In our ‘Inspiring small businesses’ series, we share and celebrate great stories from small business owners who started and run their own business. By bringing you closer to these inspiring businesses we hope that you find motivation, tips, and ideas for building yours. Next up, we spoke to Alina Cincan, Founder and Managing Director of Inbox Translation, a small professional translation agency offering B2B translation services in more than 100 language combinations, working with businesses in various sectors.

What's the story behind your business?

It all started 10 years ago, when I was juggling two jobs - teacher and translator/interpreter, and my partner was studying for his master’s degree. It was for one of his courses that the idea of our business started to take shape. Fast forward three years later, and we decided to take the plunge and go from paper to the real thing. And we have been running it together ever since, which means we are basically together 24/7 :) 

What inspired you to start your own business?

I think it was a mixture of things, some personal, some professional. On a personal level,  I wanted to experience the freedom of being my own boss (little did I know that this freedom comes at a price). Professionally, apart from being smitten with the translation aspect of the job, I wanted to help people communicate efficiently in more than just one language (since I only translate into my mother tongue, Romanian), and since my network of professional translators was growing, it was a natural move.

What is the most difficult aspect of running your own business?

Wearing all the hats, definitely! Well, not all, as my partner has his fair share of responsibilities, but I am involved in several aspects of the business (from copywriting, translating, and managing projects to bookkeeping and other admin), and there never seems enough time to do all the things I want to do, one of which is learning a new language (to add to my other five). That freedom I mentioned earlier? Well...

Another one could be the fact that I run the business together with my life partner, which means we are never truly disconnected from work. We have also learnt (still work in progress for me, to be honest) to not take work-related constructive criticism personally. 

What is the best thing about running your own business?

Surprisingly, most of the stuff I talked about earlier and described as being difficult are also the best at the same time. Wearing several hats has taught me to be more organised and learn to prioritise, and working alongside someone who knows you really well, someone you can trust 100% is a great feeling. Of course, any time we receive great feedback from the clients (or a collection of all the games we helped localise) is a reason to jump for joy. All in all, running a business is a bit of a rollercoaster, but I wouldn’t change it for anything now.

To find our more about Inbox Translation, visit their website or follow them on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter.