Translation Business
Translation is a service business, not an industry or commerce
. The basic difference between industry, commerce and services lies in inventories. Industrial establishments keep at least two kinds of inventory: raw materials and finished goods. Commercial establishments keep only finished goods inventories. Service establishments, however, keep no inventories.
Every product, tangible or intangible, can be compared with another product based on three parameters: delivery time, quality and price. Buying decisions are based on tradeoffs among those three parameters: Product A is very good, but too expensive. Product B is good and reasonably priced, but unfortunately they dont carry that brand at your local store and you do not have the time to look for it elsewhere. So you settle for Product C, which, in your opinion, offers the best balance of the three parameters at the time.
Because we carry no inventories, clients who call us for a translation know they will find none. They also know they will find no Product B that will somehow meet their needs. Finally, they know that calling another translator will not help much, because nobody will have their translation ready for them.
So, they press for immediate service. Many translators complain that jobs go to the lowest bidder, but my experience is that the majority goes to lowest bidder among those who offer the fastest turnaround.
This creates a certain amount of tension between client and translator. Tension that is made worse by the fact that time devours itself: if a client needs a translation within 72 hours, each minute spent finding a
translator reduces the time available to do the job.
Pressure on translators is heavier than it is in other service businesses because the translator is often one of the last links in a very complex chain of events.
The people who prepare the specs do their best to prepare a great set of specs - but we must do what it takes to meet the delivery deadline.
Time pressures favor new entrants: sometimes the only person who can take the job is someone who actually never did a professional translation before. Unfortunately, this also means that someones opera prima often is a rush job done without the benefit of appropriate equipment.
The constant pressure for fast service created by the lack of inventories has a deplorable impact on quality. Often clients say time matters more than quality. The guy who wanted five reports in three days said he did not care: he just wanted a heap of paper he could show a government official in connection with a public bid. Nobody would read it, said he. Well, perhaps. But, no matter what the client says, someone would have a look at the job sometime and say Look at this mess! And we paid this guy a premium for the garbage. So, I said no to the job and goodbye to a very large fee. I do not regret it.
But the point I would like to make is different. Because we have no inventories, clients cannot possibly test our product for quality. When they contact us, they find not a product, but a potential. And potentials cannot be tested for quality.
Clients can ask for samples of past work or for tests - when there is time for that, which is not often. In any case, many translators refuse to do tests and, since most of our work is confidential, we often cannot provide samples. And, finally, tests and samples are so easily faked that some clients do not even bother to ask.
Quality has to be evaluated indirectly, based on what we have done for that client or for someone he knows. This procedure favors experienced translators and is thus hated by new entrants, who would like to see clients giving a newcomer a deserved break.
A surprisingly large number of people claims that for every product there is a fair price based on its cost. In fact, prices result from the play between supply and demand and bear no relationship to costs. The difference between price and cost is often called margin. If your margin is high and your volume is also high, you make a good profit. Otherwise, you dont. No business bases its prices on costs. Everybody - including us - charges as much as they can and cuts costs to the absolute minimum in order to maximize margins. If they cannot make a profit, they will try some other business. That is the way the law of supply and demand works.
All this may seem outrageous, but it is borne out by the fact that translators, especially new entrants, are always eager to know how much to charge - not how much it costs. In addition, we must keep in mind that because translation is a labor-intensive activity, most of our fees cover labor and, because most of us are independent operators, labor means what we pay ourselves. Now, what we pay ourselves is not a cost; a cost is what we pay to the other guy.
Prices are based on supply and demand, but buying decisions are based on a comparison between competing products, which, in turn, is based on delivery times, quality and price considerations. Because time is usually so pressing, it often weighs more than quality in
translation purchase decisions.
Small wonder clients base their purchasing decisions on the hallowed method of get three quotes and award contract to lowest bidder. Of course, this should be construed as lowest bidder among those offering short turnarounds, for if you cannot handle the job immediately, you are automatically excluded from the process.
No use trying to convince a client my translation offers better quality: all translators claim that. That brings us back to the no-inventory problem, the main thread underlying this article: quality only comes into consideration after the translation is received and examined. If those who bargained for the lowest prices and shortest turnaround times, complain at this point that the job was very poorly done, it is too late.
Aunes Oversettelser AS has been in the business for 26 years, and we are specialized in technical translations. We are specializing in the Nordic languages, and can offer services into Swedish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Icelandic. The premier translation agency for Norway and the Nordic region! Technical translation services for businesses in the Nordic countries and translation agencies world-wide.
by: carmen
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