Two brothers in Singapore have turned a teenage side project into a fast-growing blue-collar business. Zames Chew, 26, and his brother Amos, 24, now run Repair.sg, a handyman service that generated 1.7 million Singapore dollars ($1.3 million) in 2024 and is projected to reach $2.3 million in 2025, according to documents reviewed by CNBC.
Their current revenue marks a sharp contrast to the company’s early years, when the business was often close to shutting down.
How it Started
Zames Chew originally imagined a future in white-collar tech. But in 2016, when his parents needed a repair service and struggled to find one online, he spotted a gap in the market. He bought a website domain for 30 Singapore dollars ($23), registered the business with his father’s help, and launched Repair.sg at just 16 years old.
The brothers had always been hands-on, building PCs, assembling Legos, and taking devices apart. That early interest helped them take on repair jobs themselves, from fixing furniture to replacing lights, while balancing school commitments.
The Business Nearly Died Several Times
Chew says the company was “at the brink of death most of the time” during its first seven years. The brothers lacked business experience and needed to spend years gaining the training, skills, and licenses required for regulated trades. They also took nearly every job offered, including underpaid tasks and difficult customers, because they felt insecure about choosing manual labor.
To stay responsive, they set alarms for 4 a.m. just to answer early customer messages. Chew now says some of those jobs should never have been accepted, but they did so out of fear and the belief that blue-collar work was undervalued.
Repair.sg began to grow steadily only in 2021, when both brothers decided not to pursue university education and committed fully to the business.
Everyone Discouraged Them
Along the way, the brothers faced criticism from family and customers. Their parents encouraged office careers and warned against manual labor. Some customers openly told them that young people should be studying rather than doing repair work.
These attitudes affected their confidence, and the brothers kept their business quiet for years. Over time, they recognized the genuine value of their work and placed more importance on personal satisfaction than on traditional expectations.
This was the time their business really started to take off. What started off as only a $23 initial investment is now projected to return $2.3 million by the end of 2025.
