Why do Overseas Vietnamese Start Small Businesses?

One of the ways my family and I celebrated America’s 250th anniversary was looking at old family photos—approximately 314 of them. One that caught my eye was a picture of my aunt and me at her bakery shop in Houston, TX, when I was no more than six years old. She has always inspired me to start my own business, but looking back at this picture, I wonder what inspired her to start her own business. In fact, many of the Vietnamese I knew growing up also had their own small businesses. Their shops, nail salons, and Phở restaurants are plentiful in almost every metropolitan area in the world, especially in America. But what started this trend?

2.

Nguyễn Ngọc Ngạn, the former co-host of the popular live entertainment show “Paris By Night,” once said that, according to Time magazine, the number of self-employed businessmen in America, the wealthiest country in the world, is only 4%. In comparison, Vietnam holds the world record for the number of self-employed at 40%. While the percentages might be exaggerated, there turns out to be some truth to this.

“We Vietnamese have a saying: ‘No trade, no wealth,’” explained Kim Lê, owner of Kim’s Tailoring in San Jose, California. “Back then, nothing beat doing trade. Even now, with a small business, I still earn more money than I would have as an employee.”

The tradition of self-employment came from China, which dominated Vietnam for a thousand years. During China’s domination, the Chinese saying “No trade, no wealth” spread to Vietnam as working in agriculture and industry was not seen as profitable as doing business. This thinking continued throughout Vietnam’s history, but as about 100,000 Vietnamese emigrated on and before April 30, 1975, the collapse of South Vietnam, they tended to attain higher education and therefore a higher-paying job, not needing to start a business. Many of these Vietnamese were or came from the upper class, either already having the resources to escape, connections outside of Vietnam, or were studying abroad.

However, many Vietnamese who came after April 30, 1975, the so-called “boat people,” had a harder time getting higher education and finding a good-paying job. “When I first arrived [in the U.S.], I didn't have any means of making a living,” Kim says. “I had to go to school, which took time. Then there was the question of how to support a household. And if I waited until after finishing my studies to have children, it would have been too late.” Many Vietnamese immigrants like Kim had no option but to forgo higher education and enter directly into the workforce.

But she at least did have a passion for her trade. “I love this profession. From the moment I wake up, my mind is on beautiful clothes—thinking about how to make them look stunning. I’ve had this passion since I was young; I wouldn’t want to do any other job.”

“I was fortunate to bring this trade with me from Vietnam. Because I personally love wearing beautiful outfits and experimenting with different styles, I create clothes that look wonderful on my customers—and they love them.”

3.

Next to where Kim sells and tailors clothes, there is a karaoke shop whose owner, working there nearly every day of the year, also faced many hardships upon immigrating to America. Đoàn Nguyễn, 70-year-old owner of DN Karaoke, “can still place orders and communicate in English. But, for instance, if you were to speak English to me now, I’d have to think for quite a while to understand the sentence.” Consequently, “I never attended a single day of school after coming here; I had to teach myself everything. I even had to learn the technical side of the equipment on my own.” However, unlike Kim, “before I got into this line of work, I wasn’t passionate about it.”

Upon immigrating to America in 1990, Đoàn worked all kinds of jobs—“working a few months at a gas station, followed by another few months at a donut shop”—before finding a job at a karaoke shop. As he worked there for over a decade, he quietly studied the machinery’s inner workings, which turned out to be helpful when “on a beautiful day, the shop there caught fire,” and, with the experience Đoàn accumulated, he thus started his own karaoke shop in 2015. “When starting a business, everything needs a bit of luck.” he remarked.

The struggles Kim and Đoàn had, such as the language barrier and the lack of formal education, also help explain why there are so many Vietnamese-owned restaurants and nail salons. For example, in Houston, Vân Nguyễn opted to start a nail salon because, even with a formal college education, she couldn’t acquire more than a technician-level job. Opening a nail salon to Vân “offered a low barrier” to making more money, not to mention the feeling of stability of not having to worry about being unemployed.

4.

Despite many Vietnamese starting businesses, many don’t have a desire to. Among those less likely to start a family or small business are the younger generation, predominantly those born within or after the 1990s.

“Almost every Vietnamese person wants to start a business,” says Đoàn. “Yet none of my children have any interest in business. For our generation, being in America meant opportunity, whereas our children have grown up enjoying a comfortable life here.”

Along with Vietnamese born outside of Vietnam generally having higher education than Vietnamese immigrants, allowing for better-paying jobs, their jobs also allow for greater freedom compared with being committed to and constantly responsible for starting a business. “My children work eight-hour days, then come home to eat and relax,” Đoàn explains. “On Saturdays and Sundays, they go out and have fun. Living in America, they earn good money and have the time for leisure. One of my children, for instance, just spent three weeks traveling in Japan. Another went to Europe, to France and Germany,” while Đoàn rarely skips a day at his store.

5.

The following Saturday, I called my aunt to ask why she had started her bakery shop. “Honestly, I prefer running my own business,” she reflected, “because I don’t like working under anyone. I’m my own boss. I handle the design and make my own decisions about what I do. I don’t have to depend on others—or follow the policies and rules set by an employer or a boss. It offers much more freedom.”

Freedom is perhaps the greatest motivation for Vietnamese starting their businesses. Kim wanted freedom to pursue her passion for tailoring clothes. Đoàn sought freedom to make more money despite a lack of English proficiency and a college degree. And my aunt pursued freedom to make her own choices. Many of the Vietnamese diaspora members who fled their home country to seek freedom are also those who started their own businesses in hopes of achieving what they had sought in the first place.