 Welcome to Adventures in Small Business, a collaboration between the United States Small Business Administration, Hawaii District Office, and its resource partners, where we showcase Hawaii's entrepreneurs and small businesses. My name is Dennis Kwak. I'm the director of the Veterans Business Outreach Center of the Pacific, and today we have a husband and wife team of Sarah and Danny Cunningham. Welcome to the show. Thank you. It's great to be here. Yeah. Thanks for having us. So Spicy Indian Chick, great name for a business. So before I actually talk about the business, can we talk a little bit about you guys personally? Maybe we'll start with you, Sarah, talk about your background and where you're from and how you started this small business. Okay. Well, I'm the oldest of eight kids, so my sisters and I, we grew up cooking. You can't afford to eat out with eight kids, so you cook dinner every night. My mom was a good cook. My dad immigrated from India as a small child, and my grandmother lives in India half the year, half, you know, half in the States. So we just grew up with her culinary influence, we cooked Indian food a lot, and I naturally just enjoy cooking. We also have six children now. Wow. So again, we can't afford to eat out. So that kind of runs in the family, big families? Yeah. Okay. Danny, do you have, come from big families? Yeah. So six children? Wow. So six is kind of a small family for you guys. Yeah. It's a perfect amount. It's a perfect amount. Oh, that's wonderful. So, Danny, you're in the military with Branch? Officer in the Army. Officer in the Army, okay. And you plan to take on this venture with your wife when you separate from military service? Yeah. We both kind of gone through all the planning and drafting the ideas together, and even though she's the main contributor and operator, we're planning on maybe transitioning this summer and then making it more of a joint venture together, okay? So I mean, just talking about your background, you were saying that you're half Indian and you had a big influence cooking at home with your parents, with your mom and your grandmother who used to come here. Was that the main motivation for you to start this business, or was it just something that you always enjoyed and wanted to do? Well, we love good food. Yes. There we go. I feel like we've always had high standards, and we both worked in the restaurant industry, you know, like for college and high school, and for actually a long time, for probably close to 10 years. Oh, okay. So this is not your, you've worked in restaurants before, so you've had, you know, some basic experience, some basic background of how things work. Okay. This is your first restaurant? Yes. So you're not owning a restaurant, okay? First anything? Yeah. Okay, great. So I think we just took things from that that we've learned, and then, you know, we, I like to cook, and he likes to cook, and we always like to host. We always host holidays and Thanksgiving and gatherings, you know, when we're being military, we've always moved around, and somehow in that, we've always hosted everything. Oh, okay. And so cooking for a crowd is no big deal, and we've always had great feedback from things that we've, you know, done just with friends and family. So I don't know, this is maybe the next logical step. Yeah, okay. So you've, you know, you tried it at home, people really liked it, and you're trying to venture into making it some kind of business. Yeah. Okay. Which is a great progression, by the way. So you, let's talk back, going back to you saying you're being a military spouse. I mean, it must be very, very difficult to start a business when you're, you know, going back and forth and moving locations. So this is where you guys settle that, and buying a business or starting a business, you plan to stay here in Hawaii? That would be our hope. That would be our hope. Yes. Okay. Wonderful. And your business, Spicy Indian Chick, is located in Haleiva? Yes. Okay. And what made you choose that location? The ambiance, the foot traffic, and I kind of like the, it's a stationary truck, so we don't, at least for now, this one doesn't drive around. Okay. I don't like the idea of, maybe as a woman, you know, it's nice to be home and make your house, like, something that you want to be at. I like the idea of coming to work every day and making it something that was mine, you know, that I could create the ambiance and, you know, make it something that people could come to, like, this is the essence or something that we're giving off instead of just driving around, which I think is also a really neat thing, but just personally for me, I like the idea of just driving to work and this is my space, you know. Okay. So, mobile foot truck, not so mobile, but definitely staying there for now, right? Yes. So we have, like, a little patio area with seating and outdoor lighting for the evening. Okay. Yeah, I still haven't gotten made a trip out there, but it definitely will. Yeah, you definitely should. Yeah, I know. So what does a menu look like for Spicy Indian Chick? So currently right now we have, we