How to Run a Translation Agency Successfully - Complete Guides and Tools

By: Shahzad Bashir Posted on Tue, 02-08-2022

In this Blog, we are going to show you exactly how to run a Translation Agency successfully. 

In fact, these tips and guidance tools have helped dozens of Translation agencies to fix their loopholes and devise strategies enabling them to acquire more clients. And most importantly,  it will help your Translation agency to attain a strong Brand Image and Customer loyalty.

Table of Content

• Introduction; Starting A Translation Business
• Business Realities Post Globalization
• The Prerequisites; How To Start A Successful Translation Agency
• Kinds of Translation Agencies
• Finding The Right Niche Market
• Where And How To Seek Clients?
• Is Having a Website Necessary?
• Resourcing The Perfect Linguists
• Utility of Computer-Aided Translation Tools
• Building Up A Robust Translation Agency
• How To Market The Translation Agency Towards Success
• Quality Customer Service Is Essential
• Hiring The Right Talent And Skill
• Sustaining The Success Of A Translation Agency
• Cultivating Innovation
• Conclusion

Introduction; Starting A Translation Agency

It is not a mere coincidence that over 8 million people living in Canada are immigrants. This is due to globalization. Globalization has increased the interconnectivity of world communities. However, the language barrier still persists. To resolve this issue, translation and interpretation became a need of the time, rather than a luxury. People have always needed to convey their message to the masses. Hence, starting a translation agency has become a necessity. 

Business Realities Post Globalization 

Before the advent of the internet era, businesses were conducted at a local or regional level. Small-scale business owners seldom left their home state for business endeavors, let alone their country.

Today, on the contrary, most businesses are aware of the notion that they cannot survive in this exceedingly competitive economy. Hence, elongating their jurisdiction to foreign markets and countries has become a necessity for thriving. 

Diversification

The diversification of languages spoken in the world has soared the need for translation services. Approximately, 7000 languages are spoken worldwide. This has created new segments, niches, and markets that were initially untapped. 

Native speakers, intimate with the diversity of the language depending on where it is spoken, are in high demand. For instance, the Spanish language is not only spoken by the Mexicans, rather Cubans and Venezuelans share the same linguistic capability as well.

On the contrary, dialects and idiomatic phrases have been altered and appended in the general linguistic diameter of the Spanish language. Hence, there is a difference prevalent between how Spanish is spoken by a Mexican and how it is spoken by a Cuban. 

Acquiring Bigger Clients

Freelancers may find it arduous to acquire bigger clients because of this factor. But translation services will burgeon. As a language translation service provider, you will need to possess, as part of your staff, certified and reliable translators. They must have a strong resume. Thereby, it usually takes a lot of time and effort.  

Technology Startups

Some of the best translation agencies today function more than technology startups and agency models. Companies like CCJK and Mars Translation offer traditional translation services.

But its one-link technology allows companies to localize their websites more efficiently. Delivering a website in the right language and to the right audience is an expensive task. But one link makes it possible in a short period of time. 

What To Expect

If you have just started a translation company or are part of the freelance community, you may expect many of your customers to be from the legal and medical fields. Some might include government agencies, especially if you live in areas like Arizona or major European states.

On the other hand, your customers or clients may also include book publishers and small businesses that have a lot of overseas exposure, export companies for example. 

If you are familiar with at least one other language, translating can be a scalable business that permits you to work part-time or establish a much larger full-time model capable of generating a lot of income.

Prioritization of Localization 

The future of the translation industry is significantly incumbent upon technology since computer-driven translations have become more sophisticated. However, the market will likely need human translators for years to come.

The reason behind this notion is that businesses do not demand simple word-to-word substitution. Rather, the direction opted by many firms is to localize their content, specifically for the niche markets. And that is where the future lies.

Artificial technology and machine translation software has incorporated the cultural intricacies and language preferences of the regions with the translations. This has amped up the marketing game and personalization experience of the consumers. 

The Prerequisites; How To Start A Successful Translation Agency 

There is a famous quotation that goes; “If you are good at something,

 then riches can be arranged.”

A very important lesson can be derived from the above quotation. People running after success should be aware that passion and love for a particular thing breed success in that domain. 

If you are not good at something, it’s very hard to attain a certain level of success, let alone be appreciated by others. But before being good at something, you need to be passionate about the work that you do. 

