One full year. Three hundred sixty-five days. Not a single sale.

Most entrepreneurs would quit after a month of zero revenue. Maybe two months if they’re stubborn. Three months if they’re delusional. But an entire year? That’s not stubbornness. That’s not even optimism. That’s something different entirely.

Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong posted content every single day for 365 days without selling a single product. Not because she was doing it wrong. But because the market wasn’t ready to trust online shopping yet. And instead of pivoting to something easier, she just kept showing up.

Today, she runs Sang Trong Quyen Ru, one of Vietnam’s longest-running premium Korean cosmetics distributors, with nearly 300,000 members across her platforms. But understanding how she got there requires understanding that first year. Because that year taught her everything that mattered.

When Zero Means Keep Going

Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong started her business right after graduating. She’d done the math and reached an uncomfortable conclusion: working for a salary would never change her life. The equation was simple. Fixed salary plus fixed hours equals fixed outcomes. No amount of hard work within that system would produce dramatically different results.

So she stepped into online business. This was early days—when online selling was brand new and customer trust was practically nonexistent. She chose to sell premium products with prices that weren’t cheap at all.

Looking back, it was probably the worst possible combination. New channel. New brand. High prices. Zero reputation. No wonder nothing sold.

But here’s what separates Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong from everyone else who tried the same thing and quit. Throughout that entire first year, despite posting diligently, consulting diligently, promoting diligently, she kept optimizing images, writing informative posts, answering every question, and consulting wholeheartedly with anyone who messaged her.

She treated every zero-sale day like it was building toward something. Because it was.

The First Sale That Changed Everything

After one year—365 days of consistent work with zero revenue—she got her first order. The profit: over 800,000 VND. That was roughly half a month’s salary for an average worker back then.

Most people would focus on the money. That’s not what matters. What matters is what that sale proved: if you walk long enough, the path will open.

That first customer didn’t appear because of a clever marketing tactic. They appeared because 365 days of consistent presence had built enough credibility that someone finally trusted her enough to buy. All those seemingly wasted days weren’t wasted. They were foundation.

This is the lesson most entrepreneurs never learn because they quit too soon. They treat early lack of results as evidence they’re on the wrong path. Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong treated it as evidence she was still early.

Building Trust the Hard Way

In a beauty market increasingly noisy with ads, counterfeit products, and misleading information, Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong chose the harder path: building trust through real quality, real consultation, and real companionship.

What’s special about her business model is that almost all sales, consulting, and customer care activities are conducted online through Facebook. This helps her reach customers quickly, consult closely to their needs, and maintain long-term relationships.

But the key differentiator isn’t the platform. It’s the approach.

“I don’t sell products in a one-size-fits-all way,” she explains. “I work on personalizing routines based on each customer’s age, constitution, skin condition, and goals.”

This philosophy has helped her build what she calls a “flow of trust.” Many customers have been with her for nearly 20 years. And they don’t just stay—they refer friends and family. That’s not marketing. That’s earned loyalty.

The Products That Matter

Currently, Sang Trong Quyen Ru focuses on three main value groups: premium skincare from LG Corporation (Korea), health supplements from Korea, and personalized skincare consultation.

That third category deserves emphasis. The personalized consultation is the “heart” of her work. Each customer gets a customized routine based on their specific condition and goals.

This approach doesn’t scale easily. You can’t automate customization. You can’t delegate deep understanding to poorly trained staff. It requires genuine expertise and genuine care. That’s why most businesses don’t do it.

But that’s exactly why it creates competitive advantage that competitors can’t easily replicate. Anyone can sell the same products. Not everyone can deliver the same level of personalized care.

Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong believes effective skincare isn’t about using a lot, but about using enough, using right, and using consistently according to a properly designed routine. That philosophy reflects her entire approach: do less better rather than more mediocrely.

The Customers She Serves

Her main customer group is women aged 25 and above—those who love beauty, care about health and quality of life, and pursue a lifestyle of peace, happiness, and contribution.

They come from many different professions: office workers, business owners, teachers, stay-at-home moms, freelancers. Their common thread is wanting clear consultation and needing a trustworthy place to entrust their skin and health.

Notice what’s missing from that description: bargain hunters. People looking for the cheapest option. Those seeking quick fixes without understanding.

