Monthly Archives: September 2011

Importance of Blogging

Your Personal Online Presence and the Importance of Blogging

The Importance of Blogging
Have you ever noticed that all the people who have a presence and success online all have one thing in common? Well, if you’re paying close attention you know that one thing is a self-branded blog.

Here’s a tip… watch and copy what successful people do! It’s o.k. to be a copycat, as long as you copy the right cat!

I want to share with you the importance of blogging for your success online. You are online to brand yourself, not your company or your business. Remember that people join people; not businesses. So in order for people to join you, they must know you, like you and trust you. The quickest way to accomplish this is to have a self-branded blog, invite people to join your blog, and then build relationships with those people.

Blogging is a must if you intend on having any level of real success online today. Now, don’t take my word for it, look around the internet; all of the successful people who are online today have their own self-branded blog. You may be saying, well I don’t know where to start, or it’s too hard or I can’t do it. Well, you can do it, and it’s not as hard as you think. Take the first step by getting a domain name, then take a second step by visiting blog hosting sites such as Blogger. It’s the first step that is the hardest on any journey, but you must decide to get started. So get started blogging, and create your own audience of people who will know you, like you, trust you; and therefore will want to do business with you, and buy from you.

As you get started with blogging and eventually become a success story…You should keep in mind that your blog serves as your central hub that houses all of your content to be disseminated to various outlets on the internet like social media, video hosting sites, article directories and more. The content hitting those outlets then directs that traffic back to your blog. Once you understand the flow of the system, you will have created the life you desire.

Blogging has become a very important part of running an internet business. It is very important to constantly update your blog and to ping the relevant sites that you have infact updated your blog.

you also need to try and regularly update my blog with articles and helpful hints and tips and if applicable free giveaways to increase traffic to your website.  You should try and update your blog at least once a day, if you can it is great to update at 3 different times ie morning afternoon and night.

Your blog is another way of generating traffic to your website, when you blog it is important to make it count. You should have a signature file with a link back to your site with your chosen keyword. An example is if your chosen keyword was say Make Money Online then you would hyperlink that word with your website address.

Everyone wants more traffic right so the best way to get it is to go out and update your blog regularly. There is no point in updating your blog if no one knows about it right? This is where pingoat.com and pingomatic come into it they are there to let everyone know you have updated so use them as they are free.

Don’t put it off another day; let’s get started blogging now, because your life depends upon it. Your dream life that is!

Best of luck to everyone

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Translation: Cheap vs Quality

Cheap Translation: you get what you pay for

Translation: Cheap vs Quality


Have you ever seen one of those advertisements stating that you could get a website translated for $120.00, or some company will translate your content for some outlandishly low sum of money? The adage “you get what you pay for” is very true, especially when it comes to Translation Services! A cheap translation is just that – a cheap content. Tranlsation Services is exceedingly vital, particularly when you are advocating your company, association or product/services in another language. Your translated documents and content will introduce your company or association to the world and I don’t believe a cheap 4.00 Dollars per 1000 words effort would be a wonderful and effective testimony. Your translated documents will have great exposure in any media, electronic (Websites etc…) and print alike, this is a great opportunity for your company and I doubt you would get far with that little sum of money spent on producing content in another language! Translation is a work of art, the art of adapting content to another laguage and making sure the nuances, accurate meanings, and in many cases is the finess of assembling words that insure cultural esepect and integrity. A well translated document is a well conveyed message and is a is a lot less pricey than having to deal with sending the wrong message to the world resulting cheap translation. In the end, it is the most gainful way to promote your association in the long run.

Translation is a skill, an Art and a science that is gained over time. Not just anyone can do it and do it correctly; so it is critical that you approach your Translation Comapny and become acquainted with them, process, people, skills and most of all ligitamacy (here I mean you need to break the marketing fluff and get to the core of who this Translation company really is) Small amount of Translation companies are excellent at what they do example: CLS Communication and their North American CLS Lexi-tech are great companies to trust them with your translation assignments.  Fewer Translation Companies are competent at each and every one of the many types of content that could be subject to high quality Translation. Only 1 company that I am aware of who has the receipe for high quality translation services which is based on developing internal teams that over time these individuals will gain the expertise in variety of fields, and combined with strict internal processes such as ISO and specific internal quality control.Most of the translation agencies with no internal translators on staff and they rely heavily on freelancers example: Transperfect, which is obvious by the low cost low quality reputation in the marketplace.

Certainly, common sense implies that the more people that the higher the translation cost the better the quality, this is not true is some cases. Now, just because Translation costs more than another doesn’t automatically suggest that the Translation is better. This is where you want to talk to the actual Linguage specialists at CLS Lexi-tech who will be translating your documents and get to know them. Trusting your own wisdom and your own intuition goes a long way! You must like and have faith in your Translation Compnay especially since you may be working with them for a long time. Translation is not a “fire and forget” business and it shouldn’t be; although quite a few Translation Agencies these days are likely to function in that fashion unfortunately. For the majority of businesses the perfect scenario is when you have Translation company that can be close at hand anytime you need to make adjustments to your content.


