Artin and Sarah Davoodi, the owners of Grandma Loves You, a sandwich shop in Toronto.Supplied
Behind every small business is a ‘big why’ – the reason they started their company in the first place and what motivates them to keep going, even when times get tough. Intuit QuickBooks is proud to support Canadian small businesses through every step of their journey and is pleased to celebrate companies doing remarkable things in this “Small Business, Big Why” series.
Artin Davoodi wasn’t supposed to be in the restaurant business.
He’d always loved food and wanted to work in the industry; back in Iran, his grandfather ran a sandwich shop for more than 40 years. He has fond memories of working there during summer vacations, cleaning tables and pouring customers drinks in translucent green glasses, but his mother advised him to choose a different path.
“My mom was always against the idea,” he says. “She knows that when you have a restaurant, you’re never home.”
In fact, his first career had nothing to do with food. When he was 12, his family moved to Germany, where he lived for more than two decades and eventually opened a marketing and advertising company called Grandma Loves You.
“My first business was very successful, but it wasn’t what I really wanted to do,” Artin says.
When he and his wife Sarah had their first child in 2015, they decided she wouldn’t go back to work after maternity leave. Instead, they’d start a new business together – and it would focus on food.
Artin Davoodi always loved food and wanted to work in the industry.Supplied
Following their hearts
Enter the next iteration of Grandma Loves You, a convenience store-meets-café in Cologne that served homemade cakes, pastries and other snacks. This business did well, too, but it wasn’t meant to last because one of Artin and Sarah’s dreams was to live in Canada. In 2018, the Davoodis moved to Toronto and bought a convenience store on Yonge Street in midtown Toronto, which they called Grandma Loves You, of course. The plan was for the Canadian Grandma Loves You to be similar to their German business; the store would sell lottery tickets, snacks and drinks, as well as homemade food and baked goods.
“But this idea didn’t work so well,” Artin says. “If I were to open something in France or Italy, I’d have an idea [of what would work] because I was living in Europe. But North American taste is completely different. So, it took us a little bit to figure out what our customers wanted. And then COVID hit!”
The Davoodis soon realized their original vision for Grandma Loves You in Canada wouldn’t survive a pandemic; but instead of giving up, they used the retail shutdowns of 2020 to reimagine their business, deciding to pivot entirely to food.
They converted their space to a take-out joint and started selling foot-long cold-cut sandwiches made with fresh bread and high-quality meat, cheese and veggies. These were so popular that they soon added more eats to the menu, including hot sandwiches, croissants and gourmet hot dogs. (Each dog is inspired by a different country; the French Dog comes with brie and jam, while the Swedish Dog is topped with fried onions, pickles, ketchup and mustard.)
The couple aren’t the only entrepreneurs who are optimistic about their business and determined to stick it out. According to The New Generation of Entrepreneurship in Canada, a 2022 Intuit QuickBooks’ report, levels of entrepreneurship have remained stable since the pandemic despite periods of economic uncertainty.
The pivot the Davoodis made paid off. In 2022, Yelp users voted the shop the number one sandwich shop in the country and earlier this year, the couple opened a second location. They’ve also gone from filling every role themselves to hiring employees – between 15 and 18 full-timers, depending on the season.
Are you a Canadian business fuelled by passion and purpose? Share your business’s ‘big why’ on Instagram and TikTok using the #SmallBizBigWhy for a chance to be featured by Intuit QuickBooks.
Grandma Loves You was voted the shop the number one sandwich shop in the country.Supplied
The right tools
Things are much busier now than they were five years ago; the couple is juggling three kids, multiple locations and plans to franchise the shop.
Luckily, Artin says, they can rely on QuickBooks Online and QuickBooks Payroll to handle payroll, track sales, expenses and inventory, as well as help them do their taxes.
When it comes to tools for small businesses: “People always say ‘you can do everything easily on our website.’ Well, I’ve tried everything – and QuickBooks is actually easy,” he says. “It’s really important for your tools to be user-friendly, especially for a small business.”
This allows the Davoodis to focus on the parts of the business they’re most passionate about: feeding their neighbours good food made from high-quality ingredients, treating employees fairly and building a legacy for their kids. And they’re especially pleased to be doing that in Canada.
“We love this country. This was always a dream for us,” Artin says. “In Toronto, I always feel at home.”
Advertising feature produced by Globe Content Studio with Intuit QuickBooks. The Globe’s editorial department was not involved.