Seeing the growing influence of the Hispanic consumer on the fashion industry, entrepreneur Michelle Sanchez creates a modeling agency catered to representing Latina models.

In Spanish, "moda" means fashion. To Michelle Sanchez, a 31-year-old Dallas, Texas entrepreneur, there wasn't a more fitting word to include in the name of her current business venture.

Born with an entrepreneurial spirit, Sanchez was always on the lookout for ways to create unique business opportunities for herself. One opportunity she saw developing was the inevitable inclusion of more Latina and Latino models in the fashion industry.

Sanchez knew it was only a matter of time before the fashion industry would realize the buying power of the growing Hispanic population and how Latino consumers would want to see clothes modeled by people who looked like them. Wanting to be ready to seize the opportunity when it fully developed, Sanchez knew there was only one way to plan for it -- create her own modeling agency that focused on representing Hispanic models.

"I knew I would have a niche in the Dallas market by representing Latinas," said Sanchez.

Yet, she needed a catchy name that embodied what her business was all about.

"I decided on the name MODA because it's easy to recognize and remember," said Sanchez. "Also, since moda, in Spanish, means fashion, it was just easy to add modelos to it and create MODA Modelos."

Next came the business plan. Sanchez started out with a short business plan but credits her success in getting the venture off the ground with her ability to network and meet a variety of people with whom she was able to do trade arrangements with.

While coming up with the name, finalizing the business plan and networking took effort, it was convincing the fashion industry to include Latina and Latino models in their shows and to be featured in fashion catalogs that has been a four-year struggle that Sanchez finally feels is paying off.