It all began with a small job. Our very first client appeared on Monica’s doorstep “out of the blue”. It’s a story that Monica still enjoys telling. She’d been home with her newborn for barely a week and had completely forgotten that her advert for translation services was due to run from April. Both the client and Monica were slightly taken aback, but they quickly agreed on a solution. The client ended up being pleased with the resulting translation – and Monica earned her first 25 DM. We were even able to retain this client right through until he retired and closed his company – it’s a collaboration that we still look back on fondly. Both he and an established translator, who acted as a mentor from the start, recommended Allround Service many times, laying the foundations for our growth. Credit for the company name, Allround Service, and its logo (which we’ve only changed slightly over the years) goes to a university friend of Monica’s. Back in 1981, it was still important to be at the front of the Yellow Pages and the idea was to offer an “all-round service” consisting of translation, interpreting and typing services with a global vision.
Back in those days, translations and transcriptions were done using typewriters. If there were any typos, we had to carefully correct them using TippEx. Hands up if you remember that! Later, there were typewriters with correction tape and finally models with a small amount of memory to save your work. Our first computer – a Canon VP200 word processor – had to be started with a program disk and we had to keep a very careful eye on the memory disk to ensure that it didn’t get too full – if it did, your text was gone. Using this contraption, we produced a theological work of over 1000 pages! We also used it for translations, sitting on the floor to do research surrounded by open books, the encyclopaedia and big fat dictionaries. The finished work was delivered in person, which gave us a lot of networking opportunities.
During this time, Petra began working for us and we brought on board our first freelance Spanish translator.
Finally we received our first interpreting jobs, allowing us to live up to the name Allround Service. We also had our first negotiations with industry buyers from companies such as Siemens and EADS – Monica always breathed a sigh of relief when those conversations went well!
We rented our first office in 1987, moving in with the latest technology – a modem! We can still hear that dial-up tone even after all this time. If you want to be reminded of it, check out the film You’ve Got Mail 😉
Over all these years, we’ve seen trends come and go. We’ve overcome challenges and actively adapted to an ever faster pace. We’ve never rested on our laurels and continue to evolve to this day.
Looking back like this also makes us realise how long we’ve been working with many of our clients and freelancers, and how long some of our staff have been with us. Values such as fairness, reliability, quality and team spirit have certainly also played a role here.
We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has been part of this journey so far and made it possible for us to get here. Thank you for your dedication, loyalty and trust, and for enabling us to turn visions into reality in partnership with our clients. In the early years, those clients even helped us find our feet – for which Monica will be eternally grateful!
So that’s how it all began… What happened next is another story! Would you like to hear about our little office in Fraunbergstraße and about Monica, running the business as a mother of three?
We are very much looking forward to getting stuck in over the coming years – and we’re excited to see what the future will bring. Here’s to the next 45 years! 🥂
P.S. The “story” is also intended to encourage younger colleagues who are just starting out or about to begin their careers.
