We all like to save money, we also like to come under budget on our business communications. There are a couple of things that cause budgets to inflate and go over in the business world from what we see, translation and graphic design. Why those two areas you ask? Those two areas are notorious for being thought of at the last minute. Think about it, you are in a meeting with your team trying to figure out the best way to get a new idea out to your clients. You’ve thought of the newsletter, you gave a paper communication to the sales force, but the boos wants better results. Someone mentions creating and ad for related industry magazines. The team breaks up and sets forth on getting the ad completed. When talking with the graphic designer they tell them they need it yesterday because the program is already underway, the designer adds on a rush charge. A few days later as everyone is patting themselves on the back for a job well done someone casually says, “What about our customers in Quebec?” The room goes silent! You mean we need to have the ad in French someone remarks? A frantic call goes out to a translator who says yes we could do it, but it will have a rush charge.
This is very common in the translation industry and rush charges can add a significant amount to your budget. Often it is a last minute thought for people who don’t deal in French all the time. The same thing happens on the graphic side. Many times translated documents have more words in French than in English and this can change the format and design of an ad causing more graphic design work than originally thought.
So how do you handle theses fees? Well many times estimated times for jobs are just a guideline and will change based upon the amount of work a company has on the table at the time, so the earlier the better when looking for translators and designers for work. When initial meetings are beginning for a new project have a list of all the customers or areas that the communications will be going to. That way you can go down the list and if you get to an area that requires their communication in another language you can have that arranged up front with designers and translators. This will save you rush fees and save people doing work over that could have been set up in the beginning. A good plan will always help save fees in design and translation work.
About the Author
Carmen Outridge is a partner of Outridge Enterprises Inc. and operator of Outridge Translation Services. She has been in the translation industry for over 30 years and offers translation for all types of documents and communications. For more information on Outridge Translation Services please visit www.outridgetranslation.com
Outridge Translation Services-French Translation Services 