INCREASING YOUR INCOME AND THE TECHNOLOGY TRAP

 

Translation tool guru Michael Benis confesses that marketing and specialisation, not technology, are a freelance translator's best friend.

 

Magic pills

 

Let's face it, most freelance translators work such long hours that we can't help being astonished at how lucky we are the rest of the family still remember who we are when we finally get out of the office. There are two main reasons why we work so hard: we're desperate to keep our customers happy and we need the money. This short article hopes to look at both these factors in a new though not necessarily original light.

 

As many of you know, I've done more than my fair share of talks and articles on translation technology and productivity tools. I have to admit that in some ways I regret this. That's because it's made me complicit in one of the strongest current myths in our profession, namely the idea that translation technology represents some sort of magic pill for our problems.

 

Now, don't go expecting some kind of shamefaced Luddite confession - you won't get one. I'm writing this article itself using speech recognition technology and wouldn't have it any other way. I make regular use of translation memory combined with speech recognition and I love it. It makes my work more relaxed, helps me ensure consistency and increases my productivity. So, no surprises there!

 

The problem is that higher productivity and greater comfort don't necessarily equate to keeping your clients happy and making more money. Don't worry, I'm not about to launch off into some geeky explanation of how differential rates and other weird and wonderful translation memory discounts can erode any productivity gains, destroying your hopes of a return on your investment (though they very definitely can). I'm going to talk about something much more serious.

 

Translation is a growing market

 

I thought I'd start with the good news. Not least of all because many translators still cower under the misapprehension that the supply of translators exceeds demand. If anything, the reverse is true with very few exceptions.

 

The sad underside of this particular coin, however, is that the translation market is a peculiarly unconfident one. We are quite simply unaware of how crucial effective communication is to our customers' corporate image in terms both of how they build it explicitly (through advertising, press releases, business letters etc.), and how it is built indirectly through the effectiveness of their products; (which is in turn partially but significantly determined by their product documentation: how their literature successfully influences their customers' choice of appropriate products, and how effectively their manuals and instruction leaflets teach their customers to use them). There are two major consequences of this. Firstly, our customers are unaware of the vital role translation can play in their international marketing - not least of all because we don't teach them. Secondly, because we are paid "by the word" rather than in relation to the potential value of our services to our customers, we tend to never really deploy our skills to their full potential because we don't have the time or scope to do so. Such a situation of underuse, undervalue and undermarketing would be unthinkable in any other area of corporate communications.

 

As a result, income tends to be productivity-based just as competition in the translation marketplace largely tends to be price-based, with many translators failing to differentiate themselves in any way other than how many years' experience they can offer. This leaves professionals who offer the benefits of years of study and experience in many cases earning less for their hourly endeavours than plumbers or decorators (who - let us be clear about this - deserve every penny, yen and sou they rake in). A further result of this is quite simply that we become neurotic, endeavouring to work in as many languages and subject areas possible, constantly having to research new areas or refresh our overtaxed memories about areas we haven't handled for some time. The outcome of this nightmare scenario is that we can never be sure of the quality or value of our work, lose productivity almost as fast as we lose confidence, and vainly chase the rainbow that technology will somehow sort everything out for us. In this bleak, vicious-circle scenario, translation memory becomes little more than a terminology crutch in a variety of subject areas with which we are quite simply insufficiently familiar.

 

Where there's life there's hope

 

All is not doom and gloom. Talk to any successful translator and you're likely to hear pretty much the same story: they have gradually honed down the number of languages and subject areas they handle, sometimes becoming one of a handful of recognised specialists in a single given combination. This is invariably accompanied by steady increases in their rates and increased demand for their services. What's more, it ironically leads to considerable increases in productivity for the simple reason that their translation work in itself becomes ongoing subject research and their increasing depth of knowledge means their dictionaries just gather dust.

 

In the end, this virtuous circle generates increasing confidence, a clear and distinctive "corporate image", targeted and more effective marketing, a much higher income and greater satisfaction.

 

You might be tempted to object: "But this is all just common sense". And of course it is. Which is why it's so surprising that it in many cases takes us almost a lifetime's work to work it all out.

 

Shortcuts

 

So, if you're interested in increasing your income, start by temporarily forgetting about higher productivity, speech recognition, translation memory and keystroke shortcuts (valuable as these tricks and tools may be), and concentrate on taking a different shortcut: getting to the "in the end" of that lifetime lesson now, and putting it into practice immediately.

 

Restrict yourself to the language/s in which you have a real understanding of the culture concerned - or emigrate for few years to acquire one. Limit yourself to just one or two subject areas for which you have a special affinity or understanding, research hard and market yourself memorably and intensively.

 

Join your local Chamber of Commerce and/or the national Chamber of Commerce for the country whose language you work from. Draft a proper ad with visuals and mailshot all their members. Make sure you prime them for a follow-up call and arrange to meet them. Go to their Christmas parties and other events armed with business cards that refer them to your website. Contact your national association of translation companies and send your details and ad to all their members. Join your national association of translators and interpreters, obtain certification and use that in your marketing. And above all, never forget to develop and inform people about your specialisation. Remember, as a translator you're a communicator. Use those skills to communicate precisely who you are and what you have to offer.

 

That way your interest in translation memory and speech recognition will mainly be to increase your comfort, not your productivity or income. Which is just as well, because when it comes to making money and building a career, it's a career path with planned specialisation and effective marketing that you need to make sure you really meet your goals.

First published in Translation International, 2000.