Fair to introduce products of Hue startups
Seeking for the opportunities in the difficulties
The hitting of COVID-19 caused many start-ups to go bankrupt, or narrow the scale of operations, or merging with competitors to find a way to "overcome the pandemic". The start-ups that have not had the products yet, or have just had the ideas and have not been in the construction process, are also affected by the pandemic.
"Debuting to the market" since October 2019, Phan Van Hien's Yum Food chain with the business goal of "bringing products from the farm to the consumers" has suffered many difficulties because of the pandemic.
However, Hien said: "I'm quite lucky compared to other startups. Choosing to trade ‘safe and clear’ products, Yum Food is quite popular with customers.” In addition to producing and supplying meat from the farm of Yum Food (in Loc Tien, Phu Loc), Hien also associates with local farms and a hydroponic vegetable and fruit production facility that meets VietGAP standards (in Da Lat). Besides, Yum Food also sells dry products and specialties.
Bilingual books integrated with LISC technology
According to Mr. Phan Van Hien, COVID-19 pandemic is like a "reagent" to know the reaction of businesses when being faced with challenges due to fierce competition, narrow range of customers; but in return, he has a chance to confirm product pricing and quality”.
Hien's solution to overcome the crisis is to be lean with the lowest operating costs, concentrate on key passengers to have stable sales and always have a change in itself to produce good and quality products, in order to attract more customers.
Right after the 1st COVID-19 pandemic, Hien invested to open two more office meals establishments using Yum Food materials for processing, therefore, Yum Food's office meals dishes are ordered by businesses in a long term. Finding the right direction, in the coming time, "Yum Food continues to focus on product quality and developing its brand name," said Phan Van Hien.
Established in 2018 and late 2019, the startup Leadership Incubator Social Company (LISC) participated in the direct call for investment - Pitching session within the framework of the conference on innovative enterprises towards sustainable development, and this startup is one of the twelve start-up projects that calls for capital successfully.
Successfully calling for investors (technology support), the contract with enterprises has also been signed, but LISC's project of training English for businesses cannot be implemented due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic. Only the English training course that the unit previously signed with Hue University Entrepreneurship Center is conducted and switched to online approach.
LISC organizes inspirational activities about reading culture for students in Phu Mau
Struggling to find a way out, during the pandemic, LISC decided to restructure itself, cut indirect costs as well as switched to doing investment, applying technology and selecting core business platforms. Tran Thi Thu Thuy, founder and CEO of LISC, nurtures the idea of publishing English bilingual books on topics with integrated technology and then works with the team to implement it.
It has been 6 months since her coming up with the idea, preparing the script, finding artists to work as "a family". Recently, LISC's first product – English-Vietnamese bilingual book "Coming home – Ve nha" integrated with 4.0 technology (intended for children from 5-10 years old) was introduced to the readers.
Tran Thi Thu Thuy, CEO of LISC, excitedly said that the first product of LISC is accompanied by Hue Institute for Development Studies – HueIDS; the book is published with 1,000 copies by Women Publishing House and has been ordered by partners.
Proactively overcome difficulties
According to the survey results of the situation of enterprises on the COVID-19 pandemic, many businesses think positively by reacting actively and creatively, with more than 7% of them actively looking for new markets, 2.4% improving service quality and 1.7% taking advantage of time to retrain employees.
Nguyen Van Thanh Binh, Vice Chairman of Vietnam Youth Trade and Investment Promotion Club (in charge of the Central region), Chairman of Hue Startup Club, shared that financial support for startups at this time is very difficult, credit support packages are inaccessible. As the common features of startups are intangible products, intellectual products without any collaterals, they cannot borrow money from banks; therefore, most startups have to "manage themselves".
In order to overcome the crisis, a number of Hue startups are making efforts to give a hand to the community; and, altogether surmount the difficulties of the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, agricultural enterprises helped the farmers connect outputs as well as distribute products on the basis of technology. Food businesses associated with media-oriented startups to build websites for online sales, record video clips to promote products, forming a support chain.
On the club side, the club has deployed to connect resources to support entrepreneurs - startups, develop and expand markets for startups: connecting startups, serving as a bridge for businesses to cooperate and use common resources, consume produces for each other, or businesses specializing in training will support the startup community with online training courses to improve skills for businesses.
Recently, a seminar on connecting resources to support entrepreneurs - innovative startups has been organized to support activities for the startup community and connect the breeding grounds for business in 5 provinces (Ha Tinh, Hue, Da Nang, Dak Lak and Dong Thap) thereby forming a network of breeding grounds for business and startups in the Central and Central Highlands.
In Hue, the breeding ground for business co-operated with those of other provinces to cross-communicate, support startups to display, promote products, promote trade, expand market development, and at the same time build up and promote business, perfect models as well as improve products, enhance knowledge for startups in order to call for capital and attract investment. In the immediate future, there are more than 15 startup products of Hue startups appearing in other provinces through this channel and vice versa.
Story and photos: Lien Minh