Karen Hanton
My body clock wakes me up at 5.45am. I'm a farmer's daughter and although I never rose as early as my father, who has a dairy in Aberdeen, old habits die hard.
This means I switch on Radio 4's Farming Today programme first thing. I used to find it a comfort, but these days, after the foot-and-mouth crisis, it's depressing.
I don't have time to mope, though, because my house bunny hears the noise of the radio and starts to rattle his cage. He has the run of the house in the day, and I find his simple needs - food and shelter - the perfect antidote to the complications of London life.
Breakfast is a fruit smoothie, which is great because your body gets what it needs and you can drink it while getting ready for work.
I founded the company in 2000 with my friend Andrea Afrifa - currently parties, groups and events director - and eight staff. We originally worked out of my home in Pimlico, London, and then next door when the property adjacent came on to the market. Toptable now employs 22 people. We had to move to our new office in Marylebone last year when it got to the point where employees were queuing for the phone.
I'm spoilt for choice when it comes to getting to work. I can take the Tube, a 30-minute walk through St James's Park, or catch a bus. The last option is great because I get to pass the city's landmarks, such as Buckingham Palace, on my way in. Not a bad start to the day considering tourists pay a lot of money to travel here and do the same.
I arrive at work no later than 8am and enjoy spending the first hour preparing for the day and catching up on any correspondence.
At 9am I have a daily ritual of meeting the other girls at our office coffee spot for a chat.
We're upgrading Toptable at the moment and plan to relaunch it later this month with the addition of Amazon-style reviews for the restaurants we feature. Feedback shows it's a facility the public appreciates and one they've been getting elsewhere up until now.
Lunch is at about 1pm and is a home-made sandwich and some fruit. If it's a nice day, I may wander down the high street.
I'm a people person so, as I try to do in the morning, I conduct a tour of the office in the afternoon and chat to all of the team to keep up to date with how things are going. Team members dine out at every one of the site's restaurants so we can write an accurate description. With more than a thousand restaurants signed up it's a hectic, if not unpleasant, job.
We plan to expand by setting up a permanent office in Paris, so the operation continues to grow, and I'm after a marketing manager.
I used to be involved on the personnel side at high-street group Allders, so the interviewing I've been recently involved with has brought back happy memories.
Once the working day is over I like to chill out in the office until 7pm or 7.30pm. Recently I went to the reopening of the Savoy Grill and thought it successfully updated. I try to attend at least one industry event a week. Regardless, I'm always delighted to receive invitations.
By Chris Druce
Factfile
Toptable.co.uk
62 Marylebone High Street, London WLU 5TT
Booking line: 0870 850 8454
The company charges restaurants a booking fee and commission per cover.
Toptable generated a total transaction value of £10m for its clients during the last financial year.
Just a minute…
What can't you get enough of? News and current affairs. I start by switching Radio 4 on at 6am and continue listening or viewing through to Newsnight. Some days I hear the same piece of news a dozen times, but I'm always afraid I'll miss something.
Most embarrassing moment? When I first moved to London I was naïve. My job at the time was working on concessions at the Odeon cinema, Kensington. Left to sort the hotdog buns, I happily sliced our complete supply in half, instead of making a slit to place the sausage in. It wouldn't have been so bad had we not had drunken boxing fans in to watch a late-night fight. I served the damaged buns anyway and it got very messy.
