SLAM! Conference in Sweden: Master Class (Direct Clients)

We are delighted to announce that Judy will be heading to Malmö, Sweden, to speak at the SLAM! (Scandinavian Language Associations' Meeting) Conference on September 15. Since Judy is a big fan of Scandinavia, it wasn't hard to convince her to come back to Sweden, and she will be giving the opening address of the SLAM! conference, which is a collaboration between the Swedish, Norwegian and Danish translation and interpretation associations. Check out the preliminary program here. In addition, she's giving a master class the day after the main conference, which is offered in conjunction with SLAM! but has a different sign-up here. The master class is titled: No Pain, No Gain: Active Marketing to Direct Clients and will be held on Sunday, September 16, 2018.

Many colleagues want to market to direct clients but can't quite figure out how to best approach this challenge. There's no easy answer, and as the title of the master class hints at, it might be a bit painful to get there (but it's worth it). The three-hour workshop includes everything Judy has learned in more than a decade working with direct clients and is divided into 1-hour segments. Bonus: since this will be held in Sweden, the workshop includes dedicated time for fika (essentially a coffee break with yes, coffee, tea and pastries). After the workshop, the idea is to perhaps get together with interested colleagues to head to an informal dinner to keep the conversation going and to nurture relationships.

Looking forward to seeing you there! 

Guest Post by Jesse Tomlinson: Who's Watching?

Who’s Watching?

You never know, do you? Even if you’re excellent at visualizing, it’s often impossible to guess who might be watching you when you put yourself out there.

What’s your ideal professional image? What are you transmitting? Is it consistent? Does it accurately reflect your business focus?

What’s in a client? They say it takes seven points of contact to get someone to like, know and trust you, which is what building client confidence is all about. When was the last time you worked with someone you didn’t particularly like? Chances are it was someone who gave you specialized service, someone so knowledgeable that even not liking them, you still wanted to work with them.

Direct Clients

Working with direct clients takes years of investing in professional relationships. Typical recent advice directs us to go to expos, become more knowledgeable in our fields, go to client events and be well versed in their companies, and current events generally – all activities that take years to cultivate.

But as you go about your day-to-day life, professionally and personally, it can be hard to separate your private and professional lives, because you never know in whose company you might find yourself, and whether those people might be potential clients, people who have heard of you, or even someone who is already your client but whom you had yet to meet in person!

Professionally you might have the idea that people are getting to know you, reading things you write, and perhaps even following your work on Twitter. I see myself as a go-after-clients kind of freelancer, but have you ever considered that clients are out there hunting you, too? Waiting to see how well you do with current projects so they can consider using your services in the future? Maybe mystery client 992 has a big initiative coming up in two years and is thinking carefully about who the lucky translator will be to do it.

Proz invited lucky li’l old me to participate on The Pros and Cons of Working with Direct Clients, a panel discussion with Patrick Weill and moderated by Paul Urwin, Sept 26 2017, in honor of International Translation Day. This was a big moment for me and a great experience. But I never imagined that a former major US network news anchor (someone I had known for two years) would be watching and noting what I was saying about translation! I was taken aback. And that’s when I realized that most of us can’t imagine who is watching or listening in on our professional careers.

Paying attention to who could be watching us professionally is a no-brainer, right? But what about when we are wandering the world at large, casually and “off-duty”? Is there ever “off-duty” for a freelancer?

Clients, Clients Everywhere

You may have heard that airplanes are great places to meet clients, and interesting people in general. But have you ever thought that every single person you sit next to on an airplane is a potential client or source of referrals? Thinking this way is a good start to meeting more potential direct clients.

Everything you do matters. Every interaction counts. And it all adds up to the reputation you want to cultivate as a business person.

I was recently a dinner for fifteen, at a private residence where I had already met six of those present. It was a lively night with much heated controversial conversation and opinions flying high. About four hours in, a woman there told me she knew exactly who I was. She was one of my clients whom I had never met, and since we had only exchanged first names when casually introduced earlier in the evening I hadn’t made the link to my professional connection with her. It was a great reminder that you never know who you’ll run into, even when you’re in casual mode with friends.

Who’s watching you?

Jesse Tomlinson is an interpreter, translator, and voice talent. Originally from Canada, she now lives in Mexico and translates from Spanish into English and interprets in both languages. 

She is currently translating Latin American authors born in the 1980s into English for Proyecto Arraigo. See her essay on uprooting (“La vida sin limones”) at http://bit.ly/la-vida-sin-limones. Contact: jesse@tomlinsontranslations.com.

Free SDL Webinar on June 27: The Art of Networking

Networking at the BP17 conference in Budapest, Hungary.

Please join us for another free webinar on in-person and virtual networking, presented by Judy, and organized and hosted by our friends over at SDL. It's free for everyone, and you simply sign up with your e-mail address. Judy's last webinar for SDL on June 8 had more than 800 sign-ups (thank you!), and we would love to "see" you at this one as well. Consider signing up even if you cannot attend the live session, as all who registered will then receive a link to the recording a few days after the webinar.

Networking is such a crucial part of our profession -- and of any profession, actually -- yet as linguists we oftentimes neglect it. You can only grow a business if you grow your circle of influence, and Judy will share a few ways to do this, both offline (meaning in person) and online. One hour isn't nearly enough to talk about this important subject, but we will address many key points.

Here's the link again to sign up. Looking forward to it! 

Do Nothing

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We oftentimes hear from our lovely colleagues that they are stuck in a situation that they don't like, mainly that they don't receive the rates that they deserve. This is a common complaint not only in our industry, but in many other industries. In our book and on this blog, we have given advice for many years on how to get what you want from your business, including the rates that you want. However, what many don't think about is that changing a current situation to a better situation requires something crucial: changing something.  Doing nothing and changing nothing won't change the status quo.

