“YOU do not need a ten pound hammer to kill an ant.”
This is how a businesswoman is described by her colleagues.

Mrs Natalie Soine, of Table View, is a successful business owner and the winner of the 2005 Business Women’s Association Regional Business Achiever’s Awards.

“I really feel very honoured and surprised. All the finalists deserved to win. They were all winners in their own right. The judging must have been a big challenge,” she described the feeling of the moment.

Soine founded the Papillion training company in 2001, which provides skills development to women in leadership, an to their personal assistants, office administrators and secretaries – after 18 years working as a personal assistant.

“I was an executive personal assistant to senior executives. And I always loved the job, but one day I found myself enjoying helping colleagues to be more productive and to work smarter. I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed my job, so I resigned the next day. I realised that my heart would no longer be in the job and that would have been unfair to my manager,” she explained.

Her motto: keep things simple yet effective. Hard work and support from her family is an important support mechanism. Soine has doubled her business every year during the past five years,

“As a proudly South African company, we have dealt with than 6 000 clients from about 500 companies throughout Africa. We provide practical and effective solutions to dilemmas facing them. Meanwhile we also give some unemployed people free courses every month. We gave away almost R500 000 worth of training vouchers last year,” she said.

Along with the steadily growing business, Soine finds her daily routine to be busier than ever.

She has to plan and schedule her year 12 months in advance and revise it every month.

She is not only a businesswoman, but also a mother of four.

“They are still young. I must give them enough attention. Fortunately my husband resigned from his previous job six months ago, and came to help me. That gives me the opportunity to spend more time with my children,” she said

Jacques Soine, her husband added: “Our children and I are all very proud of her.

“She is our hero. I do not think everyone could achieve what she has. And I could see she overworked herself. So I decided to join forces with her.”

For 2006, Soine says: “I hope we can help more people to increase their skills.”

written by: Peng Li Bao; 01/02/2006 01:11 PM – (SA)