViet Director hopes to soon have branches abroad to support foreign customers.

Therefore, Mr. Cuong decided to pursue the business model: "Vietnamese people sitting in Vietnam use online tools to help foreign businesses develop their products and business activities in the international market."

This model is actually not entirely new. There have been Vietnamese Americans who have helped nail salons and spas in the US and Canada reach American and Canadian customers. Many young people in Vietnam have also been in Vietnam importing goods from one country to sell to another.

"With the intelligence of the Vietnamese people, I believe that the new direction is completely feasible," Mr. Cuong commented.

Regarding long-term plans, iViet Director expressed his wish to “soon have branches abroad to support foreign customers. The US and Canada will be very potential markets. Similar to software export activities, at first only 1 employee is needed to connect and exchange information with customers in other countries. After the foreign customer base in that country grows to a large scale, a branch will be opened to better meet customer requirements”.

The “compassion” of Director Bui Quang Cuong and the iViet team from the beginning until now has always been: “Don’t be afraid of things you don’t know how to do. The important thing is that you dare to do it, confident that you can do it. When you have enough motivation, you will find every way to do it.”

Vietnamnet.vn