Success Story: Language Solutions
Clayton-based global communication concern connects clients, cultures
Melissa Wurst's professional passions collide constructively at the crossroads of culture and language.
Melissa's cross-cultural immersion started 20 years ago after she earned a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Missouri. As a Peace Corps volunteer in 1988, she implemented language and training programs in Thailand. Today Melissa heads a Clayton-based company—Language Solutions Inc.—with a global reach and an international talent-pool of more than 1,200 multi-lingual professionals.
Melissa Wurst, founder and president of Language Solutions Inc., refers to a display of information related to her company's localization-industry work for its globally focused clients.
"My Peace Corps experience is what inspired my love of languages and cultures," recalls the Language Solutions president. "It led me to bringing home the third goal of the Peace Corps, which is educating people in this country about other cultures and thereby widening perspectives. I feel that a different language is indeed a different vision of life."
Following the Peace Corps, Melissa pursued other foreign culture and linguistics assignments that eventually helped propel her toward her entrepreneurial venture. While studying for her master's degree in education at Wichita State University, Melissa nurtured her international interests by serving as assistant director of the Kansas-based Midwest Refugee Center. Next she headed back to Asia to serve as director of a bilingual school in Taiwan.
By 1996, she had returned to her native St. Louis to direct the foreign language learning program for an international company. In that post she set standards and established language immersion programs for the overseas-bound employees of several corporate clients, including retail giant Wal-Mart.
However, after two years in the job Melissa needed to scratch the entrepreneurial itch she had developed during 10 years for working for others.
Visit www.missouribusiness.net/success/language_solutions.asp for the complete story with additional photos.
Business Going Green
Lean manufacturing principles yield production benefits
The debate surrounding the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. continues. Many maintain that manufacturing has experienced a significant decline in recent years due to the relocation of many companies to offshore sites where infrastructure and labor are less expensive. Others maintain manufacturing job loss is a natural byproduct of enhanced technology that has eliminated the need for workers to complete manufacturing processes.
Regardless of your position on the issue, most of us probably would agree that the U.S. remains a major manufacturing nation, selling and exporting more than at any other time in its history.
One of the reasons for this country's continuing dominance has been the integration of lean manufacturing principles based on the original Toyota production system designed around waste elimination. Although these techniques were created in the automotive industry, the principles can easily be adapted to other industries and workplaces.
To learn more about the benefits of lean manufacturing, read this complete article at www.missouribusiness.net/docs/lean_mfg_benefits.asp.
Explore Basic Issues Before Applying for a Patent:
Freedom to operate and patentability
If you've developed a new product or process that you plan to use as a basis for a new business, you might be tempted to plunk down a large sum of money right away to have a patent agent or attorney prepare and submit a patent application for you. However, this would be premature. There are at least two questions that you need to answer beforehand. First, you need to determine if you have "freedom to operate"—whether or not you can produce and sell a product or use a process without infringing on the intellectual property rights of others.
At first blush it might seem as though determining freedom to operate simply entails checking to see if there are any patent applications or issued patents with claims that cover your invention. In reality, it requires a little more evaluation. If you find relevant patent applications or issued patents, you could still have freedom to operate based on any number of factors. The patents may not be in force because the patent holder didn't make the required maintenance payments. The patents may be expired. Claims in the patents might be narrow. The patents themselves might be subject to challenge for any number of reasons. Or the patent applications may have been denied. Even if you find relevant, enforceable patents, you may still be able to obtain freedom to operate by negotiating a license with the patent holders.
Continue reading about freedom to operate and patentability at www.missouribusiness.net/docs/freedom_operate_patent.asp.
If you have questions about product development or patents, contact your local Missouri Small Business and Technology Development Center. Find a list of center locations and contact information at www.missouribusiness.net/sbdc/centers.asp.
Recent SBA Initiatives Designed to Meet Needs of Small Business Owners
The challenges of today's economic times are not lost on the U.S. Small Business Administration, the federal agency charged with assisting the nation's entrepreneurs with information, services and access to capital. The following initiatives demonstrate SBA's efforts to respond to the needs of prospective and existing small business owners.
Help for rural communities
The agency has recently launched a program to enhance economic development in the nation's rural areas by making it easier for smaller community banks and credit unions to use SBA loan products to finance small businesses.
Continue reading about SBA loans and get an update on how provisions in the Economic Stimulus Package will greatly reduce the taxes many small businesses will owe for 2008 at www.missouribusiness.net/docs/sba_initiatives_meet_needs.asp.
Contact your local SBTDC for more information by visiting www.missouribusiness.net.
Plan the Path to Success for Your Business
Olympic athletes are taught to visualize different competitive situations. During the visualization process, it has been detected that the athlete's muscles are receiving signals from the brain. Visualization is preparing them physically for future events. Think of planning as visualizing the future and preparing yourself and your business to meet the challenges of the future.
Just like training is a routine activity for the athlete, planning should be a routine activity for the business owner. With planning, the future will be a lot more recognizable when it arrives. Without planning, you may not recognize or may even miss the opportunities that the future presents.
Planning can be an individual or team effort. Employee involvement in planning can enhance their capabilities, their understanding of the business and their loyalty. In addition, their different perspectives could lead to valuable insights.
Planning should cover at least three areas—marketing, finance and operations. These areas should then be integrated. Regular planning requires you to position yourself to receive information from several sources, to interpret unfolding situations as threats or opportunities, and to anticipate future events.
Marketing information can come from trade journals, business publications, news services, the Internet, customers, suppliers and competitors. Operational information can be gleaned from company records, internal studies of activity or production, and areas of concern. Operational information also will come from the evaluation of what others are doing.
Financial information can be collected from your income statement, cash flows and balance sheet. Comparison to other companies in your industry allows you to evaluate where you stand comparatively. Supporting your operational and marketing plans with your financial plan may be your challenge.
We have to remember that government is our business partner. Information flow has to include what is happening on the local, state, national and international levels. This information greatly impacts your planning process.
Planning can be a powerful tool for you, your business, and your team. It can help you succeed when good and bad things happen to your company. For more information on this and other business topics contact your local SBTDC by visiting www.missouribusiness.net. Or you can visit the resource library on that site for a great catalog of management information: www.missouribusiness.net/library/management.asp
Minority-owned Businesses Should Explore Government Contracting Opportunities
Measurable progress has been made in minority business development in the past several decades. While there are still strides to be taken, it's safe to say that minority-owned businesses have moved from emerging to noteworthy in terms of numbers, employees and industry sectors in recent years.
Since the 1980s, expanded government programs and enhanced contractor diversity programs have opened up many opportunities. The difference is a 10 percent increase in revenue annually, a 23 percent increase in jobs created and a growth rate that is three times higher than most traditional businesses. Still, with a prediction that minorities will comprise 40 percent of the U.S. population in the near future, we have some distance to cover before the number of minority-owned businesses is comparable.
The difference can be accounted for by considering that minority-owned businesses are disproportionately represented in low- and no-growth business sectors. They tend to rely more on personal debt and family financing rather than commercial loans, equity and other tools to finance their companies. And they often lack the size, scale and capabilities of some of their majority colleagues.
Learn more about government contracting opportunities available to minority-owned firms by reading this complete story at www.missouribusiness.net/ptac/docs/minority_biz_govt_opps.asp.
We're here to help. Contact one of the MO PTAC centers. Locations and contact information are available at www.missouribusiness.net/ptac/centers.asp.
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