do an Indian, like Indian food with a twist diffusion, I would say, so we are offering three vegan options and three meat options. Okay. So we're trying to appeal to everybody up there, and I know there's a big vegan influence up there, so, and then we, there's like three steps to our menu right now, so you pick your plate style and you can serve, we do the roti rolls, which is everything Indian. So what are roti rolls for people that don't know? I mean, I do know. So roti, it's like an Indian flatbread. Okay. It's like an Indian version of a tortilla. Okay, so tell me, what is the difference between a roti bread and naan? So naan is yeast. Yeast. So roti is unleavened. Oh, unleavened. Okay. Yeah. So naan takes a little bit more work and it has to rise and, you know, all of that. Right. And roti is just flat, but we do it like we roll it burrito style. Okay. So we do it with the rice and, or we do tacos with it. But one thing I wanted to say true to was that everything was authentically Indian, that we weren't taking like Mexican tortillas and rolling up Indian food. Right. You know, so I wanted everything to be Indian. The presentation, we could change it up and make it funky, but just everything authentic. So we offer that with the roti and then we offer traditional basmati rice, which we season with like cloves and cardamom and cinnamon. And then we offer some healthier options, which are slaw, which is a mixture of cabbage, red cabbage, red onion and carrot with a house dressing or a salad. So we source local like pupa kea greens for all of our salads. And then, so we can package it differently for, you know, how, whether you're on a keto diet, a gluten-free diet, you know, we can. So it's more health conscious than one would assume. But I always found Indian food, there's a lot of great vegetarian dishes. You can't say that a lot about other types of cuisines because vegetarian, I mean, me being a meat eater, I eat vegetarian food only once in a while, but Indian is kind of the one that I do because it's got so much flavor. All the sauces, like the curry sauces that we offer, even if it doesn't look like there's vegetables in it, I mean, people don't understand that we took a lot of vegetables and usually pulverized it to make it a smooth sauce. But there's a lot going on in those sauces. Behind the sauce, right? Yeah. Okay. A lot of work goes in. So do you source your own herbs and spices and you make these sauces at home? Nothing's pre-packaged, it's just all. Nothing's pre-packaged. We don't use a packet for anything. We even go as far as to grind a lot of our own spices. So we have invested in a spice grinder. Okay. So it's a lot of our own to bring you unique flavors. Right. A lot of our marinades for the meats, we have pre-grounded spices. I'm thinking specifically our pulled pork vindaloo, I grind all those spices and the shrimp go in curry. I grind all those spices. Okay. So for a lot of the dishes, we're grinding and mixing different things like that. So, Danny, what do you do? It seems like she does all the work. I'm just joking, but I know that you help out too. Just going back to the military experience, how has your work in the military kind of prepared you to opening a restaurant? Is it a totally different thing that you're kind of new to or is it something that you know, you feel confident about having served in the military? There's certainly a lot of overlap. So being an officer in the army, you have to be very familiar with the military decision-making process. I took a lot of those processes and applied it to building the business plan and then being an artillery officer specifically, I took some of my skills, I learned in targeting and applied that to marketing. So I was getting information on the businesses, the population, what are their likes and dislikes and then trying to find something that they didn't have. So I think we had talked about a couple different ideas with food trucks, of course, leaning towards Indian. But just the fact that there was a large population that was health-conscious and wanted vegetarian options definitely swayed us like, yeah, this is definitely the correct way to go. And then we just took analysis of what would be or could be competition up in Haleva and did a brief summary report on what that looks like and what that means when we open up, like what are our price points? How far can we go to get the freshest and greatest and most organic ingredients? Like we can't afford to import stuff from India directly, maybe, but we do. And so there's a lot of background research and then planning you have to do on it. So every time we get an idea or every time we're trying to implement something, we're preparing a bunch of processes. So what's the price points? What's the time consideration and then what can we offer it out of? So we're always preparing, then we're going to plan it out, and then we're going to execute it. And as we're executing it, we're always assessing. Because eventually, we might think we want to offer it this way and realize this doesn't work and we have to make adjustments. And then that's