Business of translation — Page 7

Integrating our real life and virtual networks

How exciting – as if train travel in France wasn’t glamorous enough, they’ve now come up with a way to meet real people along the way too. A great development in the move towards integrating our real-life and virtual networks.

But would this work in good old Blighty? I just don’t think it would measure up. Nursing a paper cup of luke-warm tea on the draughty London – Birmingham Silverlink train service, or knocking back an espresso on the Paris – Lyon TGV – I know where I’d rather have my real-life social networking encounter!

If you think translation is expensive…

by Sarah Dillon

I love this quote, which I found over at Rowan Manahan’s Fortify your Oasis:

“If you think competence is expensive, try incompetence.”
(From a training brochure)

I can see myself paraphrasing this to clients in future – something like, “If you think translation is expensive, try a bad translation…” 🙂 Very in line with the kind of client education stuff that Chris Durban preaches.

How big do you have to be to be running a business??

by Sarah Dillon

Following on from a previous post, check out an exchange I had with my other half (OH) recently:

Me: Just because I don’t commute doesn’t mean I have more free time than you – I’m busy trying to establish my own business!!
OH: Give over, you’re not running a business, you’re freelance!

Hmmm… so what am I? I’m clearly self employed, that bit’s fine. And up until now I’d always thought of myself as a small business owner, mostly because I like how it sounds, but also because I carry out many of the day-to-day tasks required by businesses of all sizes. But at what point does a freelancer actually run their own business? Does being freelance overlap 100% with being a business owner? What about say, a freelance IT specialist who accepts a 6 month contract working inhouse, and engages a third party to carry out all their billing and other “business” tasks? Are they business owners too??

Is Entrepreneurship All it's Cracked Up To Be?

by Sarah Dillon

I love this article on BusinessPundit.com on Why Entrepreneurship Isn’t All It Cracked Up To Be. It makes for interesting reading, and I agree with a lot of it. It’s so fashionable to be “an entrepreneur” these days and there seems to be this blanket assumption that it will always be better than having a 9 to 5 job.

I am so tired of this common thread on blogs that says everyone must be an entrepreneur and in order to be an entrepreneur you have to be a programmer, web designer, consultant, or freelance writer.

Funny though, I wouldn’t automatically think of a freelancer as an entrepreneur… to me, entrepreneur has the connoctation of inventing something new, or doing something different – not just working on a self-employed basis for a series of clients. And why is it that a self-employed translator would automatically be described as freelance, whereas a self-employed accountant or consultant would be running a practice or consultancy of some kind?!