09/2017 KIPLINGER’S PERSONAL FINANCE 29
ownership stake in the company and
jettisoned the computer store so that
she could focus on assistive technol-
ogy and interpreting services.
It was a smart move. When Moseley
took over the company, it had three
employees and annual revenues of
about $800,000; by 2015, it had 62
employees and more than $6 million
in annual revenues. That year, Mose-
ley restructured the company into two
separate entities: TCS Interpreting,
which provides on-site and remote
sign language interpreters, and TCS
Associates, which provides communi-
cation and technology consulting ser-
vices for the blind. Moseley’s husband,
Bryan, runs TCS Associates, which
has 12 full-time employees.
Keys to success. Starting a business can
make you a millionaire, but the risks
are high. About half of new businesses
fail within the first five years. Having
a well-thought-out business plan is
important, along with identifying a
product or service that’s in demand.
That’s been a critical factor in Mose-
ley’s success. When she launched her
business, only four companies were
offering deaf interpreters in the Wash-
ington, D.C., area, which provided a
lot of opportunities for growth. Her
company has contracts to provide
legal interpreters in courtroom and
law-enforcement proceedings for state
and local government agencies. It also
provides video remote interpreting
services to more than 600 Social Secu-
rity Administration offices.
Developing a diverse group of cus-
tomers is another mark of a successful
business, especially if your goal is to
scale up by licensing your product or
service, selling franchises, or being
bought out by a bigger company. (You
can get free advice from 10,000 small-
business volunteers through Score
[www.score.org], a nonprofit organi-
zation supported by the Small Busi-
ness Administration.)
One of Moseley’s challenges is that
in recent years, the number of compa-
nies offering deaf interpreters in the
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Invest In Yourself
As the hearing child of deaf parents,
Jessica Moseley didn’t consider using
her skills as a sign language inter-
preter to make money. “I just thought
of it as a way of life,” says Moseley, 32.
All that changed when Moseley’s
mother, Myrna Aiello, expressed a
desire to sell her business, a computer
sales and service company based in
Wheaton, Md. Moseley, who has a
background in human resources man-
agement, had no interest in selling
computers, but she saw potential in
a small slice of the business that sold
technology and interpreting services
for deaf and blind people. In 2008,
she bought out her mother’s majority-
Washington, D.C., area has increased
to about 30. To remain competitive,
she has had to lower prices, which has
squeezed the company’s profit mar-
gins from more than 18% to about
8%. Finding qualified interpreters is
another challenge. Demand for certi-
fied deaf interpreters—individuals
who themselves are deaf or hard of
hearing, f luent in American Sign Lan-
guage, and trained to recognize dia-
lects, gestures and other ways that
deaf individuals communicate—far
exceeds supply, Moseley says.
Her near-term goal is to slow her
company’s breakneck growth and fo-
cus on finding clients who are willing
to pay for high-quality service. “We
want to be in a place where we can
select the clients we want, not where
we need to take as much business as
we can,” she says.
Meanwhile, the business has al-
lowed her family to live comfortably.
She and her husband have three
children—Brayden, 6, Cooper, 3, and
Riley, 19 months, a deaf child from
India whom they adopted in May—
and they’re planning to build a new
home close to the Maryland School
for the Deaf in Frederick, Md. “The
deaf community is very much a part
of our lives,” says Moseley.
Channel Warren Buffett
Asked about his investing success,
Warren Buffett attributed it to “living
in America, lucky genes and com-
pound interest.” That may sound glib,
but it highlights two great ways you
can build wealth (Buffett’s genes
aside): Buy shares of leading U.S. com-
panies and keep plowing your money
into the stock market, where it will
grow substantially over time.
Buying stocks might seem foolhardy
now, with the U.S. market near his-
toric highs. Stocks don’t look cheap,
and we’re overdue for a correction
(a drop of 10% to 20%), triggered by
a political crisis or other event.
But trying to time your entry could
leave you on the sidelines during the
