When you realize bugis and dhouby ghaut (or ang mo kio and sengkang) is just right behind one another but seems so far away when you take the mrt. When you work your ass off but realize you need to do it in front of your boss, cuz everything is wayang only. When you watch local dramas and realize how the content is trying to brainwash you in the little ways. When you realize that the government had it all figured out, you hate following it but do it anyway. Mind blown. When you don't agree with what your bosses say but you end up doing it. When you realize you are at the peak of your work life balance....

  Just last Monday, I had to take leave from work to attend to deliveries and meetings, I rented a car, jam packed with goods and had to run errands all over the island. I left the house at 9am and only got back at 7pm. It was tiring for sure, but it was so so fulfilling. I came back physically drained but mentally more energetic than when I left the house. Wow. . If there's anything more important, it is to live everyday like it's your last. Having to manage a full time job, with the biz entirely part time isn't easy. . Having a family with it (although with its own perks) drains you out. Here's my daily...

today is my boy's birthday. Something few know is that Concrete Everything began while my firstborn was conceived.. coincidentally, he popped out 3 days before my birthday and now we share the same birthday month. Been a week of reflection on how my little boy has grown and cherishing every moment of it! If you don't already know, we are having a 20% discount on our products, just use the promo code 'HAPPYBIRTHDAY' on checkout!

The way we've always branded the company was that I am a learner and strive to be professionals in what I do. My experiences shape my learning and I've always purposefully expose my personal life to my clients because I want people to know me and Concrete Everything is a platform, a medium that I interpret my thoughts onto. We've been running workshops outside since day 1 and it has brought needed attention to us and for that I am grateful to our retail partners out there. Doing this for 2 years now I think it's due time to re-consolidate and pull back the fishing line a little. We will most definitely still be running workshops but however it will be...

I run Concrete Everything part time, and once in awhile my work life and Concrete Everything overlaps. Sometimes I have to take leave to run a corporate workshop, miss a lunch break to make deliveries and at times I meet people I've crossed paths with. The other day I chanced onto one of my workshop participants on my way home from work and I remembered her. Today I'm at Singaplural for a design talk and I bumped into another of my participant whom I taught previously. We exchanged glances and finally I said hi and linking back to where we saw each other was really funny. Ohhhh so that was where we met! I started workshops to share my knowledge...

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...