“I was crushed,” Barbara Rodriguez said, referring to her layoff from Mercy Hospital in Springfield nine years ago.
But Rodriguez is a firm believer that the layoff — as difficult as it was at that time — forced her into taking a hard look at her future. She soon launched the now successful TransFluenci, a business that provides translation and interpretation services to several of the region’s hospitals and state agencies in Connecticut and Massachusetts.
Since Rodriguez started her business, which she initially named Global Link Translations, it has grown by leaps and bounds. She has contracts with more than 300 language translators and interpreters and has three full-time staff to help run the business and schedule services.
After starting up her business, she recalls proudly calling her father to report $20,000 in revenues. Last year, her business earned more than $730,000 in revenues.
“When one door closes, another opens,” Rodriguez said with a smile. “I did this from nothing. I was laid off and I had no money. In the end, if you are laid off, try to think about your skills.”
At Mercy Hospital, she had been charged with reaching out to Spanish-speaking women in the Springfield region to inform them about various health matters. Fluent in Spanish, Rodriguez decided to focus on her bilingual abilities.
While working part-time at another job to stay afloat financially, she created a brochure for her own translation and interpretation business. With the brochure in hand, she began knocking on doors. “I made this from thin air,” she said.
Her business garnered a few contracts from local hospitals, where the need for interpreters was — and continues to be — in high demand. She also was retained by various law firms to provide translation support.
Recognizing the high demand for such services, she began to contract with interpreters and translators to provide services for other languages, including Asian and Slavic languages.
Her next step was to become certified as minority-owned business from the State Office of Minority and Women Business Assistance in Massachusetts. She also received assistance from the Springfield Business Incubator at Springfield Technical Community College, where she established an office.
She got her big break when her company landed a contract with the state of Massachusetts, enabling her to become a vendor for state agencies. Although she was competing with five or six other vendors, her small enterprise appealed to agencies that wanted to contract with a woman- — or minority — owned business.
With that advantage, she realized that there were three key ingredients — accessibility, confidentiality and security — to her company’s success. Providing prompt, professional and reliable service 24 hours per day, seven days a week was critical. When a phone call is placed to the company, it never goes to voice mail; a person answers the phone. When clients prefer to place an order for an interpreter through TransFluenci’s secure Web site, the message immediately bounces to her or her operation manager’s BlackBerry at any time, day or night, Rodriguez said.
Another key to the business’ success is the personal attention clients receive.
“Whenever I go face-to-face, I never lose a sale,” she said. “It’s easy. Today, if you want to be different, you have to go see them [customers and potential clients].” Rodriguez said other small business owners should never underestimate the importance of developing relationships.
As the business grew, Rodriguez carefully hired employees and contracted with individuals who fit with her vision. Today, her three full-time employees all work from home, as she does from a new office addition recently constructed at her Enfield home.
In addition to contracts with the state of Massachusetts, TransFluenci is a vendor for the state of Connecticut and for the federal government.
The federal contract was approved this summer and comes with a five-year contract, with options to renew for two additional, five-year terms. As a contractor on the U.S. GSA (General Services Administration) Web site, Rodriguez plans to grow her business by knocking on the doors of federal agencies.
“The recession makes you more creative and makes you think a lot about different approaches,” Rodriguez said.
Diane Weaver Dunne is the Hartford Business Journal managing editor.
