I heard this from a clip of some "teacher"... I was sitting eating rice rolls and suddenly felt a lump in my throat, not because it was wrong, but because it was true... but true in a different world. The world of large chains, where HR departments recruit people, there are pre-established processes, and data is used to calculate each time slot. But out there, small restaurant owners like us have to run out of staff ourselves if we're short, we have to cook ourselves if an employee is off, sometimes even bringing our children to the restaurant to eat and sleep there. Recruiting one person can take a whole month and still not be guaranteed, retaining staff is even harder, so honestly, those "optimizing human resources" statements are just wishful thinking.

I'm not denying the knowledge, but sometimes it's funny how those people, who have run a business and managed it for a day, talk as if they're teaching others how to operate it. Have you ever experienced the feeling of customers crowding the shop, the kitchen struggling to keep up, Grab drivers yelling outside for late orders, staff quitting without notice, and the owner having to rush out and do everything? Or like last night, when a woman I was assisting called, her voice almost breaking because the police and city officials were coming to clear the place, it was too crowded, she was panicking and didn't know how to handle it. Those things aren't in slides, they're not in textbooks, but they're things we have to face every day.

Even our team, which we call the "rapid response team," sounds professional, but in reality, we just rush out to handle any emergency, from cars being stopped, police, neighbors... That's the real life of the F&B industry. So sometimes, talking about "optimizing staffing" during that period is like telling a drowning person to swim better. It's not that we don't want to be efficient, but we don't have enough resources to be efficient; it's not that we don't want to optimize, but we don't have enough people to optimize.

Last week, I met a younger colleague at a training course. She told me that after studying at a certain company, she completely adopted the entire corporate process and procedures for her small shop. The result was insufficient staff, chaotic operations, and exhaustion. And during the Lunar New Year, she even had to bring her young child to the shop to sell food. That's when I realized that not everything that works for you is right for you at this point. For F&B business owners, especially in the early stages, the most important thing isn't optimization, but survival. Are you selling well today? Will you have enough staff tomorrow? Will you survive next week? Do it well first, and only optimize after you're able to survive.

So if you're going through a tough phase, don't put pressure on yourself with the idea of "perfection." Learning is still important, but you need to be selective and consider your own resources before applying what you learn. Don't blindly follow everything your teacher says, only to end up losing not just because you haven't optimized your strategy, but because you'll be shut down. The F&B business isn't about slides; it's about those exhausting days when you can barely eat, those times when you're running around breathlessly, and those situations only those involved truly understand. Getting through those phases is already a form of "optimization," not in terms of cost, but in terms of resilience. I wish you continued perseverance on your business journey.

(Series: Secrets of the Roadside Shops)

There's a common misconception I've seen many shop owners, even those who have opened several stores, fall into: that if it's on a busy street with lots of traffic and people passing by, then sales are guaranteed.

I used to think the same way. That was until I went with a chain store owner to survey a prime location on a very beautiful street in Ho Chi Minh City. The traffic was incredibly heavy, cars were constantly moving, and it looked "top-notch" to the naked eye. He almost wanted to close the deal immediately because he felt it was a golden location. But when we stayed a little longer and observed more closely, I realized the opposite: the cars were moving fast, the flow was constant, and very few cars slowed down. To turn in, you had to brake suddenly, and the entrance was rather narrow. In other words… you could see it, but it wasn't easy to get there.

Ultimately, we advised them to stop. The owner was very regretful at the time. But a few months later, someone else rented the space and closed it down quite quickly. It wasn't that they did a bad job. It's just that from the beginning they gambled on something that wasn't a real advantage.

I've realized something: high traffic is only a necessary condition. The sufficient condition is whether customers want to and dare to turn in.

Many people opening a shop look at the location as if it were a static picture: a busy area, a large storefront, and an attractive brand name are enough to reassure them. But in reality, a roadside shop is a dynamic setting. Drivers only have a few seconds to observe, understand, and decide. Just a small inconvenience, such as difficulty turning, difficulty stopping, or fear of getting stuck in traffic behind, can instantly ruin that decision.

I've seen quite a few similar cases while working with business owners. Some locations might seem unremarkable at first glance, but because they're easy to access, have convenient parking, and are easy to get out of, customers naturally flock to them. Conversely, there are locations that everyone praises as beautiful, but they quietly lose customers every day, and the owners don't understand why.

That's why I always say: roadside shops don't sell coffee, they don't sell products; they're selling a change of direction that happens in a matter of seconds.

