Engineer quits thousand dollar job to shine shoes, earns more than 2 billion VND/year

Quit a thousand dollar job because of passion for shoes

In 2018, while working as an IT engineer for a foreign company, Mr. Dinh Thanh Phong ( Hanoi ) decided to quit his job to study leather shoes in depth under the suspicious eyes of his friends.

"At that time, everyone looked at me and thought that my job was stable, my salary was high, and my monthly income was over 20 million VND. But I thought that just going to work and waiting for my salary at the end of the month was boring and repetitive, and I was not satisfied with that choice," said Mr. Phong.

Shoe shine shop owner earns billions shares story of starting a business ( Video : Gia Doan).

Because of his passion for western shoes, every day to work, Phong "wears" a pair of dress pants, a shirt and is always loyal to western shoes. Seeing that, the owner of a cafe advised Phong to sell shoes and was willing to introduce him to a "big customer". However, the young man did not want to sell shoes but wanted to shine shoes.

"In the world , the shoe shine profession has been formed and promoted for a long time. In Vietnam, many people sell shoes but no one takes care of them. Thinking is doing, that same afternoon, I created the first fanpage with the name "Shoe Shine Shop" and later when I started my business, my first customers were all from that cafe", Mr. Phong shared.

Being an IT engineer, Mr. Dinh Thanh Phong (Hanoi) decided to quit his job to pursue a shoe shining career.

In the early days of starting his business, due to lack of experience, to ensure success, Mr. Phong held two jobs at the same time. In the morning he still went to the office, and in the afternoon he received shoes to shine for customers.

"At that time, I was very passionate. Every night, I sat at the desk in the corner of my bedroom, shining shoes until midnight. Every day, I repeated the same thing. I had to finish polishing the shoes I received from customers that afternoon so that I could return them the next morning," Phong said.

While working and learning, after a few months of starting his business, Mr. Phong realized that in Vietnam, people were only used to shining shoes on the sidewalk, no one knew how to take care of shoes properly. And then the idea of ​​opening a "standard" shoe shining shop was burning in his mind every day.

Every day, Mr. Phong works hard on shoes.

He shared the story with his friends, but besides the supportive comments, many people were "shocked" and did not believe that the information engineer would quit his job with a monthly salary of thousands of dollars to... shine shoes.

"People were skeptical. Some questioned me, asking if it was worth it to give up a job with a salary of 20 million VND/month to polish a pair of shoes for 10,000 VND. But I was still determined with my choice," said Mr. Phong.

Silver hair with hundred million shoes

When he first started his shoe-shining business, the difficulty that came to Mr. Phong was not money but the branded shoes. There were items of great value, so when he agreed to do the job for a customer, he was always careful and cherished.

IT work and shoe shining have turned the 30-year-old man's hair gray.

"Everyone thinks this job is trivial and simple, but in reality, when I switched to this career, I had to renew myself, learn and accumulate experience.

There is almost no room for error, because there are shoes that are very valuable. Just a little mistake, not only will you have to pay compensation, but the shop will also lose its reputation. There are shoes that cost tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dong, I hold them in my hands and... tremble, not knowing what to do for fear of damaging the item," he explained, getting customers to trust him with such shoes is not an easy task.

When the shoe shining business started to have a stable income, at the end of 2019, Mr. Phong and two friends were full of enthusiasm to prepare to rent a place to open a shoe shining shop. But not long after, the Covid-19 pandemic hit, his two friends gave up because they could no longer see the future.

"At that time, I was literally swimming on my own. I couldn't bear to abandon my brainchild, but it was too difficult to continue maintaining it. For months, there was almost no revenue. After deducting all operating costs and employee salaries, I had only 2 million VND left in my wallet.

The difficulties continued, with my young child at home, and at times I thought about giving up and applying for a job at a famous branded store, but failed because the two sides did not share the same views," Phong shared.

Mr. Phong shared that when holding valuable branded shoes, mistakes are not allowed.

From someone who knew nothing about luxury goods, to have the rich experience he has now, Mr. Phong spent nearly a year working and studying at a famous luxury goods store. Then, he spent another 6 months studying at handmade leather workshops.

Through self-study and experience, the former IT engineer has now become a professional shoe shiner and the owner of a high-end leather shoe care shop.

"People know me for quitting my IT job to shine shoes, earning over 100 million a month, but that's not true. I studied information technology, if I didn't learn about luxury goods and sewing, I wouldn't be able to do what I do now.

"You have to learn a lot so that when customers bring their shoes to the store, you can know what the shoes are like, what material they are made of, whether they can be repaired or not, and then advise them in the most appropriate way," said Mr. Phong.

Elevating the shoe shine profession

Up to now, after 6 years of starting the business, Mr. Phong's shoe shine shop has attracted a large number of domestic and foreign customers. He is also a famous figure on social media platforms when making clips sharing his daily work.

After 6 years of starting a business, Mr. Phong built his own brand and created additional income for young people who share the same passion for leather goods.

Every day, Mr. Phong receives about 15-20 orders, and during the holidays, the number of orders to be processed increases to about 30 each day. Sometimes he has to turn down customers because of overload.

"I just focus on what I do best, which is taking care of leather goods. Many customers bring sneakers, and even though I can do it, I still refuse and refer them to shops that specialize in sneakers.

"If I take on more orders, I can earn more money, but I won't be able to pay customers on time. I also decided not to chase quantity so as not to affect the quality of the products and the reputation of my shop," he said.

Currently, the shoe shine fee at Mr. Phong's shop is 150,000-250,000 VND/pair depending on the customer's needs. Explaining the price, which is 10 times more expensive than the sidewalk shoe shine, Mr. Phong said that customers are willing to pay because they get to experience sophisticated, unprecedented shoe care services.

Not only does Mr. Phong cherish each pair of leather shoes, but he also carefully preserves all the items associated with the startup process, from shoe cushions to rags that cost millions.

He said that shoes worth several million or hundreds of millions of dong are all served at the same price, regardless of "luxury or lowly".

"Currently, I can earn nearly 200 million VND per month, but when I chose to pursue this career, I wanted everyone to be able to receive better shoe care services than shining shoes on the street.

For me, making money is important, but most of all, I want my current job to help change the habit of using leather shoes of Vietnamese people and more broadly, leather products in general," Mr. Phong shared.

Source link: https://dantri.com.vn/lao-dong-viec-lam/ky-su-bo-viec-luong-nghin-usd-ve-danh-giay-kiem-hon-2-ty-dongnam-20230718141618421.htm