Lori L. Anding drew what she considers the short straw when she and Marlene Gomez were setting up their small business that uses independent linguists to provide translation services.
When it came to dividing up responsibilities, Gomez got accounting and production. Anding ended up with sales -- an area she just doesn't like.
"I find salespeople very annoying, so I have a huge problem if I am really trying to sell translations," says Anding, 44, co-owner of Axiom Translations in Torrance. "I have a hard time meeting the mold, becoming that mold of a salesperson I think I should be."
Sales have flattened at the small business that uses more than 100 independent linguists to translate English manuals into many other languages, create subtitles for videos and interpret legal proceedings, among other services.
After peaking at $246,000 in 2006, sales slid to $196,000 last year. The recession hammered the business in the first half of this year, but several promising contracts are looming.
The 5-year-old company is keeping busy with small jobs translating academic transcripts for students. The slump has also pushed the owners to work harder toward their longtime goal of becoming certified as a minority- and female-owned business.
"We want to be able to open different doors," says Gomez, 42, a Costa Rica native and Spanish speaker.
They believe they have already won business from major companies such as Sempra Energy of San Diego, the parent of Southern California Gas Co., because Axiom is female-owned. They won a recent contract from the city of Los Angeles as of one three vendors approved to offer interpretation and translation services for the city's dozens of neighborhood councils, based in part on their good-faith efforts to get certified.
Other potential customers, including a major pharmaceutical company, "won't touch us until we are certified," says Anding, who has been researching the requirements.
In fact, many minority-owned and female-owned businesses looking for an edge in today's tough economy are exploring becoming certified, says John W. Murray Jr., president and chief executive of a major certification group, Southern California Minority Business Development Council Inc.
Although public agencies may not be allowed to award contracts based on race or gender, many private corporations strive for supplier diversity. They often rely on databases of certified firms put together by nonprofit business development groups.
