Thinking Global From the Start and Expanding Your Business Internationally

In this episode of On The Map podcast, your host Lee Caraher talks with Wendy Pease. 

Acquiring a Translation Business

Wendy is the Owner and President of Rapport International, based out of MetroWest Boston, MA and Lincoln, NE. Rapport International provides translation and interpretation services as well as spoken solutions, multilingual marketing, and more. Wendy shares that she bought this business after she became exhausted from the corporate rat race. She was totally new to the translation space but she loved the idea of acquiring a business that taught and explored culture. She realized quickly that the business she acquired was a diamond in the rough -- this business existed before things like Google Translate existed. The business responded well to marketing, so Wendy put in the hard work to build relationships with the company’s existing client base. She networked and built relationships with cold leads, and ultimately, Wendy’s inkling was right; you have to be willing to put on the sales and marketing hat full time when you first acquire a business. It’s key that as the business owner, you explore and engage with your existing client base and also build a new network to connect with. 

Focus on Building Your Network Opportunities 

Marketing and networking opportunities increase every single day. If you feel your business fills a need, you absolutely have to dedicate a serious amount of time to marketing. If you don’t get your solution in front of people, it will never take off. Wendy shares that when she first began attending networking and marketing events, no one really knew what a translation service did at a high level. Now, especially after the creation of Google Translate, there is an entire industry around these types of services. Wendy’s business would never have grown at the rate it did had she not continued to network and market consistently to build her company’s authority in the space.

Plan to Go Global from Day One  

Rapport International markets all over the world and has clients from all over the globe. About ten years ago, when people started adding cities to their social media accounts, SEO made it so that Rapport International popped into local internet searches near Boston, MA. Back then, people cared a lot about whether or not a business they worked with was close to them, geographically speaking. Nowadays, that matters less than ever. Wendy shares that Rapport wants to expand their global offerings even more to attract more clients from different places. Market entry when trying to expand your company globally isn’t clear cut and requires very informed marketing strategies, so take calculated steps when expanding your international marketing. You should be planning to expand your business internationally from the beginning -- it’s extremely difficult to backtrack if you didn’t prepare for it well in advance. Don’t forget to take advantage of government grants if you want to expand internationally; the government wants to encourage businesses to work across borders, so do yourself a favor and look into that as you plan your business expansion. 

Want to learn more? Check out Rapport International’s website at https://www.rapporttranslations.com/. 

Check out Rapport International on LinkedIn at  https://www.linkedin.com/company/rapport-international-sudbury-ma/. 

Check out Wendy Pease on LinkedIn at