SINGAPORE – He made “block bouquets” for someone he liked, and won her heart.
Mr Brent Ng’s pretty posies – with flowers made from plastic bricks, embellished with artificial flowers and ribbons, and cocooned in paper – were also a hit with his friends and schoolmates, who bought graduation bouquets from him.
Realising that his creations could be more than a gesture for the people close to him, he started The Block Bouquets in May 2022, a month after making his first floral block arrangement.
“When I first started my business, the response was nothing short of overwhelming,” he said. In June 2022, his business made its viral TikTok debut, garnering 33.7K views on his younger sister Alena’s account (@alenangsy). As a micro-influencer, she played a crucial role in promoting the business. Since then, the most popular video from the business has soared to more than seven million views on TikTok.
After working for a month as a staff nurse in a clinic following national service, Mr Ng decided to make the shift to full-time in April 2024, putting aside his previous dreams of pursuing a career in healthcare.
He felt “conflicted on whether to quit healthcare, as I was very passionate about it”, but after thinking things through, his priority was focusing on his business as a full-time job. “When my business is stable, I can always go back to healthcare,” he said.
His parents had mixed reactions – his mother was “really supportive”, but his father questioned whether he could earn money building brick bouquets – until he found out how much he earned.
In a single month, Mr Ng could hit five-figure earnings from running his business full-time.
The 23-year-old nursing diploma holder from Ngee Ann Polytechnic has continued to cultivate his business, which now employs a full-timer and five part-timers, aged 19 to 23.
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