How to Build a Resilient Business Working with a Translation Company
How a translation company can help you build a resilient business and ensure long-term business success
The ongoing pandemic has shown to the world the importance of a resilient business model: one that has contingency measures in place to ensure the continuity of operations in times of disaster or crisis. The pandemic has also shown that oftentimes the worst hit is small businesses as opposed to larger corporations.
A key takeaway from these corporations is this: create a strategy for growth in times of crisis. This might seem like an odd approach, but expanding one’s business to new markets is a proven strategy to secure demand. And digital has made expansion agile, scalable, and cost-effective, allowing businesses to reach customers around the world without needing a physical presence.
How to build a resilient business working with a translation company
There are over 7 billion people in the world. In a research article by J. Clemens published on Statista, about 4 billion of them are recorded to be internet users as of October 2020. They scour the internet in search of products and services. Many of them surely speak a language other than English.
In other words, if you want to grow your small business, you have to make it global. And to enter the global market effectively, the first thing you have to do is break the language barrier. Think of the global market as a castle. In order to conquer a castle, you have to get through the castle wall. In medieval times, soldiers used battering rams in order to get through the gateway. Translation is your battering ram in conquering the global market. This is why it’s useful to hire a professional translation company when you are looking to expand your client base.
Let’s take China for example. China is the second-largest economy after the United States. As of January 2020, Chinese is also the second most-spoken language on the internet after, you guessed it, English. Taking note of this example, not translating to Chinese will be a missed opportunity in increasing your reach.
Main Characteristics of a Resilient Business
- Keeping Up with Business Trends
Business trends fluctuate over time and your business must be able to keep up with those changes in order to stay afloat.
- Stakeholder Engagement
Engaging with your stakeholders means you are able to understand what they want, how they want it, when they want it, and why they want it. Customers are more likely to buy from you again if they are satisfied with your products and services.
- Flexibility and Adaptability
In order to ensure long-term success, you have to be flexible and able to adapt to the hurdles and challenges that might come your way.
Why a Resilient Business Needs a Digital Platform
Newly rising companies are digital platforms, which Forbes publisher Rich Karlgaard calls “the holy grail of any tech company”. Technological evolutions are speeding up faster than ever. In fact, the best small business to start is either a home-based business or an online business since both are cheaper to set up. However, take note that the more successful home-based businesses are those who also have an online presence.
Working with a translation company: Why flexible communication is vital for digital platforms
The advantage of having a digital platform is that foreign customers can order from your store — even if there is no physical branch in their countries. This means that you can get more stakeholder engagement and more sales if you translate your website into the local languages of your targeted audience. Working with a professional translation company can help you achieve that goal. Here are data to show the importance of translating your websites:
- 87% of consumers do not consider buying from an English website if they cannot understand English, according to CSA Research.
- 72.4% of consumers tend to respond better when the UI is in their local language, according to Harvard Business Review.
- 74% of clients said that they are more likely to order from your business again if customer service is given in their native tongue, according to CSA Research.
If you noticed that those are huge numbers, it’s because translation is that powerful. Numbers don’t lie.
Looking for the right translation company to work with
Now that we have established how working with a translation company can help you create a resilient business, it’s time for you to look into the factors to consider when choosing the best translation agency to partner with:
- Has good reviews
When a translation company receives good reviews, it means that previous customers are satisfied with the results — and so will you.
- Has previously worked with big businesses
When a translation company has famous brands among its roster of clients, they can almost always guarantee the success of your projects.
- Offers human translation
Although there are already AI that can translate one language into another, human translators are still superior because human translators are better able to translate sentences in terms of the context; whereas AI usually translates a language word per word while losing the true meaning of the sentence or paragraph.
- Provides professional translators
Look for translation companies with highly-skilled and professional translators to ensure impeccable translation through and through.
- Support for multiple languages
Choose a translation company that can translate to multiple languages. Even if you decide to only translate to one language for now, having the capacity to translate to other languages will benefit you when you expand to other foreign markets in the future. The top 5 emerging markets of 2020 include China, India, UAE, Indonesia, and Malaysia.
- Specializes in your industry
Choose a translation company that specializes in your industry because that is how you make sure they understand your industry’s unique language and cater to it.
- Offers a hassle-free client experience
Running a business is already stressful, so choose a translation company that offers a smooth administrative process and a hassle-free client experience so that you can keep your focus on your other business tasks. You will also save yourself from having a migraine.
Pros and Cons of Working with a Translation Company Over Individual Translators
H3: Pros of working with a translation company
- Ability to handle multiple languages
- Sufficient understanding of corporate language
- Capable of handling huge amounts of workload
- Trained and fully available teams
H3: Cons of working with a translation company
- High or stacked cost depending on the company or the services you apply for
- Might not specialize in your specific industry
- Might not grasp your company’s vision
- More chances of data leaks compared to hiring an in-house translator
Wrap up
Communication is essential in today’s world. As such, it is a major factor when building a business. No matter how good your product is or how useful the services you offer are, your business will always fail if you cannot get your message across.
Think about it this way: when you are selling a product, you have to let potential buyers know what your product is and what value they can get from it. How can you do that? With words. The right words. Sure, you can ask your bilingual friend, Peter. Or Johanna from the party last week who knows how to speak both French and Italian.
Peter and Johanna can help you translate emails or text messages once in a while, but you are not only translating emails or text messages. You have to translate everything: your website, your social media posts, your product pages, and… basically everything that you use to market your business. Since you have to ensure flawless translation and excellent localization, it is imperative to hire a professional translation company instead.