We know that change is difficult, but if you don't like your current work situation (or even just a small portion of it), you have to change something. Doing the same thing over and over will give you the same result (presumably) that you have been getting and that you don't want. So change something, even if it's something small. If you don't like a current client, take the risk of not accepting any more work from him or her and look for a better client. If a client isn't paying you, write a strongly worded letter asking for payment. If you don't get paid, don't work for them anymore even if they promise they will do better with payment next time (which you've probably heard before). 

Yes, we are aware that some of these strategies are risky and may not yield the results that you want, but in order to be successful and put yourself in the situation that you want to be in, you have to take some risk. No one is successful (at least that we know of) without taking some risk, even if it's just a quantum of risk. Take baby steps and don't be too hard on yourself, but our main point here is: as a freelance linguist, you have the ability to change things. Try it and see what happens. No one else can do it for you, and it's almost impossible to change others, such as your clients, but you can change what you do and what kind of client you pursue. We have taken plenty of risks and not all of them have worked out, but we have stuck to our number one rule: we ask for and get the rates that we charge, but we don't get them for all potential clients, which is fine.

You always have the option of doing nothing. But if you don't like the status quo, you are going to have to make some changes.

What do you think, dear colleagues? We would love to hear your thoughts on today's quick post. 

Keeping the "Free" in "Freelance"

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For today's quick post, we'd like to address an important topic: the fact that as freelancers, we are free to work or not work with any client. Oftentimes, we hear from colleagues that they feel locked into certain relationships, and while it's certainly difficult to walk away from established business relationships, we need to do so if they don't work for us -- or at least try to negotiate better terms. Let's keep the "free" in "freelance"!

Judy has been on the other side of this: she's worked as an in-house translator for a big e-commerce site. And while that was a lot of fun, she loved leading a team of translators, learned a lot about technology and made many lifelong friends, she wasn't free to choose what to work on. Her internal customers (=other departments) would request translations, sometimes with unreasonable expectations and unreasonable deadlines, and it was her and her team's job to get it done. She didn't have the option to say: "Thanks, but no thanks, this deadline is too tight." Everything always got done, but it required many all-nighters and many months of 80-hour weeks.

As freelancers, we have the choice and the luxury to select which projects we work on. Of course, we also need to make sure we make a living, so we need to choose wisely and make our customers happy while balancing that with the need to have a normal life, including time for friends, family, exercises, travel, and vacation.

We very rarely turn down projects from our fantastic long-term repeat customers, many of whom have worked with us for more than a decade, but we've negotiated good terms and reasonable deadlines. Oftentimes, we hear lovely colleagues complaining about their client's unreasonable expectations and deadlines. Without giving out too much tough love, we have this thought: a business agreement always takes two parties. If you say yes to something, then you must do it, preferably without complaining too much. If it doesn't work for you, tell the client rather than complaining to colleagues who can't do anything about it. Don't be afraid to negotiate better terms. It works like a charm if you say: "Unfortunately, we will not be able to complete this translation by Monday because we are completely booked. However, we can gladly complete it by Wednesday if your timeline allows or we can refer a trusted colleague." Needless to say, most clients will think that this is quite reasonable, as most clients understand that all of us have multiple clients and don't just work for one party. If they don't understand that and are continuously putting lots of pressure on you, perhaps it's time to re-evaluate that business relationship. Just because you've worked with someone once or twice doesn't mean you have to accept work from them for all eternity if the terms don't work for you. It's perfectly fine to say "no," as long as you do so nicely and offer alternatives if at all possible.

What do you think, dear colleagues? We would love to hear from you. Simply leave a comment below. 

Professional Headshots: Our Experience

We are SO not models.

We've long been advocates of professional headshots to be used on business cards, websites, marketing materials, etc. Long gone are the days when we saw many T&I professionals use cropped summer snapshots as their profile pictures on LinkedIn and other online media, and that's a great development. Lawyers, doctors, and other professionals long ago discovered the power of professional images, and translators and interpreters need them, too. It's rare to visit a website these days that doesn't feature an image of the actual services provider. It builds trust and it's always nice to see a picture of a real person rather than a stock image. We are usually surprised when there isn't a real picture to be found on someone's website, and we bet clients feel the same way. Having a professional image is relatively easy and doesn't require a big investment. This year, we just spent $100 each because of a fabulous special at a local studio that made us feel like royalty for an afternoon.

Dagy's royal treatment.

A few years ago, we started encouraging our local and national associations to host photo shoots with professional photographers at discounted rates for their members, which allowed many colleagues to obtain top-notch photos at reasonable prices. We had our pictures taken at several of these events, and it's fantastic that this is catching on!  Even if you hire your own photographer, it's usually a worthwhile investment and one of the few upfront investments you need to make in your online presence. 

Photo by Sam Woodard.

Photo by Sam Woodard.

After doing four or five outdoor photo shoots in a row (all in Vegas), we decided to have an indoor studio photo shoot this year. We had just received a very attractive offer from Fremont East Studios through our downtown Vegas co-working space Work in Progress and we had a fantastic experience! The photo shoot even included the services of a highly talented and lovely make-up artist, and the studio was fantastic and very comfortable. We hope you enjoy both the finished product (that's Judy on the left) and some goofy behind-the-scenes pictures as well. As you can tell, we are very far from being model material, and we usually don't know how to stand, where to look, or what to do with our hands (told you we weren't model material). Luckily for us, photographer Sam Woodard and make-up artist Doralynne Valenzuela told us exactly what to do. What a great all-female team! You'd think that posing in a studio would be really unnatural and awkward, but it was quite the opposite.

And don't forget that this is a classic business expense. Actually, it's one of our most entertaining business expenses of the year. 

What about you, dear colleagues? Have you had a professsional headshot taken or are you still thinking about it? We are always looking for good photo ideas, so we'd love to hear about your experiences!

