Guide to Translation Services and Software

How your small business can speak your customers' language(s)

By Judith Earley

Here are the top ways to address your translation needs:

1. Determine your current and future needs for translation services.
2. Find software to translate your website into other languages.
3. Form an alliance with a professional translation company for all of your translation needs.
4. Consider hiring bilingual associates.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Assess your customers' needs

Speaking your customer's language means more than studying new words; it shows customers that your business cares enough about them to cater to their needs. Find out what language, besides English, your customers speak the most, and focus your translating there to begin.

I recommend: Translation.net offers a bonanza of translation resources, software, and Web site translators. Visit Communicaid for a plethora of translation services (for many industries), 7,000 linguists, and quality assurance by several independent teams, who crosscheck the work for spelling, context, grammar, and proper cultural usage.

Discover business-to-business solutions

Many companies specialize in translation services – the trick for the small business owner is to find a reputable, established company with whom to work.

I recommend: Syntes Language Group offers translation solutions that include consultations, project management, an in-house production staff, and proprietary software. Translation-Service has linguists well-versed in industry-specific requirements. BlueSouthTranslation specializes in translations for business. Their translators live and work in the country of their own language and translate into their native tongue.

Explore software options

Translation software analyzes sentence structure, grammar and punctuation. But remember that computer translations are not perfect and may miss the nuances or idiomatic usage of a language.

I recommend: With SYSTRANLinks, you can translate your whole website in one click, with easy installation and customizable options IBM's WebSphere Translation Server supports English, French, Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Brazilian-Portuguese.

Hire bilingual employees

If your clients are 75 percent Spanish-speaking, then why aren't any of your employees? The next time you're in search of a salesperson or account manager, find one who is bilingual.

I recommend: Advertise for bilingual employees, or search resumes on VaultMatch or Monster. For one-time translation services for TV commercials, radio ads, and native-speaking voice-overs, go to the pros at Translate4Me.com.

Translation-to-go

You've probably seen the electronic translation devices, but how about translation software for your handheld computer/smartphone? It's great for business trips – especially when traveling to other countries.

I recommend: Visit Ectaco Translation Software and click on the applicable link to find software for Pocket PCs, Palm OS, and Smartphones.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Translators who live in the country of their mother tongue are immersed in the culture of the target language.
• •  A professional can translate about 2,000 words each workday. A less experienced translator may be much slower.
• •  If your business has a significant amount of non-English-speaking customers, then you, the biz owner, should gain at least a rudimentary grasp of your customers' native language.
• •  Find a company that crosschecks its work in-house to avoid miscommunication.
• •  Examine your advertisements, catalogs, and store materials to assess the need for translation.