Verbio

Securing New Contracts through Marketing and Global Trade

Virginia Joplin was living in France when she decided she wanted to become a translator.

She did translation for multiple corporations before starting as a freelance translator in 1996. Now, Virginia’s Portland-based company, Verbio, has more than 500 corporate and government partners. Verbio offers language translation services for business, marketing, financial, legal and technical content in every language.

After landing a corporate customer in 2009 that needed translation services in sixteen different languages, Virginia realized she needed to start hiring employees. She now has eight full-time employees and dozens of independent contractors.

Virginia went to the SBDC in 2013 for help in marketing her business. She took a marketing basics class and the Advanced Small Business Management course. She also started working with an adviser, who helped her apply for a State Trade and Export Promotion (STEP) Grant. Her adviser also helped her find the right sales metrics tool for Verbio.

“Sometimes it’s just needing to know I am on the right track,” Virginia said. “I know if I need something I can call him up or email him and say I need a sounding board.”