Translation Project Management

I'd like to change the strategy a bit. I asked you about looking for translators, but I need you for something else now. Background information: I have been training a girl in Rumania to be a project manager, and I wanted to train you for this position once I had enough work for both of you, in the meantime giving you other types of work according to my budget. I sent the same material to the Rumanian girl that I sent to you, and told her many times of my limited budget. She told me this was okay and that I can pay her what I can afford her, owing her the rest for later. She worked for a month, sent me her charges, and now is disappointed of the amount I can pay her at the moment (130$, although I will try to reach her demanded minimum of 200$), so has stopped working. She was doing lots of different types of jobs and ended up working overtime, which I did not ask her to do. Anyway, I will certainly eventually pay her for the remainder of her work, as we originally agreed, and hope that she will continue to work at a later point, as she has learned a lot, is a good worker, and is positioned on a good time zone. But since she does not want to work for me for the time being, I'd like to start training you for the project management (PM) position. As with her, I can offer to pay you for the time you spend learning everything. But now I will state that the condition for such payment is that you work for me for a longer period of time, because it is not economical for me to spend so much time and money training someone just so they quit after a month. Anyway, perhaps we should talk about a concrete payment plan per month, so that there is no misunderstanding. One of her jobs was to surf the internet collecting email addresses of companies I wanted to approach in the hopes of getting customers. This was most of her time spent. Anyway, for the project management part, there is not that much work at the moment, but the more work there is for you in this department, the more I will be able to pay everyone. I am right now at the start of expanding, as I wrote you before, so until a steady stream of work flows in, things will be a bit shakey in the beginning. So I'd like to ask you if you already have some other work that you can do part time for me on the side, until I will have enough work and budget for you to keep you fully employed. I'd like to know your present and financial situation, and your capacity to work for me over the longer term. I think you will find the work interesting.

did you fill in the Translator Application Form below? That way I could approach you regarding all your language combinations. I checked out your sample and it looked okay, but a little bit jagged, which I think you would be able to iron out with a little practice, or after seeing the proofreading changes. At this link you can find my philosophy about translations, which would apply more strongly for this type of marketing text. You can also check out the final version of our translation to the customer through d.kenax.cz, Download Pages, job 7007. It can always be better but this is the best I could accomplish for this moment (didn't have too many translators to work with).

I have not heard from you for a while. Did you get my big RW instructions in .html format? I need to start training someone for a project management position, which includes vetting, the instructions of which you will find at X. Would you be interested in being a project manager for me? The way we can do it is that I can give you all the project management work which comes in, which means I'd be able to pay for all of it within a month or the usual time, because this type of project management work would be for actual work which comes in. Then I can pay you for a little bit of development work, such as helping me look for translators or customers etc., based on what my budget can afford. If I manage to get enough work coming in then I can pay you for as many hours as you feel like working. But what is important is that you respond to my emails every day, and that we have some window of opportunity to exchange several emails in one day, if necessary. I would need you to check your email at least once or twice a day. What is your availability at the moment, which hours could you work, and would you be interested in this? I have not received a response for my last email and it is important that I receive punctual responses to my emails.

here are all the Croatian files. The proofreader looked on the internet and, although she agreed that SFr was acceptable, she felt that CHF was more official, hence she updated the first two files as well, so please consider these the latest versions. In fact, many of the translators were kind of arguing whether to use CHF or SFr. But I guess it's not so crucial. I'll vet the Croatian files later tonight. Recently lost my vettor and have to do this task myself, which is contributing to some of the delays.

I asked the proofreader to do these changes but she has not responded since yesterday, so please state if you can do this for me, and by when you can get it done. Copying the letters below, explaining what to do.

some parts were found missing or something found questionable in some of the files, which you may find by doing a search for the < character in the French files. Also, please update the Wave02 files according to the changes you will find in the attached English originals, and give me your charge for this extra work. Also, the German to English translation translator left the GMBH and Angeschaft or something in the German translation, which I later changed to Corporation. Please consider whether to likewise translate this word from German into French as opposed to leaving it in German. And she also translated one word as Judicial Person, although I feel Legal Entity is better. Please consider updating this as well. Please do asap as the I was hoping to have already delivered everything (the customer was sent unfinalised files and will be sent updates as soon as you are done).

