Local Business

Local Business  » Tips to help you start your own all-round translation business

Tips to help you start your own all-round translation business

There is no shortage of translators who take the plunge and set

up shop as self-employed freelancers, but few have the ambition

or the spirit to start up their own all-round translation

agency. This is not surprising, of course, as the establishment

of a full- scale translation agency is a quantum leap compared

with what it takes to launch a viable freelance practice.

Nevertheless, the intellectual and financial rewards of business

ownership can be substantial. Below I will discuss various

aspects you will have to take into account should you consider

beginning your own professional and all-round translation

business.

All-round translations First of all, what is meant, in this

particular context, by the term 'all-round'? Basically, it

refers to the scope of your product. As a freelancer your output

would be confined to your own language combination and degree of

specialisation; as an agency owner you will be able to supply

your clients with translations across a whole range of source

and target languages and disciplines, including commercial,

technical, medical and legal documents. In theory, your range

would be limited only by the number of staff you would be

prepare to contract.

Internal organisation If you want to establish your own

translation company, you would be well advised to find a

competent partner first - unless you are willing to hire staff

right from the start (which, in most cases, is not a

recommendable procedure). Ideally, your business partner should

be a person whose qualities are complementary to your own, if

only because in such cases the division of tasks is usually

quite obvious (and a potential source of conflict is removed).

There are good reasons to separate responsibility for product

quality (i.e., the quality of the translations) from

organisational responsibilities (order processing, account

management, etc.). These two roles do not go together very well

in practice, and the associated skills are not usually combined

within one and the same person anyway.

Find suitable office accommodation that includes at least two

rooms: one library-style room where you can work in peace, and

one nerve centre where the business is done. Make sure you have

at least three computer workstations (one spare station is no

luxury) and an office printer, a telephone switchboard with at

least two external lines and a fax. Get yourself a

straightforward high-quality accounting programme with a CRM

module and document your working methods in detailed systematic

procedures.

Don't forget to lay down and formalise a number of essential

agreements on tasks and responsibilities with your business

partner, so as to prevent any misunderstandings.

Business Plan Once you have gathered all the information you

need, you should draw up a Business Plan. Examples of such plans

are available at your local Chamber of Commerce, or can be

downloaded (for a fee) from the Internet. These specimen copies

are structured in such a way that they will assist you in each

step of your own Business Plan. One of the main advantages of

having a reliable Business Plan is that it will present you with

a realistic estimate of the money you will need to get your

agency off the ground. If your capital requirements exceed your

private budget (and it is quite likely that they will), you will

have to present a thorough Business Plan to the bank in order to

persuade them that your plans will pay off.

High-quality freelance translator network The main asset of any

translation agency is obviously its network of reliable

translators. Incidentally, you need not be a networking freak to

build up such a freelance network. Many freelancers will present

themselves to you spontaneously as soon as they get wind of your

existence; alternatively, you can actively recruit them and

check out CVs on a variety of collective freelance websites,

such as Translators Café or GoTranslators. The snag is that you

will be hard put to appraise a freelancer's skills if you do not

master the language concerned. CV assessment is important, but

by no means sufficient: you will need to be able to judge the

quality of a freelancer's actual output before entrusting him or

her to your clients!

To obviate this problem, check your own network of colleagues or

friends for highly-educated native speakers of the language

concerned, ask several freelancers to submit (free) trial

translations, have them assessed and select the two or three

most promising freelancers for each language combination you

intend to offer. Carefully document the strengths and weaknesses

of each selected freelancer and list the specialisations. Note

that you won't get a truly reliable picture of a freelancer's

capacity and skills until he/she has had the opportunity to do

several translation jobs for you.

Once you have a pool of reliable freelance translators for each

language combination, you can obviously also ask them to check

and assess trial translations submitted by other candidates.

Another point to bear in mind is that the freelancers you decide

to work with should comply with all the requirements imposed by

your country's Tax & Customs Administration. Each freelancer

should be able to produce a formal statement, issued by the tax

authorities, attesting to his/her status as an independent

translator.

Reliable network of suppliers Your freelance translators are

obviously your most important suppliers, but the supply network

comprises other parties as well that will need to be carefully

selected as you will need to use their services on an ongoing

basis. These include the bank, the accountant, the printer and

Today's Popular Articles

• 7 Reasons Your Small Business Needs a Website

• Top 7 Work At Home Small Business Ideas

the graphic designer.

Marketing Once the internal set-up of your agency is in place,

your first priority should be to recruit clients in a systematic

manner. For many start-ups in the translation business, this is

the most difficult hurdle. Obviously there is a multitude of

strategies that can help you attract clients in the

business-to-business segment (which accounts for most of the

turnover of any self-sufficient translation agency). One very

helpful tool, if used correctly, is Direct Marketing. In

principle, two different Direct Marketing strategies are

available:

1. Internet marketing One effective and relatively cheap method

of generating business in the short term is Search Engine

Optimisation (SEO), a term that refers to a variety of

techniques to help you strengthen your presence on the Internet,

and to help prospective clients find you there. A strong

position in Internet search engines will increase the number of

times you are invited to submit a quote for a translation job,

for the simple reason that you will be more likely to be

selected if you are easy to find on the Internet.

Some Internet facility agencies have specialised in Search

Engine Optimisation and will be able to improve your search

engine rating within a couple of months. Most of these companies

charge annual subscription fees. If you want immediate results,

ask for an adword campaign.

2. Database marketing This a rather more expensive client

acquisition technique. Call large international corporations and

government agencies likely to produce texts for translation on a

regular basis, and ask for the name of the person who is

responsible for translation services (usually an official at the

Director's Office, Communications or the Marketing Department).

Gather the information in a database and mail the contact

persons four or five times a year. The mailing could comprise

your company brochure, a letter of recommendation, flyers, a

magazine for business relations or any other item that will help

remind the reader of your name and the level of quality that you

offer.

An effective database contains at least 1,000 companies or other

organisations, and should also contain the names of the contact

persons. It goes without saying that you will also have to

invest in continually updating your database.

About the author:

Fester Leenstra is co-owner of Metamorfose Vertalingen, a

translation agency in Utrecht (The Netherlands). After having

worked for several translation firms in paid employment, he took

the plunge in 2004 and incorporated his own company.

For

further details about Metamorfose Vertalingen, visit VERTAALBUREAU