Post: #1

This weekend I got my first introduction to the translation world after doing my first translation. My friend and I split the job of translating a 90 page mining document from Spanish to English. It wasn’t very challenging, but it was a bit tedious having to look up a new mining term every few minutes. We finished in about 12 hours and are going to be compensated R$1650 each.

Because there is such a small supply of native English speakers in Belo Horizonte who speak Portuguese, and an even fewer amount who speak Spanish, there is very little competition for this type of work. My friend has done a lot of translations before, and occasionally someone will call him up to offer a translation job. In his case he gets referred by a friend of his who does translation full time and sometimes takes on more translations than she can handle, so she outsources them. To come into this market as an outsider you would need to go through someone like her, or make your own connections. In BH that is somewhat easy to do because every Thursday there is a happy hour at the Australian owned bar that caters to people in the mining industry. One could go there with a stack of business cards and walk out with a stack of translation jobs to be done.

While R$1650 for 12 hours work is a pretty good hourly wage, other translations will require a greater time commitment to produce the same quality. The work itself can be a bit tedious and there are more profitable things I could be doing with my time than looking up what granulometry means. So in 4 hour work week fashion I’ve gone online and found a translator I can outsource all the work to. For Portuguese to English I have a guy that will do it for 2 cents per word. I may have to pay around 5 cents a word to find someone with specialized experience in translating mining documents. The pay on the last job was about 20 cents a word so there is a healthy profit to be made here.

The key to success in the translation world here is knowing the right people and delivering quality work on time. By only translating into English I am able to control the quality of the work done by other people, and limiting my role to that of a proofreader. Part of the trick in getting people to give me jobs is instilling them with confidence of my foreign language abilities. Using strategies from fluentin3months.com I’ve brought my Portuguese to a level that impresses everyone I meet and sometimes makes people mistake me for Brazilian.

I’m putting this on the forum in case this is the idea some enterprising young lad out there was waiting for. Any feedback is appreciated.

Post: #2

Yeah that sounds like a great deal, congratulations man.

I have a friend who is a translator and charges 80 dollars per page. It is a good business when you have a bunch of clients. If you can, try make contacts with companies that provide human resources services to oil companies in Brazil. These companies usually need people to translate documents such as cvs, police certificates, diplomas, etc and the paying is usually ok.

Post: #3

+1 for this and your Internet marketing in Brazil thread.

I have Brazil in my sights for 2012 but need a plan to finance it. One question if I may: is there a lot of demand for Portuguese-Spanish/Spanish-Portuguese translations there?

Post: #4

If you become a German/Portuguese translator your set for the next few years with world cups and Olympics

Post: #5

(11-28-2011 06:53 AM)Sardino Wrote:  This weekend I got my first introduction to the translation world after doing my first translation. My friend and I split the job of translating a 90 page mining document from Spanish to English. It wasn’t very challenging, but it was a bit tedious having to look up a new mining term every few minutes. We finished in about 12 hours and are going to be compensated R$1650 each.

Because there is such a small supply of native English speakers in Belo Horizonte who speak Portuguese, and an even fewer amount who speak Spanish, there is very little competition for this type of work. My friend has done a lot of translations before, and occasionally someone will call him up to offer a translation job. In his case he gets referred by a friend of his who does translation full time and sometimes takes on more translations than she can handle, so she outsources them. To come into this market as an outsider you would need to go through someone like her, or make your own connections. In BH that is somewhat easy to do because every Thursday there is a happy hour at the Australian owned bar that caters to people in the mining industry. One could go there with a stack of business cards and walk out with a stack of translation jobs to be done.

While R$1650 for 12 hours work is a pretty good hourly wage, other translations will require a greater time commitment to produce the same quality. The work itself can be a bit tedious and there are more profitable things I could be doing with my time than looking up what granulometry means. So in 4 hour work week fashion I’ve gone online and found a translator I can outsource all the work to. For Portuguese to English I have a guy that will do it for 2 cents per word. I may have to pay around 5 cents a word to find someone with specialized experience in translating mining documents. The pay on the last job was about 20 cents a word so there is a healthy profit to be made here.