most translators are not pressuring me for immediate payment of their translation work, and your balance is not so high as the others, so I assume it will work out okay. I'm usually good at juggling funds in times like this. I wanted to ask you, I am planning a marketing push into China and was wondering if you wanted to help me. I've been told that my prices into foreign languages (native target quality) are competitive for the Chinese market. Since the Chinese seem to manufacture everything and need their user manuals translated into all those languages, it might be a good market for me. Attached you will find what I have prepared so far. I don't think I'd be competitive in anything other than translating, so perhaps I should knock out the other services. The translator said I should have some website to refer to as well, so perhaps someone could suggest some text earmarked specifically for the Chinese market, rather than a simple translation of some of my existing English pages. You will also find two originals I have been working with. A marketing person said the approach letter should be shorter, so the second version is more concise.

to update your email address in our records, please read below. I checked out your RW application and your response seemed good and solid, but you did not state a price. I don't need you to work for free during a trial period but I'm looking for long term cooperation at the appropriate budget. Right now I can afford only 3$/hour, which can be around 4$/hour with percentage of projects you handle, and more than that for very large projects, and I'm testing people in Rumania and Malaysia. But for your time zone, it seems that this budget will not be enough, so it may have to wait a while before I start training someone on your time zone. I'd like to have several project managers on different time zones so that I can offer a 24/7 agency.

after finishing one project, decided to take a few days off from the internet cafe, so I'm writing this email offline in response to your last letter I read from my mobile, and should be able to blast this off when I get to the internet cafe on Monday. I regret that you are having these financial difficulties and wish I had enough work that I could offer you full time employment, or as much as you would like. Do you have a computer at home? Perhaps what we can do is I'd try to give you as much work as I could, during which you could find some other employment to supplement your income, and then later move back to your flat and work from there with permanent internet once I have enough work for you and if you would be interested in that. Do you have a computer at home? I guess we can discuss all this. There are several types of work I can give you. The most important for me now is project management work, but for that I'd need you to check your email at least once a day, and I fear this will be too difficult for you considering your present situation. Especially since I am not getting much work at the moment and you would be checking a lot of tmes, when nothing is happening on my end. So it would be a lot of work for you, which would not pay off unless I actually had daily work coming in. Or do you have a mobile phone to which I could send a text message when live work does come in? Another possibility is for you to approach translating agencies, like I suggested. This could be a good strategy because, while I approach the agencies, you could also offer your own services, which could lead to additional work and better enable you to work from home. For the agency approach job, you would compile a list of email addresses. Some agencies do not advertise their email address, due to spam, but rather have a contact form. In such cases you could copy paste a prepared letter into their contact form. And when an agency responds back to me with interest, often asking me to fill in some forms etc. so they have all my details in their records, you could be responsible for that as well. When you copy paste my information into their contact email form, you can do the same for yourself, and I can help you with your approach letter if you like. When I approach all the agencies with the email list you provided me with, I can help you do the same for yourself, as I have good programs which address each email address individually. Would you be interested in something like this? I'd love to offer you lots of work, but I'm quite short of cash at the moment, so I must be very selective. But things can change at any moment, as they have in the past, and I am busy looking for new customers, now that my system is finally set up to expand.

