Part 1: How it all started
Hi, I’m Linh – founder of Bamboo Homebody. The journey of Bamboo Homebody began when I quit my 7-year long corporate job in Adelaide in September 2023 and move to Brisbane with my partner for his new job. He always wanted to live in Brisbane, and I was ready for a change of environment, so it was an easy decision to relocate.
From September 2023 to January 2024, I was in a bit of a soul-searching phase trying to figure out what I wanted to do next with my life (career-wise). I was into painting at the time and so I was toying with the idea of selling my artworks for a living, but that didn't get anywhere far. Anyways, in January 2024 I went back to Vietnam celebrate Tet (or Lunar New Year) with my family. I hadn’t been back for Tet for several years, so this time it was a big deal for both myself and my parents. They were elated to have me back for a few weeks and spending quality time with me.
While I was in Vietnam, I visited my family’s manufacturing business and its factory, Minh Truc Xuan. I hadn’t been back to this place in many years, not since I was a young girl tagging along my parents to work.
At the time, my partner had the idea of importing bamboo panels from my parents’ factory to supply to the construction industry in Australia. I thought it was a great idea - a chance for us to work with my family and build something meaningful. I was kind of the middle person, helping the communication flow between everyone. But for a few reasons, that plan didn’t take off.
Still, partner’s initial intention sparked another idea in me: what if I want to sell bamboo homewares and small furniture made by my parents’ factory to the Australian market? Afterall, these types of products are what the factory was best at and comfortable/familiar with making. I also want to open my own online shop and sell direct to consumers. My partner wasn’t interested in that model so then there was just me, starting this all by myself. And Bamboo Homebody was born.
Part 2: Building Bamboo Homebody from scratch
From February to July 2024, I worked closely with my parents (remotely from Brisbane) to develop product ideas and samples. One thing that was clear from the start is that we wanted to make our products as high quality as possible. No cutting corners, no compromising on materials to save money, etc. That’s why you’ll notice that our products are on the ‘chunkier’, thicker & heavier side, in comparison with other bamboo products on the market (yup, we weren’t shy about using as much bamboo as we could!). My dad also personally inspected the products to make sure they are all well-made and well-polished by the workers before packaging. We wanted to build a brand that is rooted in quality & sustainability, just as much as we want to provide our customers with durable, long-lasting, eco-friendly products.
And so, once I was happy with the final samples, I placed my first batch of orders with my parents’ business. Meanwhile, I was also working on all the legal & paperwork stuff: company registrations, website & domains, photography, social media, enrolling in Amazon, storage/warehousing, and so on.
I launched the website bamboohomebody.com on 1st August 2024 and had a couple of pre-orders that month. However, our first shipment didn’t arrive until 1st September, so that’s when the official selling started. In the first few months, as I was dabbling into the e-commerce business world, our revenue was barely a few thousand dollars each month. It wasn’t until January/February 2025 where I had my first $10k month in revenue. But our expenses were high, so profit was minimal, if not loss in some months..
I saved a screenshot of my first ever order from Bamboo Homebody (notification from Shopify)
Part 3: Where we are now, and where we are going
At the time of writing this blog (August 2025), Bamboo Homebody has been live & running for almost a year. Honestly, I barely knew much about the e-commerce industry when I first started, but I did spend those early months learning as much as I could. Now, one year later, I feel like I am starting to build a more solid ground for this brand. I’m still an infant to the industry, but all I can do is just showing up every day to my business and work hard at it.
At this stage Bamboo Homebody is still a small, boutique business (one-woman operation) making $25,000-$30,000 a month in revenue. To be honest, that is a pretty good monthly revenue from a business with 1 sole operator that is me, and I am really proud of myself. Although, I do thank my partner endlessly for being my unpaid employee/labour boy this whole time!
At this point in time, my goal isn’t too scale Bamboo Homebody aggressively, at least not in terms of revenue. Instead, I want to go deep. I want to work on our brand identity, our product selection, connect with our customers/audience, while working on our profit margin in the background. Running advertisements is expensive and eats a lot into our profits, so I’m constantly looking for ways to grow more organically through storytelling, content, and word of mouth.
THANK YOU
If you’ve bought from us, followed us, or simply cheered us on — thank you. This business is deeply personal to me. And I’m so grateful to have you along for the ride.
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P/s: Bamboo Homebody is my baby, just like Minh Truc Xuan Factory is my parents’ baby. Both are our literal creations, built with blood, sweat, tears, and a whole lot of sacrifice. Okay, maybe not literal for me—I did break a sweat unloading shipments and shed a few tears here and there, but that’s nothing compared to building an entire factory from the ground up like my parents did. That’s why in the next blog, I want to share more about our family factory and my parents’ story... so stay tuned!
Until next time,
Linh
Founder of Bamboo Homebody