Students get support to bring sandwich cart startup idea to the streets

Two groups of students in Binh Dinh realized their startup ideas and won prizes with a bread cart.

Hot, delicious sandwiches prepared by students - Photo: MY DUYEN

Coming out of the BizCase 2025 competition - Searching for business ideas 2025, with the support of the Binh Dinh Province Young Entrepreneurs Association, recently students of FPT University Quy Nhon directly put the idea of ​​starting a fish cake sandwich cart into practice.

From award-winning idea to real business

Hello Group - the team that won the competition with a bread truck named "ChaKa" - Photo: MY DUYEN

Every day, from 5am, young people clean the glass cabinets and put vegetables, pate, etc. into sandwiches to deliver to customers.

Tran Huy Hoa (class IB18C, majoring in international business) from team Gen 3 (second prize in the Biz Case 2025 competition) said: “At first, the whole group was very worried because we didn’t know where to start. Then the guys from the Binh Dinh Young Entrepreneurs Association guided us on how to run a marketing strategy and how to manage operations, then sent someone to guide us on how to process…, including how to deal with risks.”

Proud of her sandwich cart named “TÓP”, Nguyen Phan Quynh Nhu from the Gen 3 team said the first difficulty was having to wake up early to prepare the ingredients.

Next is how to attract customers, in the plan there are 3 opening days with the program buy 2 get 1 free, sales are up to nearly 400 loaves of bread, a few days later the group maintains about 80 loaves. A day profit is about 300,000 - 400,000 VND.

“On days when we don’t sell out, we make some bread to give to those in need. It’s summer vacation now, so the whole group spends time selling. Although many of us aren’t good at cooking, doing business makes us willing to research and learn new recipes,” Nhu said.

The revenue from each bread cart is quite good - Photo: MY DUYEN

Not far away, the Hello group’s “ChaKa” sandwich cart is always bustling with buyers. Ly Anh Thu (class IB18C, majoring in international business) said that the group has earned more than 5 million VND. In addition to posting sales on Facebook pages, they also invite referrals on TikTok… to increase the amount of sandwiches sold.

“To make this model, the whole group first looked at the location to implement, made a marketing and financial plan, then assigned tasks, analyzed competitors and customers… all income and expenses had to be clearly listed. The whole group even had a reserve fund to deal with incidents,” Thu said.

Nguyen Doan Duc Hoang, team leader of Hello, said: "From the idea of ​​starting a business to the time of starting to implement it is a very long way.

The whole group was quite surprised when the school and the Binh Dinh Young Entrepreneurs Association trusted us with a capital investment and taught us the necessary skills before starting a real business… Thanks to this opportunity, we had the chance to develop ourselves and dare to face challenges.”

Fostering students' startup ideas

The students plan to expand the bread cart model after the competition - Photo: MY DUYEN

According to both first and second prize winning teams, after a trial period of about 1 month, if revenue is stable, they will move to long-term business. Team Gen 3 has plans to expand the chain and recruit students from difficult circumstances to work so that they can have income.

Ms. Le Thi The Buu - Head of the Business Department of FPT University Quy Nhon, head of the competition's organizing committee - said that unlike previous startup competitions that usually only stopped at the idea or presentation round, BizCase 2025 is the first time to put ideas into practice.

Specifically, in addition to receiving awards, students will also receive VND15 million/group as capital and receive advice and skills guidance to test real business models. Teams will record all revenue and expenses for reporting and receive direct feedback. From there, sponsors will monitor, evaluate and provide appropriate forms of support in the next phase.

“I see that the teams are operating the fish cake sandwich model quite well. This is a good opportunity for students to apply what they learn in school to real life. Above all, the support of businesses is like a support, giving wings to the ideas of students to take shape,” said Ms. Buu.

From startup ideas, students are invested and realized - Photo: MY DUYEN

Mr. Ngo The Long - Director of HAKUEN Group Management Consulting Company Limited - shared that he and members of the Binh Dinh Province Young Entrepreneurs Association have invested in the idea of ​​​​a fish cake sandwich cart. Through this program, the association demonstrates its ability to support and promote business activities in the province.

"The Association and I will continue to accompany and expect that the following programs will have more members participating in investment and will be on a larger scale. The reason we want to invest and support students is because they are young, ready to take risks and, most of all, have many ideas and creativity in business," said Mr. Long.

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Source: https://tuoitre.vn/sinh-vien-duoc-ho-tro-de-dua-y-tuong-khoi-nghiep-xe-ban-banh-mi-ra-duong-pho-20250509094255458.htm