After 5 years of operation, FreelancerViet(freelancerviet.vn) is the most popular recruitment platform in Viet Nam, helping thousands of businesses find suitable candidates for freelance or full-time jobs.

To achieve today’s success, Ms Pham Lan Khanh, the Founder and CEO of FreelancerViet, has experienced many failures on her tough entrepreneurial journey. However, it is worth praising that she knew how to ‘fail smartly’, which means that getting up firmly from a fall and moving towards success.

At a meeting with young entrepreneurs in Da Nang late last month, Khanh affirmed, developing start-up projects is very tough as challenges, difficulties, and even repeated failures can become inevitable startup problems. Fearlessness of failure, ability to ask questions, international-scale thinking and curiosity are the qualities needed to become a successful entrepreneur. Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

Working in the aspect of human resource management and possessing a great passion for community activities, in 2015, Khanh founded the FreelancerViet group, which operated on Facebook at that time in order to connect recruiters with job seekers. After 2 years of operation, Khanh decided to turn the group into a startup business by setting up a website freelancerviet.vn.

Operating such a website was the first challenge facing her startup journey. At that time, job seekers of FreelancerViet just posted their demands for employment on Facebook, and through comments from recruiters, the two sides then entered into negotiations to reach final deals. But now, many things have changed significantly. In an attempt to appeal jobs from companies, job seekers are required to create an attractive profile for themselves at freelancerViet to apply for certain job positions.

Khanh admitted the fact that changing the habits of the users is not easy. FreelancerViet, therefore, took the initiative to organise many community events to persuade its members on Facebook to make a switch to the use of this website.

After having changed the operating model successfully from the Facebook group to the website, Khanh faced the second challenge. She said the operating model of FreelancerViet has existed for 10 - 20 years in the world. In developed countries around the world, online payment is very common, but in Viet Nam, users at that tine were psychologically unwilling to pay fees for a third party which serves as a ‘job broker’.  To address this matter, FreelancerViet had to assure its customers that, within a maximum of 3 months since their registrations for membership, they would access employment opportunities. 

Having set up the website and perfected business model, Khanh decided to build up Freelancer on the mobile platform. She called this stage ‘the worst failure’. Despite having poured a large amount of money and great efforts into the establishment of the mobile app, the number of users accounted for only 15% of FreelancerViet’s total members.

In 2017, Khanh decided to call for capital to expand FreelancerViet’s operation to Southeast Asia. However, this task was not easy as she once thought. The strong-willed woman received continuous refusal from investors. Finally, Khanh realised the fact that her failure was mainly attributed to her tendency to overestimate her company’s products and services, and the picking of wrong investors for her startup.

According to Khanh’ remarks, in any case, the entrepreneur who seeks startup capital generally has to create a solid business plan or build a prototype in order to sell the idea.

When you meet the right people, a wealth of opportunities can appear right before your eyes. If you’re creating a startup, be sure to network with people in your industry. Attend all the industry events possible, even if you think you’re underqualified or if your business doesn’t yet exist. You may or may not find investors, but you’ll definitely accrue knowledge from fellow startup owners or business veterans. Try to create relationships that may benefit you in the future.

By PHONG LAN – Translated by ANH THU