Truth is, I never even liked cats. They’re slick and independent, which I do admire, but that doesn’t always favor humans, if you ask me. I mean, isn’t a pet supposed to be there for you, join you, defend you, cheer you up and give you all the unconditional love? Isn’t a pet supposed to [...]

Being an avid Cricket (sport) fan, I have been following the Indian team taking on Australia down under. Unfortunately, India has been mutilated in the last 3 test matches against Australia. And it has been a collective failure of batting, bowling and fielding. What exactly is collective failure? In any organization, we work as part [...]

The translation business is much more than translating a document or being an interpreter for an important business meeting. Just like in show business, it takes a lot of people to make things happen. Some of those who make the wheel turn or should I say, make the wheel start to turn, are the people [...]

I would like to break away from my normal blog routine this week to pay homage to one of the greatest men that has ever walked the face of the earth. On January 15th, 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia a young boy was born. One day this young boy would grow up to change the world. [...]

As the world economy has been hit very hard and is still recovering very slowly, it is important to not only look into the future, but to also analyze the current situation: How new clients can be found and retained; in other words, Prospecting. Global recession has become reality and so it has become very [...]

Since I find myself in this situation quite often, I believe it deserves a brief explanation from my part. When asking a client with a translation request from English to Chinese if the dialect is simplified or traditional, I usually get the same answer: “I’m not sure.” This article is basically a comparison between Simplified Chinese and the Traditional [...]

In this final episode, I would like talk about the most important tool that all companies nowadays utilize, CRM tools. CRM tools are utilized extensively for managing a company’s interactions with prospects & clients. It involves using technology to organize, automate, and synchronize business processes, sales activities, but also those for marketing, client services and [...]

Being a translator let’s you delve into all sorts of territories. You learn a little bit about almost everything you translate. It could be anything from how to build a kite, to what ingredients it takes to make the best chocolate covered strawberries from scratch. What you also learn a lot about is SLANG. So [...]

    In part one of my “How to Sell More” blog series, I had touched on two important factors about how concentrating on oneself through continued education and improved efficiency can directly increase sales revenue. For this segment, I want to focus on the value of two basic sales fundamentals. Pitching Your Product/Service:  We [...]

It is extremely difficult these days to get recurrent or additional clients to buy more translations. In this blog I will mention a few methods that either the Account Manager or the Marketing/Sales Department can perform in order to receive more translation requests from recurrent clients or new prospects. Obviously it is the responsibility of the [...]

The phrase “lost in translation” may remind the average folk of a famous movie title from back in 2003. In that movie two Americans, played by the voluptuous Scarlett Johansson and the comical Bill Murray, meet and share a few melodramatic romantic nights in Tokyo. Translators know that for them “lost in translation” means much [...]

Despite it being in the heat of summer, Christmas in Argentina isn’t as different as you would think. With a strong European influence, Christmas in Argentina is much more similar to Europe and North America than other countries in South America. However, with over 90% of the population identifying themselves as Roman Catholics, some local [...]

In this episode, I would like to focus on a very powerful and versatile tool: the phone. The phone is arguably the most powerful tool on your desk. Good salespeople are in demand, and management wants to give them the best possible tools to make them productive. We all understand that selling is a numbers [...]

  After graduating from college, I decided that I was going to explore the world. The day after graduation I was on an airplane to Amsterdam and have not looked back since. I have lived in over ten different countries over the past twelve years, and in every country I have tried to learn the [...]

It has become more and more difficult to win new clients and maintain the existing ones as the global economy is experiencing one of its toughest moments in history. Unemployment rates are rising in all continents, governments are in record high debts and there doesn’t seem to be any clear solutions on the horizon. How [...]

There are just a few questions in life to which, even attempting to confirm, a definitive answer is virtually impossible.  The first question could involve finding the meaning of life and the second probably would include locating the key to an afterlife.  The third question though, seemingly to be not as profound, often comes in [...]

When requesting a quote, you can simply call, email or fill out an online form, so that a sales rep can contact you. What the prospect is not expecting are the many questions that they will be asked by this sales rep. From what format the files are in, to how you’re expecting the files [...]

Have you ever asked a translation agency to provide you with a client reference or a test translation before you use their services? I am very sure you have, as in today´s translation industry there are millions of translation agencies offering you their services. How does one differentiate one agency from the other? Price is [...]

  How many times have you ever heard someone say “Love is the International Language” or “The Language of Love” or “Love knows no Language”? We have all heard these phrases used throughout our lives, and although I cannot disagree with these phrases, a music event that I attended this last weekend made me realize [...]

Mozilla Thunderbird is a free, open source email and news client developed by the Mozilla Foundation. It was released on December 7, 2004, it received a shocking of over 500,000 download hits in its first three days of release, and 1,000,000 in 10 days. Thunderbird has a whole host of features and add-ons which together [...]