Adventures in micro-business
Excerpt written by The Independant Business News
There's a new breed of student emerging from UK universities – the graduate entrepreneur. Gone are the days when graduates were guaranteed employment, so many now plan to start their own business straight after university. It was while at Anglia Ruskin University, studying for a degree in European business with French, that Tom Bool, 28, wrote the plan that defined his translation-service enterprise, "Integro Languages".
Bool's initial business model is to operate via a network of high-quality translators that he can draw upon when needed. "It took around six months to find the core nucleus able to offer translations in 20 languages, at which point I launched the business," says Bool.
The original plan was to target customers, such as website developers with international clients, via telesales campaigns. However, the campaigns weren't as successful as hoped for, giving Bool his first challenge in business. Undeterred, he looked elsewhere for clients and found an important market niche in social housing.
"Tenants with poor English skills get translations of legal documents and other formal notices that are easy to understand and yet contain all the key information needed," says Bool. Rather than always providing literal translations, it became apparent there was a market need for these "precis" translations.
The approach found favour with law firms, especially those with clients who had foreign property investments. "It's proving really useful to be able to offer a good precis for a range of documents. That includes legal agreements, of course, but also such things as letters from foreign banks and even notices from town halls," says Bool.
Integro Languages has grown rapidly since inception, and doubled its turnover last year. The business now offers translation services for more than 150 languages, a number that is growing. Building on the success of the document translation business, Bool is about to launch "Integro languages on call" – a telephone interpreting service. The service will aim to connect anyone with an interpreter in less than one minute. "The service is aimed at people such as professional advisers who need instant access to an interpreter the moment that a client with poor English enters their office, although it will be available to anyone who needs an interpreter," says Bool. "It's a natural extension of our business model which, to be honest, is quite simple: we help people understand each other."
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