Coronavirus Hit like a ton of bricks! I admire many of my translation colleagues. For many of them it was business as usual. They already had clients and were set up to work remotely.
For some time, I recognized the need for my business to be highly specialized but to also diversify enough to adapt to changing circumstances. I believe that working towards that goal kept our business alive.
In one week, every single client I had needing interpreting and safety services called to cancel. We went from employing dozens of people to Emily and I working what we could. Thank God we had some translation projects to work on. Just as the translation projects were finishing up, the Payment Protection Program loan arrived just in time and work began to resume.
I was able to offer virtual safety training and obtain special permission from OSHA to virtually teach OSHA 10 and 30 classes in construction and general industry. Emily also transitioned to Zoom and WebEx for legal and court interpreting. Virtual assignments kept us alive.
Despite so much potential and cancellations, we managed to survive and stay in business. I know what I need to do to reach our goal to create a business diversified enough to future crisis. That is for a later blog.
I am grateful to survive; I was frightened that we would not make it. My heart goes out to several long-standing colleagues that could not continue. I hope the best for you in your efforts to start over. My hope is that soon we can all put this behind us and start anew.
