I was away last week for my annual reservist to serve the nation (Yaye only 2 more to go!) and being back in camp brings me back to old friends. Friends say they noticed the brand, that they've seen it on various medias and it's great to know that people notice it and to hear from the ground. That the experiments, random ads I do has paid off. (And yes I'm no guru of social media and the likes) everything I do is by my simple motto: Just try. Running Concrete Everything has been part passion and part investment (Yes it's my way of growing my assets too) And for the most part I've always learnt by trying. To my customers,...

Just the other day I made a choice to reject a TV show feature. Stupid perhaps but I felt a great sense of relieve from that decision. It was a project that had a crazy 2 week deadline and was expecting me to come up with so much content that would have easily taken months to prepare for. That and mixed with some indecisiveness on the producers, I decided to reject them flat and walk away. It wasn't a good choice given that the brand can definitely do with some publicity, but as a father and a husband I need to weight that against everything else. As it was, I am spending little time with the family, so i decided that...

Ah and I realised i haven't been posting much lately! so I've taken July to have a short getaway with my family and we went to Japan! it was fun and all but I was secretly aching to come back and do stuff for the business. Since then we've been working really hard on our next batch of products and boy its been crazyyyy! Business this past month has been slow at the shopfronts and everything is part of running the business. Not every day is perfect and there are ups and downs. Been trying to figure out why, is it the price point or VM or the stuff are too fugly? hahah going to take awhile to investigate this!...

So today's post is slightly negative. Not that I am fuming or anything but its one of the things that any budding entrepreneur would find, copycats. Over the past week, I was on social media, namely Instagram randomly browsing and as I was looking around, I found a lamp that look awfully similar to my sculpture lamp. and I realised it probably was copied. I wasn't fuming, angry and in an odd kind of way, flattered. Flattered that not just customers appreciate my designs, but even so for manufacturers and I was thinking, not like this is a patented design and well Concrete Everything has other plans for Concrete Sculpture and I am ahead of the copycats. So whatever. Needless to say,...

A business is more than just buying and selling, anyone can do that with some unwanted items and a carousell account. For me, Concrete Everything is an avenue to connect to people, fulfill their needs and increase their awareness of good design and beautiful things. Its amazing for me to see how odd our tastes as Singaporeans are, but that's another story altogether. Workshops are a great way, not just to sell products, but get to know people who appreciate good design and most importantly, to share knowledge and create a marketplace where like-minded people come together. It is timely I felt that the business met this growing need and so we are introducing WORKSHOPS @ STUDIO, it is a series of workshops...

I read that if your business is not on the edge, its not doing well and I find it so true. To be really honest and personal, I am not great, nor talented, nor capable and throughout my career, I've always found someone who did it better, smarter, quicker than I can. but... Its not about being the best, its not about the end, its about what I aspire to become and getting there. Allowing yourself to be amongst the best means that you can only learn from them. The past month I have been working on new projects, dirtying my hands with new materials, fiddling around with new tools, delivered loads of goods to new places (on public transport mind you) and...

It's a big deal for me, and yes I am proud of it, lolz. I am so glad our workshops got some coverage from the awesome people at Straits Times (Natasha to be exact). Our workshops held at Naiise were covered and through the interview, it got me thinking on how far back we've started (actually not really far but..) and how our workshops started, developed and drew in people from all walks of life. It has indeed been a journey and aside from designing, teaching and getting to know people was something I enjoyed very much. Sisters coming together, friends buying our workshop sessions as a gift, couples looking for a unique piece of furniture that they co create...

    Today I visited Singaplural, been really good to be showcased among the brightest designers in Singapore. its such a milestone for us and i am always so thankful for each opportunity that comes along. its been a long journey, a hobby becoming a part time job and now helping some friends too to have an interesting part time job for themselves. things has changed, situation transformed and I am always glad that family is always supportive and there for me all the way.     Workshops has been a great opportunity to connect to everyone, I love meeting and chatting with people and learn from one another, over the weekend we launched our debut Concrete Tray Casting Workshop and...

There's really something special of having your own business, you make important decisions, chart directions, dream...there is so much you do and so much sense of pride. You calculate and coordinate stieps and actions as much as you can and for the most of it you are probably just doing it for the first time and winging it. its the whole mysteriousness of a business and how you adapt as your customers change and your business transforms. I've made many decisions and I don't find that i've made any bad ones. Every step taught me a lesson or two and I have grown so much as a designer, boss, worker... Now I am trying to build a team, and its...

We are 1 year and 2 months old, and I could never have imagined we would have done this much when we first started. We are so humbled to have been featured on multiple platforms, magazines, newspapers and to end off the year, featured on mainstream television. It has been a really humbling experience and we are so thankful. I am even more glad to have the opportunity to launch our concrete lamp making workshop with our friends from Naiise, Glitch, Homes to Life just to name a few. Its been really fun just getting to meet people from all walks of life, of all ages (our youngest participant being a p6 kid!) and just the whole learning atmosphere and...