From Accidental Freelancer to Thriving Business Owner: A Journey of Serendipity (Full Transcript)

Speaker 1: My dad always talks about wanting to have opened his own business when he was growing up and graduating high school and, you know, he just never found his niche. And he's just so thankful that, you know, I found a niche and that I opened my own business. And I even fell into the business by accident. I was working for an agency as an interpreter and had to take some time off for a family emergency and didn't feel that I was being treated appropriately by the agency that I was working for. So I told my husband, I said, you know, you have a lot of clients who request me as their interpreter. I said, I think that I can probably just work on my own and just say to them, you know, if you want me to be your interpreter, just request me when you go places and I'll be your interpreter. And I thought, you know, I could just be what's called a freelance interpreter. I could just, you know, work on my own. I really didn't have this big, huge vision of having a business. And then it just happened that I got more work than I could handle myself. So I hired a person and then I decided that I needed to have a business name because of tax purposes when I talked to a CPA. So I started out as Sign Language Services of Michigan and I got too much work for the two of us. And then I had to hire a third and then I had to hire a fourth. And I looked at my husband and I became pregnant with my first son. And I said, you know, I think I can really make a go of this. What do you think? And he said, whatever you want to do. And one of those husbands was just wonderful and very supportive. And so I just really made a go of it. And I started to go after, you know, contracts where I could really help people obtain, you know, a good amount of hours and get a good living. And that's what I did. And this wonderful blessing of a company happened. So it was just kind of an accident all along. So my dad is really, I think, living the business life that he wanted through me. He, you know, he likes to help talk about it and give advice and also what's going on now. And you know what I mean? So we have these talks and it's great. Music by Ben Thede