| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Do you have a written business plan? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Anne Bohy 
France
Local time: 20:58
English to French
inkweaver wrote:
What exactly would be the use of having a written business plan?
Well... to get a visa, for instance. As the visa criteria were as unsuitable as the requirement for a business plan, I didn't get my visa anyway.
Then, I ran my business from abroad, without ever referring to my business plan!
[Edited at 2012-09-05 12:25 GMT]
| | | | Mario Chavez (X)
Local time: 14:58
English to Spanish
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| Does a translator really need a business plan? | Sep 5, 2012 |
Thank you, fellow translators, for bringing the sound of laughter, chuckles and guffaws to my home this cool September morning in Ohio.
I once had this question asked of me...by a banker when I went to a local bank in Southern California to ask for a loan. I was more dressed to go to the mall than to get a bank loan, though. The banker asked me if I had a written business plan, to which I answered with another question. You know what I answered.
I went home and decided.... See more Thank you, fellow translators, for bringing the sound of laughter, chuckles and guffaws to my home this cool September morning in Ohio.
I once had this question asked of me...by a banker when I went to a local bank in Southern California to ask for a loan. I was more dressed to go to the mall than to get a bank loan, though. The banker asked me if I had a written business plan, to which I answered with another question. You know what I answered.
I went home and decided...not to write one. I also continued to self finance my own small enterprise.
A better question would be: Do you think you need a business plan? If so, what shape would it have? Whether it's written or not is inconsequential at this juncture. All of us have very clear goals already in mind, and we don't need a piece of paper to remind us of them (hahahah, "translate and get paid" sums it up. Thanks, John Cutler!).
There's this epidemic in America (and spreading everywhere else) about how a translator should not only have a business plan, but also a brand, a mission statement, a vision statement, a marketing strategy, a sales strategy, a sense of entrepreneurship, a Twitter account, a Facebook page for his/her business and a logo. This feverish pitch of instruments that may or may not prove necessary reminds me of a similar "bubble" a few years back: get an ISO certification to get more business.
A few months ago I received a survey from my local alliance of chambers of commerce (of which I am a paid member). The sole question that stopped me from filling it out was "How did you do this past quarter compared to last year's?". I thought that I don't need to report any portion of my financials to anyone (except the IRS). The one way I know I'm doing better is if my private retirement accounts are being funded or not and whether my savings accounts are growing or not.
As many of you already said, I'm too busy translating and running other related tasks to write down a business plan or any of the other nonsense (i.e., a mission plan, a vision plan, etc.)
Cheers! ▲ Collapse
| | | | inkweaver
Germany
Local time: 20:58
French to German
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| My thoughts exactly | Sep 5, 2012 |
Stephen McCann wrote:
My business plan is: "Translate. Get paid". No need to write it down (until now).
Since I don't need a visa and I can't obtain any financing from anyone this sounds like a good plan to me. But it's so short that even I can remember it without writing it down.
I'm glad I don't need any financing so I have nothing to pay back with a lot of interest on top.
Seriously, a business plan in this day and age when anything can go down the drain any day?
And I have no mission plan, vision plan, marketing strategy or sales strategy either. Still I have enough to do which I will in fact go back to this very minute.
| | | | wonita (X)
China
Local time: 14:58
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| My husband made it up | Sep 5, 2012 |
It's a variation on 'Translate. Get paid.'
Or the Danish advice to anyone starting in a new job:
Remember to drink your coffee and collect your pay check 
Advice for the self employed:
Do it as long as it pays.
Keep your tax papers straight.
STOP before you run up any debts.
I don't think it is written down anywhere.
Keep the good clients happy is... See more It's a variation on 'Translate. Get paid.'
Or the Danish advice to anyone starting in a new job:
Remember to drink your coffee and collect your pay check
Advice for the self employed:
Do it as long as it pays.
Keep your tax papers straight.
STOP before you run up any debts.
I don't think it is written down anywhere.
Keep the good clients happy is another possibility. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Anthony Baldwin
United States
Local time: 14:58
Portuguese to English
+ ...
Stephen McCann wrote:
My business plan is: "Translate. Get paid"....
This is also MY plan!
| | | | Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 19:58
What? So that I can pull it to pieces in a management meeting with myself?
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IMHO, you can't have any business plan as a freelancer (translator). You can't have any plan at all. Clients simply come and go. What can you plan in such conditions?
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| Nature of the beast | Sep 5, 2012 |
Since we depend on work "coming in over the transom," there's very little planning that we can do.
Surely we all have targets in our mind. Sometimes I write daily production targets on my calendar. I keep a broad client base, and because of that I'm never without work. I never agree to lower my rates, even when the subject interests me greatly. I keep to the schedule I decide on and resist the temptation to slack off.
I had a financial mentor for two years. He never had... See more Since we depend on work "coming in over the transom," there's very little planning that we can do.
Surely we all have targets in our mind. Sometimes I write daily production targets on my calendar. I keep a broad client base, and because of that I'm never without work. I never agree to lower my rates, even when the subject interests me greatly. I keep to the schedule I decide on and resist the temptation to slack off.
I had a financial mentor for two years. He never had me write a business plan. The main benefit I gained from the mentoring was learning that money is my friend and I should never undersell myself. ▲ Collapse
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When I first started my freelance business 5 years ago I had to write a 3-year business plan in order to obtain financial support with setting up the business from my local council authority. The plan, as expected, was of no other use to me whatsoever, since it was simply impossible to predict, right back in the beginning, how the business would go. It was all very well saying 'I'm going to be translating 2,500 words a day' but if the work wasn't there for me, the whole thing was worthless, real... See more When I first started my freelance business 5 years ago I had to write a 3-year business plan in order to obtain financial support with setting up the business from my local council authority. The plan, as expected, was of no other use to me whatsoever, since it was simply impossible to predict, right back in the beginning, how the business would go. It was all very well saying 'I'm going to be translating 2,500 words a day' but if the work wasn't there for me, the whole thing was worthless, really. Certainly haven't bothered doing an updated one since! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Sample strategy | Sep 5, 2012 |
Mission statement: To use properly MS Office 2003
Vision statement: To prepare changeover to MS Office 2012
Business plan: To finance the changeover without incurring fatal debts
Logo: 50+ years of the Soviet experience
[Edited at 2012-09-05 22:00 GMT]
| | | | Trinh Do
Australia
Member (2007)
English to Vietnamese
+ ...
| Can I plagiarise your business plan, please? Vielen Dank. | Sep 6, 2012 |
Michael Harris wrote: did have one years ago, but only so that I could get government funding Have not seen it since then ....
I would appreciate your sending it to me via e-mail, no time to prepare it. I have it in my mind: start the translator's business to stay away from social security / 'Centrelink' (as called in Australia). These guys don't know anything about translation, and even dissuaded me from it; I had a fist fight with them (I'm very good-humoured) and said goodbye without any grace.
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Trinh Do
Australia
Member (2007)
English to Vietnamese
+ ...
| Actually, we could 'copy' and translate a business plan on the Internet | Sep 6, 2012 |
For those who are desperate for government / private funding, save time while gaining experience in translating and proofreading / editing, all of us could do the above - 'copy, translate and proofread and edit' a business plan in several languages so that you can kill several birds with one stone. Can get it certified on the Proz.com network too with our beloved colleagues! o:))
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