Similarly, if one aims to enter the translation industry, passion for language and culture is obligatory. Secondly, certain steps need to be taken, meanwhile, specific know-how is crucial for a successful company launch. 

So let’s discuss them;

Kinds of Translation Agencies

Translation agencies can be fundamentally divided into two separate entities;

1.SLVs 

SLV or Single language vendors are those agencies that offer their translation services in only one particular language. 

2. MLVs

MLV or Multiple language vendors, on the other hand, are agencies that offer translations in more than one or multiple languages. 

There was a time when the multiple language vendors constituted of bigger firms that took the initiative to give out translation tasks to SLVS. On the contrary, the globalization-led digital era has bred more digital platforms than ever before.

Hence, providing opportunities to small firms to increase the diameter of their language portfolio. 

For a person just stepping into the language services providing business, the first step is to decide which option to opt for.

If he has the resources and the team to offer multiple languages, then being a multiple language vendor would be the more appropriate choice. Otherwise, it’s vice versa.

However, translation industry experts proclaim that it’s better to start small. And then build upon your business. It will be both sustainable and effective in the long run.

Finding The Right Niche Market

Just like any industry, the localization market is very dispersed. Hundreds of localization firms are competing against each other for bigger contracts. And trying to occupy the larger size of the market share.

Hence, if one is just starting to step into the industry might get overwhelmed by the level of uncertainty prevalent. 

In this scenario, you need to understand the importance of funneling down target markets. Because if you do that, you will find out that it’s more feasible, effective, and profitable to market a specific segment or niche. 

Matter Of Choice

Ultimately, it’s a matter of choice. Some like to follow the crowd at chow time. Meanwhile, some prefer to create their own path. Following the trends and scope of the prevalent larger markets may not have higher returns, but surely will be less risky. 

On the other hand, targeting a specific niche might burgeon your margins, but surely be a lot riskier, considering the fact that it has not been done before.

And there is no blueprint that you can follow or review before making any decisions. Every step will be a guiding point for you. 

Choosing A Niche

Choosing a niche can be a difficult process unless you divide it into segments. 

The first method of choosing a niche is to do what the rest of the translation firms are doing. And the second step is to follow your own personal interests. 

In this scenario, one important thing needs to be discussed. Choosing a niche does not only pertain to the industry. Rather, it can be an internal choice as well. 

For instance, you can capitalize on your decision of hiring the most experienced translators for your firm. And then exploiting this aspect to advocate the niche you are targeting. 

Moreover, you could also promulgate that your translation tools enable you to diminish the turnaround time significantly. And that is something none of your competitors possess.

This aspect can assist you to create your own niche that emboldens the utility of translation tools.

Don’t Be A Know-It-All

Having said that, one thing needs to be avoided at all costs. And that never promulgate the notion of being a localization firm that specializes in every discipline.

That does not at all mean you shouldn’t work to expand your language portfolio. But signifies the fact that advocating a false bravado and expertise in everything might dilute your brand image.

A master is always the one who specializes in one particular aspect. Hence, that is what you should strive for. 

Where And How To Seek Clients?

After choosing the niche specific to your needs and plans, the next step would be to seek out clients to sell your services to. 

One positive thing in today’s global economic environment is that almost every business is trying to penetrate foreign markets, or work to expand in any region. This creates a need for translation services.

Hence, you may find organizations related to the discipline of software, medicine, finance, and marketing trying to get their content or text translated into a foreign language. 

Whilst witnessing that, one should not attempt to go for every other department, especially if you are new in the business. 

So let’s take a look at it in this way. If you are a small startup or SLV, in this case, choose an MLV or any regional firm that is planning to penetrate the international market.

Considering the fact that English is the lingua franca of the world, you would probably be translating the content for the English-speaking community of the world.

However, English may be the most widely spoken language in the world, but it’s not spoken everywhere in the same manner. 

American English is different from British English. And linguists have to be aware of the linguistic and cultural nuances, preferences, and intricacies of the regions.

Thereby, experts suggest acquiring native translators from the regions that you are going to target eventually. 

Conclusively, we can state that your clients will depend upon the niche or segment that you ultimately decide upon. However, there are still some steps that you can adapt to make this search process more structured;

Exploring Network

The first thing to do is to explore your own network. This means seeking out information from your relatives or colleagues. And asking if they or someone they know is looking for translation services.

Starting From Your Local Area

Starting a translation business from your local area is the best way to establish a solid framework and reputation. It will take a shorter time to attain a significant PR, which is essential for a service-based organization.