This selectivity isn’t accidental. She’s deliberately built a business that attracts customers who value what she offers: expertise, customization, and genuine care. The customers who just want cheap products quickly filter themselves out.

Family as Foundation

Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong credits family as her solid foundation. Her parents and younger sister have always fully supported her career. In those early days when she couldn’t sell anything, her family didn’t doubt her, didn’t stop her, but always encouraged her to continue.

That support matters more than most entrepreneurs realize. It’s easy to persist when results come quickly. It’s almost impossible to persist through a full year of zero results without someone believing in you when you’re struggling to believe in yourself.

Behind the work, she’s a family person. She loves family meals together, loves gardening, loves enjoying peaceful moments. These aren’t distractions from work. They’re what makes sustained work possible.

She also loves traveling and exploring. Because she loves nature, she often drives to the suburbs, to peaceful areas to experience local lifestyles. She believes rich life experiences also help her consult customers better.

That belief reflects strategic thinking. The more diverse her experiences, the better she understands different customers’ contexts and needs. Travel isn’t vacation. It’s professional development.

Vision for Scale

Currently, Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong is perfecting her system processes and transforming her business model to adapt to the changing new economy. Her goal is to expand from 15 staff to 50-100 staff in the coming time.

But notice how she frames that expansion. She wants to become an inspiring leader, helping her team not just work for money but also have better lives, be happier, and grow together with sustainable values.

This isn’t HR-speak. It’s philosophy. She’s building something that serves everyone involved, not just extracting maximum value from employees to maximize owner profit.

She’s also looking for partners to expand her product ecosystem—premium products related to beauty and health care, aligned with the philosophy of “use right, live healthy, lasting beauty.”

The Lessons That Matter

What can entrepreneurs learn from 18 years of Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong’s persistence?

First, early lack of results doesn’t mean wrong direction. Sometimes it just means early. The market wasn’t ready for online cosmetics sales when she started. She could have quit and pursued something easier. Instead, she kept building credibility until the market caught up.

Second, persistence compounds. Every day of showing up during that first year built incremental trust. No single day mattered. All of them together created foundation that still supports her business nearly two decades later.

Third, customization creates moats. Anyone can sell the same products she sells. Not everyone can deliver the personalized consultation that’s her actual differentiation. The thing that’s hard to scale is often the thing that creates lasting competitive advantage.

Fourth, values-based customer selection works. By clearly targeting women who value quality, consultation, and health over cheap quick fixes, she’s built a customer base that’s loyal, profitable, and enjoyable to serve. Not all customers are good customers.

Fifth, family support enables entrepreneurial endurance. Without her family’s belief during that first year, she might not have made it to the first sale. Choose your support system wisely. It matters more than most business books admit.

The Persistence Philosophy

Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong once said: “Many people look at my current results and say I’m talented. I don’t think so. I think I have what I have today because I love what I do, I work hard every day, and I persisted even when no one believed in me.”

This isn’t false modesty. It’s accurate self-assessment. Talent didn’t produce 365 days of zero-sale persistence. Love of the work did. Talent didn’t build 300,000 members. Daily discipline did.

The biggest lesson from her 18 years in business can be summed up simply: do enough, do consistently, do until the end.

That formula sounds simple. But it requires something most people don’t have: the ability to keep moving forward when all evidence suggests you should quit.

The Measure of True Success

If I had to define what makes Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong exceptional, it’s not the size of her community or her revenue. It’s that she proved what’s possible when you refuse to interpret early failure as permanent verdict.

She’s a woman who dared to choose the hard path when the market wasn’t ready. She’s a CEO who built her brand with real trust, real quality, and real companionship. She’s proof that if you walk long enough and don’t give up, the path will open.

And most importantly, she’s an inspiration for anyone starting their business journey and feeling discouraged because they haven’t seen results yet.

For anyone in month three of zero results ready to quit, remember: Nguyen Thi Lan Phuong did 365 days. Your three months isn’t the end. It’s barely the beginning.

If you’re building something real, give it time to become real. The market might not be ready yet. That doesn’t mean it won’t be ready tomorrow.

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Le Duc Anh CEO of OceanLabs – Founder of QVID