62 Short Pieces of Advice

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Time flies! We've been writing this blog for almost six years, and we have published almost 500 posts. Not bad, huh? In 2010, we published a book (The Entrepreneurial Linguist: The Business-School Approach to Freelance Translation), which has sold more than 3,500 copies around the world (thank you!) and contains pretty much everything we know. However, we are delighted to keep on writing and sharing, as we get so much positive feedback and we really enjoy it. Even though we publish a lot of free information for beginning and advanced linguists, oftentimes new colleagues ask us at conferences: "What do I have to do to be successful?" There is no easy answer, so we usually say that it would take us the rest of the evening to even attempt to answer that question. However, we also like to come prepared with some memorable (or not) short pieces of advice that might be helpful for those who want some quick nuggets of information. We finally decided to compile some of these pieces of advice here after a new colleague approached Judy at a workshop a few weeks ago. She was frustrated that she wasn't getting the results that she wanted, yet she hadn't invested in herself or her professional presence. A lot of our advice has to do with exactly that: personal growth, outreach, marketing, and customer service.

We have no idea how we ended up with a list of 62 pieces of advice, and these are not ranked in order of importance, nor is this list (obviously) exhaustive. We simply wanted to compile some of the things we think are essential for every translator and/or interpreter and, of course, for entrepreneurial linguists. There are all things you've heard us say before or have seen us write about before, but here they are, for the first time, in one handy-dandy list: 62 pieces of advice on translation, interpretation, and business.

Please read at your own risk and take this with a grain of salt. Yes, we've included some tough love and straightforward advice. 

1.     Running a small business is hard. If it were easy, everyone would do it.

2.     You are not entitled to be successful.

3.     There are no real secrets to success, but start by working hard and by making smart decisions. 

4.     Don't compete on price. Find your competitive advantage instead. Don't become a commodity.

5.     Get a website and a professional e-mail address. If you want to be taken seriously as a   professional, you need a professional presence.

6.     Your success will depend on the quality of relationships you form.

7.     Translators are writers. Are you a top-notch writer? 

8.     The internet is your friend. Online marketing is mostly free and easy. Use it to your advantage.

9.     No translator or interpreter is an island.

10. Have a positive attitude.

11. Avoid making the same mistake twice.

12. One missed deadline might very well have a negative impact on your career.

13. Don't start work on a project until you have written confirmation from the client.

14. Play nicely with others.

15. Set realistic goals and make a plan as to how you will achieve them.

16. Take an honest look at your skills and improve them. You can always become a better interpreter/translator.

17. No one lands high-paying clients by mistake.

18. Translation and interpretation require completely different sets of skills.

19. Take feedback for what it is: a valuable gift.

20. Without clients, you have nothing.

21. Be reasonable, even when others are not.

22. Think before you send an angry e-mail.

23. Learn to be self-sufficient in terms of IT and software.

24. Invest in your business by purchasing the best tools, dictionaries and gadgets you can afford.

25. Keep your personal and business finances separate.

26. Improve your typing speed.

27. Take very good care of your voice if you are an interpreter.

28. When asking others for advice, be respectful of their time and offer to take them to dinner. 

29. Translators: read, read, read. There really is no substitute.

30. Don't complain about your clients publicly. Ever.

31. Don't complain about your colleagues publicly. Ever.

32. Your reputation is the most important thing you have.

33. Your time is the only resource you have. Spend it wisely.

34. Stop talking about yourself. Ask questions instead.

35. Learn how to really, truly listen.

36. Educate your clients about what you do without wagging your finger. No one wants an arrogant translator or interpreter.

37. Tread lightly when correcting source texts. Be respectful with your comments.

38. You earn others' respect by providing high-quality work and by being helpful, friendly and kind.

39. Join your local T&I association, a national association, and at least one association in your specialization.

40. Get out of your comfort zone.

41. Work on your weaknesses.

42. If a client corrects you during an interpreting assignment, stay calm and be professional.

43. Surround yourself with positive and good people.

44. Invest in your professional development by attending conferences, workshops and webinars.

45. Volunteer your time. Learn to give before you expect others to give things to you.

46. Take care of your eyes and look away from the computer for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.

47. Exceed your clients' expectations. Go the extra mile.

48. Send holiday cards and/or gifts.

49. Keep a list of customer preferences. Become a customer concierge.

50. If you don't know a word during an interpreting assignment, say so. It's no fun, but you must be honest.

51. Work on your memory so you remember people's names.

52. Keep all your client files organized and back up your computer every day.

53. Contribute to a retirement fund.

54. Take care of your health and get exercise.

55. You can be in your bunny slippers, but there's no reason your client should know that.

56. Don't use your client as a sounding board. 

57. Have a plan B if your internet is down at home.

58. Keep confidential things confidential. Buy a good shredder. 

59. Consider joining a co-working space.

60. Go to at least one networking event a week, even if you don't feel like it.

61. Your business will grow when you do great work and more people know that you exist. How will you accomplish that?

62. Be humble. Every great translator and interpreter can learn from others. If you think you can't, you are wrong.

We hope you have enjoyed this (relatively) short list, dear friends and colleagues! Which pieces of advice would you add? We'd love to hear your thoughts to add to this endless list.

Truly Mortifying Marketing Materials

Not very professional. Photo by Judy.

Happy 2014 to all our wonderful readers, friends and colleagues! Time flies, doesn't it? We figured we'd start 2014 off with a post on marketing materials and on how you should NOT do it. We usually refrain from making fun of errors and mistakes on this blog, but sometimes a picture speaks a thousand words. We think the marketing materials we are about to show you pretty much make every error in the book, so let's use them for illustrative purposes. Of course, the name of the company that sent this to us shall remain anonymous, but we would like to thank them for giving us this gem. It does seem amazing that this company, let's call them Amazing Vegas Real Estate, would think that the card they sent us would create a business opportunity for them. 