The days of low quality cheap priced translations are over. In the ever-changing world of constant content change and increased complexity, a high quality translation  is where the focus should be. Translation is very sensitive an for a content that is ever-changing and continually updated, the challenge is greater to get it right example: Annual Reports, User Manuals Websites, MArketing documents, news, blogs etc…

I would encourge you to seek out a poffessional translation company and work with them on translating your documents. Make certain to go beyond their marketing messages…don’t be drawn to what the website says, talk to them get to know them and then decide.

If you like to discuss this further please contact me

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The price of cheap translation

Cheap Translation: 5 Consequences

5 negative consequences for selecting cheap translation services


As economy continue its negative state, companies and businesses in general will continue looking for ways to cut cost and squeeze cash out of a flat (at best) revenues. And as good as that tactic might sound and agree with this as a good  business practice and appropriate to do, however when it comes to translation services, squeezing cost will ultimately cost the organization more than the saving that you are trying to realize.

Translation and communication in general do represent the image of your organization and a badly translated document would have major consequences on your business, here are few points to consider.


1- Drop in revenue: let’s say you need to translate a user manual for a device you are selling abroad. The user manual deals with specific operational, maintenance and troubleshooting information related to the said product. As early adopters consumers begin buying the product, a badly translated user manual will result in users not taking full advantage of the product features and functionalities, and A) they will return the purchased product B) tell others about the negative experience and hence preventing further sales, therefore revenues associated with the product will drop or disappear in some cases.

2- Lawsuit and Legal Liabilities: a badly translated document could result in bodily harm or injuries resulting of what could be considered “Misinformation” that could be a very costly error for your business, and I highly doubt that any business would want venture into a legal battle if they can avoid it by using something as simple as a professional translation company. Here where it get tricky, a procurement manager’s answer to this issue is a tight contract with favorable “liability clause”, a contract is good idea however cheap translation generally produced by small companies/individuals, therefore if there is a law suit the only thing you can take from them is their laptop computers in some cases, as these companies or individuals has no assets significant enough to outweigh the mistakes in a sensitve hi exposure translation of a document.

3- Negative image: Low quality translation is instrumental in creating negative marketing for your company, here is how, a wrongly translated brochure, website etc…from English into Spanish (as an example) can send the intended marketing message in the opposite direction. Here is a good one, GM made a car to be marketed in Latin America they called it Nova get it? NoVa, I don’t think this product/car sales volume is going anywhere similar to car name.

4- Drop in profitability: Some people might not believe this, but picture this, you sold a machine to France with no translation or badly translated document, the country where you sold the equipment (let’s say it’s an MRI Machine). The Manual accompanied the machine deliver misinformation re the exact operation of this complex medical instrument, someone looses their life resulting your cheap translation. You business is liable, and the dollar spent to fix legal cost, penalties, and other associated cost is coming out of your business profitability directly. Some people might say this is not that significant, well that’s not true GE paid 750K per month penalties per month to correct a translation issue associated with a batch of MRI machines sold to France. Compare this with the cost of good translation (makes you think, no?)

5- Loss of opportunities: Most business they lack the ability to really calculate this important factor in an accurate manner. Let’s run through a scenario whereby the procurement officer select the cheapest translation provider, and you ended up in one of the following: Legal battle, Misuse of product, or misinformation re product or company! It’s obvious that your sales will dip and those individuals who were thinking about buying your product or services will automatically get cold feet and back off on the buying decision this is your loss opportunity. Your sales team in country will end up not realizing revenue objective and you will have to replace them and that’s another cost all together (hiring, training etc..)

Conclusion, if you had to go to court would you hire the cheapest Lawyer to defend you? Or you would hire the best? If you needed a surgery would you select the cheapest doctor? Why would you want to select cheapest translation service provider when in some cases millions of dollars are at stake? Something to think about

For all your professional translation services needs please visit, http://www.cls-lexitech.ca/ http://www.cls-communication.com/

If you need more info or if you like to discuss this further let me know

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7 obstacles to growing your business

Translation industry: 7 obstacles preventing your business growth

Running A Translation Company: 7 obstacles preventing your business growth


I had the opportunity over the past few years to talk to many colleagues, friends and business owners in the translation industry, and I concluded that there is are common problems is facing most translation companies in terms of growing the business. And what I thought to address in this blog is to define the issues, because I believe “a problem well defined is a problem half solved” and to all my readers I have to apologize in advance if some points I raise here you don’t agree with. It’s just my personal opinion only.

