Leigh’s Six-Figure Exit Story

In part 4 of our Quiet Giants series, we go all the way to South Korea to catch up with one of our favorite past clients Leigh Hyunh, who came to Southern California from Vietnam as a child with her family who had $200 to their name.

Her entrepreneurial journey started early, as she was deeply involved in the family’s nail salon. But she quickly learned that while owning a brick and mortar business can create financial well-being, it can rob you of your freedom and emotional wellness. After reading “Rich Dad Poor Dad” she started selling beauty products on Amazon, but quickly found she had a lot to learn about selling online.

Her initial SKUs struggled due to competition, and she had to max out her credit cards to try new products that would sell. Leigh persevered through many challenges, found products that performed well (many of which she sourced herself), and got out of debt. Now a mother, she wanted more time and financial freedom to enjoy exploring with her growing family.

So she decided to sell.

The first time Leigh put her business on the market, buyers found it to be too dependent on her and the offers were less than sensational. Leigh then took the business off the market, rolled up her sleeves, and did the hard work to make her business an attractive asset. And she was rewarded with an exit twice her original asking price.

Following her exit, Leigh and her family moved to South Korea to enjoy the food and culture, and she is currently enjoying being a digital nomad, building a new business around wellness, and planning for her next life-changing exit.

How can your life be transformed through building and selling an online business? Reach out to learn more.

TRANSCRIPT

00:00 Introduction

I feel like having peace is very important to me. When we was growing up, we played in these open rice fields, and there was space for you to explore, and I’m wanting to feel that peace again like the little kid in me, like wanting to experience that again. 

00:37 From Vietnam to the U.S.

I grew up in a small town in South Vietnam. Our family was really poor. There was rain dripping on the roof, and it’s a leaking roof. We had to move our dining table to a different area just to get away from the rain. There’s no working toilet, no electricity. Life was hard back then. So my parents sold everything that they saved up, that they built, their land, their car, their shop just to get us to the US. Everyone talks about the US is like a dream country. It’s the land of opportunity. It’s all so beautiful, and I got really excited when my mom told me that we were going to the US. But life was hard when we first came. We didn’t really have money. We had to rely on food stamps and social security, and we only rented a little tiny room in someone else’s house. When we arrived to Los Angeles, my mom did not speak English. 

01:44 Lessons from Family Nail Salons

She had different jobs from seamstress, restaurant worker, jewelry store worker. Seven years later from the day that we arrived to US, she able to save up and open her first beauty salon. So, even though my mom started the business, her English was limited. So, most of the responsibility was on us. We had to take care of the taxes, the permit, the bank, the statement, the customers, the buildings, and even paying rent. So, it felt like we become parent. It was hard because when we were young, we wanted to play. We wanted to hang out with our friends, but all we had to do was go to school, come back to the shop, and work. And basically, we spent all our childhood at the shop. But, I knew it was for the better, for the future. And what I learned from my mom is that she’s very optimistic person. She’s just very positive. She just believes everything is possible. Even when there seemed like there was no way out of this, but she would always say, “I will find a way.” And that’s that’s the biggest thing that I learned from her. Like, there’s a way, and life is supposed to be good, and you just keep doing it, and the universe kind of gives it to you. 

03:19 First Struggles Selling on Amazon

I didn’t know what an entrepreneur really is. I actually had to look it up in the dictionary. I know how to sell. I started selling things when I was what – 10 years old at my mom’s shop. I know how to go to suppliers, pay for them. Owning an Amazon business, I guess I was an entrepreneur. So, my first product was a clay mask. It was really good product, but because we were so new with this, we didn’t know there were tons of people already selling it. Our initial investment kind of disappeared. We didn’t make any money at all. There was a lot of time that I had so much doubt in myself that I couldn’t really do this. What was going to happen? Can I lose it all? There was time that I felt that I didn’t think I could make it, but you know what he was telling me? Just keep doing it. It’s going to work. It’s meant to be, like, you were meant to live a great life, and this is the way. 

04:25 Taking Risks & Investing in Growth

What I learned from it was the product wasn’t unique. It was like people can just source it, and they just sell it, and you just have new competition come in. So what I learned was that I needed to create a more unique product target to an audience that looking for it. And that’s when I started branding my own oil. The first year we basically didn’t make any money. I know. We funded the business by credit card. Like my husband’s credit card, my credit card. We basically maxed out. Second year, that’s when we started seeing the money rolling in and made a little profit, but it all went back to the business. I think only until the fourth year that’s when we start seeing, like okay, we can draw the money from the business. 

05:15 Tackling Issues That Hurt Valuation

Running a business is hard. You’re always on a roller coaster, right? And you’re just like, maybe I don’t really want to be on a roller coaster all the time. When I first started the Amazon business, I didn’t know that you could sell a business. And I came upon an article that Joe at Quiet Light wrote about business valuation for Amazon FBA. And I was like what? I could sell this? The experience that I had working with Joe and Quiet Light was wonderful. He was really listening to my needs. The business wasn’t really streamlined because we had to do a lot of things from home. I still bottled my oil. We bottled our flowers. Everything was from home. So then Joe told me that buyers don’t want to buy a job. They want to buy a business that they can run with as little time as possible. 

06:14 Selling for Double the Asking Price

I listened to Joe at first. I streamlined the process. I was able to move faster, like able to grow the business a lot better. I sold almost double from the first time I talked to Joe and the second time that we actually listed the business for sale. There was also some doubt in my mind that what if the business is not selling? What if I get no offers, but Joe at Quiet Light really knew what he was doing. He put a really good package together, and I think the first day we had the listing up, we had five full price offers. I was…wow. To have five full price offers on the first day, I felt really good. It felt like hey, I’ve done something well. I’ve done something great. Maybe I could take some time off and fly somewhere and enjoy coconuts by the beach. 

07:13 Life After the Sale

I always wanted to travel and after I exited the business, it felt like it was the right time for us. So, we decided to go to South Korea. I felt like time kind of stopped when we were in South Korea. It was just quiet. It was just like for me having balance in life. I definitely want my child to have a childhood to enjoy life, to experience different things, to not have responsibility at a very young age. I hope that one day my kid will know that, you know, there’s really no limit. The only limit that they have is what they put for themselves. I have so many projects in my head. And at one time, talking about peace of mind, but the other thing is to continue running more businesses because I feel like exiting this business was just my very first beginning of being an entrepreneur. And life is long, and it is beautiful, and there’s more things that I want to do. There’s more businesses that I want to build. And this is just a very tiny journey, and I think a lot of great things arestill going to happen. Yeah, and I can’t wait.