also where we start focusing on the customer too, because they'll give us feedback. So something we thought was great might be only great at Danny and Sarah's table. We kind of have to change it for our customer base. And talking about your customers, what does your customer base look like? And I know you've been open since just maybe a few months now, right? It's November. November, okay, so wow, only a couple months. I know it's kind of new to you and you guys are still trying to get your bearings right, but for the past couple months, what does your customer base look like? I mean, is it tourists? Are they locals? What are they looking for? Are they vegetarians? I think we've had a melting pot of all those things. Okay, so we're like a white man. Yeah, we've had a lot of tourists, which I thought were locals, because they kept coming back, and then they're like, oh, we'll see you next year. Oh, wow, that's pretty cool. So that was encouraging. We've had a lot of locals as well. So I think it's been a good mix. A lot of vegans or vegetarians who are very happy that we're serving something from a truck that they can eat. Oh, wonderful. Yeah, great. So only two months open, I mean, what does the spicy Indian chick look like later on in the year? Do you have plans to grow revenue or what is your most important goal for this first quarter, maybe the first half of the year? For the first quarter, we're looking at possibly expanding our truck to offer more menu items, but be a very, very conservative expansion, just enough to add another station or two. And we've contacted some vendors about getting a tandoori oven shipped to the island. That way we can maybe do non, but again, that's planning stages. Sure, it's still planning. We might not get to the execution stage, but we're actively trying to see how can we improve on what we're doing and how can we add value to what we're doing. Those are some of the efforts we're taking right now. OK. And are you guys vegetarian yourselves? No, we're not. Oh, we're not. And we were talking earlier, and you said that you have a whole pork vindaloo. Yes. OK. So that's kind of an homage to Hawaii, I guess. Yes. OK. But it sells very well, and you loved it. We actually had, initially, he had put it on the menu as just pork vindaloo, and it didn't sell very well. And I was like, man, this is so delicious. Why isn't it selling? And anyone who did eat it said that was amazing. But then when we changed it to pulled pork vindaloo, I can't make it fast enough. It's really funny. Yeah, that's great. And we actually have two dishes that are kind of a homage to Hawaii. We have our Hawaiian Indian Delight, which is a classic Indian vegetable medley, but we decided to add okinawan sweet potatoes and a little bit of coconut sauce to help with the rice, keep it nice and moist. So that's our Hawaiian twist to one of our vegetarian or vegan dishes, actually. And so we have that, and then the pulled pork, which pulled directly from Hawaiian culinary. Sure. So, OK, we're going to take a short break, and we'll be right back. Thanks. This is Think Tech Hawaii, raising public awareness. If you're not in control of how you see yourself, then who is? Live above the influence. When I was growing up, I was among the one in six American kids who struggle with hunger. But with the power of breakfast, the kids in your neighborhood can think big and be more. Go to hungarees.org to make breakfast happen for kids in your neighborhood. Aloha. I'm Marcia Joyner, inviting you to come visit with us on Cannabis Chronicles, a 10,000-year odyssey, where we explore and examine the plant that the muse has given us, and stay with us as we explore all the facets of this planet on Wednesdays at noon. Please join us, Aloha. Hi, welcome back to Adventures in Small Business. My name is Dennis, and we're here, again, with the husband and wife team of Danny and Sarah Cunningham from the Spicy Indian Chick. Just talking about the menu makes me kind of salvate super hungry right now, and I wish you guys brought some food for me. But going back to kind of when you started the restaurant, or when you, I mean, I've met with Danny a couple of times in you, and when we had conversations, it was sort of like you guys were thinking about it, and then you just took this step. And what was that step like? I mean, you guys just had a conversation saying, hey, let's just do it. Or was it more kind of a methodical approach to purchasing or starting this business? Danny's very methodical. Yes, I can see that. And just tell me what I need to do when I need to do it kind of person. So it's something we had talked about and generated ideas, and then the location was available, and the truck was for sale, and so we started moving forward with looking more into it, while also looking into other trucks and seeing what our options were. I think we talked about that in the beginning initial stages. And then it just was like, OK, we're either going to do it or we're not going to do it. You just jumped. We just did it. So going back to what you were saying, that you have six children, both of you. I