August 27, 2011
Translation Tips: Business Skills and Limitations
When competing, negotiating, pricing and marketing our services, we must be aware of our business skills and limitations.
As freelancers, we must bear in mind that we will need some skills in the field of management, such as:
A. Working with no other direction but our own.
B. Being good planners, organizers and schedulers, since we will not have any one to delegate on, and we will have long periods in which we will be working large projects under stressing conditions on holidays, weekends and nightshifts.
C. Being able to manage and calculate our time effectively.
D. Being able to control our productivity and set our own goals.
E. Being able to communicate with our clients and work with other people.
F. Being able to prepare, examine, verify and evaluate projects to concentrate on the best ones.
G. Being able to identify problems, to solve them and to respond to emergencies.
H. Being able to handle details, to think and work methodically.
We will also need some financial skills, such as:
A. Budgeting, accounting and bookkeeping.
B. Evaluating, diagnosing and processing our data and statistics, and observing our own economic indicators.
C. Investing time and money.
Since there is some clerical work to be done, we should be skilled in filing and keeping records, entering data in our records, and developing easy-to-follow methods.
We will also have to “sell” your services; therefore, we should be skilled in contacting, persuading, counseling, informing and guiding prospective clients, and in promoting our work by cultivating human relations and maintaining a favorable professional image.
Communicating well is important in salesmanship, so we will need to positively reason, define, explain and speak or write about our services; to be capable of listening to our client’s needs, to interpret their ideas, and to develop questions after listening to them, and to be capable of following their instructions and specifications. [1]
[1] For more information about editing and translating, cf. “About Translation (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5)”, January 15, 22 and 29, and February 5 and 12 2011; “About Editing (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6)”, February 19 and 26, and March 5, 12, 19 and 26 2011; and also “Translation Tips: Getting Started”, July 16 2011; “Translation Tips: Full-Time or Part-Time Work”, July 23 2011; “Translation Tips: Freelance or In-House Translator”, July 30 2011, “Translation Tips: Legal Registration, Management and Taxation”, August 6 2011, “Translation Tips: Translation Services for the Target Market”, August 13 2011.
[Image: Experts Inspecting the Rosetta Stone in the British Museum, engraving published by the Illustrated London News, September 12, 1874, about the 2nd International Congress of Orientalists, which took place that year in the British capital.]
August 20, 2011
Speedy Suppers
I have just finished translating into Spanish Jane Hornsby’s 101 Speedy Suppers for Grijalbo, one of Random House Mondadori’s labels.
I’m adding it to my list of gastronomic translations, [1] a subject that I find pleasing to work and culturally motivating.
There’s much to learn from how food preparation discloses many interesting aspects of human cultures everywhere.
[1] For more information about my cuisine translations, cf. “Cuban Cuisine”, May 29 2010, “Cuban Creole Cuisine”, June 12 2010, “Recipes from Australia”, August 28 2010, “Romans, Singers and More Food Recipes”, January 1 2010, and “Healing Foods: Second Spanish Edition”, July 9 2011.
Book cover: Jane Hornby (ed.): 101 Speedy Suppers, BBC Books, 2009.]
August 13, 2011
Translation Tips: Translation Services for the Target Market
An important part in getting started is deciding what translation services we can provide for a chosen target market.
Our target market (that is, the group of clients we can supply with our services) is determined by our ability to define it basically according to our real capabilities, where we will carry out our activity and the number of prospective clients in our area.
For example, factors such as our fluency, our general culture, our educational background, our academic certification, our writing skills, our specialization and our computer skills are determinant in selecting the subjects we might be able to translate and offer as services to our clients.
The geographical area where we will carry out our business is also an important factor. For example, book translation can be more effectively carried out in a city with a strong presence of publishing houses than in an industrial or agricultural area.
Translation subjects, therefore, should also consider to our areas’ economic profile. [1]
[1] For more information about editing and translating, cf. “About Translation (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5)”, January 15, 22 and 29, and February 5 and 12 2011; “About Editing (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6)”, February 19 and 26, and March 5, 12, 19 and 26 2011; and also “Translation Tips: Getting Started”, July 16 2011; “Translation Tips: Full-Time or Part-Time Work”, July 23 2011; “Translation Tips: Freelance or In-House Translator”, July 30 2011, “Translation Tips: Legal Registration, Management and Taxation”, August 6 2011.
[Image: Abraham Bosse. A Printer’s Shop, c. 1642, etching.]
August 6, 2011
Translation Tips: Legal Registration, Management and Taxation
There is more than simply translating in our profession. There are also lots of administrative tasks to consider, especially if you are a freelancer.
In the first place, you must have a legal status. That means that you have to register as a professional in this field of labor. In Spain, for example, you have to register as a freelance translator at the Treasury and at the Ministry of Labor to meet your fiscal obligations.
This means that you also have to dedicate part of your time to meet a series of administrative responsibilities, such as managing a client portfolio, answering phone calls and e-mails, billing for your finished work, buying supplies, checking due payments, etc.
Naturally, you have to report your income regularly, and you have to pay your taxes (for example, your value-added tax every trimester in Spain). [1]
[1] For more information about editing and translating, cf. “About Translation (1), (2), (3), (4) and (5)”, January 15, 22 and 29, and February 5 and 12 2011; “About Editing (1), (2), (3), (4), (5) and (6)”, February 19 and 26, and March 5, 12, 19 and 26 2011; and also “Translation Tips: Getting Started”, July 16 2011, “Translation Tips: Full-Time or Part-Time Work”, July 23 2011, “Translation Tips: Freelance or In-House Translator”, July 30 2011.
[Image: Theodor Galle: Impressio Librorum (Book Printing), circa 1633, engraving.]
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