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“You’ve got to be crazy to start a business and have a baby at the same time.”
That’s what my father said to me just before ITviec launched on 25 June 2013. Our son arrived 3 months later.
I found out then that starting a business is like having a baby. You just do it.
When we brought my son home from the hospital he seemed like an alien from another planet. We didn’t know what to do with him. He didn’t come with an operating manual. We were a little scared of him.
We also felt an awesome responsibility for another human being. He was counting on us and trusting us.
How would we know what to do?
Eventually I found the answer — “Just do it. Keep putting one foot in front of the other and don’t stop.”
Over time and through trial and error we figured out how to take care of him. We discovered how to give him a bath, feed him and put him to sleep. We did this just by trying different stuff and seeing what worked. Lots of things we discovered purely by accident, like how walking up and down the stairs would always stop his crying.
My experience with ITviec was the same.
Like a new parent, as an entrepreneur we had no idea what to do. There was no instruction manual. So we tried lots of things. Some worked and some didn’t.
When we launched the site last year I thought “Finally! We’ve built it and now they will come.”
Boy, was I wrong. The first two weeks I think the only visitors were my parents and a few friends. Less than 1 month into her job our Marketing Lead, Phuong, was overwhelmed by the magnitude of making ITviec into a famous brand.
“It’s like climbing Mount Everest,” she said.
“That’s all right,” I replied. “Even long journeys are started just with small steps. Let’s focus on climbing just a few steps every day.”
So that’s what we did.
Some of the things we tried were terrible failures. Some were surprisingly successful. We kept doing the stuff that worked. We let go of the stuff that didn’t.
We stumbled across our brand positioning of “Ít nhưng mà chất” when a friend of mine told me our logo looked like “Ít việc.” I thought that was a huge problem until I realized “No, it’s perfect! We don’t try to have the most jobs, just the best ones.”
I’m proud of both of my new families.
At home we now have a happy, healthy, bouncing baby boy. At ITviec we’ve have a growing brand, a fun business and a great group of Pirate VIPs.
We’ll continue to “Just do it” with both babies. Trying things, failing some and keeping others that work.
I can’t wait to see what the next 12 months will bring.
Have you ever had an experience where you didn’t know how to proceed but did it anyway? I’d love to hear what happened — share below!
Best,
Chris
Update January 2019: My wife and I sold ITviec to Mynavi Corporation, a Japanese HR services and media company. What a journey!