Origin Of Aftertouch

Hi guys. My name is Ahmad Basyir and I founded Aftertouch back in 2017. Nobody is probably going to be reading this blog so anyway here goes.

I quit my job

This is me back in 2017 still figuring out what to do with my life

Back then, I was in a very comfortable zone. I was a Chemical Engineer in Jurong Island with a simple jobscope - to keep the plant running smooth.

I was solving mathematical and coding problems every single day. What you learnt in school doesn't really apply in the real world. I had to go beyond what was taught, by crawling the web, for research papers, trying to make sense of what gibberish in it.

Cut the story short, I wasn't really pleased with my Japanese boss, who didn't seem to be able to acknowledge that a Singaporean can be doing it better than them. So I quit to become an entrepreneur.

I became a Painter

At the time when I quit, my house was undergoing renovation. I was amazed with them. It looks really fun to be building stuffs. All the hacking, plastering, cutting wood interests me. So I decided that I am going to be a painter.

Being the mathematical geek that I am, I did my numbers. I can do Grab in the night and paint in the day. Maybe when the painting picks up, I can cut down on doing Grab. I mean, whats going to be so difficult right? I have always been painting my own house. I just need some brushes and rollers as main equipment, and I'm supposed to be able to sustain a fairly decent life in SG. Plus, I don't mind working alone and never intend to hire workers.

So finally, I registered Aftertouch as a sole-proprietor .

Things i have to learn & make

I thought that knowing how to paint will be enough. But I started to face other problems.

1. Accounts

   1. I still remember when I had to make my first invoice. But what is an invoice? How do i even make an invoice? Is there a template? What are the required elements of an invoice? What is a quotation? Is receipt the same as invoice? So many questions, but school didn't teach me so I taught myself.

      
      

2. Marketing

   1. I need to run ads. Where? How? FB? IG? The feeling at that time was, "CAN SOMEONE DO IT FOR ME FOR FREE?!!" Help. I burnt hundreds of $$$ on ads that didnt perform.

      
      

3. Portfolio

   1. Every customer will want to see your portfolio but without one, you are as good as begging for jobs, slashing your price, reducing your margins. I managed to get out of that new business problem but only God knows how I did it.

      
      

4. Skillset

   1. The jobs that were offered to contractors are the difficult one. if it was easy, I'm pretty sure owners would have painted themselves. Especiallly the old resale houses, they come 1001 problems. You have existing walls with peeling paint, thousands of screwholes. FYI, I did not even know how to mix putty at that time. I had no mentor, just myself, to pull myself out of that shithole. I had to learn, with Youtube as my teacher.

      
      

5. No Office

My room is my warehouse. My dining table is my workshop.

Learning curve

For simplicity, lets just say, around 2018, I managed to become a somewhat reliable self taught contractor, found some friends and decided to explore things that are way more interesting than paint. From their huge support, I managed to grow the company.

From then till now, i moved from regular painting to textured paint to stucco to modern lime plaster to microcement to Tadelakt and finally now at traditional lime plaster.

First pic: Textured paint

Second pic: Polishing venetian plaster

Third pic: Trimming edges

There is one name that I will mention here. Without him, Aftertouch wouldn't be where it is today. Shout out to Ethan from Uncommon. Wooo! Bro we probably went through the whole shitload just to find our way with microcement and lime plaster. Anyway guys, if there is one design firm that you need, go google them up. They had been through with us since our early days. The right team will pull off the right job. Remember, there are so many other applicators out there now, but there is only Aftertouch!

First Office

Dec 2021 was the time I got keys to my new office. Nothing fancy, a small 750sqft space in Hillview. I decided to turn it into a workshop and warehouse.

First pic: Writing approved sample formula

Second pic: Preparing a takeout meal with my son

Third pic: Moshin is working on something

This was a shabby meeting place between Aftertouch and our clients, but oh well, its a start right?. This is where we make samples live in front of them, for their approval. No back and forth with delivery samples and then wait for their feedback before making adjustments. With real time feedback, we were able to cut down sampling time and establish more trust with clients. This was also the time when I had my first worker!

PTE. LTD.

Jan 2022, Aftertouch Works became Aftertouch Works Pte Ltd. To expand, I need to start hiring workers. In order to do so, we need to fulfill the following criteria

• be an established local company and register ourselves with Singapore Contractors Association Limited.

• get certified with Safety and Green Management Assessment(SgMA), which is kind of like bizSafe Level 3.

  
  

Once the above is done, we will get a "license" that allows us to hire foreign workers. Basically, the government wants a company to be of a certain standard before they are allowed to hire foreigners.

The enlightenment

Around Jan 2023, I received an email from somebody from Spain, saying that they had been commissioned to a special project involving Tadelakt, and that they are looking for local labour as additional hands.

It looks so dodgy with the broken english and email subject is full of symbols. The curious me replied, wanting to see what they were up to.

So apparently, we met Paloma, and found out that we were the only ones that signed up despite the low pay, because I really really wanted to learn about Tadelakt. The deal was simple, we will enter the project at low cost as trainees of "Professional Tadelakt Applicator's Course", and they have to teach us more than what we are getting our hands on. As simple as that, we had a deal. But mind you, learning Tadelakt means you have to unlearn everything first and go back to basics. Plus, Tadelakt is full of secrets, you just can't find in on the web. Plus Paloma can be a real frightening shouting lady.

In case anyone is interested in her, here is a link.

With Paloma, a certified Master of Tadelakt, we now know that,

• There exist modern lime and natural lime

  (ill cover this in another blog post hopefully). ITS NOT THE SAME. Looks the same, but one is original, and one is a copy.

  
  

• we can make crazy dope tools out of everyday materials.

  For me, I have become accustomed to just shipping tools from ebay or Amazon, at whatever cost. If i need it, I will buy it. But with this knowledge, even your empty shampoo bottle is useful to us.

  
  

• How to control humidity

  If you can work with natural materials, you sure can work with modern ones. But not vice versa. You can't close off a surface while it still super wet inside. Sometimes you need to "open" to let moisture out, and sometimes you need to "close" so that you can call it job done for the day and go home

Left: Anna is happily clapping

Middle: Paloma is happily smiling

Right: Rajib is also smiling.

HAHA

2nd Office

Dec 2023, I got the keys to our new space (2000sqft). We spent a total of 5 months building it. From hacking, to replastering, tiling, carpentry and electrical.

This is the space that I am most proud of, from my humble bedroom to here.

This is where we are going to make a difference. We will show you our work quality, capabilities and why you will enjoy working with us.

Conclusion

Aftertouch's journey has its ups and downs, never smooth sailing. Every single day, there is something new to be learnt, something new to be discovered. I am proud and happy to be where I am today and if you want to be part of our story, just send us a message!