Your Name: Terena Bell
Business Name: In Every Language, a language translation service
Type of Business: Translation provider
Business Location: Louisville, Kentucky, United States
Website www.ineverylanguage.com
Twitter @InEveryLanguage
Facebook www.facebook.com/InEveryLanguage
Reason for starting
I love helping people. I also love solving problems. Looking around me at the time, I saw a large problem in that people who were fluent in other languages were unable to find jobs where they could use those skills and that people who needed to communicate with those from other countries weren’t able to find the translation help they needed. The company grew and improved from there.
How do you define success?
The meaning of success has changed for me since first starting the company, as both it and I evolve. I currently feel as though success through my business = job creation. With our global economy being what it is, if–through translation–I can help our clients increase their foreign sales and create more jobs at their own businesses, I’ve succeeded. This, in turn, will create more jobs here at In Every Language. By giving back to our economy through job creation, we’re in turn helping to create a better world.
Biggest Success
Well, it would have to be creating jobs, wouldn’t it? In all sincerity, though, there are translators living on every continent who have been able to either fully support or augment their income through the work they do with In Every Language. That’s success to me.
What is your top challenge and how have you addressed it?
Being a female business owner is a lot harder than I realized it would be. My entire life, I was raised that men and women were equal and that there was nothing I could not accomplish if I set my mind to it. But after creating a company that sells to clients in male-driven fields (such as manufacturing & technology), I’ve learned there are still a lot of translation buyers out there who will always look at my breasts before they do my brains. But In Every Language is one of the best companies in the nation at what we do. So I hang in there because the company I’ve built is worth overcoming obstacles. I ignore it. I keep on going and I show them why the brains are more worth looking at it. You just don’t let men like that stop you.
Who is your most important role model?
I was blessed to grow up in a community full of strong and dynamic women–my grandmothers, my Aunt Tucker, my mom, my Aunt LaNell. To choose just one would be a disservice to them all, especially as collectively they make the perfect woman.