Having worked for a busy translation agency, I have had the advantage of working with many types of clients, all with diverse needs and requirements. Over the duration of an average day, it would be fair to say that no two assignments are ever the same, because no two clients are ever the same. An area where we do receive a significant amount of requests is in the field of financial translation. Financial translation refers to the broad area involving the translation of financial documents and giving out sensitive fiscal information. This can vary from the translation of complex financial reports to technical terms and conditions found within financial documents through to excel spreadsheets detailing a company's profit and loss data. 

If you own a business, whether large or small, expanding into a wider market can help you generate more revenue. With the expansion of the EU, one of the most effective ways to do that is by selling your products or services in Europe.

However, if you are planning to do that it’s essential to use the services of a translation company to aid your smooth transition into the European market – here are just five reasons why:

If you’re looking for a translation service, for personal reasons or for your business, there are many ways that you can try to keep costs down. Although budget factors may play a part in your final decision of which translation agency to use, it is always best to consider other aspects of the service ahead of the cost.

For example, if you have come across a reputable company that produces efficient and speedy results and also has a great customer service ethos, then spending an extra few pounds isn’t such a bad idea. For the sake of a small saving you might be giving your money to a company that is going to produce an inferior translation.

It has been revealed that under the current Tory government just 62 of the 11,861 prisoners in the UK have been deported to serve time in their home countries. This figure is made all the more shocking after David Cameron’s pre-election promise that this is something that he will crack down on. Cameron claimed he would remove several thousands of these foreign criminals from British prison systems, yet it seems to be just another promise that the Prime Minister has failed to keep.

The 11,861 foreign criminals account for approximately one in eight of all prisoners in the UK. On average it costs about £45,000 to keep a prisoner in a British prison for one year. This means the total bill for the taxpayer to house foreign criminals is around the £500 million mark.

Legislation that is currently in place in Britain means that a foreign prisoner can’t be deported to their home country without their consent, something which the majority of people are unwilling to give. In 2010, Cameron promised to remove such legislation however only the policy with Saudi Arabia was renegotiated. Following the new agreement, no Saudi Arabian nationals were sent home.

If companies aren’t lucky enough to snap up dual heritage translators, or highly experienced language professionals with years in the field of not only their language study but court room politics as well, they run the risk of reduced interpreting services. This can cost their employers thousands each year.

The need for reliable and professional court interpreting services is dire, and the cost of funding them is extremely high. Funding cuts in the public sector caused certain police stations to reduce their number of interpreters to cope with a second year of recession. Earlier this year, the Daily Mail reported certain foreign suspects were released on bail before questioning due to a significant lack of interpreters.

In order for your business to grow globally, and for you to take advantage of the Internet for some basic selling and marketing skills, you are going to have to utilize a professional translation company. This is imperative to presenting your company's services and products in languages which native people understand. There has been a huge escalation in demand for professional financial translation services especially when as an entity you could be launching a new product that is specific to a particular area of the globe.

Maintaining accurate financial records is a sign of good housekeeping, and, reflects the continuous changing status of your business. Providing you keep a detailed database, you will be able to monitor the success of your business at the click of a mouse. By making the effort to obtain financial translations, you can easily share vital information with business partners and shareholders overseas without any fear of fraud or other irregularities. Regardless of whether you are a big corporation or a small venture, to be successful in the target country, your documents must be legal and meet all the requirements for tax and revenue purposes.

Have you noticed that so far at the Paralympics there are no categories for the deaf? that's because deaf people don't fall under the guidelines as disabled enough to compete, which is of course ridiculous; currently you can compete as a deaf person as long as you have another disability alongside on your CV - like Singaporean dressage competitor Laurentia Tan - who has cerebral palsy. What this means is that apparently deaf people aren't disabled in any way. Apparently needing language translated into sign-language and not being able to hear anything is not a good enough excuse to want to join in.

Why should a battle between two extremely minted Russian oligarchs be fought in a British court? Don't we have enough on our plate? The benefits, of course, are plain to see – The British law system is our greatest industry – and second most economically profitable (behind finance itself), renowned worldwide for its honesty, integrity, intellect, and morality. The financial benefit then of hosting foreign cases reverberates around industry connected with the court system.

This is one of around 3000 temples in the ancient city of Bagan, most of which were build between 900-1200 A.D.. The great thing about Bagan is that it so accessible, yet it’s limited fame internationally allows you to explore the ancient city without competing with hordes of tourists.

By the Power of Twitter

Gone are the days when everything had to be in English. The powerful micro-blogging site, Twitter announced on Wednesday that it had added right-to-left languages namely, Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew and Urdu to its Translation Center. These languages will be available on Twitter.com in Spring this year. With volunteers exceeding 400,000 around the world, Twitter’s translation center aids in making Twitter comprehensible to the masses.

With the addition of these 4 languages, the total number of available languages on Twitter equals 22.  Other foreign languages added by Twitter are Japanese, Spanish, French, Russian, Turkish, Dutch, Indonesian, Chinese, Hindi, Filipino and Malay amongst others.

New Year: New Opportunities - Website Translations

A recent survey revealed that only 18 percent of non-English speaking European customers are willing to avail services or buy products from a website which is not written in their mother tongue while 82 percent of the consumers do not want to visit a website containing information in English. This result signifies the importance of website translation in increasing your revenues and sales.

European countries are potential markets where there is demand for numerous products. The number of consumers is huge and their requirement of products is versatile. If you can reach the customers of this market, you can double the size of your current business. But there is still one barrier left that you need to deal with. It’s the difference of language which should be considered and resolved first to enter the European market. At present, the easiest way to reach the end-users is developing a website containing information about who you are and what your products are. The work is not finished here; you need to translate your website in different languages depending on your targeted area. With the help of a professional translation agency you can easily accomplish this task.

Cross-cultural Marketing Blunders

If you’re thinking of expanding your business and tapping into International markets, it is important that you hire the services of a translation agency. There have been numerous instances of renowned brands investing huge sums of money globally, without realizing that the message being conveyed could be interpreted incorrectly or may be perceived wrongly in another country. Let’s take a look at the top 5 biggest cross-cultural marketing blunders by world famous brands:

Pepsi: The literal translation of Pepsi’s slogan “Come Alive with the Pepsi Generation” got interpreted as “Pepsi will bring your ancestors from the dead” in Taiwan.

Chevrolet: When the Chevy Nova car was launched in Latin America, Chevrolet experienced a massive drop in sales in that market. The word “no va” means “it doesn’t go” in Spanish, when clearly Chevrolet wanted Chevy Nova to “go” always.

The continuing globalization of businesses is putting pressure on companies to release their documents, websites, and marketing texts in several languages. As a result, the demand for translation service providers is increasing, to translate business documents within a local setting and also to assess the message that companies want to convey to their target customers in international markets.

When you hire a translation agency to translate your business documents, you expect quality from them. In order to enable them to properly meet your preferences and to translate your material effectively and clearly, you need to provide them with a well-prepared document.

Recession and Its Impact on the Translation Services Sector

The world at present is going through an economic and financial turmoil, not experienced ever since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While nearly all the sectors are experiencing the consequences, some suffer more seriously when compared to others, depending on a range of factors such as capital and consumers. The translation sector is certainly not an exception in this case. It is suffering from a decline in business like other sectors but on a positive front its fundamentals remain to be in a better position. There are a couple of good reasons for this.