Looking back, I realize that many of the wrong decisions didn't stem from a lack of money or experience, but from a misunderstanding of the true nature of the position.

This article is just the beginning of a series about roadside stores. In the next article, I will delve deeper into something many people overlook but which determines the survival of a store: customers see you… but will they actually visit? This is also the work I do with business owners, analyzing data, customer behavior, and operational realities before making final decisions in the training and support package for opening a store, with a very simple goal: to reduce the risk of making a mistake right from the location selection stage.

In the next post, I'll talk about something very interesting: many stores fail not because customers don't see them… but because customers see them but can't bring themselves to visit.

Many people, when forecasting revenue, often look at something very obvious: foot traffic. A lot of cars and people automatically mean good sales. But after years of surveying and opening locations with clients, I've found there's a variable that, if misunderstood, can skew the entire forecast from the start – and that's competition.

Interestingly, competition isn't just about how many rivals surround you. Competition is essentially about customer choice. Customers might leave your restaurant not because the one next door is better, but because they find another option more convenient, more familiar, or simply... already part of their daily routine.

Many people view competition in a very narrow sense: only those selling in the same industry are considered competitors. But the reality is much broader. A coffee shop in Vietnam today competes not only with other coffee shops, but also with bubble tea shops, convenience stores offering takeaway drinks, and even bakeries with nice seating. Ultimately, customers aren't buying "coffee"; they're buying the experience or fulfilling a need at that moment. Some industries have very clear boundaries, while others have almost completely blurred lines. Misjudging the scope of competition almost certainly leads to inaccurate revenue forecasts.

One thing I've noticed many new business owners misunderstand is that being close to competitors is always bad. In reality, the market operates quite the opposite way. In economics, there's a model that suggests many stores tend to be located close together because sellers want to maximize market share – this phenomenon is called location competition. If you notice in Vietnam, streets with many cafes, restaurants, or densely packed service establishments are usually very busy. The reason is simple: customers prefer places with more choices. Studies on the concentration of many businesses in the same or related industries in an area also show that when businesses are concentrated, a positive ripple effect occurs, boosting the overall performance of the entire area. Simply put: A cafe standing alone → customers must have a reason to visit. A cluster of 10 cafes → the area itself becomes a destination.

In everyday language: sometimes competitors aren't stealing your customers, but rather attracting them to their own area.

This is particularly evident in the Vietnamese market. For example, the coffee industry continues to expand strongly. Several recent reports indicate that the Vietnamese coffee market is still growing steadily, with a CAGR of approximately 6–81 TP3T in the coming period, and the sit-in cafe model is one of the fastest-growing channels. As the market continues to grow, the emergence of many brands is essentially expanding the "pie" rather than immediately dividing it. That's why many chains choose a cluster expansion strategy instead of avoiding each other.

But the other side of the coin also needs to be clarified. When the market is saturated and the customer base is no longer growing, each new store opening essentially means a portion of the sales are being lost. At this point, simply counting the number of competitors isn't enough. What I always do is look at another layer: the quality of the competitors. A weak competitor, with a weak brand and poor service, sometimes has almost no impact. Conversely, just one strong brand placed next door can significantly reduce the projected revenue.

In models studying spatial competition, store sales are typically influenced by two main factors: distance and the attractiveness of competitors. Simply put: the closer and stronger the competitor, the greater the attraction. This is something that store owners in Vietnam often overlook, focusing only on distance and forgetting about "brand weight.".

The lesson I've learned from many real-world cases is: when surveying a site, don't ask "how many competitors are there?", but ask "why are customers coming here, how many options do they have, and where do I stand in their minds?". Once you can answer that, the cost estimate will naturally be much more realistic.

And one more thing that's very important, especially for those opening stores in Vietnam: competition isn't something to avoid. It's data to help you understand the market. If an area already has many brands and more are opening, it's often not a dangerous sign, but rather an indication that the area has a sufficiently large customer base.

Ultimately, competition is just one variable in the overall revenue equation. It always goes hand in hand with location, store model, pricing, products, and operations. But if you understand competition correctly—its scope, quality, and its two-way impact—you'll avoid a very common trap: opening in a place with "few competitors" only to discover the real reason is... there's no market.

I often tell my team a very simple thing: it's not about who can avoid the competition that wins, but about who understands the competitive landscape. That way, they can make more accurate predictions and open their store with much less stress.