Listen & learn
University Language Center adds school-age market to grow
by Matt Krumrie Karen Houle will be the first to admit, she isn’t very good at predicting the future. She isn’t a business owner who pours hours into market research hoping to find the next big thing.
But she listens to her customers, and that could be the key reason her company, University Language Center (ULC), is rapidly growing.
Houle is founder and president of the Minneapolis-based company that provides comprehensive foreign language services to businesses, adults and children. Those services include language instruction, translating, interpreting and proficiency testing.
Houle started early. She was 23 in 1985 when she formed ULC. Recently graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in French, Houle started the business with a $20,000 loan from her parents. Today the company employs 15 full-time employees, about 15 part-time employees, and up to 100 independent contractors. Projected 2004 revenue is approaching $2 million, says Houle.
Both her mom and dad came from entrepreneurial backgrounds, so they understood the dream. But when she first started ULC Houle claims it was easy — because she was too young and naïve to worry.
“I had very little practical business experience,” she says. “I was foolish enough to not know any better, and young enough to survive on energy and perseverance. I had an attitude that if I was all washed up and the business failed by age 25, then I could probably still be young enough to start my life over and still accomplish something.”
Now married and with two kids, the lifelong Minnesota native is on the leading edge of the latest trend in language instruction. While business-to-business instruction, individual instruction (many clients are those traveling to foreign countries looking to learn the native language), translating, interpreting, and proficiency testing services are the bread and butter of the business, new revenue streams have been created through a rapidly increasing demand for language instruction for school-age children.
Because of shrinking budgets in Minnesota schools, and because more parents see the need to be able to speak languages other than English, this clientele base is growing, and growing fast.
Houle estimates 75 percent of all language instruction in the United States is based on the increasing demand to learn Spanish. That, and learning Chinese and Japanese, says, Houle, are the two fastest-growing language trends. However, in Minnesota, there is also a growing need for people who can fluently speak Hmong, Somali and Middle Eastern languages, among others.
‘100 customers’
That’s where listening to her customers came into play.
“When one customer asks about a certain market you listen, but when you talk to 100 customers throughout the course of a year and a number of them are asking about the same thing, you notice a trend or pattern developing,” says Houle. “That’s where you started to realize that this could be something to break into.”
The demand is there, says Barry Baer, president of Language Solutions, a Stillwater-based organization that teaches language through its custom software training programs.
“Minnesota is the great melting pot. We are a very diverse region,” he says. “There are a number of big businesses in the area — Cargill, Medtronic for example — that have employees who need to know languages other than English.
“The world is coming to Minneapolis, and along with that, there are a number of families that want their children to be able to communicate on another level other than by speaking English. There are about 75 different languages spoken in the Rochester school district, and about 100 different languages in Minneapolis. That shows the demand right there.”
Those parents are preparing their children for a chance at greater success in the business world, says Joan Runnheim, president of Pathways Career Success Strategies, a Hudson, Wisconsin-based career consulting, coaching and training firm. Last year Runnheim gave a presentation on the top 10 workplace skills for the 21st century. Among them was the ability to speak foreign languages.
“Employees are either working alongside someone from a different country or talking with them on the phone,” Runnheim says. “Being multi-lingual can increase your marketability, possibly edging out the competition and can also serve as an important job-keeping skill.”
New employee mix
Rob Knox, a consultant and instructor with EnglishWorks, a Minneapolis company that specializes in occupational English language instruction for organizations that employ or interact with immigrants and refugees with limited English proficiency, says language businesses must change to the need of the market.
That’s exactly what Houle and University Language Center are doing. Houle says the school-age market isn’t a new market, but just an extension of services offered by the company, at a different level.
Houle says breaking into the school-age market presents an entirely different set of challenges and opportunities. First, the client base is completely different. The client is the parents or educators, the end user of the product is the children.
Houle has had to hire an entirely different set of employees too, finding that instructors who work well with students can transition that to working well with adults. But there is another mix that works great with adults, but not quite as well with children.
As for the demand for the school-age market, Houle says it is usually a grassroots parent-driven initiative, either through discussions at PTA meetings, with school boards, or individually seeing the need.
Houle says costs of individual one-on-one language instruction for a child are similar to that of private piano or karate lessons. Most parents who use these services, Houle says, are accustomed to paying for enrichment opportunities for their children, and budget for extracurricular activities.
“A lot of our business has come from referrals,” she says. “Parents have a vast network, and they all want the most opportunities for their children.”
Houle has a fire that still burns strong even after 20 years leading the business. The company has evolved and changed with the times, continuously finding new ways to attract business. That’s what drives Houle.
“One minute we could be working with the upper management of American Airlines, and the next minute we’re on the phone talking to Mrs. Smith about her first-grade son’s Spanish class,” says Houle.
That energy, that drive, that’s Houle, says Peggy Lauritsen, chief executive artist of Lauritsen Design Group, a Minneapolis-based brand identity and marketing communications firm. Lauritzen and Houle are both past presidents of the Minnesota chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners.
“Karen embodies everything you think of in a small-business owner,” says Lauritsen. “She has a passion for what she does, and a strong belief that the product she sells, in this case language services, will be an important part of improving people’s lives.”
Says Houle: “Teaching foreign language and being a part of that is what I love. I’ve met people from all over the world and had some truly great experiences because of it.”
[contact] Barry Baer, Language Solutions: 612.822.5515; barry@languagesolutionsllc.com; www.languagesolutionsllc.com. Karen Houle, University Language Center: 612.379.3823; houle@ulanguage.com; www.ulanguage.com. Ron Knox, EnglishWorks: 612.729.6897; englishworks@yahoo.com; www.englishworks.net. Peggy Lauritsen, Peggy Lauritsen Design Group: 612.623.4200; plauritsen@pldg.com; www.pldg.com. Joan Runnheim, Pathways Career Success Strategies: 715.549.6432; joan@pathwayscareer.com, www.pathwayscareer.com.
