Looking back to when we both started our freelance careers in 2019, setting up a company had always been one of our aims. It just made sense; after all, we would be working together regardless, and it would be to our advantage to make this partnership official and highlight that our clients would be getting “two for one”, so to speak. Given that our language pairs are complementary, with Manon translating from English to French, and Jamie working in the opposite direction, we’ve always been able to help each other out.
Whether it's checking the tone of an email before you offend anyone, or making sure a strangely phrased bit of copy isn’t a play on words that’s gone over your head, having a native speaker sat next to you at all times who you can pester whenever you have a source-language question is definitely a massive help.
When we started freelancing, however, neither of us could be sure it would work out. So we decided to keep things simple and trade separately, just in case one of us decided that translation wasn’t for them, leaving the other to wrap up the company just as they were getting started.
What’s more, although we now have several specialist fields in common (namely pharmaceuticals, clinical trials and tourism), we wanted to focus on different areas at first, with Jamie attempting to get interpreting work while Manon concentrated more on subtitling.
With five years’ experience under our belts and therefore reasonably convinced we were in it for the long haul, in March this year we founded our company, Echo Translations LLP. We founded the partnership with some specific aims in mind, namely:
To work with more direct clients: we’d heard both from those outside the sector and from other translators that many direct clients prefer to work with established companies
To offer a service in which the translator is proofread by a native speaker of the source language
To create a website with a logo, a blog and a brand, to increase our visibility with direct clients and agencies alike
After finally settling on a name (a process which drove us to distraction as it felt as if every name was already taken – at one point Jamie even tried typing in random three-letter acronyms into Google followed by the word “translations”, only to find this often led to actual, existing companies), we then proceeded to set up the website. www.echo-translations.co.uk is now live, and includes a summary of our services, our specialist fields, an “about us” section and a blog (which looks a little empty at the moment, admittedly – but watch this space!).
At the same time, we incorporated an LLP on Companies House. Once we’d deciphered the legalese of the application form, the process was fairly straightforward. It helped that we chose one of the simplest company setups available – we’re both still sole traders and declare and pay our tax separately as before; we’re just operating under the same name now when we deal with clients.
Lastly, we devised a marketing strategy which involved making a LinkedIn page for the company and regularly posting about our services and what we’ve been up to.
Which raises the question; what have we been up to?
In May, we attended the Welsh Business Show at Cardiff City Stadium. It was a useful experience which has helped us better explain what we are able to offer our clients, and has given us several helpful contacts in other sectors. In June, we made the most of a trip to see family in Normandy to visit a variety of businesses in and around Cherbourg.
One common thread connecting both of these experiences was that the interest we had from potential clients came in unexpected forms. For example, while one prospect in the fashion sector said they didn’t need a translated version of their website, they did ask us for a bilingual glossary of terms for their employees, as English-speaking tourists sometimes visit their shop, and while their sales staff can “get by” in English, they may not know all the specialist terms. Likewise, another client providing guided tours didn’t seem interested in interpreting services, but said they would like to have a translated script for their tour guide.
Now that the company is up and running, it’s safe to say that we’ve learned a lot from the experience. We’re a bit wiser about how to market ourselves to direct clients, of course (although it’s still very much early days on that front), but for us the main takeaway of the last few months is that it’s important not to let the perfect be the enemy of the good.
After we decided we were going to set up our own company, it took us a whole year to get it off the ground. This was because we felt that if we were going to do it, we wanted to do it properly and unveil everything all at once. However, we never left ourselves enough time during or after work to sit down and sort out all the paperwork and decide how we were going to market ourselves properly.
Looking back, it’s better to have something unfinished and imperfect that you can work on step by step than to have nothing but a vague but “perfect” idea.
Lastly, while it’s just the two of us running the LLP, we wanted to make it clear from the start that we were keen to recommend our colleagues. Our language pairs are FR <> EN and ES > FR & EN and our specialist fields are on our website – so if you work with different languages and/or fields please feel free to drop us a line at contact@echo-translations.co.uk and we’d be happy to send any potential contacts your way!
Comments