Clients ask her to watch their language.

• Position: Michelle Luhr - Brief Article

Michelle Luhr's moment of clarity came in 1994 while waiting tables at an Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. She was 23, on the "forever" program to get a bachelor's at UNC Charlotte and clueless about her future.

She had spoken French and English since childhood and had edited translations on the side. But she was still searching for the meaning of life until her boss spelled it out for her: Open a translation agency. "I knew when he said that, that was exactly what I wanted to do. I ran into the back, and I told my friends, and they thought I was crazy. And then I told my family, and they thought I was crazy."

Maybe with good reason. Luhr, still living with her divorced mom and sister, was so tapped out from tuition and books that it was tough even to find $200 to register her company, Choice Translating & Interpreting LLC.

At first, it was just Luhr, a Charleston, S.C., native who moved to Charlotte at age 3, and her Frenchborn mom, Monique Caselli, a former secretary, working out of their kitchen. First-year revenues totaled a paltry $10,000. School siphoned much of Luhr's time, but more than that, Choice's French focus didn't satisfy customers who also exported to non-French-speaking countries. "That's when we switched gears and recruited translators to work for us," Luhr says.

By 1997, the year she got a bachelor's in international business and French -- an easy major for her, she admits, but hey, a lot of Americans major in English -- she had more than 70 contractors. Revenues crept to $50,000 that year, then...