What it costs to start a business in Vietnam

The two parts of the budget

The question "what does it cost to start a business in Vietnam" has no single answer, and that is not an excuse. The budget honestly splits into two parts, and they behave differently.

• Our part. Equipment, delivery, installation, commissioning and training. Known before any conversation, published, and almost independent of the country where the site is built.
• The local part. Renting or buying land, preparing the site, canopies, connecting water and power, contractors' work, a lawyer. Calculated only for a specific address.

The spread in the second part is wider than in the whole of the first. That is why sellers quoting a single total "turnkey in Vietnam" are either working from averages or not calculating at all.

What is known in advance

We have manufactured BRIZ equipment ourselves in Barnaul since 2015. A base set for one bay is 430,000 ₽; with delivery, installation, commissioning and training it is from 450,000 ₽ per bay. In Vietnam the price is the same: the station travels from Russia, and only the shipping leg changes, which we build into the supply.

What the station includes: a high-pressure pump group, chemical dosing, control electronics and a touch panel that also works as the payment terminal. A separate payment terminal and a cashier at the bay are not needed.

The number of bays is a decision, not a constant. A one-bay site and a four-bay site differ not only in price but in what they demand of the plot and of the traffic. It makes sense to calculate straight away for the number the chosen place can carry.

What is calculated only for the address

The second part is everything that happens on the ground. We list it honestly, without sums: we have no averaged figures for Vietnam, and we will not quote someone else's.

• The site. Rent or purchase, the slab, canopies, lighting, signage. The price spread here is the widest in the whole budget.
• Utilities. Water and power of the required capacity, sewerage and drainage. A ready place with utilities connected costs several times less than an empty plot — that is true in Russia and in Vietnam alike.
• Water treatment. Water can be such that both the station and the wash result suffer without treatment. Whether it is needed is shown by a water test on the spot, not by the region.
• Contractors. Builders, electricians, canopy installation. Here the price of time is often higher than the price of the work: without a local team, negotiations drag on.
• A lawyer. Company form, registration, taxes. We do not do this and we put it into the project budget as a separate line.

It is the second part that most often decides whether the project adds up. The equipment is the same for everyone — but a plot with water connected and a plot without it produce different projects around one and the same station.

What comes out at the end

On the revenue side we have our own observations from seven sites. Bay prices: from 10,000 ₫ for washing a motorbike and from 20,000 ₫ for a car. The ticket is small by Russian standards, but the customer compares it with local prices.

The calculated benchmark for revenue is from 369,000 ₽ a month per bay. This is a model, not a guarantee of income and not an obligation of the company: the result depends on the location, the flow of vehicles and how the site operates. The exact model is calculated for a specific plot.

Two circumstances make the Vietnamese model unlike the Russian one. First, motorbikes: here they are the main transport, and they bring a second stream with a short visit that does not exist in the Russian calculation. Second, the absence of winter: the site works 365 days rather than seven or eight months as in the northern regions. With identical equipment, that is a difference in the number of working days.

How the calculation itself works — number of bays, traffic, average ticket — is set out in the step-by-step business plan. Only the currency and the traffic change there; the formula itself is the same.

A running site or your own

The search "buy a ready-made business in Vietnam" comes up regularly, and the logic behind it is clear: a running site shows a revenue history. Two caveats worth keeping in mind.

First: a newcomer finds that history hard to verify. Second: the price of a running site includes the seller's expectations, and you are paying for those rather than for the equipment.

We do not resell running sites and work only with opening from scratch. That is not universally better — it means you see every line of the budget and know what it is made of.

Frequently asked questions

What does it cost to start a business in Vietnam?

The budget splits in two. Our part is known in advance: from 450,000 ₽ per bay including delivery, installation, commissioning and training; the equipment alone is from 430,000 ₽. The local part is calculated for the address: rent or land, the site, water and power, contractors, a lawyer. The spread in the second part is wider than in the whole of the first.

Is equipment more expensive in Vietnam than in Russia?

No, the price is the same: we manufacture the station in Barnaul and supply it from there, with the shipping leg built into the supply. What differs is everything that happens on the ground — the site, the utilities, the contractors.

How much does a wash in Vietnam bring in?

The calculated benchmark is from 369,000 ₽ a month per bay. This is a model, not a guarantee of income: the result depends on the location, the flow of vehicles and the operating hours. Prices at our bays are from 10,000 ₫ for a motorbike and from 20,000 ₫ for a car.

What is the most expensive item in the budget?

As a rule, the site and the utilities rather than the equipment. A ready place with water and power already connected costs several times less than an empty plot, and it is that difference which most often decides whether the project adds up.

Is it worth buying a running site?

A running site shows a revenue history, but a newcomer finds it hard to verify, and the price has the seller's expectations built in. We do not resell running sites and open from scratch: that way every line of the budget is visible.