VIETNAM NATIONAL UNIVERSITY HCMC
INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY FINAL REPORT RESEARCH ON SMALL BUSINESS COFFEE TALK ENGLISH
Lecturer: NGUYEN HAI TRUNG Group members:
HOANG THI KHANH HA-BABAWE20152 TRAN LE TRUC VY-BABAIU21588 VO THI AI MY-BABAIU20455 DAO THI HONG YEN-BABAIU21599 NGUYEN NHU QUYNH-BABAIU21509
Class: Introduction to Business Administration Contents
PART 1 – GENERAL INFORMATION....................................................3
PART 2 – INTERVIEW..............................................................................3
*Ask the manager the following questions on Business Ownership:
....................................................................................................................4
1. What type of business ownership does the business use?......4
2. Why did they choose this form of
ownership?............................4
3. How many hours per week does the owner spend at his
business?............................................................................................... 4
4. If the owner could change one thing in building his/her
business, what would that be?...........................................................5
5. What advice does he/she have for a new entrepreneur?........6
*Ask the manager the following questions on Management:...........6
1. How many different goods/services does the business
produce/provide?.................................................................................. 6
2. Does the business have a long-term plan? How does the
business owner prepare her or his business
plan?........................7
3. How can the business ensure that the planned objectives be
achieved?..............................................................................................8
4. What are the policies of the business to motivate its
employees to work harder?................................................................8
5. What are the key success factors for this industry/business?..8
6. What are the problems the business is facing?..........................9
*Analysis...................................................................................................9
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this business?....9 2
2. Indicate one point for the business to change or improve in its
strategy for competitive advantage.................................................11
3. Do you think its workers will be committed to working for this business? Why or why
not?..............................................................11
PART 1 – GENERAL INFORMATION
• Business name: COFFEE TALK ENGLISH.
• Location of the business: 611/4C E. Dien Bien Phu, Ward 1, District 3, Ho Chi Minh City. • Interview date: 9/4/2023
• Interview time began: 8:00 am
• Interview time finished: 11:30 am
• Position of the interviewee: CEO Dinh Minh Quyen (Founder Talks Café)
• Main area of business and production activity: Sell coffee and here,
customers will use English to communicate, the service staff is also
teaching assistants, guiding customers to speak English better.
• The special highlight of Talks Cafe is to combine the model of serving
coffee and teaching English with a scale of no more than 6 students/class,
with tuition fees from 50,000 - 60,000 VND/student/session.
• Number of employees: 82 (including 12 full-time employees, 50 part-time
English teachers, 20 part-time employees).
• Number of employees with a college degree or above: all teachers have
IELTS degrees and pedagogical qualifications.
• Teacher input at this Startup includes: -
Graduated from university majoring in foreign languages, IELTS 6.0,TOEIC 800 or higher. -
All candidates must go through the Founder who has interview teachingskills. -
After 2 weeks of classroom training. -
All teachers must prepare lesson plans.- Teach tests.
• Educational level of the business owner: 3 -
Graduated from Sonadezi College of Management Technology. -
For more than 9 years, he has held the position of
CustomerRelationship Manager at several leading foreign banks such
as ANZ Bank, Hong Leong Bank... -
Advanced pedagogical training and Master of Business Administration. - Lecturer at Sonadezi College. PART 2 – INTERVIEW
* Ask the manager the following questions on Business Ownership:
1. What type of business ownership does the business use?
A joint stock company without a state capital 2.
Why did they choose this form of ownership?
In the process of interacting with students, Quyen noticed that one of their
weaknesses is limited foreign language ability. However, with the current
traditional way of teaching and learning, students have little time to practice.
Meanwhile, not everyone has the financial ability to study English methodically at foreign language centers.
Faced with this situation, Dinh Minh Quyen has cherished building a chain of
cafes dedicated to the English-speaking community. So, in June 2018, Quyen's
brainchild named Talks Cafe was officially born. Here, customers will use English
to communicate, the service staff are also teaching assistants, guiding customers to speak English better.
As a person with many years of experience in business management, when
starting a business, Right to determine the current education market has many
"big guys" ahead and thousands of large and small centers.
“I realize that the problem that most English centers are facing today is the high
cost, fixed hours, and locations, thus limiting many people who want to study. In
addition, large classes should limit interaction with students” – Quyen to analyze.