Searching

One can search out company websites that have not been translated properly. The agent can be intimated with suggestions and recommendations pertaining to good translations. Reaching such firms via emails would be the right strategy.

Social Media Platforms

Utilizing Social media is not a mystery that organizations do not know about. However, some tend to ignore how powerful this tool is. Firms that are just starting up their translation business, can reach multiple markets globally without any overhead costs. And that is a benefit, not any organization, would want to avoid.

Is Having a Website Necessary?

It’s very important to promulgate one’s professional upbringing vis-a-vis a website. In this informal world, due to the excessive use of social media, companies often forget to give a formal introduction.

Hence, do not spend that much time creating a website. That is a big mistake. A website may not be needed at the beginning of your business journey, but it surely will play a big role in market penetration, if you go global. 

On the contrary, experts suggest that it is not always feasible to invest a lot of time and resources into building a website. Statistics state that sometimes clients do not even choose to avail your services based on the impression that they might have gotten from visiting your website.

However, the two aspects that form the basis of consumer purchase behavior are the client reviews and the services you offer.  

People often confuse the importance of a website with content marketing. To be fair, content marketing is a whole different ballgame. There are certain key factors that you should consider;

The content that you are going to present to your audiences needs to be carefully targeted. It will be a waste of time to create dozens of onsite blogs on topics discussing the significance of localization.

You need to be smarter than that. The better option would be to discuss how localization should be conducted to enable a successful market penetration. And practical examples and case studies should be presented explaining how your services helped an organization to achieve its goals. 

The availability of platforms is not limited. You can choose any platform to advocate your proposition to the audience. The real question is, should you?

Marketers suggest that every platform, whether digital or traditional, has its pros and cons. It all depends on whether it is the right fit for you or not

In this competitive environment where customers are bombarded with numerous advertisements on a daily basis, it’s very difficult to grasp customer attention. You have a three to five-second window in which you have to persuade the customer to view your website and read your content. Hence, you cannot afford to be boring and vague.

Resourcing The Perfect Linguists

Agencies that are specializing in just one language often have to source translators on their own. In this process, SLVs usually have to go through the recruiting process themselves. And it’s better to analyze the potential candidates yourself. 

However, for companies offering translation services in multiple languages, it will be difficult to attain the same level of expertise for every language. Hence, analyzing the skills level of aspirants for multiple languages will be trickier. 

Nonetheless, there are some simple steps that you can abide by in order to bridge these gaps. Let us discuss them;

It’s better to let the specialist do their job, rather than going through a hit and trial error journey yourself. And wasting your time and money.  A language specialist will enable an effective hiring process so that the right candidate gets hired for the job.

Once a translator is hired, the next thing would be to hire an editor or proofreader who will be responsible for quality maintenance.

Your linguists must have certain innate qualities. They need to possess a friendly demeanor about themselves. Moreover, being forthcoming is a quality that cannot be ignored.

Utility of Computer-Aided Translation Tools 

Utilizing translation software is beneficial for localization firms. However, the important thing is not every tool is needed. 

For agencies that have just started their business, CAT or a computer-aided translation tool is sufficient. It has a lot of advantages. For example;

⋆  CAT can translate your content into any format. Hence, you have multiple options. And would never have to worry about it.

⋆  It ameliorates your productivity. And helps you achieve larger goals in a short period of time.

⋆  You will also have the option to save your translations. Your saved data will not only work as a translation memory tool but will guide you for future projects as well.

Many agencies discard the significance of translation management systems, especially startup services. They believe that just because they won’t be handling large-scale projects, they will not be needing one. This is a misconception. 

A translation management system assists language service providers to maintain a track record. So it doesn’t matter if the project is small or large, you need to track how much work has been done. And what issues you should focus upon.

If you are offering multiple languages, you will have a lot of freelance translators on your payroll. And often MLV has to pay on a weekly or even daily basis. This constitutes several little payments made over a long period of time.

If you are manually tackling this issue, it will probably take a toll on you. Hence, utilizing a payment automation solution will be the best option.  

Building Up A Robust Translation Agency

Success is not a destination but a journey. In the corporate sector or the service-based industry, you may get to start a successful business. But there are no guarantees that you would be able to sustain it in the long run. 

Building a robust translation agency is an arduous task. However, there are certain measures that one can adopt if he is passionate about the work that he does. And at the same time wants to sustain his operations in the long term. 

