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About > About the school

About the School

When you were last at school, you were probably doing your degree in languages or translation. You learnt a lot about translation theories, interpreting modes, or how to find the best equivalent. Your head was full of ideas and inspiration. I’m sure you wanted to bridge the cultures, or bring one culture closer to another. You felt there was a bigger cause. And then you started translating professionally and things got a little complicated. Why not make it work for you again?

When I studied translation, I felt greatly empowered by learning so much about my beloved profession and translating for pleasure. I also believed that I was doing that for a bigger cause. I felt that my translations could change the world. There is something shared by all translators: we do what we do because we have the sense of a mission. But when we start working professionally, we sometimes lose it. I’ve certainly struggled with the unexpected business aspect of working as a freelance translator: quoting, taxes, negotiations, etc. and if you look at my professional profile, you’ll see the pathway I went through to cope. Luckily, I managed to combine my background in business and marketing with translation, and I quickly started building my own business by rediscovering the why in my career. I documented it on my blog. A few years into successful freelancing, I decided to turn my blog into the Business School for Translators. Now, apart from posting lessons, I’m also recording business videos and sharing business tips.

Thanks to this great adventure, I was contacted by wonderful colleagues who support the initiative. Their feedback made it clear to me that the Business School for Translators is very much needed.

I remember one particular colleague who was a student right about my age then. She wrote a very long email to me one day and first described the background of her situation. She said how she was clueless about working as a translator, how the whole business of it discouraged her from starting and that she was stuck in her temporary part-time job without any perspectives at all. The biggest problem she struggled with as a newly-grad was the no experience - no jobs problem and it was so off-putting, that she thought of giving up translation. Sounds familiar to you? It was such a great pleasure to read that my lessons helped her rediscover her inspiration and take a more structured approach to building up her experience and portfolio, and that she saw real results.

Another colleague I’ll never forget is a young mother who wanted to go into translating while being able to take care of her family. What a commitment, don’t you think? I felt very inspired by her and I wanted to help with the problem she wrote to me about. I’m sure you’ve been through something similar in your career, too. She wasn’t confident in her skills and capacity as a freelance translator at all. Any time she wanted to put her act together and start marketing her business, she felt paralysed. She wrote she kept thinking she wasn’t ready, or that she wasn’t good enough. I knew what she meant because I was there at some point, too. I decided I wanted to do something for her and started writing on confidence, too. We’re still exchanging emails to date and she became a flourishing translator.

The third colleague was actually changing careers from working in another industry to translation, feeling burnt out in his previous job. But you know how it feels like when you have to start everything from scratch, and on top of that, it’s a freelancing profession. He thanked me for all the tips I was giving, asked a few more questions, and he’s a happy freelancer now. All these people make me want to share more and invest my time in the School because I know it helps real people change their businesses (and their lives a little bit, too).

What’s in it for you?

If you feel you could know more about the whole business side of being a freelance translator or interpreter to help you concentrate on your passion and inspiration, you’ll enjoy my Business School.

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The keyword for all I’m doing is inspiration and I promise I’ll do all I can to inspire you in your translation business, like I’ve done in this presentation. To benefit from the Business School for Translators, you only need to invest some time in using all resources. I’m sharing a lot of valuable information and advice for free through my lessons, videos and tips. It’s up to you to decide how you’re going to use these translation resources and how they’re going to influence your translation business. Others think it works, and it has certainly worked for me. The best way to make sure you’re receiving all updates is to sign up to my newsletter. This is what you’re getting:

  • Lessons on the business aspect of translation published every week or every other week
  • Videos with your questions answered every week or every fortnight
  • Business tips exclusive to newsletter subscribers
  • Interviews with translators - People who rock the industry series
  • Loads of inspiration and positive attitude you won’t find anywhere else

What’s in it for me?

I’m sure you’re wondering why I’m doing all that, investing about a day worth of work a week to bring the School to you. For me, it’s a form of giving back. I wouldn’t be where I am, I wouldn’t have realised my passions and ambitions but for these wonderful people I met who taught me all I know and pointed me in the right direction. I’m barely recycling this knowledge, in a way. And it’s certainly something I enjoy doing so much that I don’t treat it as a job.

Social entrepreneurship it’s also an area I’m very much involved with, so I’m looking for ways of creating and sustaining solutions that help societies, like our own translation world. In 2013, I’ve been awarded with Higher Education Social Entrepreneurship Award to support my initiatives. I’m also a member of the Social Innovation Exchange network.

Every now and then, I organise a course or a webinar which brings profits. Because I treat the Business School as a social entreprise, I reinvest all income back into running it. That’s why it’s so beautifully designed, for example. The course I’m most proud of is 5 and 1/2 lessons on working as a freelance translator or interpreter, an online course with eCPD Webinars.

Press and Mentions

Thank you for sharing news about the School and writing about it online. It means a lot to me! Take a look at what these good people said.

I’m very grateful for being given the opportunity of sharing my thoughts and approach in a range of interviews. You may find some of them particularly useful, for example where I explain how I got experience when I was just starting out, or how I ended up being a translator.

The Business School was also mentioned in a range of articles, for which I’m very grateful. I’m trying to keep this list up to date and include all mentions, but if you’ve noticed an article that’s not listed here, drop me a line!