A man whose parents travelled to Australia ‘with nothing’ has built up a property portfolio worth $10million after opening a Domino’s store – and launching a surprising product.
Sydney man Trung Vien was working as a financial planner at a bank when he decided to quit and begin his own business venture when he was 24 years old.
He said his remarkable work ethic comes from his parents, who came to Australia from Vietnam flat broke and struggling to provide for the family. The Daily Mail Australia reported.
‘My parents came to Australia from Vietnam after the war with basically nothing – not a word of English and no experience or qualifications,’ he told .
Despite knowing nothing about business, he opened a Domino’s Pizza store, only because he liked the brand and the franchise model.
Mr Vien now says it’s the best decision he has ever made.
‘My parents said, “you can’t go into business, you have to go to uni and work a corporate job and be safe”, but I didn’t tell them that in my first year I made more than double the amount I had made at the bank,’ he said.
At the time Mr Vien already had multiple investment properties under his belt as the result of being a conscientious saver.
He had also built up his savings from the high-paying financial planning job and was building up a property portfolio in Sydney and Brisbane.
According to the Daily Mail Australia, In 2013 Mr Vien ventured out on another business journey, opening up a gym in Cabramatta, in Sydney’s south-west.
But at 27 the businessman found himself ‘up to his eyeballs’ in rent as the property market in Brisbane was slowing down.
In June Mr Vien took to Instagram to talk about this moment in his life and said putting in more hours is not the answer to success.
‘Being a restaurant owner, and owning multiple retail business…. I lost myself,’ he wrote.
‘I lost time with my family. I didn’t see my friends for years. My relationship broke down and we were living together. It felt like I was trapped in a prison.’
‘Some nights I was so mentally and physically drained I would sleep in my car for the next day to magically appear.’
While he said he was never close to being bankrupt, he was in debt more than a million dollars.
‘Instead of trading time for dollars. Trade dollars for time. Invest in yourself to elevate your mind,’ he said.
Mr Vien chose to sell off some homes and businesses and is now left with 14 properties across Sydney and Brisbane worth $10million.
At this point Mr Vien took a break to travel through Asia before returning home with the itch to start a brand new business.
He noticed some of his friends were suffering with hair loss as a result of high stress due to work or beginning a family.
‘I thought, you know what, there must be a good solution to this problem and seeing my friends are facing it, it must be happening everywhere,’ Mr Vien said.
He poured hours of his time into researching hair loss and how to treat it, eventually launching Hair Folli in March this year.
The hair company uses superfood Kakadu Plum in the growth activator spray to make hair thicker and grow quickly.
The successful business man says this is now his passion project and saw the company boom when the COVID-19 pandemic swept the globe.
By keeping the company online Mr Vien managed to keep costs to a minimum and launched primarily into the Asian market.
While retail businesses are suffering by paying thousands in rent, Hair Folli is hugely successful because of the ‘low overheads’.
By Lauren Ferri
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Source: Vietnam Insider