Your “not to do list”
What not to do if you already thinking about creating your own business: thanks to this short list you can save a lot of energy and time for unnecessary “analysis” and asking yourself if the idea makes any sense at all. The idea IS great, you just have to start acting, continue step by step and don’t let yourself discouraged!
YOUR NOT TO DO LIST
- Don’t think you are not good or educated enough to run your own business
- Don’t hesitate to tell the world what you are doing – there are plenty of people who could help you or use your advice!
- Don’t hesitate to be active on social media – go public with your profile and spread the news about your business and your current plans and actions
- Don’t wait with making your website
- Don’t let people think you are sitting at home doing nothing – share your story and show people how your everyday life looks like!
- And most of all – in your business and your private life:
Don’t hesitate to ask for help if needed!
Listen to people who are one step ahead of you and benefit from their experience.
Do you want to learn more about it? Do you have any questions?
Don’t hesitate! I am here to serve you.
Found in translation
After 6 years of working with passion and (surprisingly!) without a website and any social media presence – apart form updating my LinkedIn profile two years ago – it’s time to share my experience with others, both practitioners and future/beginner translators, or other entrepreneurs struggling in this one-man business field, just as I am.
Why “found in translation”?
When preparing for my master’s examination in Germany I had to also elaborate a selected book – I chose “Lost in Translation: A Life in a New language” written by Eva Hoffman. I sincerely recommend it to anyone, not only translators. It is a true story about finding your identity.
In translation I found my own way of working, which is also my passion. And it is worth working and living with passion 😊 Although, it is not easy to convince yourself that starting your own business is a good idea. It is not easy to listen to your inner voice and find your “vocation” when the world around you is convincing you, that other things count in life. It is also not easy to roll up your sleeves and start – but it is definitely worth it! Despite many obstacles, all the formalities, the uncertainty about your financial situation – at most at the beginning – it is worth starting your own business and becoming your own boss. A demanding (above all to herself), disciplined, organized, competent but extremely creative boss, open to new opportunities. And believe me, they come your way every day, you just have to reach out and take the chance when it is given to you!
With this first post I start my blog and invite you to read and travel together through the world of translation – and this is just the beginning!
Benefit from the experience of others
The sun just got up, so I’m getting up too 😊
But why get up so early, when you’re a business owner and your working hours are flexible…
After all, when you work on your own, you can schedule your working day on your own, and nobody controls you. Well, does it look like this always? Does a business owner always organise his or her working day? Does he or her analyse which orders to take and which to reject if they accumulate? Let me tell you, how it was in my case: at the beginning I was simply fascinated by the fact that I have orders and I devoted as much time as possible to this, leaving the organisation of my work and life (forgetting totally of the work-life balance) somewhere in the back of my head.
But what about this discipline and organization?
I guess I have an innate discipline, so it wasn’t much of a problem, but it’s not easy for a beginner translator to organise yourself when you finally started your business, first clients are knocking on your (virtual) door, orders are coming in, there is work to do – it’s just wonderful! The keyboard heats up from constant typing. Order after order, day after day, month after month, and so the whole year passes by… without taking a real (without answering emails, phones, etc.) holiday?! Don’t make the same mistake!
By the way, being fascinated with your work without a good organization can result in forgetting about your accounting. Then, for example, monthly earnings may accumulate in such a way that you will have to pay a lot of income tax, and that hurts – after all, you could have bought something for company use: office equipment, a new CAT tool, etc. But let me leave this topic for another time 😉.
Oh, if I just have had all this knowledge and experience in organizing my work 6 years ago, it would be so much easier! But I had to learn everything by myself – by trial and error. And here is good news for you – this doesn’t have to be your case 😊 You can profit from my experience.
I am planning to create a (virtual) place, where practitioners and beginners/future translator will be able to exchange their experiences and acquire new skills, that are necessary to run their business and organize their daily (work)life – more about this soon!