Forums: Discussions for entrepreneurs and small business.

Hi Everyone, I am looking for some feedback on my idea for a translating business.

I live in Danbury, CT where the demographic has becoming mainly Spanish, and Brazilians. I am looking into starting up a transalting service. I want to have the Spanish and Portuguese speaking people send in the bills and notices that they need translated and I send them back fully translated. I work as a bill collector and I get alot of spanish speaking people who cannot read English. I feel that this type of business in my area would flourish. I would love some feed back. Thank YOU all!

Do not want to discourage you but there are more free translation tools like google translator and others, it may be difficult to compete. Best regards

Agreed as to translation tools, but I have a more basic question - if these people need help translating bills and notices, how are they going to get them to you?

If you say email, then see above post. Are they going to go out of their way to either mail them to you or come into your location?

Is the market that big? Why wouldn't they ask friends, family or neighbors for help?

While translation businesses are still quite hot, translating bills could prove to be problematic especially because of the free tools available online. You should look at providing a full portfolio of services like translating contracts, official documents etc etc.

I agree that it will be hard to compete with the free translation services available on the internet, especially if your service caters to something as specific as bills. Maybe expand the range of translation services you offer to include a broader variety documents you offer to translate.

Hi Sherry, I really like your idea. Here's what I see as your major advantages:

1. You meet with your potential customer base everyday at your job so you have intimate knowledge of the problem. This is the most crucial aspect of any startup.
2. The type of business you're running is a service business which means you can start it for virtually nothing in your spare time.
3. The problem you are trying to solve sounds like it will relieve a lot of pain on both sides - for the billers and, more importantly, for the foreign families. That makes your service practically a necessity.
   

If you are adept at Spanish and/or Portuguese then that also gives you a huge amount of leverage. Is this the case? If not, do you have someone that would help you, or someone that you could hire or bring on for equity?

So you have intimate knowledge of the problem, low start up costs, & you're relieving others pain with your service. That's insanely awesome! The business idea is sound but is it viable?

The above posts mention free translation software. I'm assuming that the majority of foreign-speaking people you collect from do not use this translation software, otherwise they could effectively communicate with the billing agents before collections gets involved. You need to find out why. My initial assumptions would be:

1. 1. it's too cumbersome for them to type in all of their bills to google translator.
   2. they don't have access to the technology.
   3. they have access to the technology but don't have the skills to operate it (typing, basic web form skills, etc.)
      
   4. they have access to the technology & skills to operate it, but they just don't know about the technology
   5. The free translation tools aren't accurate enough for these people to stake their finances on
      
   6. A combination of all of the above

When you figure this out, you'll know whether or not your business idea is viable. If the majority of the foreign-speaking people say #4, then it's probably not as viable. (Although I can think of several pivots off of the top of my head where your new client would be the bill collecting agencies). Any of the other reasons would make the idea very viable.

I cannot express the importance of actually getting out of the house to engage your potential clientele. Make sure to ask open-ended questions, get as much information as possible, and don't assume anything. Armed with this, you cannot lose.

Let me know what you come up.

Another question you should ask the translation company and your allocated translator is the sort of projects they have worked on in the past. This will give you an idea of what they're good at as well as if they have any areas of weakness, giving you the information you need to decide whether or not they'd be right for your project. Some translation companies specialize in things such as translating novels and other fiction, verbal translation for delegates at meetings or translating documents.

Really I like your article and it is very interesting. You have share the best information about it and I have also share this information with my friends.

May success wish you good luck

Translating business is getting very popular these days, because of its many advantages. Previously, translators were used very often for business purpose, but now its the easiest way to get things translated for you.