Five steps to perfect business translation

Nobody is in business in order to waste time. Therefore, when it comes to finding the perfect business translation service, companies should ensure that they prepare properly. Doing so will ensure that the translation process runs smoothly and to time. As such, here we provide the five steps to perfect business translation. 

1. Find the right translation agency

Let’s start with the glaringly obvious. Achieving the perfect business translation starts with finding the right agency to take care of your needs. Look for an agency that provides specialist translators in fields such as financial translation, marketing translation and legal translation, to ensure that you have all your bases covered. Be sure to ask about their localization expertise too, so that you can ensure your documents are perfectly shaped for their target audiences. 

If you’re not sure where to start with finding the right agency, simply Google “Tomedes translation review” and take it from there!

2. Know your goals

You probably have a clear idea of what you want to achieve with your translated documents. Defining these goals is essential to measuring your progress towards achieving them. So is sharing them with your translation agency. Knowing who your intended audiences are will ensure that the translator can convey the right tone. 

3. Prepare a briefing

It’s perfectly possible to simply send a document to an agency and have it translated. However, getting the best out of the translation process and obtaining the perfect business translation requires a little more input. 

For example, do you have a house style guide? What about a list of technical or sector-specific terms that you use regularly? Do you refer to other company documents within the materials being translated? If so, how will that be addressed if not all of those inter-connected documents are to be translated?

Putting together a briefing pack with these kinds of details ensures that the translation service is ideally positioned to provide translations that are entirely in keeping with all of your other business documents. 

4. Keep in touch

Just as with any area of business, queries may arise. Making sure that the translation agency can communicate quickly with a nominated individual will ensure that any questions are answered swiftly, without delaying the translation process unduly. Putting someone who’s about to take three weeks’ holiday in charge of the translation project is not the way to achieve the perfect translation! 

5. Share your deadlines

If you have a specific date that you need your translations by, share this with the agency. It may seem an obvious point, but it’s surprising how many deadlines aren’t mentioned until they’re just around the corner! 

Remember to let the agency know about anything that may cause those deadlines to shift, as well. Bringing forward a deadline at short notice can be tricky, so if you suspect it might move, keep everyone informed about that fact.  

Following these steps should ensure that your accurate business translations are delivered in a timely fashion, so that you can meet your operational objectives. If you would like to know more, please contact the Tomedes team.