mean, that's bravo. I have two, and I can barely keep track. But six children starting a new business, I mean, it must be very, very hectic for you. Or maybe it's just something that you're used to. I don't know. I mean, what does your day look like starting a business? My day? Well, I usually leave my house around 10 o'clock in the morning, and I homeschool the kids. Oh, wonderful. So I don't know if that's so wonderful right now. I mean, it's definitely posing some challenges. But I mean, when we started that, that was something I said to him was, I don't want to sacrifice this that I'm doing with the kids for the business. They're a picture of your kids, beautiful children. The image is kind of blurry, but wow. Five girls and a boy, huh? Is the youngest one a boy? Yeah, he's the youngest. So is this the, do you guys plan to have any more? No, no. No, that's it, yeah. No, no. Do the kids help out with their business? Yes, on days that we can swap them out, and they can only be there for a few hours. We try to teach them all the ropes. So going back to your day, you started at 10, and then? At 10, I leave the house and then get to the truck. And so I have enough time in the morning to make my kids breakfast. If I wake up early enough, I can get laundry and house stuff done. And I have someone coming with the kids now in the morning, and she can execute. I just leave a detailed list, and she executes a lot of the things with the kids for the day that I don't accomplish. We do some things. We do art study, and music study in the mornings. And usually I can knock out science, and horror history, and then get them started on math, and things like that. So my morning is super full before I leave for the truck. And then? It gets busier as the day goes. And then it just gets busier. So my days are pretty busy. I pretty much don't sit down for the whole 10 to 12 hours that I'm there. So anytime we don't have a customer, or I'm prepping, or making chutney, or getting another sauce ready, or setting it for the weekend. And then I'm usually getting home around 10, 10.30 at night. It's definitely been challenging with the kids. But I keep telling you, it's just the season. And anything worth a darn in life takes a lot of hard work. That's a very, very good way. Yeah, of course, I totally agree with that. Anything worthwhile takes time. So I feel like we're paying our dues. And it doesn't mean that this is the rest of our lives. I definitely miss my kids. Oh, spending time with them, yeah. Because you spend less time, even more at the business, right? But I feel like we've done a pretty good job of juggling them between the two of us. So would you say that's the biggest challenge that you're facing is, I guess, time, climate, resources? For myself. For yourself. I wonder what you did. I mean, I know that you are still actively in the military. But what kind of challenges have you faced starting this business? If any, maybe you don't. There's different challenges, both to the business and to the family life. So as Sarah already said, we have to kind of plan things pretty well out that way. OK, I've got the kids and you've got the evening shift or you have the evening shift. I have the kids, whatever that swap is. And then just trying to make sure that we have a lot of quality time with the kids. We're not putting the business first. So that's one thing we've kind of tried to make sure. As one of our principles is the family comes before the restaurant. So we might close down a day earlier for a holiday. And we might lose a lot of money doing that. But sustaining the family life, that's far more important. It's a very nice mission. I mean, a personal mission for you guys to do. That's nice. I mean, that's partly why we are open Monday through Saturday. And we have decided, even though Sunday is a good day for business, we've decided to just close. That way he's home from work. And it's just we can go to church and just do whatever we want. Oh, that's nice. But family time, real family time. And I will say, my youngest brother, Vin David, when we started this venture, I kind of whispered a little birdie in his ear. And he's young, he's 18. And he decided to come up. So he's kind of like my right-hand guy. Oh, is he still here? Yeah, he's actually at our truck right now. Oh, yeah, because you're off when you guys are here. So having family here has definitely been helpful. That's been super helpful. So he's kind of, between the three of us, we're juggling a lot ahead. And he's been really, really helpful. Oh, that's wonderful. It's always challenging if you don't have family in Hawaii, raising kids, especially. I mean, I don't know what six kids look like, must be challenging. So along the way, when you started this business, have you discussed this business? Or have you had assistance from any banks, or any lenders, or any kind of mentors along the way? So no specific help from any financial institutions. I reached out to a small business association. And then I found the Veterans Business Outreach Center. Oh, yeah, that's us. You and Victoria. And that's actually been