Tell Us Your Story. What motivated you to start your business? Why are you passionate about what you do?

As a lifelong language enthusiast, writer, and translator, I launched Arvorei Communications Group to make a positive impact in the world by removing language barriers and increasing access to content. Following the example of my parents who supported many causes as donors and volunteers, my first career was fundraising and communications for charities. After more than 25 years raising funds and awareness for various causes, I ventured into a new communications arena – translation – following a cross-continental move with my family. Marrying a Brazilian and raising our children in Brazil and Canada in a two-language home, I have developed a deep passion for increasing accessibility to content for people who don’t speak English. With a personal passion for achieving optimal health naturally, without the use of medications, my initial business mission was to support online wellness educators to reach more people with their life-saving content by removing language barriers and translating their websites, courses, and marketing collateral into different languages. Today, I’ve expanded Arvorei’s mission to support any purpose-driven business or not-for-profit whose mission is to make a positive difference in the world. Over the last few years, we’ve worked with a growing number of clients who are prioritizing the accessibility and inclusivity of their digital content. Based on recent client demand and feedback, we’re in the process of broadening our portfolio of services to ensure our clients’ content is not only accessible for people who speak different languages, but also for those with a visual, hearing, or cognitive impairment. This aligns beautifully with my desire to increase the accessibility of impact-oriented content so that more people and the planet can thrive.

Describe and demonstrate, including metrics, your community support. How do you support and uplift your community, and how do they show that support in return? Minimum 25 words, maximum 2500 characters.

From our clients and suppliers to team members and entrepreneur colleagues, we aim to put people first in every interaction. This means that we listen to their needs and concerns and do everything in our power to address them, even exceed their expectations where possible. As a natural connector, problem solver, and relationship builder, I have built Arvorei to be relational, not transactional, and to seek win-win solutions. As such, we support and lift up our clients, partners, and colleagues in various ways: Clients & Partners: - Finding solutions to their language needs that go ‘above and beyond’ - Making referrals to our network to support their business development goals - Featuring them on our website and in digital communications (newsletter, blog, social posts) - Commenting and sharing their social posts for wider reach Entrepreneur Colleagues: - Leading a mastermind group of 20 women entrepreneurs who meet monthly and support each other’s business growth - Hosting in-person events through entrepreneur networking organizations including The Forum and Coralus - Continuously making connections between entrepreneurs and providing informal mentorship - Delivered 5 workshops to entrepreneur accelerators and book author communities (topics: the art of pitching, how to prepare for your best book translation, website translation 101). Team & Translator Community: - Communicating regularly 1-1 with team members through Whatsapp text and audio messages (not just through email as many agencies do) - Hosting monthly learning & networking meetings to support their freelance business development We know we’re doing something right because: - Arvorei has demonstrated consistent growth, doubling revenue year over year for the past 3 years. - Almost 100% of new clients have been referred to us by clients and our community. - Our repeat client rate has been 40-50% in the last 2 years. - Our client feedback consistently speaks to how we truly care for our clients’ needs and the quality of our work and how we prioritize listening and delivering a best-in-class customer experience. - Our clients and partners show support back to us by making referrals to new clients and collaborators and commenting and sharing on our posts. - When we asked our clients for their input on whether we should add content accessibility services to our portfolio (for people with a visual, hearing, or cognitive impairment), we had a 100% response rate.

Why do you deserve to win the Business Impact award?

We have spent the last three years reinventing Arvorei. It’s been a whirlwind of networking, 1-1 connecting to build meaningful relationships, taking sales and marketing accelerators, delivering on client expectations, building a cohesive team, and so much more. I believe we deserve to win the Business Impact award for 2024 because we have made an impact far beyond our clients and our team. - We are making a name for Arvorei in the impact space, creating awareness for the need for language and content accessibility. - We have built relationships with more than 1,000 women entrepreneurs locally, nationally, and globally, supporting their business growth through referrals, connections, and feedback. - We have listened to our clients and added accessibility services to our portfolio, to help make their content accessible for people with a visual, hearing, or cognitive impairment. - We always say ‘yes’ and find win-win solutions for our clients to simplify their lives. For example, when one client needed InDesign files translated to Spanish – knowing layout would have to be adjusted to factor for 25% greater content – we hired graphic designers to adjust the designs post-translation, and they were delivered ready to go. - We have supported 75+ translators globally to grow their businesses while prioritizing their health. In the words of a client and team member: For our 2024 (un)Summit in Vancouver, we were grateful to collaborate with Arvorei for all of our French interpretation for our event live stream broadcast and our in-person event closed captioning. The team was fast, responsive, and coordinated all of the services seamlessly, making our event team's job easier. Their availability for pre-event planning sessions, attention to the attendee experience, and overall quality of service showed how much they truly care about their clients' needs as well as their audience. - Janaki Hadida, Partnership Lead, Coralus Collaborating with Kim has been a unique and rewarding experience. Her approach is rooted in a deep commitment to social impact and community support. Kim's mission is much more than just delivering high-quality translations. Her leadership fosters a culture of empathy, integrity, and passion. Her work isn’t just about providing service, it’s about making a difference. Collaborating with her has been a refreshing departure from the regular experience with mainstream translation agencies. - Sébastien Jottard, translator

Tell Us About Your Culture. How are you creating a sustainable and healthy workplace where everyone feels welcome? Provide examples of leadership you show in interactions with clients, vendors, contractors, staff and others.

I believe, based on team feedback that I’ve created a culture at Arvorei based on mutual respect, inclusion, and putting people first. With clients and partners, we use a high-touch approach to onboarding and ongoing relationship building, involving face-to-face in-person or video conversations, email communications, and project updates. When recruiting new team members, I meet with them fact-to-face through a video call to get to know who they are beyond their credentials. After onboarding, open communication with team members is maintained via group chats, email, and video/audio communications. Driven by a desire to make a difference and a passion for helping people in need, I care about our clients, partners, entrepreneur colleagues, and team members as if they were family or friends. If they’re struggling professionally or personally, I look for ways to support them. In one instance, an entrepreneur colleague lost her husband and was suddenly faced with a significant financial strain in addition to immense grief. I brought together the support of my entrepreneur Mastermind group to raise funds through a GoFundMe page, provide job leads, and connect her to legal and financial resources. Arvorei is a ‘new kind of translation & communications agency’ because our focus is on making a positive impact in the world. Beyond our mission to increase access to content that supports people and the planet to thrive, we also support the business development and personal health & wellness of translators around the world. In May 2022, I launched the Translator’s Treehouse Collective as a free community for translators globally to learn how to grow their freelance business in a way that is sustainable and aligns with their personal health goals. Today the Collective has over 75 members and meets monthly, with Whatsapp and LinkedIn messaging groups where members ask questions and give support between meetings. With the addition of our new accessibility services, we’re relaunching a new version of our website and digital marketing campaigns this fall. We will showcase language inclusive pioneers who are prioritizing content accessibility. We will also give our clients, partners, team members and network the opportunity to support women entrepreneurs in Brazil through a not-for-profit organization I got to know personally while living and working there between 2006 and 2017.