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Translation - art & business » Getting established »
Starting translation agency busines
Thread poster: daniells
daniells
daniells
English
Sep 29, 2004

Hello,
My name is Mark and I have worked as a part-time translator for the last few years. I live in the United States and have been recently thinking about starting up an internet based translation agency. I am planning on translating in around 30 - 40 languages. The professional website will be done soon. I also have a small group of translators willing to cooperate with me. However, I am kind of concerned with agreements between my agency and a client and my agency and a translator. Is ... See more
Hello,
My name is Mark and I have worked as a part-time translator for the last few years. I live in the United States and have been recently thinking about starting up an internet based translation agency. I am planning on translating in around 30 - 40 languages. The professional website will be done soon. I also have a small group of translators willing to cooperate with me. However, I am kind of concerned with agreements between my agency and a client and my agency and a translator. Is there any way to get templates or anything like that? Also, as far as pricing goes, how much should a new agency charge its clients? What else should I pay attention to?

Any suggestions, advices and ideas highly appreciated.

[Edited at 2004-09-29 20:57] ▲ Collapse
 
Steven Sidore
Steven Sidore  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 07:31
German to English
To be honest... Sep 30, 2004

I hate to be the one to say this, but you should probably have a better understanding for these issues before trying to hang out your own shingle as an agency. Have you worked in-house with an agency before, so as to get a feel for how they work? Simply commencing middleman operations as an unsaavy amateur businessperson is a big risk, especially since you can ruin your good name as a freelancer in the process. (Long time Blueboard users will probably have seen this happen a few times. I certain... See more
I hate to be the one to say this, but you should probably have a better understanding for these issues before trying to hang out your own shingle as an agency. Have you worked in-house with an agency before, so as to get a feel for how they work? Simply commencing middleman operations as an unsaavy amateur businessperson is a big risk, especially since you can ruin your good name as a freelancer in the process. (Long time Blueboard users will probably have seen this happen a few times. I certainly have with the GER>ENG pair...)

Perhaps I misunderstood, and you do have the experience needed here, and are just looking for a few specific details. If not, I'd suggest you take an intermediary approach to start, by forming or joining into a team with other translators, so as to get better feel for the dynamics behind running a multi-translator operating, particularly for bidding and payment.

Good luck! ▲ Collapse
 


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Starting translation agency busines


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