one of the most helpful sources on Island. There's other sources online and articles and books that I've been consuming as quickly as possible. Well, I didn't pay him to say that, by the way. But thanks for that shout out. Yeah, but something local and something you can actually reflect ideas, or if you have an issue with something, hey, I have this template, but I have no idea how to fill it. Like having a person that's flesh and blood to actually talk to that's gone through this with other folks has been tremendously helpful. Even if some of the talk is kind of short and quick, I actually got some out of it. Oh, wonderful. Good. So you're in an industry of food and beverage. It's got a very, very high failure risk. I mean, it's the failure rate. Yeah, the failure rate, excuse me. So the risk is high. And I know that you guys knew that before going in. I mean, how do you mitigate some of that risk? Or how do you prepare yourself for that? Have you thought about that? How do you keep on edge where you have an advantage or you're always trying to be better and not fail, I guess? Must be, I know you guys, you don't want to talk about failure. First year in business, but it's something that must have run through your mind, I guess. Yeah, it's a very real possibility. It's something we had to address right in the beginning, even before we started looking for food trucks. And I think one of the things we kind of realized, if we were going to do it, we had to do it right, which meant we're not going to buy frozen paneer from Costco or frozen chicken tikka from Sam's Club. We would have to have recipes that were authentic and we made. So that had a whole level of research and testing that took weeks. And even still ongoing because you always have things to do. But then also looking at historical businesses that have done well in Hawaii, as well as in the West Coast and Los Angeles, Portland, and different cities that have similar, not the same, but similar aspects. But we were looking at doing it and see, OK, what? Was different from the successful ones versus the ones that kind of fell out after two, three years. And so that kind of gave us the kind of lead against that, OK, this works. Why didn't it work? And they're using those principles. Not wonderful. So where do you see your business in five years? I mean, where do you see? I mean, do you grow your business or do you maintain this business? Or do you hand this business off to your employees? Because I know that you work crazy hours right now. Almost 24 hours right running around. Can you keep this up? I don't think I could keep these hours up, but I'm a little type A. So I definitely like things done my way. My motto is if you want something done right, just do it yourself because no one does it right. So I think we would both always want a hands-on approach. But you only have so many hands. Yeah, so just maybe not 72 hours a week, maybe like 45 or 50. Is that something that you plan to do? Are you planning to? I know that it is a family-run business right now. It's just you two and your brother. Do you have employees? Or are you thinking about getting employees? We are thinking about hiring a couple part-time workers just to help us during busy hours. So maybe offering a couple four to five-hour shifts almost here and there. That way we could alleviate some of the pressure. So that's our plan. In terms of expansion, I know he's talking about maybe branching out to a mobile truck or a van or something so we can reach other parts of the community, generate some more sales like that. I know a restaurant. It's what you got, a Mecca or the Holy Grail. The amazing goal. I'm not jumping ahead. OK, all right, very good. But definitely want to maintain the business, maybe kind of slow down in terms of your hours dedicated to the business. Yes, but I would like to maintain to be the one doing the cooking. I'm not quite there at handing that off to anybody. That's good. Yeah, I mean, all the great places that I've ever been to, always the owner has a hand, like you say, and it keeps the quality in check as well as keep that kind of vibrancy of a menu or restaurant or this case of food truck. So we're about to wrap up, but maybe you can just tell the audience where you guys are located, the name of the business, and how they can follow you. OK, well, we're Spicy Indian Chick. We have a food truck up in Hali Eva, which is, we're actually on Google Maps, so you can search us, but I believe the address is 66-239 Kamehameha. It's right past the North Shore Marketplace, if you're coming in, on your left. And right next to Sneepy Surf Shop, there's the Hokie number 7 truck and the Taibo truck right across from us, so it's kind of a fun little spot because people have options and they're walking around. You can find us on Instagram at spicyindianchick and same for Facebook. And we just got a business phone number. I don't know what it is. It's 808-215-9222. There you have it, folks, a Spicy Indian Chick. Thank you, Danny and Sarah, for coming and joining us today at the Adventures in Small Business. You guys have a good day now.