So what's wrong with this picture? With the two pictures, actually? Let us count the ways.

They shall remain anonymous. Photo by Judy.

1. Opinions on this might differ slightly, but cards with a snapshot and somone's child or pet on them are not cute, but unprofessional and shouldn't be used unless you are sending a card to a good friend or trusted business associate whom you know well. We just cringed when we saw this image and wondered why there was a kid with a $100-dollar bill on a card that a business sent us. Under some circumstances, this could have been funny, perhaps for a store that sells children's clothes or some other cute connection. However, for a very traditional and quite serious business like real estate, this doesn't work at all. The card feels like a bit of a joke and certainly doesn't get across an important message that marketing materials should generally communicate: that the sender is a trustworthy and serious business professional. We truly believe any images on professional marketing materials should be taken by an expert -- no snapshots and selfies, but that goes without saying, we thought.
2. You open this gem and out falls a small hand-cut piece of paper that's been folded several times. It feels like a fortune cookie, except fortune cookies are not annoying because you expect the piece of paper to be there. At this point, we just felt terrible for the sender. There's a great Spanish-language term for this: pena ajena.  This looks like a fifth grader made it, and it's not appropriate to send to potential clients. Incredibly, these guys are trying to get business from us! Are they just trying to stand out in a crowded marketplace by being different? That's certainly laudable, but this doesn't work.
3. We did not include a picture of the envelope because we couldn't hide the company's identity on it, but it is addressed to "Dear neighbor," which is a sure way not to get our attention. The only reason we opened it is because it was too thick to fit in our shredder inside the envelope. A basic marketing tip is that it's essential to address people by name.
4. Brrr, we are cold. As you might imagine, we have no idea who Awesome Vegas Real Estate is. While Judy and her husband do own a house in Vegas, they have no intention of selling it, and if they ever did, they will be very sure to stay away from someone who can't even figure out how to send a professional card. Could you imagine trusting these folks with complicated real estate contracts and hundreds of thousands of dollars? Yep, we can't imagine that, either. And cold calling/e-mailing/sending flyers rarely works, so we think it's a waste of time.
5. Low quality. We understand that budgets are stretched to the max these days, but sending low-quality paper is not a good idea. What else is the company saving money on? If you cannot (yet) afford to invest in high-level paper goods for your marketing materials, perhaps it's best to wait a bit until you have the funds to send a professional product. Sending cards made on your home computer on very thin paper just doesn't work.
6. Inside the card, the company manages to thank us for our business, but we've never done business with this company, nor would we. Do they not have updated databases of customers? Do they think it's funny to send this to everyone, thanking them for business when they haven't given them any? Do they have too much money to burn? We don't know, but we do know that this is not a good approach to getting business. There are thousands of real estate agents in Vegas trying to get their hands on real estate listings, and if we ever list the Vegas house, we will be sure to stay away from Awesome Vegas Real Estate.

Of course, we've exaggerated our outrage a tiny bit to make the point that these marketing materials are the opposite of what you should be doing, so take it with a grain of salt. In general, try to create professional and serious-looking (but not boring, which is a challenge) cards and flyers that are personalized and customized to the client. And stay away from cute pictures. Safe those for your personal holiday cards.

What do you think, dear friends and colleagues?

5 Downsides to Working for Yourself

Many new translators and students ask us about what's better: working as an in-house translator or working for yourself as a freelancer. Judy has done both, while Dagy has never worked in house, but our answer is clear: working for yourself is infinitely better. However, there are a variety of significant downsides, so we wanted to briefly list a few of them. This is a question we get quite frequently, so we wanted to get a list going. Of course, it's not exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, but in no order of importance, here are the 5 main downsides of working for yourself:

1. You are never done and you are never really off work. When Judy worked in-house managing a small group of translators at an e-commerce company, she was required to be available at all times and was practically married to her Blackberry. However, in reality she never really took much work home and was essentially done with work when she pulled out of the company parking lot. However, as self-employed linguists, we are never really done because we ARE our company and there's always more networking to be done, more e-mails to be sent, requests for proposals to be answered, volunteering to be done, etc. There is no finish line, and that's a good or bad thing, depending on your perspective. We love it that our work is a continuum, but we do occasionally have a hard time turning work off. We suppose this is a good problem to have, as we really enjoy what we do and it doesn't always feel like work.
2. Days off? We constantly see spouses, friends, and acquaintances who are at home because, well, it's a holiday! We frequently forget holidays, and since we have clients in more than five countries, any particular holiday is usually not a holiday in the other countries. It's therefore a challenge to take the same days off as your loved ones and friends. We certainly try to observe holidays, but it's not always possible. That said, Judy is taking two days off this week, while Dagy gets to work, as Thanksgiving is just another Thursday in Europe and our Austrian clients don't care that Judy isn't working. The projects still need to get done.
3. Paid holidays. One of the great perks of working for someone else is that you have paid vacation time. If you live and work in most other countries than the US, there's actually some government rule on how much vacation you should get, and it's usually quite generous (four weeks or so in most European countries). Entrepreneurs don't have paid vacation time. If we want to go on a vacation, we have to start saving up for it. 
4. Getting paid for actual work. As a salaried employee, you get paid (either every two weeks or monthly, depending on where you live) whether you work or not. Self-employed linguists, however, are very much like self-employed lawyers: we only get paid when we can bill our hours (or words, or lines, or whatever) to a client. When Judy worked in-house, she was certainly not known for sitting around and eating macaroons, but the point is still that there's much less pressure to perform because you will get paid anyway, regardless of how much you accomplish during the pay period. As an entrepreneur, you better finish that project relatively fast if you want to send the invoice and get paid. It's a great motivator indeed, but it's also a situation that can be too stressful for many.
5. Uncertainty. The only thing that's for certain if you run your own business is that it will probably be great, but that it will also be a lot of work. Everything else is up in the air, and you never know how much money you will make tomorrow, next week, or next month. This is not a good way to live and work if you are very risk-averse, and it can be quite scary if you think about it. Of course, when you work in-house, you have no real long-time job security either (some countries are better about employee rights than others, but we digress), but you will know where your next paycheck is coming from: your employer. When you are self-employed, you are essentially looking for work every day for the rest of your life. Of course with time you will get repeat customers and you will hopefully establish long-term working relationships, but as a contractor to your clients, they can walk away from the relationship at any time (and so can you). Does that sound too scary? Then perhaps self-employment isn't the best choice for you.

