If you are a new or expanding translation agency in need of acquiring more translators for your increasing workload, there are several options available to you. One is to post your projects on such portals as proz.com and translatorscafe.com. For every translator who responds to your posts you can respond with an auto email in which you request that they fill in your translator application form if they are interested in receiving more translation work in the future. Keep doing this for every one of your projects and start engaging your new applicants.
There are also mailing lists where you can contact many translators directly, such as Radek Pletka’s Weekly Translation Jobs list, or Yahoo Groups such as tr_jobs or jobs-translators. In this way you can write an invitation to thousands of translators, one which will land directly in their email box, asking them to fill in your translator application form.
And lastly, you can freely signup to receive applications from translators directly through such services as the Translation Directory and our own. Or get serious and simply purchase a large translator database, complete with all their details, as many translators, especially the more busy and better quality ones, simply do not have the time or interest to fill in application forms anymore. Such databases can be imported directly into your own (although some modification may be required), giving you immediate access to the industry’s best.
You never know when you will land a major project and, if you are already bursting at the seems, better to prepare yourself ahead of time.
Why Acquire a Database or List of Email Addresses of Translators
To prepare oneself for potential expansion it is important in any industry to prepare oneself because the “opportunity cost” (the cost of lost earnings can be equated to present costs incurred) of future lost work can be much greater than the preparation costs. After 20 years of running a translation company I know that mega projects occasionally come around. To win a tender price and scheduled delivery time play major factors. To win the contract one has a temptation to overextend themselves in order to win the large, profitable contracts, and in the hustle to find the necessary resources quality can be compromised. If you do not achieve the goals you promised, not only may you lose a long term and valuable client, for good, but you scar your company’s name in their eyes and it is possible they will choose to dock you of the agreed sum paid or not even pay you at all. The translation business is a very competitive industry, as 85% of the world’s population speaks at least two languages, and many of these people would love to earn a living by these means because they can reap the benefits from such a profession: the convenience of working from the comfort of their home, not to mention the lucrative benefits. These days it is not a problem to create a website for one’s services, and at the time of writing this article a search for “translation” yielded towards a billion results (very high compared to many other searches). All these webpages, whether they were prepared by a large, established corporation or by a single freelancer, all represent competition. Sure, there are other ways to find customers than through the search engines, but competition is competition and if you want to stay ahead of that, it is better to be prepared.
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