Glad you’re my partner. Thanks.
My approach
As Seth Godin says, when we work together:
You’ll pay a lot, but you’ll get more than you paid for
Before we start working together for the first time, I will ask you for some background information about your organisation, your products and services, and the project I will be working on. This will also give me a feeling for your target audience. Whether I’m writing new copy, revising your writing, or translating for you, I’ll ask you a few questions so I can help you realise your communication objectives.
I will ask you about the message you wish to convey and about your target audience. I’ll ask you about your personas, you may have several, depending on the types of text you need to produce. I’ll also ask about the tone of voice you wish to use: I expect you’ll want something fairly formal for a report, a more laidback style for a blog or social media post, and something in between for your internal communications to colleagues and staff.
Most of the English I write is for non-native speakers who live in continental Europe. I won’t dumb down my language for your readers but I will write clearly and concisely. I write in Plain English and use inclusive language. This helps your readers to understand your message on first reading.
Asking questions improves the end result
While I’m working on your text or translation, I may have additional questions for you. As an outsider, I’m well-placed to test how easily your message comes across. If there’s something I can’t follow or don’t understand when writing or translating, something I want to ask you about, then the chances are your reader will have similar questions too. Together with you we can answer these queries in the drafting phase and where necessary incorporate more background into your text to ensure your readers understand your message as you intend.
Incidental project or long-term relationship
Some of my clients send me work on a regular basis so I block time for them in my schedule and invoice monthly.
Other clients contact me for large or small one-off projects. If we haven’t worked together before, I will arrange a phone call to discuss your needs and how I can help. Following our conversation, I will draw up a quotation specifying the scope of my work and the estimated cost. I will plan in your work when you return a signed copy of my quote.
The core of my business model is my added value
With the advent of new tools for translating, writing and editing, professionals need something extra to give clients. That’s were my unique added value comes in – I let it shine through my work.
Would you like to know more about working with Translatext, drop me a line!