Unbundling of the Translation Process (2)

In my previous article, I discussed the unbundling that's occurring with freelance Japanese-to-English financial translation, and in this sequel article I'm going to explain how YOU TOO can unbundle yourself so you only have to perform one task (translation) instead of all of the three tasks that comprise the translation process (the other two being research and checking). And you'll still be getting paid the same rates as now. In fact, you might even be able to get better rates than now. You just need to follow the principles I'm going to set out here.

But be warned. It's not going to be easy. Success is never easy. And that's why so few people are successful. So if you're a slacker looking for a quick fix, you might as well stop reading right now!

OK, let's get into it. You're going to unbundle yourself by DOMINATING your market. You're going to establish yourself as the ONLY option for customers of translation services for your language pair/direction in your chosen field of specialization.

Most freelance translators are lazy. OK, that's a bit cruel, so I'll rephrase that:

Most freelance translators are average.

They're just like the vast majority of people in any walk of life. They take average levels of action and get average results.

But you're not average. And that's why you're going to dominate your market.

The first thing you need to do is stop looking at what other translators are doing and trying to compete with them, i.e. imitating them.

They are, for the most part, not particularly successful, so following their lead will get you NOWHERE.

I often say that if you want a quick way to achieve real financial success in freelance translation, just look at what everyone else is doing and do the exact opposite. Just doing that can often be enough to turn your situation around.

For example, many freelancers spend an awful lot of time sprucing up their lackluster websites and CVs to make themselves look better.

In other words, they're taking action to make up for their lack of action!

So if you go the opposite route and quit making cosmetic enhancements and instead allocate that time to making substantial improvements to your skillset, you'll do a lot better. Because we live in a world that no longer rewards talk.

You need to put in the work and engage in REAL, not superficial, actions.

You need to do what they won't do.

Let's suppose you specialize in the field of leisure and tourism and translate from French to English. You're a native speaker of English, I'm assuming.

Hotels and restaurants aren't exactly rocket science, and French isn't the hardest language in the world to learn, so you've got a lot of competitors you're going to need to smoke out if you want to dominate.

But if you remember that most of them are average people taking average levels of action, you can see that this won't be as hard as you think.

Here are a couple of non-average actions you can take:

• Interning for a week or two at a hotel in France. Contact dozens of them and see if they'll let you come in for a week to make beds, cook food, carry bags, deliver room service, work on the reception desk, wait on tables in the restaurant, etc. Then put the experience on your resume. (Most translators would never consider such a thing because they would consider it beneath them, though what's actually beneath them is settling for mediocre incomes as freelancers when they have the potential to be smashing it.)
• While you're on your internship, talk to all the staff and find out what vocational/professional qualifications they have. These will be French qualifications, by the way. Find out which ones can be obtained by anyone just by taking a test - and then study up and take those tests! Take all of them! Put them on your resume. (Most freelancers won't do this because it's too HARD. They think they can conceal their sloth by spicing up their resume with fancy expressions.)

Now you're set. You now have a CV that makes you the expert on the French tourism industry in the eyes of French hotels (your customers). After all, you have the exact same licenses they do! They also know you took them against the clock in French, so your language skills are assured (you're a native speaker of English, so they already know you can (or should be able to) write English, so emphasizing your English writing skills is a waste of time and energy. It's like Michael Phelps telling someone he can swim!).

You will now dominate. Clients and agents will choose you over all others. They'll want YOU to do all their translations, and that puts you in the position of being able to unbundle yourself.

As the orders flood in, you can say things like this:

"I can just about squeeze this job in, but I won't have time to do a line-by-line check at the end, so there might be some minor mistakes, OK? And can you look up the official English for these health and safety regulations for me? I'd do it myself, but I'm pressed for time."

They'll say, "No problem!"

Cos you're dominating, remember!

You just unbundled yourself!

For more tips on succeeding in freelance translation, check out my ebook on Amazon. It's called 88 WAYS TO BE SUCCESSFUL AS A FREELANCE TRANSLATOR.

Best of luck on your journey.

Matt