13 Business ideas for Translation Services

The world of translation is a vast and varied one. There are different translation techniques, diverse theories about translation. Translation is a field that is seeing a lot of activity nowadays, thanks to the increasing globalization of businesses. International travel has also increased significantly – for both business and leisure.

This means there is, at any given time, a large number of people in a country that don’t necessarily speak the local language well.

Of course, this augurs well for the translation industry. There are many different types of translations that may be required, and each one is unique, with its own process and specific requirements.

If you are a business with international business, it would be beneficial to partner up with an experienced professional, or a translation services company, who is capable of understanding your specific requirements and accommodating them.

There are different translation techniques, diverse theories about translation and eight different translation services types, including technical translation, judicial translation and certified translation.

In This Article

Business Ideas For Translation Services

Technical Translation

The term “technical translation” can be understood in two ways:

In its broadest sense, it is about translating user manuals, instructions leaflets, internal notes, medical translation, financial reports, minutes of proceedings, administrative terms in general, and so forth.

These documents share the distinction of being for a specific and limited target audience and usually have a limited shelf-life.

In its most limited sense, technical translation refers to “technical” documentation such as engineering, IT, electronics, mechanics, and industrial texts in general. Technical translation requires a knowledge of the specialized terminology used in the sector originating the text.

Script Translation

Many popular movies and TV shows that come out of Hollywood are dubbed into several languages and released worldwide; sometimes the film are from foreign languages and dubbed into English and other European languages.

But for these releases to happen, the scripts have to be translated first – and the dialogues.

You can say this is a type of literary translation, but it’s not exactly the same. It can be very dicey, as translating punch- lines, jokes or catchy phrases into another language to make the same impact is very difficult. With more movies being released in multiple languages nowadays, this type of translation is very much in demand today.

Financial Translation

Financial or economic translation, of course, deals with documentation relating to the likes of financial, banking, and stock exchange activity.

This includes company annual reports, financial statements, financial contracts, financing packages, and so forth.

Multimedia Localization

Videos, graphics, animations, GIFs, infographics – all this can be grouped under multimedia; and this is very important today, as more and more companies are creating multimedia content to widen their audience reach and keep them engaged.

Localizing this content can get quite tricky though it may look simple from the outside – as it has to be appropriate for the local culture, and appeal to the customers in that region.

Commercial Translation

This type of translation necessitates a translator to possess specialized skills, like knowledge of the business jargon, and the industry to which the business belongs.

The types of texts in the translation of commercial documents could include business correspondence, reports, tender documents, company accounts, memos and so on.

Scientific Translation

It is a sub-group of technical translation, as its name indicates, scientific translation deals with documents in the domain of science: articles, theses, papers, congress booklets, presentations, study reports etc.

Legal Translation

The legal translation covers a wide range of very different documents. These may include legal documents such as summons and warrants; administrative texts such as

registration certificates; corporate statutes and remittance drafts, technical documents such as expert opinions and texts for judicial purposes; and a number of other texts in addition to reports and minutes of court proceedings.

Medical Translations

Any medical content that is patient-related, like labels, packaging, instructions, or software, and content that is product-related, like research papers, clinical trial paperwork, quality management certificates, and the like, usually needs translation.

It is absolutely imperative that the translation service providers must be experienced, have the requisite knowledge, and are in-country professionals.

Translation of medical documents can also be very tricky as the requirements of translation can differ from country to country.

Juridical Translation

Juridical translation refers to legally binding documentation. For example, this could be the translation of documents such as laws; regulations, and decrees; general sales and purchase conditions; legally binding contracts such as labor; license and commercial contracts; partnership agreements, accords; protocols and conventions; internal regulations;

insurance policies; and bail assurance, among others. The juridical translator must have a solid legal background in addition to their linguistic training.

Judicial Translation

Judicial translations refer to the task of translation undertaken in a court setting. Judicial translators specialize in translating documents such as letters rogatory, minutes of proceedings, judgments, expert opinions, deposition, minutes of interrogation sessions, etc.

Administrative Translation

In the realm of translation, administrative refers to the translation of management texts we often see being used in organizations – whether huge corporations or regional businesses.

Though pretty similar to commercial translations, it is not exactly the same.

While administrative translation can be called a subset of commercial translation, all commercial translation is not necessarily administrative.

Website Translations

We are of course talking about website copy, subtitles for videos on your web pages, and any documents you have there. Here you will also need to change things like currencies, address formats and layouts, so as to appeal to the different local audiences.

You need to think about the languages you want your website to be translated into and localize only those pages which will apply to the target audience.

Using a website translation management system to automate and ease the process if you have frequent updates to your website copy.

At Last

If you run your business well, having a sole-proprietorship translation and interpreting business can be more lucrative than working for a company or translation agency.

Owning your own business also gives you the option to pick and choose your projects and to bring on independent contractors if you find your workload is too heavy.