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| [House by junction*] |
This week, I had the pleasure of participating on a panel discussion
presented by Proz.com, an important international translation portal, on the
subject of attracting new customers. Organized and hosted by Paul Urwin for
International Translators Day, the other two panel members were Daniel Coria
and Martina Russo, both experienced translators. The discussion was interesting
and, based on comments received afterwards, helpful to the audience. To
paraphrase Eliza Doolittle in My Fair Lady, we could have talked night.
For me, one of the striking dynamics of the conversation was the
diversity of approaches. Mr. Coria is a highly experienced English to Spanish
translator comfortable working in the corporate world. Ms. Russo works from
German, English and Spanish to Italian, including Swiss Italian, and focuses
clearly on her two fields of knowledge, digital and marketing on one hand and
sports wear on actions sports on the other hand. She identifies and attains her
ideal customers, often medium sized companies. By contrast, I focus on legal
and financial material as well as official documents, working from Hebrew,
French and Russian to English, both US and UK, and cultivate a wide network of
small businesses, end clients and boutique agencies. Each of us taken a
different tack but all of us are successful.
The source of these differences is our varying background. Mr. Coria has
a formal academic background in legal translation and worked in Argentina, a
country with a government-regulated translation industry. By contrast, Ms.
Russo, aside from her translation degree, applied her background knowledge in
marketing and sports to create her own niche. “Eclectic” is the word describing
my background with a BA in Russian Studies, teaching credentials in French and
an MBA as well as legal studies and several years of selling and 25 years of
teaching English. Each of us brings an entirely different background.
The “moral” of the story for translators and all freelancers is that
everybody begins at a different starting point. No two people are identical in
any matter, including their professional qualifications. Yet, all of us must capitalize
on those assets and qualities life has given us and make them our competitive
advantage. Formal education and job experience only two of these assets.
Exposure to different cultures and business sectors as well as relatively high
social skills in one type of interaction or another are also important.
Entrepreneurs must be no less aware of their strengths than their weaknesses in
order to determine their best strategy.
At the same time, the world in general and the business world in
specific is very dynamic, expanding and shrinking in different directions
depending on the sector and time. In this discussion, it became clear that
regardless of the strategy we took at the beginning of our careers, we have had
to observe and adjust, like big companies. The key to long-term success is that
constant awareness of trends even if it is often impossible to identify the
cause of that trend. If the great have fallen because of the failure to adjust,
the smaller are no less vulnerable.
The goal of all entrepreneurs is to make a living. However, each person
defines that in a different manner. The paths to that objective are many and depend on the starting point
and circumstances of each person, which by definition vary. Clearly, some roads
to Rome are better paved and smoother than others but, as Frost would say, the
road less traveled is no less worthy.
*Picture captions are important to the blind. Picture by ariesjay castillo - Pixabay
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