Sujata Singh opened Spice Trail because she wanted to make authentic Indian Food available to everyone. “What is presented in most Indian restaurants as ‘Indian food’ left me appalled,” she says.

The opportunity to be her own boss, despite the grueling hours, was also more appealing than the typical 9 to 5 job using her accounting degree. Spice Trail began as a pop-up dining experience with private dining and catering services, and Singh is now opening a brick-and-mortar location in downtown Chattanooga with both a restaurant and a shop featuring artisanal jewelry and gifts.

Despite speaking little English and not knowing how to drive when Singh first moved from India to the U.S. for college, she caught on quickly. In her experience, most people who choose to immigrate “move to any country, in my case, the U.S., to make better lives for themselves. Sacrifices that are made for that goal are many,” she explains, “and because of those sacrifices, the work ethic is of a different level.”

Singh took a course at CO.LAB, a local nonprofit startup accelerator, when she realized she wanted to turn her pop-up business into a full-time job. She says that Chattanooga is very small-business friendly and though she has a great support system of family and friends, she wishes she had realized early on that she should ask for help and advice when she needed it. “Almost every person I reached out to, however hesitantly I did so, has been very helpful, and in some cases has gone out of their way to help,” she shares. That’s her main advice to other new entrepreneurs: “Asking for guidance early on will save you a lot of time and headaches.”

Even with all the time and energy that goes into being a small business owner, Singh remains focused on what’s most important to her. She explains, “There’s a big insistence on family and family values where I come from. I do my best to still have my family — and that means extended family as well — as my priority.” She goes on to say, “No matter where immigrants go, they carry their home country with them and will go to extra lengths to preserve their traditions, food, culture, and religious practices.” That’s certainly true for her as she brings a lot of what she loves about India — the diversity in food, language, and religion and a strong sense of community — to Chattanooga with Spice Trail.