I often hear stories about entrepreneurs who started with advantages: family money, elite education, powerful connections. But the story of Ngô Thị Út Luân is nothing like that. Here is a woman who left Vietnam as a migrant worker under the EPS program, spent years laboring in Korean factories, and somehow transformed that experience into co-founding a cosmetics manufacturing company with annual revenue approaching 70 billion Vietnamese dong. In 2024, she stood on a stage in Seoul representing over 130,000 Vietnamese workers, receiving the top prize for successful entrepreneurship among all EPS laborers from sixteen different countries.

What makes someone go from assembly line to boardroom? How does a foreign worker with no business background build eighteen cosmetic and supplement brands for clients across Vietnam? The answers reveal one of the most unlikely and inspiring transformation stories I have ever encountered.

The Journey to Korea

Ngô Thị Út Luân was born on November 20, 1986. Like many young Vietnamese seeking better opportunities, she made the difficult decision to leave her homeland and work abroad through the Employment Permit System that sends workers to South Korea. She arrived not as a businesswoman or entrepreneur but as a laborer, ready to do whatever work was available.

Those early years in Korea were not glamorous. She worked in factories alongside other migrant workers from across Asia, earning wages that seemed substantial compared to opportunities back home but came with the loneliness and hardship of living far from family in a foreign culture. Most people in her position focused simply on saving money and eventually returning home.

But Ngô Thị Út Luân was paying attention to something beyond her immediate circumstances. She was learning about Korean business culture, building relationships, and observing the industries around her. She was particularly drawn to the beauty industry, which Korea had transformed into a global phenomenon. While others saw only their factory jobs, she saw possibilities.

Rising Within the Community

What set her apart during her years as a worker was her commitment to community. She did not isolate herself or focus solely on personal advancement. Instead, she became deeply involved in the Vietnamese community in Korea, eventually serving as the leader of the Vietnamese community in Incheon from 2016 to 2018.

This leadership role brought recognition. In September 2015 and again in December 2016, she received awards for cultural sharing and work achievement from the Bucheon Foreign Resident Support Center in collaboration with the Overseas Labor Management Department. In October 2016, the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea presented her with a commendation for excellent compliance with both Vietnamese and Korean law while actively participating in community activities.

These honors were not just certificates to hang on a wall. They represented something far more valuable: a reputation for integrity, leadership, and bridge-building between cultures. She was becoming known as someone who could navigate both worlds with competence and trust.

The Moment Everything Changed

In 2018, Ngô Thị Út Luân found herself among the Vietnamese delegation receiving the Park Hang-seo Award at the New Year celebration organized by the Vietnamese Embassy in Korea. By this point, she had spent years building relationships, understanding Korean business practices, and identifying opportunities in the beauty industry.

The following year, in 2019, she took the leap that would define her career. Together with Lee Seok Joo and Wee Daesung, she co-founded K-Beauty Worldwide Corp in South Korea. This was not a small side business. This was a full commitment to building a company that would bridge Korean cosmetics manufacturing with Vietnamese entrepreneurs.

Building an Empire Between Two Nations

Today, Ngô Thị Út Luân serves as CEO of K-Beauty Worldwide’s Vietnam headquarters, a position she has held since 2020. She splits her time between Ho Chi Minh City and Korea, constantly traveling to serve her expanding business.

K-Beauty Worldwide offers complete solutions for building private-label cosmetic and functional food brands. The company works with leading Korean laboratories and manufacturers including Cosnine and Kolmar, where expert formulators develop and test products to meet rigorous standards. Everything is imported through official channels with proper licensing under Vietnamese law.

Beyond K-Beauty Worldwide, Ngô Luân has built two additional businesses: one focused on beauty services and cosmetic retail distribution, another providing Korean-Vietnamese trade consulting. Across her enterprises, she has created stable employment for nearly twenty staff members earning between 10 and 20 million dong monthly.

