By Kim Browne

The much anticipated launch day for Twisted Toast finally arrived on Friday 01 April 2011. One of the first decisions we made was that the founding four plus our non-executive Chairman were going to go for lunch at the ever-popular quaint Portuguese Johannesburg restaurant, Parreirinha to celebrate our existence. At Twisted Toast we’re all about recognising significant days in our history and if we can organise good food into the deal, it can only result in a win!

Monday we launched ourselves into the business of securing our very first client before the end of the week. Our hard work paid off with us gaining Chartered Wealth Solutions as a client at the end of the pitch meeting on Thursday and then as a bonus we got word from our lawyers that the company’s registration had finally come through on Friday! We celebrated the win week with a quick Nando’s Friday lunch with ex colleagues, Nico Nel and Erin Viljoen.

Week 2 was all about status meetings, interviews, photoshoots, lawyers, accountants and client progress meetings – but the big challenge of the week was to open a company bank account. That sorted, it was time to have a final “home office” braai with good industry friends Kevin Kleynhans and Sandy Heath from Idea Engineers and Donna Verrydt from GTribe.

Week 3 and the big move had finally arrived. Monday, we spent “fixing up” our new office, painting and breaking down walls. Tuesday we did catch-up work, set up the Pastel office admin systems to pay salaries and had our first board meeting. Wednesday the movers came in and dismantled our “at-home office”, work away from work as we have known it in our short history. The move was all consuming and before we knew it, the Easter holidays were on us. We’ll be back on the 3rd of May, based in the professional office in Woodmead with a client meeting scheduled in the afternoon!