How To Market The Translation Agency Towards Success

Marketing a translation agency is such a huge task, that you could probably write a full fledge manual on it. However, it also holds a lot of significance for localization agencies. And they need to adapt it if they aim to run a sustainable language services firm. 

The fact that there is no universal marketing strategy, makes the job even more difficult. Translation services have to switch and alter their marketing tactics every time they penetrate a foreign market.

Since language and culture differ from region to region, and country to country, the marketing strategy will also change respectively.

Thereby, hitting the mark with not the best strategy, but with the most appropriate one for that market, is something that should be aimed at. 

Elucidating Your Purpose

Defining your purpose is very crucial. And that too at the beginning of the journey. Your translation agency could take this step seriously and can advocate themselves as the voice of authority. Or, if you want to be on the safe side, your aim should be to go after customers. 

Often, services utilize the channel of digital marketing in order to attain the above-mentioned points at once. But that is an ineffective strategy. Because it dilutes your purpose.

The purpose is based on goals, but it is derived from your company’s mission and vision. And if the vision is multifaceted and unclear, it curbs growth and expansion.

Setting Realistic Budgets

One can spend all the money he has on marketing his language service. But the question is, should you?

It is very important that you have a realistic budget frame in your mind. Hence, analyze what your translation firm can afford, and then choose the right channel which enables you to meet your targets.

Meanwhile, not letting you spend more than you can afford, is the best way to go about it. 

Moreover, if you are just starting up your language business, flexible budgeting is recommended by experts. It will allow you to reallocate your funds whenever you want to.

Because sometimes, some channels bring in more customer traffic than others. Hence, in this case, if you have a flexible budget, reallocation would be easy. 

Understanding Your Customer

For translation services, success is not coming any time soon if the customers have not been identified. Hence, that should be done on priority. 

One important challenge that services face is that they usually are not aware of how to understand their customers. In this scenario, the best way to go about is to conduct market research. 

So what market research will do is it will enable you to establish consumer personas. It will guide you to know what are the needs and wants of your customers.

How your customer thinks, perceives, and looks for in a service. Once you know that, you can customize your marketing strategy accordingly. 

Creating the Language Portfolio

No marketing strategy is complete without knowing the customer and the product. In the case of translation agencies, they need to cultivate their marketing plan with respect to the languages they will offer to their customers. 

Languages will differ with every geographical location, hence, the target market has to be catered to accordingly. If you are targeting a segment in America, you cannot just simply offer translation services in the English language.

You need to offer at least two to three languages. This may include English, Spanish, Mandarin, or Chinese.  

If you take the initiative to offer just one language, you will be missing out on a wider market that can give you huge returns.

On the contrary, if you are offering translation services in Spanish or French, it will cater to a wider market. And with the help of a solid and efficient marketing strategy, you can generate a lot of business. 

It is a combination of the language offered according to the region, the budget allocated for that language. And the market research that went into finding the customer preferences and the cultural intricacies.   

However, you also have to monitor the returns you are getting post-implementation of a marketing strategy. But experts always prefer to stick to one. And alter one or two aspects, rather than changing the entire strategic plan, and creating a new one from scratch. 

Google Adwords Marketing  

If you are struggling to figure out which marketing avenue can give you the greatest output with the littlest input, then Google Adwords is the one for you. 

Often people get confused as to what Google Adwords marketing is. So let’s elucidate the concept once and for all. 

The first thing you need to do is create a Google Ad campaign. You would have to opt for a keyword that you think people might search for.

So it could be “language translation services” or “ Language service provider”. Hence, anytime a person searches for these keywords, your ads would be ranked on top by google search engines. 

Moreover, Google Adwords marketing allows you to directly target a specific consumer audience. Customers that are looking for a specific service will give you the consumer information that is essential in marketing research. It will mainly include age, gender, profession, interests, and other psychological factors. 

Once you have the data pertaining to what kind of consumers are looking for the service you offer, you can create marketing offerings and strategies customized to their needs.

It will not only increase customer traffic and conversion. But will ameliorate consumer loyalty and brand recognition. 

Social Media Marketing

If you are not utilizing the benefits of social media marketing for your business, then you are literally living under a rock. 

There is no other marketing channel that can give you access to almost any living person on this planet. And that too at a minimum or no cost at all.

