2011

I've decided that 2011 is gonna be a great year for my translation business.  Without looking at prior projects I would say I've done a good 10 translations this year, 3 or 4 of which were large projects including a website.  I'm determined to double that.  This new year I have several small but very important aspects of my business to finish: 

1.  Get my business cards circulating - in the US and Europe. 

2.  To finally, finally get a professional picture of me taken to put on my website and ads. 

3.  Get to France this spring - it can only help to speak French 24/7 again for a while!

4.  Attempt to pass the ATA certification test and go to a convention.

Repeat business and clients

I think everyone would agree that doing business repeatedly for certain clients is a lot easier than going out and getting new ones.  The two projects I have going now are just that....one is kind of an ongoing project that my friend recommended me for and the other is from me contacting the client directly asking if they needed any work done. Not all my former clients needed work, I often got the response that they will contact me when they did have some, however, this one said yes, and here I am in the middle of translating a 6000 word document! I try to outdo myself when I have a repeat client.  I certainly don't want them going elsewhere.  Constant improvement is a definate must in this industry.  Of course I will continually be marketing myself and contacting and networking but it is nice to know that their are people out there very satisfied with my work!  It makes it all worth while to me!

Time management

I have had the good fortune to be working steadily for the past few weeks.  While I am very thankful and happy I am realizing that I have to learn how to manage my time more wisely.  It is difficult at times when I have to work my other job (which has odd hours).  I have started to print out the document that I am working on and bringing it to work so when I do get a little "down" time I can at least read it over again and get a good "gist" translation going.   Not wanting to call in at my job it is essential to find extra time to work on a translation. Sometimes I get up earlier in the morning.  If you have your coffee and favorite newspaper or magazine, how about the document instead?  Have an app or access to the internet on your phone to save time in case you have a question about the text or need to enquire about a particular word or phrase when not near a computer (at my job for example).  You would be surprised at how much time this saves as opposed to having to wait until you are at the nearest computer.  Little time saving tips are necessary when not yet doing translation full time and working other jobs.