Utter Waffle: From food truck to flourishing business

How Utter Waffle found the recipe for success with QuickBooks

Four years ago, Jules and James were working out of a cramped food truck, flipping waffles at street markets armed with the determination to turn their vision into a reality. Fast forward to today, and they're the proud owners of two bustling restaurants in London, food cubes, private catering, and three food trucks under the Utter Waffle brand.  

Their journey from street food startup to a flourishing business has been a rollercoaster - driven by a vision to cater to all dietary needs and serve people from diverse backgrounds.  "Our vision was to create something that was a super inclusive company for everybody - whether you have allergies, dietary needs. Whoever you are, whatever you are, you can eat with us, you can work with us. Just a really nice place to work and come to. We wanted to create an empire where everyone fits in," Jules explains.

"We started out in a food truck, not really knowing where it would take us. Now we have two restaurants and three trucks. It's been an incredible journey but not without its challenges," James notes.

Find out how QuickBooks supports the growth of hospitality businesses here. 

Mixing strategy and speed 

Managing a growing business across multiple locations and a dynamic team requires more than just hard work - it demands speed, insight, and the ability to react quickly. 

To grow their business and keep it running efficiently, Jules and James knew they needed to stay on top of the numbers and make quick informed decisions. Managing labour costs and forecasting revenue in real-time is critical in the hospitality industry and smart financial tools would give them the edge. QuickBooks’ functionality helped them power their ambitions for growth. 

"QuickBooks is great because it's all in one place," explains James. "I love that I can see what money is coming in and out straight away. This means I can use that to forecast budgets. From a business management perspective, it's one go-to tool to have everything all in one place.”

"From a growth perspective, QuickBooks helps in a number of different ways. A massive one in that it saves us time so we can really concentrate on driving the business forward, growing and training staff," says James. 

Reacting quickly to challenges is also key to keeping the business on track. "If we've had a bad week and labour costs have spiked, we know about it straight away. We don't have to wait until the end of the month to figure out what went wrong, we can problem-solve really quickly," he explains. 

Now armed with confidence to make fast, informed decisions with QuickBooks, they can adapt to changes and offset any challenges early on. 

Automation and efficiency: Recipe for success 

To power their vision for success, Jules and James knew they needed more than just hard work - they needed smarter systems to save time and keep the business running smoothly.

"I find it really helpful that you can automatically set reminders for invoicing. When we do regular event work, we need added invoicing. Often we get busy and forget, and I think James has done it. The automation feature solves that problem - this can be set up."

The receipt capture has also been a huge time-saver. Jules explains: "At the end of every month, I used to be hunting for 45 different receipts. Now I can snap a picture of a receipt and it's logged straight away."

James adds that staying on top of cash flow is essential for long-term success - and QuickBooks has made it easier. "Early on, I learned the hard way that some of the money in the business account isn't ours - VAT needs to be paid. QuickBooks helps us plan ahead and stay on top of cash flow so we're never caught off guard."

QuickBooks also helps them stay aligned with their accountant even when things get busy: "My accountant can track where I’m at with things like filing receipt settlements. For a busy small to medium-sized business like ours where we don’t always have time to sit down with an accountant or even pick up the phone, QuickBooks makes it easy for both of us to see the same information, even if we're 100s of miles apart."

"The transparency means he instantly sees what I’m working on, and any issues get resolved quickly without endless calls or emails," he adds. 

Accountants can be vital for a growing business. Find an accountant with QuickBooks’ directory here. 

Building for the future

Despite their success, Jules and James remain grounded and focused on growth and refining their processes. After four years of growth, they know that the next stage of success will come from tightening operations and improving efficiency. "If the last four years of anything to go by, then anything genuinely is possible. Right now it's a tough time in our industry." 

"We're going to concentrate on refining processes - drilling down, looking at our expenses, looking at our revenue and making it even better with the help of QuickBooks. We also both hope to be on a beach in Barbados."

Why QuickBooks?

When asked if they'd recommend QuickBooks to other business owners, the answer is a resounding yes.

"Why wouldn't you choose QuickBooks?" James says. "You’ll get to understand what’s happening in your business, save time, have accurate data, reporting, and work-life balance".

And for Jules: "QuickBooks is a tool that keeps our business running smoothly. It's like a hand whisk. It brings all the ingredients of the business together, mixes, and helps the business run smoothly."

Powering Your Possible

At Intuit QuickBooks, we believe that business owners like Jules and James deserve more than just tools - they deserve the confidence and control to dream big and make it happen. The Power Your Possible campaign is about giving businesses the solutions that can drive their growth at speed with the insight needed to take control of their future.

Next in our series: How The Marketing Production Company is turning their vision into reality

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