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  • Writer's pictureRobert Clayton

How to Find the Best Translation Company for Document Translations



How Can I Find the Best Translation Company for my documents translation?

Are you looking for the best translation provider near you who could be able to translate your documents in a professional and timely manner? Is your project is urgent and you have no time for proper analysis and selection? Do you need it fast and within your corporate budget?



In a real sense the answer is on the surface. You can easily sort it out for yourself without any tricky and fancy ploys and methods. Certainly, there are things to consider and pay attention to.



Quality and Price are market-driving factors

Among other things you have to point out the quality and the price. Those two factors drive any business and marketing. So, your task is to find the high quality for a decent price, not necessarily very cheap.

How and where can you get such a perfect combination particularly for your needs?


Human Resources is Your Key Asset

First of all, you have to know what is the guarantee or condition for measuring the quality of translation services. This is people, or translators – their knowledge, qualification, and experience. So, in order to obtain high quality you have to find places or look where those qualified linguists could be. At first sight it could seem impossible or pretty hard, especially if you don’t know how and where to start with.



Quality depends on How it is managed

The quality of translation depends solely on management - quality management. First of all, your document, website, or video, should be translated by a professional and qualified linguist – translator. Second, this translation should be reviewed by the another translator – editor or proofreader. It is a must for ensuring the expected quality. Otherwise you may be disappointed, refuse to pay for translation, and go somewhere else for help, even though the translation was not that bad, but just because it was not properly checked and proofread.



Price is Not Quality – How to differentiate

Second, what matters to all translation customers is the price. Price can attract people and push them away. But here you have to know some peculiarities of price formation for language translation. Most agencies will tell you that the price for translation depends on so many factors. For example, it can be the language pair, subject matter, and urgency. That’s absolutely fair. But it is not all!



Things that No Translation Company will tell You

There are a few other things which no translation company will tell you. Why? Because it directly concerns their business in a particular country. There are several ways the translation company can operate and provide services. One of the ways is to hire and keep the in-house translators in the office or at home. This is having a staff for which the company is accountable and pays fees and taxes. Same for having an in-house management team for different languages. This team or these teams (if the company can afford to employ managers for working both with customers and translators), if they are sitting in the agency’s office, incur some fees as well both for company and for you as a customer. Why for the customer?

Because you have to pay for translation, VAT, management fees, and all kinds of other fees which this company will charge you.



Quality Check – Editing and Proofreading

Third is proofreading and review by the second linguist or industry specialist for any errors and mistakes in grammar and spelling. Besides the standard proofreading the translation should also be checked for style. It is especially true in case with literature translation or book translation, where the tone and voice of the text is meant for transmitting the author’s emotions and thoughts. Most of the companies charge for proofreading separately. It is a real trick with translation providers. They charge you for both the translation and proofreading. And the price for translation plus proofreading may go pretty high. But it is not with all agencies. Some other agencies do not charge you this kind of double cost. The price you pay them includes the cost both for translation and editing/proofreading.



How the Price is Formed and Where is the Best Rate

Of course, you have to mind here that the price may also play an important role for ensuring the high quality. If the price for 100% human translation services is too low you would better turn away from that company as they would pay scanty amount to their translators. If the price is low it means that they hire cheap and non-professional translators for your project. In order for you to see the more clear picture you have to know the average rate the translators are paid by translation companies. For instance, the freelancer’s rate for translation from English to German may be about 0.05USD per source word.


Therefore, the rate the company may charge you would be about 0.09USD per source word or higher. The margin which the company gets (around 0.04 USD) goes for all kinds of fees, taxes, and for proofreading as well. So, finally the company will get about 0.02 – 0.03 USD for each word. That’s not much to be honest. So, in order to increase the revenue the company should increase the margin by raising the rates for translation.



Now you know a little more about how the price is formed, and how to find and select the best and professional translation company for all of your language translation needs. Be careful and patient in your search.


Thank you for your business!


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