“My name is Alicia Morga, I am a Mexican-American of 39 years, I am not married and I have no children.” She chuckles amused. “Isn’t that an odd way to introduce yourself…” But these were the first questions she was asked when touring the country during the first week of December at the invitation of the US Embassy in Baku. On this road trip across several cities (Baku, Ismayilli, Sheki, Quba, and others) she was asked to share her success story as an American female technology entrepreneur.

Alicia’s round of talks was attended by women- (as well as some men-) business owners, specializing mainly in beauty salons, bakeries, and carpet weaving, and younger participants interested in setting up their own businesses. Alicia’s story is unique and inspiring, even for those who have no intention of setting up an enterprise.

The entrepreneur inside

What would you expect from a child of eleven siblings born in a Mexican disadvantaged family and transferred from one foster family to another throughout most of her childhood? That she would brilliantly graduate from Stanford, one of the best universities in the US? That she would be recruited to work at Goldman Sachs, one of the most prestigious investment banks? No! Well, she did! Everything that was least expected of her, Alicia was able to accomplish. She decided to challenge her condition, and give herself the rewards she could not have in her childhood. She became a successful, respected, and admired adult.

These early achievements would have constituted a golden career path for most but not for Alicia. After going through a personal tragedy she reflected on her life and took the time to question her decisions. “I felt something was not in place in my life, I had a great job, for the first time I did not have to worry about money. But it seemed pointless...” She realized that what she was doing was merely a means to an end and that she had to make a drastic change. She quit her job and decided to start her own company. The entrepreneur was born.

A risky path to success

Alicia started her own company from home, based on the idea that internet search in the US left out  Hispanics, as search engines only returned English results. “I realised this huge gap was my opportunity to connect the Hispanic community to American companies always looking to increase market share”. The idea was bright, innovative and held great potential, but needed time to take off.

“You have to find the resources, to believe in yourself when nobody else does. It took me two years, countless doubts to overcome, maybe a hundred rebuffs until finally I convinced a big company to work with me and then was able to do some elephant bumping.” ‘Elephant bumping’? She explains with a broad smile “when you manage to attract one big client, companies feel reassured and it becomes easier to attract more big clients.  It takes an elephant to bump another elephant into moving.”

There are pitfalls, doubts, rejections and discouragement. The path to success is not linear. Of course, setting up your own company is a risk and a big responsibility especially when it involves others than yourself and constitutes a financial investment. What makes it challenging is that it all rests with the founder(s).

Although Alicia grew up to become a woman of an iron will, there was something else, “there was also the fear of failure. At some point it is not possible anymore to give up, it has to work out somehow!” And it did with tremendous success, prizes and plenty of media coverage. Among many distinctions and prizes, Alicia was named one of the Most influential Women in Technology in 2008 and most recently a 2011 Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.

A key tip for entrepreneurs-to-be

If there is one tip to remember before starting your business it is to know your market! It is crucial to know your target segment, and make sure your product or service is accurately designed in accordance with your customers’ taste. “I invited my friends to my house and tried my ideas on them. I learned a lot from their feedback. It helped me improve what I was doing while having fun and feeling supported”.

The business term used for this is market study, which may sound scary, but scaled down to your business makes a lot of sense. By talking to your family and friends you can adjust your initial idea to something that can be monetized. In other words to make your business a success you have to find the right balance between your idea for the product and the product that people will actually buy.

How to start a business with little capital?

The availability of funds is often the first and main constraint an entrepreneur has to face. “Depending on the kind of business you are setting up, sometimes very little money is necessary up front”. Alicia invested less than $10,000 to start her company in the US. Traditional banks are cautious with loans especially in recessionary times. “One way to get around this lack of funding is to turn to family and friends -they are often better positioned to know the potential in you.”

Where do you go from here?

After nurturing her first company, Consorte Media, for a couple of years, Alicia sold it in 2010. Since then she wrote an ebook, contributed to posts on the most popular US blogs, provided marketing consulting services, , developed an iPhone application named gottaFeeling, and created a new weight loss project called Refleta.com.

Alicia responds without hesitation to the question about her future plans: “I’ll carry on setting up new businesses, of course. Inspiration and opportunities are everywhere if you dare to look. No matter how hard I might fall again or how many unsuccessful attempts I make.. What matters is to rebound and find the strength to rise again!”

You can visit Alicia’s official website/blog on www.aliciamorga.com