The numbers tell an impressive story. Annual manufacturing revenue approaching 70 billion dong. Eighteen successful cosmetic and supplement brands built for clients including spa owners, aesthetic clinic operators, dermatologists, and individual beauty entrepreneurs. Each brand carries its own identity while meeting quality standards and legal requirements.

More Than Manufacturing

What distinguishes Ngô Thị Út Luân from a simple manufacturer is her commitment to client success beyond the product itself. She does not simply deliver cosmetics and walk away. She helps her clients build real businesses through comprehensive support covering marketing strategy, brand development, team building, and operational systems designed to generate sustainable revenue.

This approach reflects her understanding that many of her clients are entrepreneurs like herself, people with vision and determination but perhaps lacking experience in building scalable businesses. She provides not just products but the knowledge and systems needed to succeed in competitive markets.

Her clients include spa owners who want products carrying their own names, dermatologists seeking to offer exclusive skincare lines, and beauty entrepreneurs ready to move beyond reselling other companies’ products. For each of them, she offers a path to brand ownership that would otherwise require resources far beyond their reach.

The Ultimate Recognition

In 2024, everything she had built culminated in an extraordinary honor. Ngô Thị Út Luân was selected as the first-place winner of the Successful EPS Entrepreneur Award, representing more than 130,000 Vietnamese workers who have participated in the program. The award ceremony in Seoul, organized jointly by the Vietnamese and Korean embassies along with the Overseas Labor Center, celebrated her as the top success story among workers from sixteen different countries.

This recognition carried profound meaning. She had started as one anonymous worker among hundreds of thousands. She had faced all the challenges that migrant laborers face: language barriers, cultural adjustment, homesickness, and the constant pressure of being far from home. And she had transformed those challenges into a business empire while never forgetting where she came from.

What This Journey Teaches Entrepreneurs

Reflecting on this remarkable journey, several lessons emerge for anyone building a business.

First, every experience can be preparation for future success. Her years as a factory worker were not wasted time but an education in Korean business culture, work ethic, and industry practices. She paid attention when she could have simply counted the hours until her shift ended.

Second, community leadership creates unexpected opportunities. By serving the Vietnamese community in Korea, she built relationships and reputation that later opened business doors. The trust she earned as a community leader translated directly into trust as a business partner.

Third, bridging two worlds creates unique value. Her deep understanding of both Korean manufacturing capabilities and Vietnamese market needs positioned her perfectly to create K-Beauty Worldwide. She saw a gap that only someone with her bicultural experience could fill.

The Foundation of Perseverance

When I consider the full arc of this story, what strikes me most is the patience required. She did not achieve overnight success. She spent years working in factories, years building community relationships, years learning the beauty industry before launching her company. Each phase prepared her for the next.

For entrepreneurs reading this, her story challenges the myth of instant success. The awards she received in 2015 and 2016 came years before she founded K-Beauty Worldwide. The reputation she built as community leader laid groundwork for the business partnerships that followed. Nothing was rushed, and nothing was wasted.

A Bridge for Others

Today, Ngô Thị Út Luân continues building bridges between Korea and Vietnam, between manufacturing and entrepreneurship, between her own success and the success of her clients. She has proven that a migrant worker can become an industry leader, that factory experience can transform into business expertise, and that serving community creates foundations for personal achievement.

For the 130,000 Vietnamese workers she now represents as their most successful entrepreneur, her story offers powerful proof of possibility. If she could build what she has built starting from where she started, perhaps they can too.

And for entrepreneurs everywhere facing humble beginnings or difficult circumstances, Ngô Thị Út Luân stands as evidence that the path forward often leads through unexpected territory. The factory floor can be a business school. The foreign country can become a second home. The migrant worker can become the empire builder.

Your current chapter is not your final chapter. Keep paying attention. Keep building relationships. Keep looking for the opportunity that only you can see.

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Le Duc Anh CEO of OceanLabs – Founder of QVID