3. How many hours per week does the owner spend at his business?
“It depends on how you understand work and spend your time on it. If you use
your time at work, it will be productive. If you go home, listening to Chinese when
you need to learn Chinese is also useful for work. Those skills are not taught in schools,” Quyen said.
Running Talks cafe is not Quyen's only job. Currently, Dinh Minh Quyen's main
income and full-time job are at a finance company, an import-export company. 4
In addition, Quyen expects technology can help Talks Cafe solve lean
management problems. These are the reasons founders are willing to invest in Talks Cafe.
Currently, Talks Café is planning explosive scenarios when it receives the
investment amount from the Chairman of Egroup Education Group as committed,
which is about 5 billion VND, in exchange for 45% shares of Talks Café.
“I am having the opportunity to devote all my time to this project,” plans Dinh Minh Quyen.
4. If the owner could change one thing in building his/her business, what would that be?
In December 2019, Talks Cafe is having a very sustainable development model
with a space-sharing economy model with 9 cafes in HCM - 3 in Bien Hoa - 3 locations in Da Lat.
However, the specter of Covid19 came and swept this business.
"With the disbursed capital of 3 billion from Shark Thuy, we always have a cash
reserve for 3-4 months of business expenses, but the Covid epidemic from Tet
has wiped out all the remaining cash and the company may not survive until the
end of April," said CEO Talks Café.
Mr. Minh Quyen said that the business has not accumulated with a start-up
business, and it is impossible to have the capital for a risky business. All the
money is for business development and system investment, so this Covid 19
epidemic almost leaves businesses with no backup plan.
Difficulties caused from March this year, all Talks Café staff had to work parttime,
reducing their salary by 50%. However, this situation cannot last because some
of you have families with small children. Full-time workers are taking a lot of leave.
"It's heartbreaking to see the staff leave," Quyen said.
Minh Quyen confided that investors are also facing difficulties because they work
together in education. Talks Cafe is difficult once, they are also difficult 100 times,
so the two sides are also exchanging a few hundred million more for each other.
"Talks Cafe has a good model that can grow, but the business may die of running
out of money before it has a chance to be remade."
In a difficult situation, Talks has reduced 15 sites to 7 sites. In addition, Talks
negotiates with coffee shop owners to help reduce the cost of premises by 50%.
In parallel with the above, Talks has an online English program in the morning,
afternoon, and evening to generate revenue.
On this question, I think it's about attention to detail. Although COFFEE TALK has
debuted almost perfectly, I still have a few mistakes in financial management, I
am confident that I have had a lot of experience in this before starting my business,
but I still have problems. a little difficulty in cash flow when the Covid epidemic
hit. I am not a perfectionist but I love details and I understand that it is the smallest
details that will make a customer happy or disappointed. 5
If there's something I want to change, I'll change myself and what I'm doing to
develop myself and my business. Read more, grow up, become more confident,
and learn how to be a better leader.
I believe both negative and positive must be changed in a business. Negatives
should be changed into positives and positives should be made more positive.
5. What advice does he/she have for a new entrepreneur?
Currently, Quyen has 2 coffee shops in Bien Hoa. Every month, paying staff,
teachers, and location costs ... nearly 100 million. He is about to start with the 3rd
shop, with a larger scale than the previous 2. The hard part is to manage it. The
reason is that his system allows teachers and students to choose the time and
date of school, so the operation is often confusing. Quyen has solved that
problem, so according to Minh Quyen, that is Talks Cafe's competitive advantage.
“When teaching, many students ask me: Should I give up everything to start a
business? I ask again: If you fail, how will you live? If I feel confident about my
startup, I leave it all. But do you see the consequences of failure? Does your
family support you or do you have other sources of capital to live on?”, shared Minh Quyen.
“Or for example, you have 500 million dong, you start a business and fail, lose all
500 million, and still have debt. Do you start to get bored and complain about life?”, Quyen added.
Right that, due to the skill of each person. If someone feels right, just do it, and
100% focus is even better. Due to each person's management skills.
“As Shark Thai Van Linh said, before starting a business, you should go to work
to get your lessons and skills. I think this is very true,” said the CEO of Talks Cafe.
You can go home before 7 o'clock, but then you should go to soccer or coffee
with your partner, it's also for work.
When asked, we learned that Quyen had previously sold Thai products, sold
cosmetics, and distributed goods to The Faceshop.
“I sell and all make a profit. But I think it's not good to be big. After banking, each
client gave me an idea. Because when explaining, they will tell me what the cash
flow is, and how the profit and loss will be. When will it payback? Why should
invest in this industry, invest in that industry ...", the guy born in 1988 said.
