04 Sep How “Se Habla Español” Changes the Conversation
A business owner may speak English well enough to work with customers, manage employees, negotiate with suppliers, and handle the ordinary demands of the day. That doesn’t necessarily mean English is the language in which the owner can most easily explain how the company developed, why certain decisions were made, what has changed over time, or what a prospective buyer needs to understand.
Selling a business requires unusually detailed conversations. Financial performance, owner responsibilities, staffing, customer relationships, lease obligations, equipment, competition, and years of company history all have to be discussed with care. When an owner is simultaneously translating those thoughts into a second language, the conversation requires additional effort. Even someone who communicates capably in English may be listening in one language, translating internally, formulating a response, and then translating that response back into English.
That creates friction at precisely the time when clarity and nuance matter most.
Language Affects More Than the Words
When people can speak in the language that feels most natural to them, they often do more than provide direct answers. They explain, qualify, supply context, and recall examples.
A question about declining revenue may lead to a story about an employee departure, a change in the neighborhood, or the loss of a longtime customer. A discussion of owner responsibilities may reveal informal practices that never appeared in a job description. A question about growth opportunities may bring out ideas the owner has considered for years but never tried to express in English.
Those details help us understand how the company actually operates. They also help us distinguish between an isolated event and a continuing concern, or between a genuine opportunity and an idea that has never been tested.
Comfort with the language also makes it easier for an owner to say, “I don’t understand,” ask a follow-up question, or correct something that has been misunderstood. In a business sale, those moments are important. A conversation can appear to be moving smoothly while one participant is struggling to keep up or lacks the words needed to challenge an assumption.
More Than Translation
Carlos Duno is fully bilingual in Spanish and English. For Spanish-speaking owners, that means he can conduct the conversation directly in the language in which they are most comfortable. He is not simply translating isolated words between two parties. He can discuss financial statements, valuation, buyer expectations, lending considerations, and the transaction process in either language while remaining fully engaged in the substance of the conversation.
That distinction matters. Business terminology does not always translate neatly. Nor do humor, hesitation, family dynamics, or the history wrapped up in an owner’s relationship with the company. Understanding the words is only part of understanding what someone is trying to convey. When an owner can speak freely, anecdotes come more readily and nuances are less likely to disappear. The owner is better able to tell the company’s story, and we are better able to identify the questions that still need to be answered.
Understanding Comes Before Representation
A brokerage cannot represent a business well without first understanding it. Financial statements provide part of that understanding, but they rarely tell the whole story. We also need to know what the owner does, how customer relationships are maintained, why expenses changed, where the company is vulnerable, and what has allowed it to succeed. We need enough context to explain the business to buyers without oversimplifying it or making claims the records cannot support.
That process depends upon open, detailed communication. For many Spanish-speaking business owners, the ability to have those conversations in Spanish is not simply a courtesy. It reduces an unnecessary layer of difficulty during an already complicated process. It allows questions to be explored more fully and gives owners greater confidence that they have been understood.
Selling a business is complicated enough. Owners should not also have to translate every thought before they can tell us what we need to know.
