For seven years, Mayra del Valle opened distribution centers around the world and negotiated key airline contracts for a young pioneering duty free company -- until it sold for $99 million.

``I thought if I helped build that business and then it sold for that much money, I was going to give it a go for myself.''

So the mother of three mortgaged the family home and invested $300,000 in 1995 to start Duty Free World, a company that supplies and sells products on international flights.

For the first few years, del Valle and one staff member serviced one airline and did everything from placing the orders to driving the warehouse forklift to training flight attendants on how to sell. Today, Duty Free World employs 160 people in offices around the world.

It's that kind of entrepreneurial spirit that defines del Valle, who said her father was always trying new ventures. Her family moved to Florida -- first Miami, then Sarasota, then Miami again -- from Cuba in 1968, when she was just 11. Although they left Cuba with nothing, her parents always made it a point at the dinner table each night to remind her and her brother that this was the land of opportunity. Their message: Work hard, study and you will make it.

DOOR-TO-DOOR SALES

Del Valle, who is 52, caught what she calls the business bug early in life -- fudging her age on her application to land a job at Zayre's at age 14. Thom McCanns sold shoes for $10 but often offered them 2-for-1, so she'd also buy dozens of pairs in various sizes during the sale, sell them door-to-door around her neighborhood for $10 each, and return the next day to stock up and do it again.

Married at 16, a mother at 17, del Valle finished high school at night to get her diploma. She attended Miami Dade College for a couple of semesters but needed to make money to help the family. So she got her education on the job -- learning about international business at a freight forwarder and then at Inflight Duty Free Shops before launching Duty Free World.

Money was so tight then. ``I used to make doves out of soap for your bathroom and sell them. I'd sell cheap things outside the grocery store in the evenings. My daughter, Leylani, would stand there with me. In retrospect, I think she is the woman she is because she saw me going through so much hardship.''

IN MOM'S FOOTSTEPS

After graduating from FIU with a political science degree, Leylani Cardosa also found herself in freight forwarding, enjoying the fast-paced, logistics-oriented industry, just as her mother did. A few years later, she started and ran her own freight forwarding company, Frontier International, before selling it and joining her mom in Duty Free World.

Cardosa is vice president, in charge of operations and marketing. When Duty Free World was no longer able to sell a popular, profitable designer purse on board, Cardosa volunteered to design one. Until then, designing was just a hobby.

But that purse led to a whole line of fine Italian leather handbags and accessories called Bolzano that is sold in stores, including Leather & Co. at Miami International Airport, and online, as well as on planes.

``My mother has been very encouraging,'' said Cardosa, now 34. ``She gave me a lot of self-confidence. In my mind, the idea I wouldn't be able to succeed just didn't occur to me.''

BUILDING A TEAM

She wanted to do it all, but now has a team. ``I think that by default entrepreneurs bite off more than they can chew,'' says Cardosa, who launched Bolzano in 2002. She advises entrepreneurs to believe in yourself and set specific goals.

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