Tell us a bit about your day to day role.
I am the head of operations and marketing for The Quarter Group, an independent company operating five different cafés and restaurants in Central London. My job is to ensure I have the right people doing the right job to the best of their abilities. It is my role to inspire the team to achieve their goals and nurture their management skills, so they can take ownership of their branches and develop their team. It’s a domino effect, I build the managers, managers build their team, the team build our business. As for marketing, my strategy is to build the business by the power of word of mouth. When we open in a new location I try to embed it within the local community so we’ll support local charities, schools, businesses, religious groups and the local council. It’s people in the local area that keep our business sustainable. As a small business our marketing budget is non existent, so a combination of community outreach and social media does the work for us, without us having to spend large amounts of money.
How did you get into the restaurant business?
I actually began life in the fashion business. I was a designer and had several shops in London. But the economic crisis came and I had to take the decision to close the company. I didn’t know what I would do instead. I spent the next year doing a variety of different things, trying to find my place.
At the time my husband owned and ran a large cafe, the Brompton Quarter Cafe. Seeing him overwhelmed by work I offered to help. His response: “I thought you’d never ask!”. The more time I spent in the business the more I excited I became about it. I knew nothing about the restaurant business so I started from the ground up: I worked on the floor as waitress, behind the bar, in the kitchen. I learned about food hygiene levels, HR, logistics, and everything else. I come from a farm background, so working in the food industry took me back to my roots.
Working in any service industry usually means dealing with anti-social hours. How do you combine work and family?
Having a partner who is totally committed to help makes a difference. I work alongside my husband so he understands my commitments. We happily share the cooking, school run, emptying the washing machine etc. On a practical level, I never commit to more then 2 evenings out a week. We have one child and like to spend time talking around the dinning table, we try to keep the family together as much as possible.
Also we see our restaurant as an extension of our home. If I am working on the weekend, for example, my husband will pop in with our son for lunch. I turn into the proud Mama and introduce him to our guests! We’ll eat together and then I continue my work after they leave.
My family is very important and my work is also very important; what works for me is to manage both with respect and not to take either for granted.
You changed careers - what advice would you give to other women thinking of doing the same?
Never be afraid or doubt yourself, build on what you know and learn as much as possible about your new challenges.
How can we improve the workplace?
With lots of staff training, but not the kind that brain washes people. Training should release the best in people, allowing them to become who they truly are, not make them into corporate drones.
What other ambitions do you have?
I want to bring the Quarter to solid ground, with sustainable profitability. We also want to build a team of experts who will set the trend in the food business within local communities.
Personally I would like to spend more time between the UK and Brazil (where I’m from). I have a plan to work with a local fishing village in the Northeast of Brazil. This region has 3,500 inhabitants, 65% of whom are amazing woman without many opportunities. I would love to develop a hospitality business using all the local women to develop it. My aim is to build a hotel, villas and restaurants which are totally self sustainable. Under the same roof will be a training centre for all the qualifications you need to succeed in the hospitality industry. I want it to be a place that drives the local economy and also gives local women more opportunities.
What advice would you give your younger self?
Don’t waste any time discussing people, spend time discussing ideas. Invest in a good education but listen to your instinct as most of the time it tells you what you need to know. Aim to listen 70% of the time and speak 30%. Never be jealous of someone else’s accomplishment, focus on your own growth.
