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Get rich from Plastic rubber bands 

There are very normal products that bring precious foreign currency to the country. One of them is the Plastic rubber bands.

Long Thanh Private Enterprise located on Ly Chieu Hoang Street (District 6, Ho Chi Minh City) specializes in manufacturing and exporting elastic bands. Owner Le Van Thiem said that each year Long Thanh exported 8,000 tons of elastic bands to 17 markets, from Asia to Europe to the US.

In the past, the profession of making elastic rope in Saigon was almost "exclusive" of the Vietnamese ethnic Chinese. Thiem is an exception, a Vietnamese has been in this business for 13 years. And he exported only colorful rubber bands, many sizes abroad.

It's easy to do but no one does

In 1990, Mr Thiem left the rubber cooperative, tires of his boss to build his own business. At that time, the distribution system of the Plastic rubber bands from the manufacturer to the consumer in the Chinese has been established. Thiem understands that inserting is not a simple matter, it is difficult to compete with the giants.

He came to the market in small markets, as well as capital. Initially, he made a profit by attracting customers. He said that at every occasion, the production of large waist, waiting for customers to pick up the goods, but do not like to go forward. "It's a chance for me," he said. So he rushed to delivery, to receive the first, the money later. Having a client, he earns two more. At that time, the manufacturer did not sell elastic bands like now, they only made a long rubber string and sold them to the termites to make them cut into strings, weighed, and filled. "I do differently, it's easy, but nobody's done it. I cut into yarn before delivery, "he said. Only that he won big, get more customers.

"Make a good impression, pay attention when first appear in a certain market. And when the guests have to know how to keep customers.

Mr. Le Van Thiem, owner of Long Thanh Private Enterprise

In the beginning, he was trading only to escape poverty, but when he got into work, he had more passion for getting rich. And when he had a place in the domestic market, he wanted to reach out. He says he exports Plastic rubber bands, simply because nobody has done it.

In 1994, Thiem hired an English speaker, carrying him to knock on foreign trade in Ho Chi Minh City. "I told them to produce Plastic rubber bands because they looked at their country and wanted someone else to introduce them," he recalls. Soon after, a few Japanese and Korean customers were introduced. For him was to find the opportunity. "Just selling a container for a customer is a good opportunity to find a new customer in their country. Because if good, cheap, then surely someone else will come. The secret to finding a new market for this 53-year-old boss is just that. "Make a good impression, pay attention when first appear in a certain market. And when the guests have to know how to keep customers, "he said.

Flexible cord does not ... simple

For him, the guest experience was generalized to "dropping the script, wearing the ring". "If you do, you have to be patience to understand them. I have goodwill to learn, do better then they believe, stick with me, 'he said. This experience Mr. Thiem learned from his years working for the boss of the United States. And thanks to not forget it he succeeded.

At the beginning of his business, his production experience was nothing more than the "processing" that other trolling establishments had. Gradually, many customers demanded to increase the durability of the elastic cord. He borrowed the student's documents, then searched the documents from the outside thanks to the translator to read. When applied, the quality is better than before but still not satisfied customers. Seeing his hard-working, forward-thinking, Japanese client invited expert from Malaysia to give him technical support for a while. In 1996, two Hong Kong clients helped him "slip" into a Thai t-shirt factory to see their orchestra and learn how to organize a string production line.

Vocational training, from where only know how to test the durability of the rope by hanging heavy objects, now he just heard the crack of elastic rope is known to be durable. At the start of his career, his unique item was a black elastic rope, about five inches in diameter, stretching about seven times as elastic. Now with the elastic rope of the same size, we have to stretch all the 40 new stretches. Long Thanh Private Enterprise now has hundreds of elastic bands, from tiny hair strands to industrial elastic ropes that are more than one-and-a-half centimeters in diameter. Anything that needs to be used for a cord can be met. As for the yellow stripe, he exported 54 tons to Taiwan each month. That's not to say the special "t-string" shipments to the United States for the press, or medical-type elastic bands.