Speak to most people and they’ll scoff when you say you’ve got balance in your life. 

Being successful as a woman is demanding. You’ve got to be the all-in-one best mother, wife and career go-getter and by the end of the day you’re left feeling exhausted and wondering if there will ever be time to do the things you want for yourself. Taryn Sydow, innovative creator of Optimal Energy, knows exactly what every working woman needs. 

With a successful career in corporate and merchant banking behind her, Taryn set out to follow her true passion of supporting professional women who are looking for more balance in life. In 2007 She created Optimal Energy, a one-day workshop aimed at facilitating a journey for women so they can master the roles that they play, while still leaving time for themselves.

With her guidance, women can explore every aspect of what being a woman involves and learn how to cope with the reality of a demanding lifestyle. By identifying what is really important to them, Taryn will help them discover a deeper self-awareness. This is a workshop about learning to understand what you want and how to achieve it as well as discovering ways to manage your relationships. The result? A sense of empowerment giving you greater control of your life. “I have personally learnt some hard lessons around the dangers of not having balance in your life and truly believe that balance is not about time management – it is about ensuring that you stay true to yourself and do the things that give you energy; the hard part is finding out what these things are. Balance is completely unique for each person and can only be obtained through a journey of self-discovery. ”

Achieving balance is equally important for men and later this year, Optimal Coaching will launch a similar workshop, called Optimal Mastery, facilitating the journey towards balance for men.

Taryn is inspirational, with the ability to walk you through the steps to discover their values, beliefs, dreams and support systems. She will not only enlighten them but also give them the knowledge that there is a difference between being and doing, and that anything they set their mind to is achievable.

Taryn has a B Comm in Accounting and Business Management and is an internationally accredited Meta Coach™ through the International Society of Neuro-Semantics (ISNS). She has completed her ICT training with Results Coaching Systems and is a member of COMENSA.

What South Africa needs more than anything else is a growing number of entrepreneurs – individuals who have the passion required to start businesses and make it successful. This is the only sustainable way to create wealth for themselves and much-needed employment for others. Unfortunately, South Africans are a little reluctant to do that, probably because historically, entrepreneurship was never seen as a viable career option.

Eric Parker, who is passionate about entrepreneurship and determined to promote it as a career of choice, decided to change all that. The first edition of his book Run Your Own Business and Make Lots of Money, first published in 2003, kindled the entrepreneurial flame in thousands of South Africans of all walks of life. In the small South African market, where a book of this nature is considered a best-seller when it sells 2 500 copies, Run Your Own Business and Make Lots of Money sold over 30 000.

Throughout the period the book was on sale, Eric hadn’t been idle. He took every opportunity to discuss the book with prospective and established entrepreneurs, gave lectures and wrote articles on entrepreneurship. At the end of each one of these interactions, he extended an invitation to his diverse audiences to provide feedback on their experiences. They responded magnificently and the gist of the wisdom that was distilled from their experiences is contained in the new edition of this book.

The book before you is not merely an update of an existing title but a comprehensive rewrite that brims over with practical advice. Regardless of whether you have read the original version or not, it will provide you with fresh insights and unlock the entrepreneur in you. It will take you from self-assessment – will you be happy as an entrepreneur – to the implementation stage, all presented in simple and easy-to-follow steps. Best of all, it will teach you how to achieve your dream of creating wealth for yourself and your family to enjoy while having fun along the way.

Eric Parker is widely sought-after as a strategist and speaker on entrepreneurship, business renewal and expansion. Working closely with his long-term collaborator Kurt Illetschko, he has published a large number of books focussing on the promotion of entrepreneurship and franchising.

As he says on the back cover of Run Your Own Business and Make Lots of Money: “If you haven’t made the move to entrepreneurship just yet, this text will assist you to make up your mind. Before you know it, you’ll be ready to reach for the stars and achieve your dreams – I personally guarantee it!” The mere fact that he follows this by giving his personal email address: eric@franchisingplus.co.za is a measure of his passion for entrepreneurship.

Run Your Own Business and Make Lots of Money is published by Frontrunner Publishing and is available from 31 May 2008 at all leading bookstores for R139.00

 860 million adults are illiterate worldwide. 500 million are women. And in South Africa, according to the National Union of Mineworkers as quoted in The Star in September, millions of South Africans are still using their thumbs as signatures. But while communities highlight this issue only once a year with International Literacy Day, the Write Foundation, an initiative of The Write Co, is committing itself to the basic right of every South African to have the ability be to read, to write and to communicate electronically.  Susan Greenhalgh, Managing Director of The Write Co says, “The Write Foundation, a proudly South African trust, believes we can change this statistic. We will change it. We are debilitated without words, how can this country possibly go forward with this level of illiteracy?” Smuts Ngonyama, Head of Presidency, emphasised how important it is to build awareness of literacy in order to empower mankind with the power of words. He expressed his regret that in 2007, International Literacy Day came at a time when it could not take centre stage.  “It is about time that as a nation, especially in terms of South Africa, we should make this day one of our most important. We all failed the illiterate people of South Africa,” he says. “Literacy can change society and build nations. As South Africans we should seize this opportunity to redouble our efforts to promote literacy among all our people,” says Steyn Speed, Communications Co-ordinator, ANC. George Boinamo, MP of the Democratic Alliance says, “the government has seen fit to take on the full responsibility for literacy programmes itself, and has ignored and denied funding to the many excellent programmes that were running prior to 1994.” The government claims that this is not true. In fact they would welcome the private sectors involvement. The Write Foundation has already identified this problem. The Foundation has found that South Africa’s top companies are weary of sponsoring literacy projects. This is because they fear being labelled as though looking for government favours.  The Write Co will promote a positive future for every adult and child in South Africa through the management of The Power of One Campaign, to be launched shortly. “One word, one thought, one idea, one individual can make a difference,” says Amanda Patterson, CEO of The Write Co. “If you can read, you can cross continents, universes and unleash your dreams.”  

The foundation’s intention is to fund programmes that promote communications training. They will also facilitate corporate funding of literacy and life skills programmes in urban and rural areas.

For more details on the project, contact Logogog on info@logogog.com.