Social media is the marketing channel for the future. And is the best option for startups operating on tight budgets. 

One may argue that Social media platforms do not target audiences as paid campaigns do. This is a misconception. Instagram and Facebook algorithms have the ability to specifically show those ads to the users that cater to their interests.

This is done via their pre-selected interests and hobbies. And the total time they spend on which particular posts on social media. All of this data is used to alter and suggest consumer feeds. 

Utilizing Local Business Directories

Contemporary social media channels are as good as they can get. But traditional media still holds a significant market share as well. 

You can utilize local business directories and list your translation agency on business directories. The thing about that is they are still maintained at a high level.

And people who do not know how to efficiently surf the internet can opt for this option. However, there are both online and printed directories available. 

Expanding Connections

Another method to advocate your translation agency is if you become a vital financier of local businesses. Moreover, you can hold conferences in which you invite global delegates.

International attention can increase your customer audience. And enhance your market scope. 

Meeting international delegates and expanding your business via connections is one of the best and most authentic ways of getting the word out for your company.

Some experts proclaim that word of mouth is the most powerful and effective marketing tool. It doesn't matter how good or appealing a YouTube video might be, if your colleague or friend says that you should try something else, then you would exactly do that. Hence, expanding your connections is something that you should never disregard. 

Testimonials

Another form of word of mouth is the notion of testimonials and reviews. Believe it or not, reviews are the most effective way of advocating your service to the rest of the world. Hence, you should never skip them. And always insist on your customers or clients to give their reviews post-purchase stage. 

People often purchase services or products just because of good reviews. Considering the competitive business environment that we live in, and the ability of the customers to remain anonymous pertaining to their honest opinion about a product or service, people do not shy away from telling the truth. Hence, when new prospective clients witness any review, they immediately trust them. 

Conclusively, if you are trying to run a translation service, your marketing team should take out the time to read some of the reviews and testimonials clients have left on other language vendors.

This will give you an idea of what issues or complaints concern the customers the most. Thereby, giving you a caution of what not to do. And what to focus upon.  

Content Marketing

Content marketing is very important for translation agencies. If you are not publishing your content via blogs, it’s very hard to be ranked in google searches.

On top of that, you need to utilize other sources, like magazine articles or professional social media platforms like LinkedIn, to sustain a name so that customers don’t forget about you.

Content marketing breeds brand awareness and recognition. If your customers are not aware of your brand, how can you expect a positive and profitable response from them?

Customers value services that provide them with prime content. This content not only expands their knowledge pertaining to the industry but gives them the required knowledge to go for their own startup. 

However, there is one thing that needs to be discussed here, i.e, the target audience. 

The content that you will provide to your audience should cater to the specific needs and wants of that particular segment. This will enable your content’s utility to the maximum.

For instance, if you are offering legal translation services, then your content should relate to topics like, “legal implications of doing business in foreign countries”. This type of content will increase customer traffic on your web pages. 

Affiliating Commissions 

Affiliate marketing is another way to expand your brand presence. Language services providers should take the initiative to compensate the existing clients of a firm for bringing any new ones. The reward can constitute of several items, such as;

⋆. Bonuses, in the form of credit, cash, or service

⋆. Multiple discounts for any new project, etc.

It depends on your budget constraints and the level of the customer when it comes to spreading the word for your enterprise.

Quality Customer Service Is Essential

It doesn’t matter how good your product is, if you are unable to give good customer service, you’ll never be able to attain customer loyalty. Thereby, financing your customer service department is as essential as it gets.

There are many ways that can enable you to provide good customer service. Let us discuss them;

Product Expertise Breeds Good Customer Service

Translation agencies need to provide quality service to their customers. And they cannot do that unless the troubleshooting team executes product expertise via their service. 

The first thing to concentrate upon is the width of the knowledge pertaining to the product. The customer care team needs to know each and everything about the product that your company is offering.

This is only possible if they believe in the product as the creators do. It’s not simply about discussing the features of the product, but rather giving the clients an insight into the utility of the product. 

Customers are the most satisfied when they understand how a product or service benefits them or resolves their issues.  Hence, it is the responsibility of the customer care team to conceptualize and empathize with the clients so that can truly provide them a return for their money. 

Positive Attitude

Customers like being valued. And the best methodology to value your clients is to portray a positive attitude when encountering them. People often remember individuals with a positive and polite attitude. Hence, it is important that translation services adapt to this aspect.