We hope we have given you some food for thought. In spite of the downsides, we absolutely love what we do and would never be able to have the lifestyle we have if it weren't for self-employment. However, we think it's important to highlight some downsides so new translators go into the world of entrepreneurship with eyes wide open. 

We'd love to hear your thoughts, dear friends and colleagues! 

Mysterious Ways

This week, we've been thinking about the fact that business opportunities can really present themselves anywhere, and that has certainly been true for us. Here are a few examples of how business has worked in mysterious ways for us:

• Dagy just issued a price quote to a long-time customer in Vienna. We briefly talked about the project, and then reminisced about the fact that she met this client in her Pilates class. Really.
• Just over a week ago, we met a potential client at a pub (yes, a pub) at Heathrow airport in London. He was on his way back from India, where he had just been trying to find a translation vendor for his own client. This meeting was quite serendipitous indeed, as the potential client just happened to sit next to us at a bar, said hello, and asked what we did for a living. 
• A few years ago, Judy's beloved Prius got hit by another car in the parking lot of a grocery store. As she waited for the insurance people to show up, she started chatting with the other driver (a very nice lady), who happened to work for IBM and was looking for translators. The project didn't work out, but we thought the way we met was pretty cool.
• We met one of our favorite clients at a baby shower that Judy attended a few years ago. 
• Another long-term client of ours is Dagy's former yoga instructor from Vienna (yes, we like to work out).

What about you, dear colleagues? What's the strangest place you have met a potential customer? We think it's important to be prepared to talk intelligently about your small business at all times, be it at a bar, a baby shower, a grocery store, or a happy hour. We don't mean that one should constantly be shoving business cards in people's faces, but we do think it's important to be prepared. You know what that means: don't leave your house without business cards.

We'd love to hear your stories, dear colleagues!

Free E-Book: The Translator Diaries

We are delighted to announce that our colleague Lloyd Bingham, a senior in-house translator in the UK, has put together a nifty free e-book that's just recently become available. It's a collection of great insight for beginning translators, gathered from many fantastic contributors, and we really like the format. It's divided into easy-to-read chunks, it's quite informative, and the lay-out is visually appealing.

The short chapters are also quite clever, as they focus on ever-important topics such as finding clients, determining your specialization, whether you should get a master's degree in translation, etc. It's refreshing to read short, to-the-point quotes from both industry leaders and younger translators: a great resource indeed. Well done, Lloyd!

The e-book is free and you can either read it online or download it to your computer from here: http://www.lloydbingham.co.uk/p/e-book.html

Asking Questions: A Client's Perspective

Last year, we wrote a blog post about the sometimes challenging issue of knowing when it is appropriate to ask the client for clarification regarding any issue that arises during a translation project. Many new translators are quite afraid of asking the client, and prefer to ask questions on industry forums and listservs, which can be helpful. 

Ask and you might get the answer.

However, many times, the client might very well be the only one who has insight into something like, for instance, a company-internal acronym that no colleague in the world could possibly know. We think it's important to go straight to the source (read: client) in order to make the translation process efficient, but can certainly understand that translators -- both newcomers and experienced -- don't want to bug their clients too much. However, we do think that one fear is unfounded: that the client might think you don't know what you are doing if you ask a question. Quite the contrary. Asking questions (relevant ones, that is) can show the client that you really care about this project and that you are putting great thought and care into the translation. Here's what a dear client of ours told us a few days ago about this very issue. This client also happens to be a friend, and she mentioned what she likes about working with us, which made us very happy. Here's summary of what she said. We think it's quite important to hear the client perspective, so we are sharing it here: 

• I like the fact that you sent me a few questions grouped in one e-mail that I could answer on my smartphone. I knew the answers right away and didn't have to do any research.
• I was pleased that you identified some areas that were company-internal, and that you reached out to me for clarification. There was no way you could have known these terms, as we created them, and it showed me that you cared.
• In terms of level of communication, I was happy because you didn't bombard me with e-mails but you didn't go completely silent either. I heard from you during the translation process and was able to keep my boss updated.
• You made me look good, as the translation was spot-on and I felt involved in the process. After all, I am the one who convinced my boss to have this text translated.

Of course, for every great experience like the one we have described above, there might be others where you ask questions and the client simply doesn't answer, doesn't have the answer, or says she will research it, but you never hear back. 

What about you, dear friends and colleagues? Have you had good/bad experiences when reaching out to the client with any questions you had? We've love to hear your thoughts on this topic. 

Friday Challenge: Advertising Translations

As seen at the Athens airport.

This past week, we spent a glorious week in Greece with Judy's hubby and our dear translator friends Catherine Christaki and Christos Floros (more on that fantastic vacation in a future post) and we saw a lot of clumsy attempts at English -- think menus, flyers, ads, etc. 

We oftentimes ask Keith, our resident native English speaker (and a funny, sarcastic attorney with a very dry sense of humor) what he thinks about the ads that have been translated, mostly very poorly. It's interesting to hear his perspective. As a non-translator, he isn't immediately put off by bad language. Rather, he either just doesn't get the ad, ignores it, moves on, or decides he doesn't want the product (this recently happened with an Austrian Airlines ad, which had Keith shaking his head in disbelief). He doesn't speak another language, so he can't really deduce the message's meaning based on the source text. It's fascinating to pick his brain about language and its impact. In general, he thinks about language significantly less than we do, which isn't surprising.

