Working as a translator can be a lonely calling. That is why joining online communities, attending conferences and training events, and generally cooperating with our colleagues around the world is so important for the sanity of freelance translators everywhere.
In this vein, about six months ago I started an exchange with English to French translator Mélanie Pérard. It began when Mélanie posted a job on ProZ looking for an exchange of services for the translation of her website. I was certainly interested in this proposal as I was also in the market for someone to translate some of my direct client marketing material.
This exchange has certainly been a success so far. We not only do translations for each other, and I am extremely pleased with the quality of Mélanie’s work, but we also have the opportunity to ask each other for help with tricky terms or phrases.
The Transformation
Two weeks ago this exchange developed into a collaboration. Mélanie emailed me with an idea: to offer reasonably priced CV and Cover Letter translation to students and recent graduates. The idea is that we will each market in our home countries, which should be easier than marketing in a foreign country for obvious reasons. She will translate from English into French for clients I find in the English-speaking market and I will translate into English for her French-speaking clients.
I was immediately in favour of the idea, students being a market I understand and CVs and cover letters vital tools for finding a job. I know that we will be able to offer an excellent and reasonably priced service because we have the necessary training and experience and what’s more we care. (It doesn’t matter how good you are at a job, if you don’t care you will let mistakes slip through.) We want to provide top quality translations that give students top quality CVs and cover letters so they can achieve their potential and expand their horizons.
First Steps
Despite our assumed knowledge of our target market, we thought it prudent to do some market research. Between us we developed a questionnaire which asked questions about the desirability of our planned service and pricing. We distributed the survey through Facebook, which was more difficult than you would expect as it requires friends to pass on the survey and groups to allow you to post it (we did not want to post without permission and be flagged as spam).
We then went on to exchanging emails discussing pricing, payment, deadlines, terms and conditions, all of which thankfully we agreed upon quickly.
Next Steps
Currently we are awaiting the results of the survey and working on admin necessities. Once we have enough results we will decide our next steps from there.
So far I believe our main challenges will be reaching our target audience and helping them to understand how professional translation can benefit them and why quality makes such a difference.
Please check out our Facebook page for more information or get in touch at holly.anne@whytetranslations.com if you have any questions about CV and cover letter translation or general translation queries.