Some of the leading Marketers proclaim that one can change a negative customer experience into a positive one vis-a-vis adopting positive attitudes.

The fact that translation agencies offer services on a global scale is something that cannot be taken lightly. The customer interaction is via online platforms or through calls, hence, the attitude of the company representative gives the first and the last impression. 

Effective Problem-Solving Over Unnecessary Delays 

In a fast-paced environment, people are prone to instant gratification, hence, they hate delays and unnecessary hold-ups. Translation agencies have to enable an efficient and effective problem-solving mechanism.

Be the service provider that thrives in resolving customer issues. However, if you inculcate creativity in addressing the customers’ needs, it leaves a long-lasting impression on your audience. And will derive customer satisfaction and brand loyalty. 

Personalizing Service

How do you feel when call centers treat you like a tennis ball? And transfer you from one person to another? 

You’ll probably be very angry. And that is the mistake that agencies often make. If you want to sustain a long and prosperous translation business, you need to personalize the customer experience.

Treat customers like you would want yourself to be treated by others. In this scenario, if you make the choice of calling the customer by his or her name. Or wishing birthdays, that would be a good start. 

Customer Is Always Right

Dealing with customers is an art form. Considering they are the bread and butter of the service-based industry, it would be a foolish thing to blame the customers for an issue. 

Marketers state that it doesn’t really matter if the problem is on the other side of the phone, the customer is always right. The notion behind this statement is to put the customer over everything else.

A customer-oriented approach often enables the customer to resolve their own issues. And this is something preferred by clients themselves. 

Timely Follow-Ups

Companies are very enthusiastic when it comes to cold calling or onboarding the customers on their platform. But this enthusiasm often derails and diminishes once the customer subscribes to the service.

And the customer-turned-client now feels as if he is not given the focus and attention that he was initially promised. 

Hence, it is crucial to conduct timely follow-ups. One needs to be proactive in this approach, especially translation services if they want to succeed in the long run.

Successful companies often state that one should not go for acquiring more consumers if he cannot take care of the ones he already has. Hence, follow-ups need to be treated as part of the customer services program, that cannot be discarded.

Hiring The Right Talent And Skill

A lot of time, money, and resources go into the hiring process. Hence, it would be a waste of effort if the wrong person is hired for the job. 

We will discuss some important points that will ensure that a translation firm hires the right talented and skillful individual for a position. 

Conceptualizing How The Translator’s Aspirations Fits With The Job Description

A translation service needs to focus on the future aspect of every position that they are hiring for. This will enable them to create the most appropriate and effective job description, which will eventually persuade the right candidate to apply for the role. 

Moreover, it’s better to understand the aspirants’ aspirations for that particular job role. Ensuring that either he is looking for a nine-to-five job that pays well or wants a career out of it, will make a big difference in selecting the right candidate.

Thorough Evaluation

It doesn’t matter how time-consuming the process of hiring is, one has to evaluate all the checkpoints of a candidate. And skip nothing.

If you get desperate and skip the thorough evaluation process, it will eventually not work in your favor. And can cause a lot of difficulties down the road.

Hence, the ultimate goal of the evaluation process has to ensure that the attributes that you are looking for in a candidate, match with their former work to the required output you desire. 

Focusing On The Questions Asked

If you want to observe the caliber of the person you are hiring, focus on the quality of the questions that he asks you during the process. 

These questions will give you an idea of how prepared and involved the candidate is.

However, if we take the advice of some of the leading hiring experts, they claim that the interview should not be similar to a scripted back and forth question and answer session.

Rather, it should be a dialogue that brings out the best from both sides.   

Check How The Aspiring Translator Works 

It may seem like a stretch, but many firms do incorporate this aspect into their hiring process. And that is constructing an activity within the hiring process, that lets you witness and judge how the candidate actually performs in the job that he will be hired for. 

This step would allow you to see if your investment will actually pay off in the long run. Candidates who perform effectively in a fully functioning work environment will turn out to be better for your agency, as compared to those who do not. 

Sustaining The Success Of A Translation Agency

The most challenging part of success is to sustain it. One can create the best firm in the world. But if it’s operational for just a couple of years and then bankrupts, it will be deemed a failure. 

Similarly, sustaining the success of a translation agency is no joke. Now, we will discuss what measures can help a translation service sustain its operations in the long haul. 