* Ask the manager the following questions on Management: 6 1.
How many different goods/services does the
businessproduce/provide? • Test English Online
Students are tested on their ability to use English with American/Australian
teachers, teachers will evaluate 5 factors (pronunciation, vocabulary, grammar,
listening ability, fluency/coherence) and course arrangement. the most suitable course for the student. • Test English Offline
Make an appointment and make a test appointment with your teacher for advice
on effective English learning methods. •
House For Rent: Study, Meeting, Living 100,000/hour - 150,000 - 200,000 · 1 hour or more
Fully air-conditioned, fan, tea, board, writing.
Convenient parking for you guys.
Opening hours: 8 am – 10 pm every day • Study English
To assess the quality of students, an average of 40 lessons per course, every 8
lessons, students have to take a test once and must pass a final assessment to
be certified to a level. In addition, students must commit to participating in 2-3
courses to get the basic knowledge.
Besides, the teaching staff at Talks Cafe are all directly elected by Quyen. They
can be excellent teachers, even students, but must have IELTS speaking 8.0 or
equivalent and have prepared lessons before teaching. In each lesson, Quyen
will arrange foreign teachers from different countries, usually, in each lesson,
foreign teachers will participate in teaching for 20 minutes so that students have
the opportunity to communicate directly with teachers. native language. 2.
Does the business have a long-term plan? How does the
businessowner prepare her or his business plan?
"Since I built Talks Cafe, I have not thought about making money here in the short
term. Because I have to invest in the long term," Quyen said.
“For me, in business, if you want to survive in the long run, you need to balance
between profit and social benefits, and profit will come in the long run. The most 7
important quality for me is to be consistent with my goals for the long haul. Society
will support its model when it sees the value that the project brings” – Mr. Quyen asserts.
According to Quyen, the key to opening the door to the education market lies in
quality. Learners may be curious, and experiment for a few months, but to be
profitable, an education brand must ensure the stability and development of quality training.
In addition to learning, listening to feedback, and sharing experiences with people
around, Quyen has invested in the application to determine the number of
students going to class as well as collect students' evaluations of the quality of each teacher’s lesson
In fact, out of 10 startups, 9 fail. Even the lesson of company survival from the
Covid pandemic is one of the countless lessons that Quyen and startups have
learned about the market experience, competitors, and how to deal with risks.
Dinh Minh Quyen himself has also encountered many failures, so he thinks that
“The game of starting a business is a game of daily learning. The result you get
after a project is not money, but maturity. This means that we have to constantly
update and improve ourselves, through reading books, and learning from
previous mentors, including the mentality of being ready to start a business, and
ready to listen to criticism to improve. Kindness is also a skill that everyone must practice for themselves.
According to the guy born in 1988, it will be very difficult for a founder if people
send financial, marketing, and strategic information ... without knowing if it's right
or wrong. And another thing is the ability to present when calling for investment.
If investors do not understand, how can they invest money?
3. How can the business ensure that the planned objectives be achieved?
As a person with many years of experience in business management, when
starting a business, Quyen determines the current education market has many
"big guys" ahead and thousands of large and small centers. Therefore, for the
project to be successful, it is essential to make a difference.
Technology is the competitive advantage of Talks Cafe. Quyen and his colleagues
have built a management software that allows teachers and students to flexibly
set schedules, and study locations, and evaluate teachers after each lesson. This
model solves three problems that other English centers are facing, which are
lower cost, quality, and flexibility for everyone.
4. What are the policies of the business to motivate its employees to workharder? 8
Finding a team with the same goals and ideals as well as grasping the view that
this is not a project of "earning food through the day".
5. What are the key success factors for this industry/business?
From the perspective of the owner of the Talk Cafe chain, the answer consists of
11 factors, and according to him, these are also the lessons he has learned from
his "child": Where is the money, where is the person, there is no other person. ,
easy to imitate, the form of sales (direct and online), promotion, technology
application, market size, unknown issues (finance, law, human resources),
advisor, and Entrepreneur mentality. Dissecting and analyzing these 11 issues in
turn, Dinh Minh Quyen has the most comprehensive and basic view around the keyword "start-up".
The first story of a startup always starts with the issue of capital. Raising capital
is an indispensable part of "feeding" and developing business projects. Minh
Quyen believes that capital can be from its economic potential or supported by
investment organizations and businesses. However, he also reminds you to "be
careful" in concentrating capital.