For an example of a well run company I personally recommend http://www.cls-communication.com/  if you are looking for translation service provider that you can trust and has what it takes to meet your current and future demands as your business changes, you should check out http://www.cls-lexitech.ca/  



Identifying business growth problems:
1- Sales and Marketing: finding translation opportunities can be a problem for companies with no sales and BD staff or have the wrong sales and marketing approach to their target market. To elaborate a bit on this, since the DNA of Translation Company is the translator and the project manager, many translation companies lack the basic understanding of sales and marketing in general. For example, in one of my discussions with translation executives they draw direct comparison between a used car salesman and an executive sales person promoting translation services. This underscore the behavioral differences between a growth company which value and promote executive sales teams and a company that sees business as a status quo which leads to an almost conflicting behavior between growth strategy and status quo of the company, resulting in flat revenue and in some case degradation of revenue. Transforming your organization into a sales organization is the answer, this need to happen to face the revenue challenges ahead.

2- Lack of sales and Marketing: Some translation CEO’s, operation managers, and translation professional in general are under the misunderstanding that sales growth can happen from “thin air” without any effort on their part, or investment. Many of the same executives still living in the Dot.com days where the idea was: “build it and they will come” unfortunately this didn’t work for the IT sector in the late 90’s and it will not work for the Translation sector now. Unfortunately these CEO’s and translation professional earned the nick name (and I am not revealing any secrets here because many of you already heard it before: “Pre Madonna’s”) for a good reason. There ought to be a serious and genuine effort by the owners of Translation Companies to understand the shift in market demand and redesign their internal processes and offer services that will meet client demands. This change absoultely need to take place in a proactive manner not wait to the market forces you to do so, you will loose the element of being ahead of the curve/ competitions. Let’s get something straight: You should always operate with the mindset that there will be no situation under which the client/market will shift their requirement to meet company’s capabilities anyone who thinks otherwise, in my humble opinion they shouldn’t be managing companies they should subcontract that job to an experts (and I am not talking here about what file type your client send you the translation work). Look and develop detailed understanding of your current and future client base requirements and deliver on these requirements: Price, service process etc…

3- Lack of growth decision: Some of you might say, are you crazy? who doesn’t like more revenue? for some, revenue is a good thing on the other hand for some others, revenue is a nightmare, why? because they lack the fundementals of managing a business.  Some translation professional decided that the size of their business is sufficient and they are not comfortable growing beyound the current size. While I respect these decisions, we also should be aware that: if you are not growing, you are on your way out…sorry business 101

4- Brick Wall Syndrome: Most translation companies were not built to sustain the strain of growth that usually accompanies business growth. There is a defined and sometime predicted limit to how much one of those organizations can grow before cracks starts to show in the fabric and the DNA of the business. And that limit I call it: “The Brick Wall”, because it would be near impossible to grow beyond what this business is design to handle.

5- Wrong Operation team for the growth job: This is a very common, let’s face it we all know or have met some of these individuals who manage and run day to day aspect of the service, in some cases they are the owner of translation companies. These individuals have done well in the past, but they are not suited for the next phase of the business progress and plans. Let’s pretend company A is sitting comfortably operating at the edge of the “brick wall” The management team served well for years during the first growth sprint before the company arrived to the “brick wall” I talked about in point 4. And now that same management team is being asked to run another marathon and achieve another growth target. This is less likely to happen as you can imagine. They are tired, exhausted, and generally coasting to retirement. I personally recommend re-designing the management team to match the current phase of the business plan. This step will ensure the right skills are used to achieve the right and current business goals. Just think of Bill Gate, great idea person but he realized that he is not the best in running Microsoft so he hired Steve Ballmer to run the company, it makes sense in my opinion!

6- Lack of flexibility when designing and implementing client solutions: Some translation companies/ professional’s idea of doing business is to design a box with well defined dimensions and if the client / opportunity don’t fit the mold then they lose the opportunity, remember: the nature of Translation business is a “service” not a “product” services should offer a higher degree of flexibility in customization. This is problematic for Services Company in the translation industry, which absolutely needs to be flexible and to large extend needs to offer much highly customizable solutions.

7- Lack of knowledge of macro economics and general economic state: here I call this “Stick your head in the sand” and hope for the economic storm will blow by! These types of companies with this similar strategy could end up being a bargain basement acquisition targets. Here is why, I believe these companies will lose substantial revenue and profitability similarly and what’s left of them by the end of the storm will not be able to survive and invest to re establish their market presence. Hence they will become the acquisition vulture’s snacks!!! (Sorry harsh but real)

For an example of a well run company I personally recommend http://www.cls-communication.com/  if you are looking for translation service provider which you can trust and has what it takes to meet your current and future demands as your business changes, you should check out http://www.cls-lexitech.ca/  


The Translation Business Growth is an extensive topic which will take more than my humble blog here to cover… As you can note, I didn’t get into issues like staff salaries, price of services rendered, client and staff issues etc… because I fundamentally believe that if you have the right management team in place they will take care of these issues, and I also believe that “Revenue cure all illnesses”. However for now this should give you an idea, as to what to watch for and how to get organized to face and achieve growth! And if you like to discuss solutions or ideas please don’t hesitate to email me.

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