The key to success in the translation world here is knowing the right people and delivering quality work on time. By only translating into English I am able to control the quality of the work done by other people, and limiting my role to that of a proofreader. Part of the trick in getting people to give me jobs is instilling them with confidence of my foreign language abilities. Using strategies from fluentin3months.com I’ve brought my Portuguese to a level that impresses everyone I meet and sometimes makes people mistake me for Brazilian.

I’m putting this on the forum in case this is the idea some enterprising young lad out there was waiting for. Any feedback is appreciated.

Congrats dude. That's awesome. Another suggestion would be to put up fliers in places like universities, colleges, and coffee shops offering private or group language classes. I did this when I was in Panama as a side hustle. Great way to meet people, too.

Post: #6

(12-16-2011 11:30 AM)solo Wrote:  +1 for this and your Internet marketing in Brazil thread.

I have Brazil in my sights for 2012 but need a plan to finance it. One question if I may: is there a lot of demand for Portuguese-Spanish/Spanish-Portuguese translations there?

There is a big demand for Portuguese-Spanish translations, but it would be difficult to really seize upon that niche if you're not a native Spanish speaker. Port/Span to English translations are easier because there aren't a whole lot of native English speakers in the area.

Post: #7

(12-16-2011 11:30 AM)solo Wrote:  +1 for this and your Internet marketing in Brazil thread.

anyone have a link to that thread?

I'll search a little more.

Beyond All Seas

"The individual has always had to struggle to keep from being overwhelmed by the tribe.
To be your own man is a hard business. If you try it, you'll be lonely often, and sometimes
frightened. But no price is too high to pay for the privilege of owning yourself." - Kipling

Post: #8

Was it this?
/thread-8281.html

Interesting discussions in both

Post: #9

I am glad I actually bothered to use the search function, as I was about to post a remarkably similar thread. I will lay out my own personal situation and maybe we can bounce some ideas back and forth.

After some unpleasant bumps on the road that would require a seperate thread and some beers to cry in to fully explain, I am finally on track to have my shit together and be ready to leave the USA on or around my 32nd birthday, coming up in a few months. My finances are good, but I have really been thinking about how I want to live my life.

The past month, while I was busy with my own work, I had a friend contact me and ask if I could do some translation work for his company. I was too busy, but I passed it along to this lawyer I used to bang when I consulted for a mining company in Peru. She said it would be great for a friend of hers, and passed it along to her. Long and short of it is that I was paid over 2000 USD for a few translation jobs that I paid 300 for. I could have paid less, but decided to be nice.

Now, this got me thinking. My initial part of my trip will likely involve 3-6 months in 1 or 2 places in Brazil, maybe Floripa and somewhere north, where I can get back into shape, perfect my portuguese, and learn how to surf.

I am going to put up a blog with a lot of my own writing and photography, some of which has already been published, and use that as my creative outlet during this new journey.

But I don't think that is enough for me. I like business. I just don't have any previous experience building a business based primarily over the internet. I like the idea of building a translation business, generating some extra income, and keeping sharp by competing.

However, as I think about this path, several questions come to mind, related to 2 main topics: how to get the work, and who to hire to do it.

How to Get the Work
To what extent should I rely on personal networking?
At what point does it make sense to have a web presence, or if the initial cost is not an issue, just go for it?
What sorts of businesses are most likely to contract out translation work on a somewhat informal basis?

How to do the work
I am fluent in Spanish, and would plan on reviewing work before giving it to a client.

Better to build up several people who are friends of friends in Arequipa, Peru, or ruthlessly use the slave labor bidding sites to get people to do the work?



I suppose the ideal 4HWW model would be to make a slick webpage with a name like Ivy League Translators, market myself and a partner who also has a top US university background, and have clients think we are doing the work and pay a premium, while actually having someone else do it for pennies a word.

Hmmm...

Post: #10

Right now, being able to translate Mandarin is pretty lucrative too. If I had a do over in college, I probably would have taken Mandarin.

Post: #11

Tudobem,
You're on the right track. To get going, you need a website, which depending on your web developping skills can be from 0 to a few hundreds if you don't know how to do it yourself and have a pro do it. Then, you can either promote your site doing online and offline marketing or you can do the old school networking, going to events catering to people in the niche you're targetting (ie: mining), then hit the freelancers sites and have them do the work for you.
I have my existing biz but translation is one of the biz I've been thinking about for a long time since I'm polyglot (speak 6 languages).