Navigating Competitive Advantage Vis-a-vis Stakeholder Engagement

Translation services often differentiate between their stakeholders. This is not sustainable. One needs to concoct a value for all the stakeholders. These mainly include; 

⋆  Employees (Mainly developers for the Translation Management System, and Translators) 

⋆  The main shareholders

⋆  Consumers who will benefit from the translations 

Your translation business can work in the long run if you address the social issue of society. And how your industry can benefit the overall civil society. 

Establishing A Culture That Attracts Talent

Why do you think Google has deemed the dream job for every tech person? The reason is not the material aspect, but the organizational culture that has made Google such an attractive place to work at. 

Similarly, if you want your translation services to hire the best talent, you need to create a culture that compels a person to work for you. This is one of the most important elements that sustain the success of a firm.

Niche Capitalization    

Don’t be an organization that is always running after trends. Rather, be the one that creates trends and leads a crowd. 

Since the evolution of globalization, the business world has become very competitive, hence, translation agencies should create their own niche. And then capitalize on that.

It could be based on quality, turnaround time, the word count of translations, level of expertise, or unique languages. You have to find what best suits your company goals. And then strive towards that segment. 

Emboldening Strengths

If you have been part of the translation industry, you will eventually get to know your strengths and weaknesses. And that is the most important stage for your future. You need to work on your weaknesses and embolden your strengths.

Both of these steps should be given equal attention. And a balance should be maintained. If the equilibrium is not maintained, it will be hard to attain sustainability. 

Value Proposition

A value proposition is important for every service-based organization. It’s basically a promise that you will fulfill by providing value to your clients. 

Translation services have to view their work as providing value to their customers. If their product or services is not helping the clients or enabling them to reach the desired goal that they wanted to achieve with the help of your service, then consider your derives as an ultimate failure. And you will not be able to sustain yourself for the long term. 

Ameliorating Risk Management

It doesn’t matter how calculated your strategy is, risk will always present itself in any scenario. The only thing you can do is to minimize it. And adapt an effective risk management system within your company. 

So let’s discuss what you should do. 

Clarity Of Ambits

The first thing you need to concentrate on is to clearly assign all the responsibilities to the desired departments. Risk arises when agencies create gaps and uncertainty pertaining to what activity will be performed by which individual. 

Early Identification Of Risks

Pre-preparation doesn’t hurt anybody. Hence, you will be doing yourself a huge favor if you identify risks as soon as possible, as it enables an efficient risk management process.

Consider these risks an opportunity to improve and learn. Moreover, every time you encounter a risk, make sure to describe it properly. And create a document, meanwhile distributing it to all the concerned departments

Cultivating Innovation

Due to technology, the localization and translation industry is exponentially ameliorating. Hence, we are constantly witnessing a shift from traditional translations to a more tech-based approach. 

So let’s discuss some of the innovations that may enable agencies to sustain their translation business in the long run. 

Neural Networks

A neutral network is deemed by many translation experts as the system that will disrupt the entire localization industry. 

This network has the capability to learn as a human brain does. Just like a human brain, the neural network can learn new languages faster and more efficiently than a human brain.

Hence, it will not need the resource materials to perform translations. 

Camera Translation

Dropping down from large translation projects to a more basic human need, camera translation has the ability to instant translations vis-a-vis camera. 

It’s basically the amalgamation of a machine translation system with a phone camera. And it will translate any text you see in front of you. All you have t do is take a picture and let the system do the rest. 

Two-Way Voice Interpreters 

We have seen in recent times, that voice recognition systems have attracted a lot of attention. People enjoy using this technology, as it is convenient, and works at any given place and time.

All you have to do is speak in your own native language, and then the system will convert the audio to the desired language vis-a-vis the two-way voice interpreters.

Conclusion

Success is a journey. And probably a very difficult one. One needs to face a lot of challenges and hiccups along the way. However, organizations that are consistent in their endeavors, learn from their mistakes and think in qualitative terms rather than quantitative terms often succeed. 

In this e-book, we discussed how translation firms can build a robust agency. Meanwhile, adopting strategies to sustain their business to be able to sustain in the long haul. Moreover, translation agencies should use some advanced localization management platforms to improve productivity, reduce hassle and deliver quality results. If you are looking for a centralized platform to manage your localization projects.

We have a lot to offer. Using our advanced TMS and localization management platform, you can streamline your process, manage multiple projects simultaneously and monitor progress for every project, all at the same time. Contact us for more details.