Author: Phonh

Last week, something simple happened that reminded me why I love being a leader. My flower seeds finally arrived after a month of waiting. The next morning, my team and I headed out to plant them together under the hot sun. Yes, it was exhausting. Yes, we were all sweating. But we laughed, we talked, and we got the job done as a team. Some people ask me: “Why do you still work in the field with your team? You’re the boss now. You could just tell them what to do.” Here’s my answer: Real leadership isn’t about sitting in…

Last evening, I sat alone in my tent at Dream Garden, watching the sunset paint the sky orange and pink. The cool breeze felt peaceful, but my mind wandered back 11 years to 2014 — the year I started my first business. By early 2015, after just nine months, everything fell apart. My business closed. My savings were gone. And my team? They had all left, one by one. This painful ending led me to a tough realization. That failure taught me the most expensive lesson of my life: why good employees quit. To understand how things went so wrong,…

Running a small business isn’t easy. Every day, you compete with bigger companies that have more money and resources. So how do you win? The answer wasn’t more money. It was just being creative. When you use creative thinking, you can solve problems faster, attract more customers, and make your business stand out. And here’s the good news—you don’t need to be an artist to be creative. Anyone can learn it. Here is exactly how we fixed our creativity problem at the restaurant. Why Creativity Matters in Business Before we talk about creative business ideas, let’s understand why creativity is…

Starting a business is exciting, but marketing is essential for getting noticed. When my partner and I launched our flower garden business called Dream Garden, we quickly learned that having beautiful flowers wasn’t enough. We needed a plan to attract visitors and grow our business. In this article, I’ll share the small business marketing tips that worked for us during our first year. Why Marketing Matters for New Businesses Let me be honest with you: during our first few months, we were just focused on building our garden and making everything look perfect. But after about four months, we realised…

So here’s the thing about running a flower garden—people need something to look at besides just flowers. We learned this the hard way at Dream Garden. Four months in, we noticed visitors would walk around, take a few photos of the flowers, and leave. Our land was huge, but honestly? It felt kind of empty. There was nothing that made people stop and say, “Wow, I need a photo with that!” Every popular garden or park has that one spot where everyone lines up to take pictures. We didn’t have one, and it was a problem. The Problem: Sculptures Are…

A Moment That Changed Everything Last week, I was watering flower seeds under the hot sun. My shirt was soaked with sweat. One of my team members called out to me. “Hey, take a break! Come sit in the shade and drink some water.” I smiled and said, “It’s okay. Let me finish this part first.” He laughed. “Come on, rest for a bit. You’re not going to become a millionaire today anyway!” We both laughed. But right in that moment, my mind suddenly jumped back to 2019—one of the hardest years of my life. My Business Failure to Success…

Today, I’m incredibly happy. My Dream Garden business is finally running smoothly. This morning alone, I took tourists on boat rides six times, carrying about eighty guests between 9 AM and 3 PM. As I guided the boat across the calm river, watching people smile and take photos, a wave of memories suddenly hit me. I remembered 2014—my first attempt at running a business. My partner and I were so excited back then. So confident. But we made mistake after mistake until everything collapsed in 2015. That failure stuck with me for years. I tried again in 2017. Failed again…

Starting a business is exciting. But when you look at construction quotes that cost more than your entire budget? That’s when panic sets in. In 2023, my partner and I opened Dream Garden—a small tourist destination surrounded by beautiful nature. We had big dreams but a tiny bank account. And we learned the hard way that building infrastructure costs way more than planting flowers. This is the story of how we built our garden walkway ourselves, saved thousands of dollars, and discovered the real meaning of sweat equity. The Problem: When Construction Costs Kill Your Dreams After three months of…

Last summer, I was knee-deep in river water, building a floating bridge at my Dream Garden. I slipped. Again. For the third time that day. My shirt was soaked, my hands were covered in splinters, and I was questioning every decision that led me to this moment. But you know what? I was exactly where I needed to be. That bridge taught me something important about entrepreneurship: the difference between chasing trends and following your passion. Why Most People Struggle to Choose a Business Idea If you’re reading this, you probably have a notebook full of business ideas. Maybe you’ve…

The Moment Everything Changed Yesterday was a beautiful weekend at Dream Garden Koh Chraeng Island. Families laughed, children played, and visitors enjoyed boat rides along the peaceful Mekong River. As I prepared my tour boat for a group of 11 guests, one visitor smiled at me and said something I’ll never forget: “You’re so lucky. This place is amazing—it’s like it appeared overnight!” I thanked him with a smile. But inside, I was thinking about something completely different. Lucky? Maybe. But this “overnight success” actually took me 15 years, two major failures, and more hard work than most people can…