Change is good

By Kim Browne

April is one of my favourite months of the year. I love the change of season heralded by the golden colour of the trees. I look forward to changing my wardrobe for the coming winter. But mostly, I love the promise of holidays and family time.

It is my family’s tradition to do something special in April. After the December holidays, April usually means a mini destination treat, I always look forward to. For the last three years, April has been extra special though, as it now starts with the birthday of Twisted Toast Digital on 1 April.

From a small business perspective, April can be tough. The holidays play havoc with one’s work schedule, clients are often away when you aren’t and want answers when you’re gone and deadlines are more impossible than usual. But somehow, we manage to get through it all and get rewarded with some extra down time.

Having settled nicely into our new offices for almost two months now, I am really experiencing the advantage of at least an additional two hours a day to spend at work, as I no longer have to sit in traffic to and from the office. That’s 10 hours a week and 40 hours a month — and that’s just me. Counting Louis, it’s 80 extra hours saved. That’s a lot of extra productive time, which has helped us keep on track with our clients’ expectations in April.

As we gain more work and become busier, we need more experienced hands to help us fulfil our client obligations. We are therefore thrilled to announce that Sharlene Safi will join us as senior designer at The Toast from 1 May. Sharlene has a wealth of design experience and is one of our own, having worked with us in our previous lives at UpperCase Media. It’s great to have her back with us!

Speaking of previous lives, we were saddened to hear that FHM, once the third-most profitable monthly magazine in SA, will be closing its doors soon. Louis and I were privileged to launch FHM in South Africa 15 years ago on behalf of Media24 and Emap. We managed the brand until 31 March 2011.

It was an honour working with our many friends at this iconic magazine over the years — we created magic together. Even though FHM will soon be gone, our memories together will last a lifetime :)

We’ve decided to celebrate the many good times with a small informal wake on Friday the 13^th of June 2014. Details will follow. Everyone is welcome. We’ll party like it’s still 1999.

Adios Amigos!