Human resources is also one of the important keys behind the capital. It is very
difficult to attract people to join the same "boat" in the first place. Quyen's answer
is to find like-minded companions. Only when finding collaborators with the same
passion, creating ideas, and complementing each other, the success of a new model is possible.
Take real examples from big bosses in the world like Coca, Mobile World's
business model, selling on e-commerce platforms Shopee, Amazon, or simply as
a selfie stick made by Korea. Nationally manufactured and then in the market with
fake products, Dinh Minh Quyen analyzed clearly for everyone to see the
expensive lesson of the factors of sales behavior (directly and online), how to
promote, technology adoption, market size, etc.
6. What are the problems the business is facing?
I have never doubted the feasibility of the project Talks Cafe 100% English bring
back to society. I will present and convince the jury about that feasibility. One
million young Vietnamese who speak English fluently is the destination of Talks
with tuition fees of just one cup of coffee a day.
- As said, society will support you when they see your value as beneficial to
society. Do the best you can for the cheapest price, money will come when people
trust you. With any business, this idea must be widely spread from founders,
shareholders to employees. Healthy competition is the factor that helps businesses become giants. 9 *Analysis
1. What are the strengths and weaknesses of this business?
* Strengths of a Coffee Talk English Business
- New business model (combination of enjoying coffee and learning English).
Although a coffee shop is a fast turnaround small business, this small business
has known how to create a novel cafe environment, now people come to coffee
not just for coffee anymore. The target market and customers that the company
targets require high-quality services such as clean places, clean cups, good
seating arrangements, nice seats, and highly qualified teachers. All these little
things give the impression of a healthy environment. - Sales continuously
Coffee is a small item that people can make at home. But they want to go out for
coffee with friends somewhere outdoors. That's why customers keep coming and
going throughout the day, whenever they have time. - Team Work
Running a coffee shop business isn’t the job of one person. The number of
members in a team varies on the size of the business. If it’s a small shop, then
there’ll be 2 or 3 people. If the shop is big, then there’ll be more people. When
these people work together towards a common goal, productivity multiplies. - Clear Work Values
Everyone in the coffee shop business knows the whole functionality of the
business. They know that their work values are to serve the customer with better quality and a smiling face.
- Direct Relationship with Customers
Customers physically come to the shop to have coffee. Therefore, it’s a great
opportunity for the owner of the staff to connect with the customers and make him/her a regular client. - Highly focused Niche
The coffee shop business is a highly niche-focused venture. It’s a general store,
where you can offer a variety of things from different brands. - Customer-focused strategy 10
The coffee shop business focuses on serving the customer better than competitors.
* Weaknesses of a Coffee Shop Business - Fewer market data.
When you start a new coffee shop business, then you need data to check the
statistics. It is very difficult to collect market data, especially in this field. - Manual System
If you want quality products and services, you have to do things manually. When
we talk about manual processes, it’s good but time-consuming and costly.
+ Profit in the coffee shop business comes in the form of bits and pieces.
Therefore, you have to be very vigilant in accounting and math. Only then you
would be able to keep your accounting books in order. + Less Market Share
There’s a limit to acquiring a market share in this business. It’s because you’ve
limited seating arrangements and limited supplies to serve several customers.
You can’t go beyond that. Therefore, you can’t have the market share at a certain limit. + Highly Competitive
When you open your coffee shop in a certain market, it’s not something that
people can’t copy and create the same product. Competitors can easily enter the
market and you’ll have no option but to share the profit with them. + Cost Disadvantage
There’s a very slight margin between the profit and cost, and you have to manage
everything in between. You also heavily rely on the supplies of suppliers. If they
keep providing you with the ingredient on time at a cheap price, your business would keep running well. 2.
Indicate one point for the business to change or improve in its
strategyfor competitive advantage.
Examine your business's unique strengths.
The company has done a great job in building unique strengths such as new
technologies and business models, but our team wants to analyze how the
company should maintain that uniqueness because of its business model. This is 11
very easy to copy. We think that the company can improve on the website it has
built such as faster search, easier search, and more flexible online consultants. 3.
Do you think its workers will be committed to working for
thisbusiness? Why or why not? YES • Build a strong team •
Employees know the goals of the company •
Clear transparency in everything like qualifications, salary, goals, benefits •
Encourage open and free communication • always innovative strategy • Help employees grow • Celebrate success together 12