Sardino,
Are you still doing this translation gig in BH? We need to talk man. Haven't seen you on skype in ages man.

Post: #12

Interesting thread

Post: #13

Vacancier: Which languages do you speak? 6 languages is quite amazing.

Post: #14

Good luck

Post: #15

The cool thing about translating from English into European languages is that, unlike a lot of other language based business ventures, you're not going to be affected by competition from people in lower wage lower COL countries.

Post: #16

(02-02-2012 08:01 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Vacancier: Which languages do you speak? 6 languages is quite amazing.

Nevermind, just checked your profile. Can you narrate how was your learning process to reach this level? Did you take intensive lessons for each? How did you do it?

Post: #17

(02-02-2012 04:54 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Tudobem,
You're on the right track. To get going, you need a website, which depending on your web developping skills can be from 0 to a few hundreds if you don't know how to do it yourself and have a pro do it. Then, you can either promote your site doing online and offline marketing or you can do the old school networking, going to events catering to people in the niche you're targetting (ie: mining), then hit the freelancers sites and have them do the work for you.
I have my existing biz but translation is one of the biz I've been thinking about for a long time since I'm polyglot (speak 6 languages).

Sardino,
Are you still doing this translation gig in BH? We need to talk man. Haven't seen you on skype in ages man.

Thanks for the tips VP. I am not exclusively going to be targeting mining, but as I do still have some contacts there, it's one avenue I will try out.

A few questions -

Which freelancer sites are best to hire from?
How reliable and quick are the translators?
Do they typically accept payment via paypal?

And here are some more crucial ones:

What legal structure is most suitable?
What is the most advantageous yet legal way to handle taxes? Obviously if it's a once in a while thing, that doesn't matter, but if I want to build the business up and service a steady stream of North American clients, I am guessing that informality is not a winning strategy.

I appreciate the advice, and will likely get back to you regarding website creation and maintenance.

Post: #18

(02-02-2012 04:54 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Tudobem,
You're on the right track. To get going, you need a website, which depending on your web developping skills can be from 0 to a few hundreds if you don't know how to do it yourself and have a pro do it. Then, you can either promote your site doing online and offline marketing or you can do the old school networking, going to events catering to people in the niche you're targetting (ie: mining), then hit the freelancers sites and have them do the work for you.
I have my existing biz but translation is one of the biz I've been thinking about for a long time since I'm polyglot (speak 6 languages).

Sardino,
Are you still doing this translation gig in BH? We need to talk man. Haven't seen you on skype in ages man.

I have a friend of mine , who is older than me , he is a translator here in Canada . He makes a lot of money and travel a lot . A Minimum of 4 trip a year . His job allowed him to work when he is away of the country . You should check this out , especially here in Canada when everything has to be in french and english .

Post: #19

(02-03-2012 12:51 PM)Alfonzo Wrote:  

(02-02-2012 04:54 PM)Vacancier Permanent Wrote:  Tudobem,
You're on the right track. To get going, you need a website, which depending on your web developping skills can be from 0 to a few hundreds if you don't know how to do it yourself and have a pro do it. Then, you can either promote your site doing online and offline marketing or you can do the old school networking, going to events catering to people in the niche you're targetting (ie: mining), then hit the freelancers sites and have them do the work for you.
I have my existing biz but translation is one of the biz I've been thinking about for a long time since I'm polyglot (speak 6 languages).

Sardino,
Are you still doing this translation gig in BH? We need to talk man. Haven't seen you on skype in ages man.

I have a friend of mine , who is older than me , he is a translator here in Canada . He makes a lot of money and travel a lot . A Minimum of 4 trip a year . His job allowed him to work when he is away of the country . You should check this out , especially here in Canada when everything has to be in french and english .

I don't intend to do much of any translating. I want to have other people do that for me, and I will do the proofreading.

The nut of the idea is to take advantage of most businesses either not being aware of or not trusting freelancing sites.

Post: #20

Anyone have experience doing translation jobs online? I want to try it out.

Post: #21

(02-03-2012 03:19 PM)FretDancer Wrote:  Anyone have experience doing translation jobs online? I want to try it out.

I'm also interested on this, if there is any demand for english-portuguese translations.