didn't get a chance to download your email today when I went to the internet cafe, because apparently internet on the whole island of Cyprus has been down today, so I will answer this email from memory and send it off tomorrow Wednesday as I wrote to you from my mobile. I don't know where you got the impression that I have had a lot of work, but attached you will find the latest update to the Accounting.xls file. The last job you worked on was 6025, delivered on October 3, and there really hasn't been much work since then. Meanwhile, nothing has come out of Panasonic yet, and what originally looked like two little files turned out to be almost 2500 words translated into five languages (I came to an agreement that I would start with only a fewer languages, since it was getting expensive). Including the costs of assessing the various languages, the total cost of the Panasonic tender came to 500 Euro. At least I have translators tested in many new languages. Many of the translators said they could wait for payment, while a certain number of them are demanding payment on time, even though when I approached everyone in the beginning I explained them my predicament and that I hoped they would not rush for payment, if they were interested in helping me put the Panasonic bid together. Meanwhile, after questioning Panasonic several times, they kept giving me encouraging words (regarding my price and system of operation), so I proceeded to put myself on the limb like this, hoping something will come out of it (they said the last thing they need to see is my quality, and my translators assure me they should be very happy with the samples). Another long story, but my mobile went dead in Turkey and I was forced to cross some border to activate it, so I drove half way across the southern shore of Turkey and then an expensive ferry to Cyprus, where I am now, meaning the Greek border is only an hour's drive away. I will stay here until I get myself on my feet again a bit, but I also should be back in the Czech Republic by around June, to reregister my vehicle, and for health insurance. So that will be another expensive ferry, and lots of gas, and I am worried whether the back four tires will make it, because replacing those will not be pleasant. I am barely scraping enough together for my child support, which I have reduced to almost half due to my predicament. So all in all, I think I am in my worst situation I have been for a very long time. Oh, and the girl I was testing for the project management job, because you did not understand the email responding job, has turned out to be another problem. I explained to her a million times my predicament, and that I really do not have much of a budget. Most of her work spent was collecting email addresses, in hopes of finding some new customers, and some training. She said it was okay and that I can pay what I can and the rest when I have the money. Meanwhile she was working practically full time, and when it came time to pay her, she was so shocked at the low amount that she blew up and is pressuring me for more payment. So she stopped working, and now I am doing everything myself, praying every day for work, and desparately looking for customers constantly, and getting depressed at my situation. I would certainly pay you if I had as much work as you were assuming I had. I have always paid you, but now things are really getting low, so I hope that you can continue to be patient. I can pay you interest on what I owe you if you like. In fact, over the past six months, I have been borrowing from various friends, and I don't think I have been this much in debt for a very very long time. But things always seem to turn around, and my system is now set up to handle a high capacity, and I hope to use your services once a lot of work does start coming in. It is just taking longer than I expected and I am trying my best. Sorry that I am in this predicament.

I have not had work for a long time and am getting a bit desparate, and considering putting my CV on the Czech web. Could you help me translate my CV, and do you have any tips of promoting my services on the Czech web? I was thinking of the standard seznam.cz and JTP, but I'd appreciate any other suggestions you might have. Lately I have been mostly focusing on web rankings on the English web, and have made moderate success so far, attaining a ninth place position in the keyword search "translating resources" and about 20th in "translating agency". I expect this to improve over time, with more keyword searches, but it is a very competitive and large sector. Anyway, I don't enjoy translating anymore and prefer to avoid it, but need it to pay the bills at the moment. Also, are we fully squared up? I remember you did some personal translations for me and I cannot find it in the accounting. I used to keep this accounting information separate but now I combined it, to help keep track of things better.

responding to your email I read on my mobile, I have prepared the translation for you. Attached you will find my CV for translating (although I just realised that a lot of it may have already been translated: in Final.zip). Please check out Czech to English translator and tell me what you think of the concept. I know I look like a bit of a homous, but what can I do. I´d like this to score well on Czech search engines, so please create a separate list of search words you think Czechs would use (such as prekladatel cestiny do anglictiny, rodily mluvci). I have created for you a traumatic Transit file, and you will find new and simplified instructions at Transit PE. I did this because the original page was html, but if you have another way you can work with this file without changing any of the codes, I have attached the original html file zipped. I´d also like to translate the contact form http://001yourtranslationservice.com/site_translations/Czech/contact.php but for this you can just copy/paste the text into a Word file and send the translation to me, since there are only a few words and one paragraph. Please translate all the links as well, and the "subject" and "message" etc. in the form itself. The order number for this is 00L7001. Please tell me your total charge so that I can update the accounting. I am rather desperate for cash at the moment, so I hope you will not be in a rush for payment. I have been busy working on my English web rankings and so far I´m 9th for "translating resources" and about 25th for "translating agency". So I´m making some progress and will continue on a permanent basis, as well as all other marketing angles, since I am finally ready to expand, and hope to start offering you lots of interesting work in not too long. I have been approaching Czech companies as well, directly by email, and I am attaching the letter (Czech and English version) I have been using so far. But I am thinking it might be better to send something shorter, like a quick intro, with the CV you would translate. What do you think?

thanks for the payment. Yes, it seems that the email got swallowed by Vanquish, and I still can't find it, so I'll have to resolve this somehow. Guess I'll just convert some funds from one currency to another and look for the email. Your balance came just as I had zero money on my account and only 4 Turkish Lira in my pocket, so thank you very much. Otherwise, I'd have to go from bank to bank looking for one which would allow withdrawing over the counter from another card, since I don't have the pin for that. But I don't have much money on that account either. So things are generally scary and you've saved me, thankya. At least my seo work has seen some progress lately. Now just to convert that into some new customers somehow.