Soupercharged

One of the brilliant things about working for myself is that my hours are now my own even though, with three small children, my life is characterised by angst and a feeling of chasing the clock. I had a fantastic nanny who has just left, and we're interviewing for anew one now. But she will need to be very flexible.

I'm usually up some time after 6am when one of the children runs in and wakes me. Then, if I have time, I'll drop two off at school and another one at nursery. Otherwise, our nanny does it. I'm not a big breakfast fan but I am a huge chocoholic.

I live in Battersea and our head office is in Camberwell, both on the south side of London, so the journey's not too bad. As I lived in New York for several years, I picked up the American habit of early morning meetings at 7.30am or 8am, and that suits me fine. I don't have to be at my desk to think about life and, anyway, I have my office in my car.

My days consist of visiting prospective new sites, meeting with potential new landlords, and negotiating rents, etc. Otherwise, I'll pop into one of our existing sites. I always have my lunch at a Soup Opera - and that's no lie.

My favourite soups on the menu are Thai green chicken curry, and beef and black bean chilli, but because British people are not familiar with black beans, this last one is not one of our best sellers.

I chose to set up Soup Opera because there wasn't anywhere here that sold soup as a meal, only as a second-rate snack. And having worked in the City for 15 years, I had been on the receiving end of the office worker's lunch offer and the choice was narrow and boring.

Throughout the day, whether at 10am or 2pm, I'll meet with people from the media who are interested in Soup Opera. There is a lot of curiosity from Germany and Scandinavia, in particular. Or I'll be liaising with designers, doing tastings for new soup recipes and chatting to our chef about new ingredients. I think genuine Thai soups are awesomely delicious but we're still struggling to make a really good one.

It's a very mobile job and totally different to what I was doing for 15 years as an investment banker. Then my day ran from 7am to 6pm with an hour for lunch. It meant sitting at a screen and shouting at traders. It was manic but the adrenalin rush was fantastic.

In the afternoons, I try to go to the Harbour Club gym three times a week, and I like to play tennis there too. Our last nanny clocked off at 6.30pm so that meant I had to be home to help the children - Freddie, Bella and Max - with their homework, play football with them and have them in bed by 8.30pm.

Then, it's time to do my paperwork and then, with my husband Paddy, we might hold a telephone conference call with Greville and Christine Ward, our friends and fellow majority shareholders in New York. More than once, it has been disrupted by me shouting: "Freddie, will you get back to bed?"

I finally go to my own bed some time before midnight.

Interview by David Tarpey