When Alisa Morkides earned a chemistry degree, she assumed she would follow her father and grandfather into DuPont Co. But, when the new grad asked her father to put in a good word for her, he told her they already had enough secretaries.
Morkides tried chemistry, then earned an MBA and worked as a financial advisor until she got the idea for Brew HaHa! – while sitting in a coffee shop looking down on Florence, Italy. Her energy possibly fueled by the 16 ounces of expresso she downs daily, Morkides opened her first Brew HaHa! in Greenville six months later.
There are now nine Brew HaHa!s, each decorated to fit their neighborhood vibe. Morkides has also had setbacks: a too-quick expansion into Philadelphia and the ill-fated Sunna, the healthy-foods and juices bar she opened after she lost more than 100 pounds by exercising and eating whole foods.
As the featured guest at the Women in Business event in Wilmington on Dec. 10, she spoke to a crowd of approximately 450 about her path from chemistry wannabe to coffee entrepreneur. Morkides was interviewed by NBC 10 Consumer Advocate Tracy Davidson, a seven-time Emmy winner.
Morkides started Brew HaHa! in 1996, before the coffee trend had hit Delaware. (“I felt I had to do this.”)
People told her the market wasn’t there for her vision, but she went ahead. She later realized she wanted Brew HaHa! because it brought together four things she loves – coffee, food, people and decorating. (“If you feel it, if you have that persistence, you just have to go for it.”)
She had no experience in retired, save a short stint on the counter at Roy Rogers. (“Align yourself with people who have the talents you don’t have. Hire the best people. Give them the vision and let them enact that vision.”)
Even though she started her first store with no budget, it worked. She expanded. Her first step into the food arena, Sunna, failed in less than a year. (“I’d go into the office at 3:30 in the morning and think about it. I had to consider that this dream that I had didn’t work out, but I’ve had many dreams that didn’t work out.”)
A Pinterest fan, she found a pinned item that said success isn’t usually a straight-up trajectory. It’s more like the mark a pinking shear makes – peaks and valleys. She realized she had a successful career. (“Going to work and feeling like I couldn’t imagine doing anything else as a career.”)
She realized her other jobs were not what she wanted to do. (“I never thought of what I like to do. I thought of what other people thought I should do.”)
Now, she said, she loves going to work and doesn’t even mind working the occasional Saturday because she’s doing what she loves.
Her advice to other women: “Don’t feel you have to do something for anyone. Do it because you love it.”
WOMEN IN BUSINESS
Women in Business is an annual event sponsored by Delaware Today and Delaware Business Times to recognize the accomplishments of 44 businesswomen across the state. The downstate luncheon was held Dec. 2 at the Atlantic Sands Hotel and Convention Center in Rehoboth Beach. Donna Covington, dean of the College of Business at Delaware State University, gave the keynote address.
