Woman@Work is  a great initiative undertaken by two very dynamic ladies, Toni & Tanya who have been friends for over 20 years.  Woman@Work is a society for woman who run their own businesses or who just want to meet people.  They have a big get-together on the first Wednesday of every month.  It creates an opportunity for all these ladies to network and promote their companies.  The idea of this group is to form bonds and to use someone within the network whenever you need something done.

Let me tell you a little bit about these two dynamic ladies.  Toni is involved with the estate agency Firzt Realty in the South of Johannesburg.  She also manages The Rietvlei Zoo Farm. which has now become a lifestyle center: they have Sinzinani Day Spa (which Toni and Tanya own), a cute little Tea Garden called Tree
House, an after-care centre called Edu-Kids, a nursery called Keen-Gro, a children’s play and party venue area called Camp Candy and much more.  They also cater for weddings, conferences, year-end functions and team building events.  The farm now boasts loads of activities such as Bush-walks, Putt-Putt, Pony Rides and a farm yard for kids to pet and feed the animals.  It’s the perfect place for friends and families to spend a great day in the outdoors on a picnic…

The first Woman@Work function was therefore held at the Rietvlei Zoo Farm with their in-house catering company called Esgodlweni doing the decorations and catering. The hall looked fabulous in shocking pink (quite suitable for a ladies evening I would say) and the food was great.  The motivational speaker
was Tasha Smith from Papillon coaching.  She is a life coach who assists you in facing up to every decision in your life and helps you to succeed in your short- and long term goals.  I thought she was quite inspirational cos I’m one of those people who just procrastinates and does everything at the last minute.  Leilani from the brand new magazine “My Week” was also there and I’m sure it’s all going to be in the next issue…

We of course, photographed the event and had a few of our photographs and products on display. It was good exposure for our business and we made a lot of contacts! It was good to see that we are surrounded by a lot of dynamic businesswomen here in the south and an event like this unites us. We get to share ideas, support each other emotionally (after all we are women!) discuss how we all manage to balance families and work and social lives and have fun at the same time!

Every lady was given a goodie bag full of all sorts of goodies like a squeeza water bottle from Firzt, a sample of Montego dog food and flyers and goodies from the companies being represented at the event.  What would an evening like this be without a few sponsored prizes??  They even had the new editor of the GET-IT magazine, Sonia, sing a Frank Sinatra song for one of the prizes, and boy does she have a voice?!  It was great fun! Ahava skin care range sponsored a hamper worth Over R1000 and Sinzinani Day Spa sponsored a few free massages and treatments.

There were over 80 ladies at the first get-together and they’re hoping for more than double that at the next networking event next year in February. This is one initiative which is going to be really successful.  All the ladies really enjoyed the evening and I can’t wait to see what they have in store for next year!

Riani

Yip, it certainly was a successful event. But then who would expect anything less from these two wonderful ladies…. they really are dynamic, successful and driven women.

Networking and building long-lasting friendships is just second nature to them! Congratulations Toni and Tanya – I am honoured and grateful to call you my friends. Here’s to another twenty years of success and friendship…. Weez