When we showed him the ad that we've included above, he said he certainly understood what was being said, but that he also thought it was funny because it's missing a noun. Translating any sort of advertising is a very challenging undertaking, and we have many fantastic colleagues who tackle who are really good at it. We don't know if this is a translation or a clever (or not clever?) language experiment, but German company Jacobs is using the slogan "Experience the perfect." It's not terrible (and it's certainly different and attention-catching, which is the point of advertising) and one could  construe it as a clever attempt at molding and shaping the language into something new (after all, language changes and evolves). And of course, advertising language has been pushing the envelope for decades. Alternatively, it may just be a bad translation. Your opinion might depend on your perspective and perhaps on the languages you speak and your tolerance for new advertising speak. Another question is this: is the world ready for the nounification of adjectives? Perhaps? Are we ready for "the perfect"?

What about you, dear colleagues? What do you think? Would you have come up with something entirely different or stuck with the straight-up translation? We could not verify this on the Jacbos website, but perhaps the original German was "Erleben Sie Perfektion."Do you think the existing translation (assuming that it is) is mortifying or is it good enough? Does it communicate the message, which is the point of translation? Or do you think this was created from scratch in English and is meant to push the language envelope? OK, those are too many questions for a Friday afternoon (in Europe), but it's food for thought. We'd love to hear your opinions on this.  We find this topic very interesting, and we hope you do, too.

Business Cards: The Next Level

Very clever format.

During the fantastic V Conferência Brasileira de Tradutores do ProZ in Recife, Brazil, last month, Judy had the opportunity to spend some time and share some drinks with Portuguese translator Elenice Barbosa de Araujo. We'd both had the chance to meet her back in 2010 at the ATA Conference in Denver, Colorado, and we remember being very impressed by her creative business cards, which were actually a bookmark (brilliant, since she translates a lot of books). When Elenice saw Judy again in Recife, she gave her the new version of her business cards -- a very slender, slick, work of art that's in a much different format than we've ever seen before. Judy's quite standard cards pale in comparison. We have included two pictures of Elenice's card next to Judy's so you can see the difference in size -- and you can also see how much cooler they are.

The front of Elenice's card.

Elenice told us she ordered these cards from Moo.com, and we've seen their work before and find it quite fabulous. She even has a cute card holder that's just the size of her business cards! I think it might be time for us to switch from good old Vistaprint to very cool Moo. 

What about you, dear colleagues? Who designs and prints your business cards? Is it time to up the ante? Dagy already has, and hired a designer to come up with her new business cards. We will blog about them soon!

Decision Tree: Bad Translations

Palm trees near Recife, Brazil. Pic by Judy.

One of the complaints/questions we get from colleagues quite frequently goes something like this: "My client has some terrible translations on their website. I keep on telling them the translation is awful, but my client doesn't think so and refuses to do anything. What should I do?"

This is a common situation, and not one that lends itself to easy answers. We thus tried to come up with some sort of decision tree. Judy tried to use SimpleDiagram to make a tree,  but her computer-based drawing skills are just as bad as her handwriting, so we abandoned this project and will just put this in writing. We've included a picture of palm trees, as they are also trees!

Ask yourself the following questions:

• Does this affect the quality of your work or your reputation? That is, do you need these translations for your own translations (=are they reference material)? Do these translations make you look bad? Our bet is that since you didn't translate them, your name isn't on them, so we don't see how they could really directly make you look bad. We translate plenty of websites, and know that clients oftentimes tinker with them without our knowledge and do the occasional translation themselves. It's not ideal, but it's the nature of the web. Also think about this: if you, for instance, translate the company's contracts, and they happen to have a terrible website, that's certainly very unfortunate, but has no ill effect on your work other than that it annoys you. You've done your due diligence by pointing out this shortcoming to your client, and that's all you can do. Move on.
• Is the client paying you? We had colleagues talk to us who are so ticked off at their client's language nonchalance that they are tempted to end the working relationship. Needless to say, we think that's a poor decision. We are not the language police nor can we make clients do what we think is best. All we can do is make recommendations and suggestions, and if they don't accept them, well, then we have to accept the fact that our word isn't gospel. As long as the client is paying you for whatever translation work you are performing for them and you enjoy that relationship, there's no reason to be a purist and let your convictions get in the way of making a living. For instance, our dentists constantly point out that we don't floss enough. It's the same story every six months, but they continue to provide dental services. Perhaps this isn't the best analogy we have ever come up with, but it will do for now.
• Does this annoy you so much you just cannot handle it? Well, if it does, then you are certainly as free as the other party to walk away from this relationship, and you have every right to to so. You are not married to your client, and if seeing your client's bad translations gives you heartburn and increases your blood pressure to dangerous levels, then sever the relationship. Just ask yourself: is it really worth it? We do have one client who pays us very well for the work we do for him but insists on doing other portions of his business translations himself. We cringe when we see them, and have gently pointed out that it would be best to have "one voice" for his translations (a euphemism for "your translations are not up to par"), but he thinks things are fine the way they are. We tried. So we continue working, cash his checks, and have hope that he will come around.

Of course, please take this all with a small grain of salt, but in essence, this is what we would recommend. We would very much enjoy reading your comments and thoughts on this topic. Happy Wednesday!

Warriors Needed

Unfortunately, the public in general doesn't tend to know too terribly much about what we do, and many might think that anyone who is bilingual can be a translator, but that's like saying that anyone who can listen and speak is automatically a therapist or anyone who speaks English is a reporter or anyone who is funny is a comedian -- the list goes on on and on. Of course, being perfectly bilingual is the minimum requirement one needs to meet to be a professional translator, but we digress.

That's Tree pose, and not Warrior, but close enough?

