The grind of the 9 to 5 was getting to mum of two Anoushay Butt. While working as an accountant paid the bills, she found it draining, unfulfilling and difficult to balance along with home life. But in 2017 a new spark entered her life - one of her oldest friends had just moved back to the UK and between them, they decided to make a change to their lives."The Waffle on a stick concept just looked so fun yet practical to me and I thought: Wow how convenient for enjoying a waffle on the go," Anoushay told Mirror Money."So I shared this with Malaika who at the time had recently returned from her expat career and was also searching for business ideas and she also connected with it so we decided to make this work together."And so, in 2017, Waffle stick was launched as a part-time operation.
It's fair to say it was worth it. In the first 6 months of trading, they were asked to sell food on the set of Disney Movie and within the first year, they'd had stalls set up for people like Facebook and Secret Cinema. They quit their jobs and went full time. In December they started their second street food business, Baba Dhaba, and are now juggling both at markets, events and corporate bookings all over the UK."Our first year as a startup we made £25,000 and our second year we made £83,000. We are forecasted to achieve £150,000 with now having multiple setups and a new street food brand," Anoushay told Mirror Money. They've even employed Malaika's brother to help them.
It might have happened later than she thought, but Anoushay felt she was always destined to run her own business."I was the child that sold pick n mix sweets in my playground," she told Mirror Money."My very first taking was £70 - not bad for a 9-year-old in those days! My dad used to take me to Makro to get my 'stock' he always encouraged my entrepreneurial spirit."She studied business administration and management at university but afterwards slid into the world of working for others, not herself.
But becoming a mother gave her extra motivation and the return of Malaika turned her childhood dream into reality."Being a mother didn't put me off from wanting to start my own business but instead, it fuelled me," she said."As WaffleStick started getting busier, I adapted the way I managed my home life by getting extra support from my mother and husband."Also using efficient software to reduce my admin and finance helped more than you can imagine - we use Square as our payment processing system. As a small business, we needed something really flexible, with no lengthy contracts so it’s really transformed the business and means I can spend quality time with my children."