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One of your main selling points of your restaurant Crumpet is that it is child-friendly. Did you feel you were starting something different to everything else in the area?

Andrew: Definitely. We tried to be unique. I have never come across anywhere particularly similar to our place and I always struggle to think of anywhere to compare it to really.

So how was the plan originally hatched?

Andrew: It took about five years to plan. Originally we wanted to open a tea room, and although we do our own range of teas, it has ended up becoming a children-friendly restaurant, in effect.

We’ve lived here for 10 years and the there are a lot of mums round here. The idea is that they can come in, sit down, relax. It is quite stressful bringing up children, so we wanted to provide somewhere they can sit down for half an hour, have something really nice to eat and something really nice to drink.

We do organic food, and also sell some of our own stuff, which we keep additive-free. So they can relax about the food and they can relax about the environment – there’s an area for the children to play – and they go out feeling better than when they came in basically. That’s the idea.

So your restaurant provides somewhere for hard-pressed mothers to relax. But what about you – how difficult is juggling fatherhood and running a restaurant?

Andrew: It’s fun during the school holidays! It’s not easy, but I enjoy it. I look after my kids quite a lot because that is what I want to do. I have to manage the shop, so it is hard, but I have a manager called Gabi who helps me a lot.

Has it become any easier since you have opened, in terms of hiring extra staff to free you up?

Andrew: Eventually, it will. We have 10 staff in all at the moment, and we’re open seven days a week, from nine in the morning until six o’clock at night.

I do believe in delegation. There’s that classic thing where you work on the business, not just in the business. I do a two-day week, working 12 hours in the restaurant, but in addition to that I spend time working to improve the business – trying to find better ingredients, products, and so on.

And what does your wife bring to the business?

Andrew: She helps with the design side of the business, although she is working full-time as a barrister.

Congratulations on your award from Observer Food Monthly for Best Restaurant for Kids 2006 by the way. Why do you think they chose you?

Andrew: It’s different to your average place. We sell very healthy food and we’ve thought specifically about catering for children. We have a little play area, books for them to read, an organic baby menu. We also have our own line in children’s food. You cannot get proper children’s food – it seems to me – so we came up with our own range.

Did you work in conjunction with another company to produce this range?

Andrew: Yes, an Italian deli up the road called Il Sapori helped us.

I am guessing you had to speak to a lot of authorities about what you should and shouldn’t put into children’s food?

Andrew: Yes, there are all sorts of rules and regulations, especially with regard to feeding babies. A lot of governmental and local bodies oversee these things.

Running a restaurant, there are a huge amount of things I have to comply with. I’m meeting with all the staff tonight and all we will talk about is health and safety.

We try and work with the authorities. When we made the baby food we actually called Trading Standards in before we started selling it and got it tested. Normally they’ll come in a year after you start selling it and test it. But I thought: “We’re not going to do that, we’re going to be safer than that.” It was a pre-emptive move and they actually said we were the first company in Wandsworth to have done such a thing.

Was it expensive to start up?

Andrew: Oh yes – and it continues to be expensive. My life savings have gone into it, we remortgaged the house, and we raised everything we could. We invested about £200k altogether.

Has it all cost more than you had anticipated?

Andrew: A bit more – and it took a bit longer than anticipated as well. But it wasn’t disastrously more. We had a budget and we stuck to it. We literally didn’t have any more money at one point, and when you are in that situation – when you haven’t even got a single penny to call on – you need to make compromises.

What compromises did you make?

Andrew: We couldn’t afford any air conditioning, for example, so we had to postpone getting it for a year. There were a few other things, but that was a big one.

What are the best bits of running your own business, as opposed to being in someone else’s employment?

Andrew: Obviously you are in charge of your own life. One exciting bit is to think of new things that you can do and then spend time to get them working – and then see the results. Some things do not work as well as others, of course, but a number of things have really worked well and made a huge difference.

And the down side…

Andrew: It’s pretty hard work; it’s full-on. It’s all hours that God sends. I wouldn’t recommend it for everyone by any means – but everyone’s different.

Seems to be working out for you…

Andrew: It’s too early to tell really. Winning an award is nice, but we still have to pay back all our start-up costs before we can talk about profit.

It is a very long-term commitment – but it is going well so far, that is all you can say. There’s still a lot to do.

Do you have any long-term goals for the business?

Andrew: What I’d like to do is to open another one with a proper kitchen so we can make all our own stuff. And if that works, then we could maybe open a few more.

And finally, based on your own experience, what advice would you give to any inexperienced entrepreneurs embarking on a business venture?

Andrew: Do a lot of research. And make sure you are passionate about it, because it will take over your life.