Alina Mugford, Owner of The Translation Link in Florida, Wins the 2010 SCORE Award for Outstanding Small Business Launch by a 50-plus Entrepreneur

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Aug 17, 2010, 09:13 ET

WASHINGTON, Aug. 17 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- SCORE "Counselors to America's Small Business" honors Alina Mugford, owner of The Translation Link in Cortez, Fla., with the SCORE Award for Outstanding Small Business Launch by a 50-plus Entrepreneur. She earned this honor for her contributions to her community, exemplary achievements in her field, and overall business success. Mugford will accept this award, which is sponsored by The SCORE Foundation, at the 2nd Annual SCORE Awards and black-tie gala.

Mugford and the entrepreneurial SCORE Awards winners will be recognized during a September 16 event at the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C. Learn more at www.score.org/score_awards.html.

After learning that there was a terrific need for translation services in Florida's Manatee and Sarasota Counties, Alina began investigating business resources to help start her own service. She learned about Manasota SCORE through her local Chamber of Commerce, and also went online to find a counselor.

"Through the Internet, we found a local counselor, Greg Hoffman," Alina Mugford says. "First of all, I was new in the country in terms of how to go on doing business in the U.S. My experience in business is long in Venezuela. He helped me to do things here in the U.S. business-wise and all the steps that you should do to start a company. He also helped to narrow down my target market. I wanted to start big. He made me rethink my target."

Translation Link — which offers translation services as well as marketing, document editing, consulting and other services in a variety of languages — hit the market and took off. After signing its first client in January 2007, by year two the company showed growth of 1,300 percent. Of course things have slowed by year three, with growth up "only" 50 percent over the previous year.

Alina was nearly 50 when she immigrated to the United States in 2003. Although she had extensive business experience in Venezuela and was a college professor, the Cuban-born Alina didn't know a lot about doing business in the U.S. "I'm a good example of the American dream," says Alina, who became a U.S. citizen 1 1/2 years ago. "Hard work, hard work, hard work pays off. When you put your body, your heart, your soul into what you want to do, you can do it."

For more information, contact Christine Banning at 800/634-0245 or [email protected]. To attend the SCORE Awards, contact Mark Dobosz at 941/371-3107 or [email protected]. Learn more at www.score.org/score_awards.html.

About The SCORE Foundation: The mission of The SCORE Foundation is to support and leverage the work of SCORE by soliciting, investing and managing resources for the benefit of SCORE. Learn more about The SCORE Foundation at www.scorefoundation.org.

About SCORE: Since 1964, SCORE has helped more than 8.5 million aspiring entrepreneurs. Each year, SCORE provides small business mentoring and workshops to more than 375,000 new and growing small businesses. More than 12,400 business experts volunteer as mentors in 364 chapters serving local communities with entrepreneur education to help grow 1 million small businesses.

For more information about starting or operating a small business, call 1-800/634-0245 for the SCORE chapter nearest you. Visit SCORE at www.score.org and www.score.org/women. Connect with SCORE at www.facebook.com/SCOREFans, http://twitter.com/SCOREMentors and www.scorecommunity.org.

Contact Information

Christine Banning

VP of Marketing & Communications

800/634-0245; [email protected]

SOURCE SCORE Association