Seven Ways to Save Money on Professional Translation

If your company needs to translate business documents, you already know you want to avoid various free translation tools or asking the bilingual person in the next cubicle to perform the translation. You know that hiring a professional translation service is the only way to go if you want to avoid costly blunders and damages to your carefully-crafted image and reputation.

So how can you minimize the cost of professional translation? Here are seven tips that will make you feel more in control of the process:

1. Hire a good company. Not just a professional one, find a good, honest one. The world of translation is plagued with poor-quality translators and agencies that outsource work to other agencies rather than having a direct relationship with translators. It takes time and effort to build a solid network of professional translators–which many companies do not want to do—and, meanwhile, your fees can easily double.
2. Optimize content. Translate only what you must. If not all of the content of a document needs translation, delete it to decrease your word count.
3. Ask for discounts. Volume discounts and translation memory discounts are usually available. You should not be paying full price again for any repetitive content. At the same time, be aware that extremely low fees are often a sign of low quality or someone simply selling you a product of a free translation engine. Yes, that does happen.
4. Optimize volume. Combine small tasks (fewer than 300 words) in the same language combination into a larger project to avoid minimum fees. That is, if you need 10 employee documents translated from English to Arabic, maybe try to compile and send them as one group as opposed to a series of small batches.
5. Avoid rush fees. Most translation companies will charge you for fast turnaround – usually within 24 hours. With a little planning, you can avoid this cost altogether.
6. Pay attention to file formats. Make sure you provide materials for translation in a text-editable format. Think MS Office documents, Adobe CS documents and similar. If a PDF is the only format you have, you might be charged for formatting the document. Plus, the sooner a provider has your files in text-editable format, the sooner the translation process can begin.
7. Be loyal. Once you have found a good translation company and are satisfied not only with the product but also with how they work, give them as much of your translation volume as you can. You will probably receive more savings that way—you’ll build a sustainable term base, which will decrease cost overtime and increase your translation consistency..

Lastly, be a good resource for your translation provider. While translators are extremely talented people, they are far from being walking encyclopedias. If you support their efforts in developing glossaries or provide them with background materials about your services and products, you will help them learn and better understand your business. This, in turn, will help you avoid costly mistakes that occur when things get “lost in translation”.