We have a confession to make: when it comes to the public's lack of awareness about our profession, we have a particular pet peeve. For one reason or another, we cringe when we hear "Hillary Clinton is speaking through a translator," although this clearly is about an interpreter. The confusion doesn't seem to happen the other way around, but interpreters are consistently called translators. This might not be a big deal, but they are different professions, and we figured it's important to clear up this incorrect use of terms in the media. So instead of complaining to our colleagues and to each other, we decided to complain effectively and tell the media outlets in question that get it wrong. We write regular e-mails to a large number of newspapers, radio programs and magazines, and being a squeaky wheel has even gotten Judy on NPR, which issued a correction. The nice side effect of this is that NPR has now called her several times for a comment on a language-related issues. It sure looks like being a squeaky wheel might pay off.

So we have a proposal to make: join us. Instead of complaining to each other on Twitter (or elsewhere), tell the people who make the mistake and clear up the misunderstanding. This could be a simple two-line e-mail, which can be saved for future use (that's what we do). We frequently like to point out that translation (written word) and interpreting (spoken word) are like libel (written) and slander (spoken). Keep the tone nice and friendly and offer to elaborate. 

Can you imagine if even 1,000 colleagues sent one e-mail a day to some media outlet? We'd get more coverage for our profession, which is always a good thing, and we might educate the media and the public while we are at it, which is fantastic. We like to think about this translation/interpreting confusion along the lines of: what if the media consistently confused psychiatrists with psychologists? We bet the American Medical Association (and other associations around the world) would be up in arms about this. When translation and interpreting get confused, we figured that in addition to our professional associations setting the record straight, it can't hurt if we do it on an individual level as well.

And you know how our profession might get more recognition, the recognition it deserves? Perhaps by being talked about in the media. So let's combine the power of the media and the power of freelance translators around the world.

Will you join us and be a translation and interpreting warrior?

The Art of Small Talk

Ah, small talk. One of us doesn't care for it (Dagy), and one really enjoys it (Judy). Regardless of one's preference, the art of making small talk is an essential business skill, and interpreters and translators are well advised to figure out how to talk to (almost) anyone. Here are some thoughts and tips about small talk:

• Think positive. Many translators are quite introverted, but interpreters not so much! It can be scary to leave the comfort of your home office and go out into the world to, say, a networking event, which will require small talk. However, small talk isn't limited to networking events: you might have to chat with a client while waiting for the interpreting session to start or talk to a potential client who has requested a lunch meeting. In general, think positive. What's the worst that can happen? Nothing bad can really come out of this (other than that you might just not establish a connection, which is OK), so take a deep breath. Talking is easy, right? You can do it. And you are not the only person who feels awkward when doing this -- trust us, you are not alone. How's that for a pep talk?
• Ask questions. Most people feel quite comfortable talking about themselves, so the way to get a conversation started is to ask some interested questions. Of course, it's a fine line between being interested and being nosy, so be sure not to cross the line. There are some topics that work well for most situations, especially in the US: where are you from; tell me about your business; I have heard about your company, and would like to know more; what's your alma mater; do you have any vacation plans, etc. Most of the time, conversation will develop quite naturally. In case it doesn't, that's fine, too. You must kiss some frogs.
• Give a compliment. This works best if you are a woman and you are complimenting another woman, but can occasionally work in other constellations as well. Make sure you are genuine, so don't say it if you don't mean it. These compliments are much more acceptable and comments in some countries, say the US, than in places like Austria and Germany, but it's worth a try. It can be something as simple as: "I love you scarf! I had one of those, but I lost it on a business trip to Portland. May I ask where you purchased it?"
• Don't do any hard selling. Many small talk situations will arise during networking events, so we recommend staying away from any me-me-me talk and hard selling. Everyone knows that you are there to sell your services, as is everyone else, so there's no need to be pushy. Talk about your business if it comes up, if you are asked, or if it seems like a natural transition. Don't immediately insist on presenting your business card. Don't rush.
• Buy drinks. For better or for worst, things do seem to be easier with a glass of wine in hand (or cup of coffee, or dessert, or whatever). Be prepared to take out your wallet and ask people if you can buy them _________. This is a small investment (unless you are at an expensive Vegas hotel, of course), and might yield great results (or it might not). We've never really had anyone say no to this offer.
• Be prepared. Even if you don't like football but the Super Bowl is that week, well, you better be able to talk about this in general terms. It's also important to be informed about what's happening in your community, your country and the world. This essential because these are all great, easy and non-controversial conversation topics. Being informed will make you look intelligent, engaged and connected to your world.
• Have fun. Have you seen the groups standing around, talking, laughing and having a jolly good time? It sure sounds like they have fun, and everyone wants to be part of that group. Be part of the group yourself by relaxing, telling yourself that nothing bad is going to happen, being open to meeting new people and make small talk, even if it bores you. And then just have fun! This is, after all, work, and it would be worse. Much worse than hanging out at a nice event with interesting people. 

This is, of course, only a short list of ideas. We'd really enjoy hearing what our dear colleagues have to add. Feel free to share any experience you've had as well! Happy small talking. 

Advice for Beginners: Specialization

Many beginning interpreters oftentimes ask us about specialization and whether it's essential that they specialize. We get many of these questions from Judy's students at the Spanish/English translation certificate program at University of San Diego-Extension and from Dagy's mentees. We thought it might be helpful to give a short summary on translation specialization. 

