Our digital age offers amazing opportunities for small businesses to operate on an international scale without the need for the substantial financial expenditure that was once required.
However, this ease can also encourage small firms to attempt the leap to global corporation before they are fully prepared.
One area where small firms often find they lack knowledge is, language – the ability to engage with a new target audience who speak a different language can mean the difference between success and failure!
Small businesses, who often don’t have a huge budget to spend on the move, might try to cut corners on their translation requirements by opting for (supposed) cheaper options such as, in-house translations provided by existing bi-lingual employees, machine translation via providers like, Google Translate, or attempt to translate their content themselves.
While these options may save money initially they can often cost more in the long term due to poor/inaccurate translations which discourage sales, give poor customer service and reduce brand trust.
Therefore, the best solution for a small business moving into a global market, is to find a professional language services provider to work with who are able to help the business grow through translation and localisation methods which encourage brand faith, improve customer satisfaction and increase sales.
Even a small firm, with a professional translation applied to its marketing and website, can successfully compete with other bigger brands for local customers, and this is why…
Language and Translation for Small Businesses
English is still the recognised language of business for most of the world, yet with events such as Brexit and the Covid-19 pandemic, it is important to consider potential language needs for the future.
For instance, will European consumers and customers want to purchase from a purely English-language based website? Will the pandemic we are currently experiencing limit sales to or from certain countries and languages?
Understanding how your business is likely to be affected by the larger business stage gives insights into potential markets and your future language requirements.
Working on a small scale, it is possible to expand into other markets if you have done your research well, know that there is a place for your product or service, and can accommodate the language and cultural changes required. Once this is successfully completed, you can move on to further markets and new language bases as soon as they are financially viable.
Additionally, when conducting business with suppliers or traders from other countries it is important to understand their cultural background as this can make or break deals.
For example, some countries take pride in the etiquette linked to business meetings and will expect you to understand the value they place on making introductions with superiors, swapping business cards, and becoming well-acquainted before completing business deals.
If you lack the cultural knowledge and language skills required to sustain an effective business meeting, you can recruit an interpreter to help you and research the accurate business etiquette for the region.
Don’t risk losing out on an important deal because you didn’t spend time researching the business customs, or because of a language misunderstanding.
Translation for Domestic Markets
Communities have become more diverse in the last few decades so translation can often be useful within your domestic market, especially if you don’t have a niche product tailored to a specific audience.
In countries such as the UK and the USA there is a large portion of the population who cannot speak English, or for whom English is only a second language.
These customers often prefer to purchase products from a website based in their native language, or from stores that offer bi-lingual staff, for example Spanish speakers in the USA or Welsh speakers in the UK can interact more effectively with businesses that offer their native language alongside the English version.
Translating your website for two or more main domestic languages will give you a broader customer base, increase potential sales, and can act as a good introduction to the principles of translation and localisation for your business before hitting an international market.
Localisation for Small Businesses
Translation is based primarily on altering language so that the message has the same intent as the original and conveys the required meaning, but it doesn’t necessarily consider factors such as location of use, humour, cultural difference, local dialects, currencies, weights and measures, and so on.
In order for all these factors to be considered within your translation, it will be necessary to perform localisation.
Localisation gives a greater depth of translation which will take into account all the nuances of a specific market, such as those listed above, so that your finished translation will be culturally and linguistically as accurate as possible.
In theory, a good localisation project should be indistinguishable from an original project in that language. So, your new website would look and function the same as one which had originally been created in that language which will give greater acceptance and an increase in potential sales.
At Creative Word, we are used to working on small, medium and large translation projects for businesses across multiple industries. Our translators are expert linguists who are also specialists in other fields such as, law, marketing or design and they use their knowledge to create accurate, reliable and creative translations.
If you would like to talk to us about your translation project, please call us on 44 (0)20 8408 2268 or contact us here.
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