• One project does not equal specialization. This is a classic mistake that we also made early in our careers. Just because you have done a project (or two or three) in a specific area doesn't mean that's a specialization. You should really have in-depth knowledge. 
• Choose wisely. A specialization is an area that you know very, very well and that you can confidently say you are an expert in. Remember that if you choose a specific area, say chemistry or finance, it's best to have significant experience, including perhaps a graduate degree and work experience outside the T&I field, in that specific area. You will be competing with colleagues who have both experience and credentials, so it's important that you are prepared. For instance, we have a dear friend and colleague who has a doctorate in chemistry. Naturally, Karen Tkaczyk's area of specialization is chemistry.
• Non-specializations. It's impossible to be an expert in everything. It looks quite unprofessional to say that you specialize in everything, so we suggest staying away from that approach. Also be sure to put some thought into areas that you don't want to work in at all because you are not qualified, interested, or both. For instance, we once got a call from a client who really wanted to hire us to translate a physics text. We don't know anything about physics, even though we took eight years of it, and even though we were flattered, we politely declined and recommended a colleague. That project would have been a disaster. We also wisely stay away from in-depth medical translations.
• It's OK not to have one. It's not a bad thing to not have a specialization or significant experience in any area at the beginning of your career. Everyone starts out without experience (we did, too), and we wouldn't recommend lying about any experience you have. However, think about experience outside the T&I field: perhaps you were a Little League coach and thus know a lot about baseball or volunteered at your local Habitat for Humanity and thus know a bit about non-profits. The experience doesn't have to be in both languages, but any background and educational credentials will come in handy. For instance, Judy's graduate degree is in business management, so business translations were a natural fit for her. We had also done previous copywriting work (before we started our business, that is), so we felt that the advertising field might be a good specialization (and we were right).
• Add one! It might also very well happen that you will add specializations throughout your career, which is a good thing. We recommend choosing closely related fields so you don't have to invest too much time and resources.
• Getting faster. As a general rule, the more specialized you are, the faster you will be able to translate because you will be very familiar with the terminology. For instance, we have colleagues who only translate clinical trials, real estate purchase contracts or patents. They have usually amassed large glossaries and translation memories and spent little time researching and lots of time translation, thus positively affecting their bottom line.

We think this is a good start, but would love to hear from both colleagues and newcomers. Join the conversation by leaving a comment!

The First Three Months: Co-Working

The second floor.

Earlier this year, our dear friend and colleague Corinne McKay wrote about her experience at her new co-working space, and a few days after reading that post, Judy heard about a brand-new co-working space in downtown Las Vegas, which opened in February. Read on for her experience.

My desk for the day.

Both Dagy and I love working at home. It's nice and quiet, we have lovely pets, we have all our stuff, and it's a very short commute. I worked as an in-house translation department manager for years, and from my noisy (yet lovely) cubicle I occasionally yearned for peace and quiet. Now I have it, and while I do miss some of my awesome co-workers, I have a lot of contact with others during the day -- interpreting assignments, business and friend lunches, networking events, etc. Still, when I heard about the opening of Work In Progress, I had to check it out.

Zoe, the office dog.

I feel in love the first time I went -- think big, open spaces in a minimalist design with lots of light, nice amenities and cool people. I joined the very first week. The space is occupied mostly by techies, and after working in e-commerce for years (where I managed the Spanish-language website), I actually needed a big dose of tech in my life. I really "get" programmers and other high tech folks and enjoy working and hanging out with them. I was pretty sure I was going to be the only translator and only person without a Mac in the space, and that's very certainly turned out to be true.

In general, I am a huge supporter of the revitalization of downtown Vegas, which needs a lot of help, but is getting there with the help and financial prowess of a small, but very powerful and dedicated group of people led by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (who might one day remember my name). I used to hang out in downtown Vegas years before any of the Downtown Project folks even registered Vegas on their mental map, and trust me, in the 90s, it wasn't cool. Nor safe. And it's still not safe in many places, but I digress. I had heard about another co-working space in the suburbs, where I live, but I feel very connected to downtown, so it wasn't a hard choice.

Ideas welcome.

Technically, I don't need an office. Our translation clients live all over the world, and all work is done electronically. If we meet, it's for lunches and dinners or for meetings at their offices. For my interpreting work, I also go to the clients' offices. However, I was just so drawn to being part of a downtown community and I really wanted to support Work In Progress (WIP), so I became one of its earliest members. In addition, I have to admit that I'd become somewhat complacent on my networking, and in January of this year, I made  a promise to make more of an effort to meet people outside my circle who do not yet know we exist and thus wouldn't think of us for a project. I am happy to report that WIP has been a great networking opportunity, and that I've met plenty of lovely people I wouldn't otherwise meet. And the set-up -- having to walk up to people to say hello -- really forces me out of my comfort zone, which is a great thing. My laptop sticker with my company name has also come in quite handy, as several folks have pointed it out and we've started a conversation that way.

The first floor, a bit dark for me.

Even though it's much easier to work from my well-appointed home office, I've made a commitment to drive to downtown every Friday and work from there, and I've had a ton of fun. I've met fantastic people full of great entrepreneurial ideas from all walks of life, and in just a few months, we've really started building a great community. WIP has done a great job at organizing all kinds of cool events, including a speaker series, mentor hours, happy hours and other events. I've been talking to the WIP folks to give a presentation to my fellow entrepreneurs about how to market to non-English speakers, so that should be fun. Even though I don't have a Mac and don't speak any programming languages, I feel that I belong.

Our new outdoor area.

In terms of cost, I chose the lowest level of membership at $50/month (a bargain!), which gives me access to the office's lower level, which is not nearly as cool as the upper level (and much darker, which I don't like). Thus, I pay $15 every time I go to upgrade to the second floor, which features a full kitchen with all kinds of free stuff. All this is a very good deal, as it's roughly equivalent to my monthly smartphone bill, yet this is significantly more useful. I consider this fee my monthly membership fee to get access to a fun and influential group of people whose company I am really enjoying. For $250/month, I could have permanent access to the second floor, and for $450/month, I would get a permanent desk, which I don't need. However, I might consider changing my membership at some point in the future. 

What about you, dear translation and interpreting colleagues? Have you thought about getting a co-working space or some other type of office? We'd love to hear from you.