How a mentor can help your business

This late spring / early summer is one of my favourite times of year – as it gets warmer, greenery starts bursting out everywhere and the air is filled with energy. I’ve been tapping into this energy, attending a number of work-related workshops and social events with ITI’s German Network and East Midlands Regional Network – from transcreation (translating promotional and marketing copy) to Twitter, we’ve covered it all!

How a mentor can help your business

Another thing that’s been keeping me busy over the past month is the work I’ve been doing on my business with my current business mentor, Jez Allman of What and How. As I’ve mentioned in other blog posts, I worked with a coach (the lovely Corrina Gordon-Barnes) while setting up my business and through my first year of self-employment, and now decided I needed the input of another professional to keep my business moving forward. 

Often when I mention I’m working with a business coach, I get reactions like “Isn’t that a really expensive luxury? Can it really be worth it?” or “Oh, I’d love to do that, but I can’t afford it.” However, personally I believe that working with professional business coaches has greatly benefited my business and that the input and support I’ve received has paid for itself – probably many times over – in additional business gained. This is why I was really happy to pay for coaching even at a time when my business was not generating much income. 

So here are, to my mind, the main benefits of working with a coach:

• Running a business can be quite scary, especially if you’re comparatively new to it. A coach or business mentor provides you with the support you need to move through that fear and come out the other side.
• You are paying someone to listen to those worries and fears – and dreams! – and offer helpful, qualified advice. This means you don’t feel the need to vent at family and friends, who may not understand what you are going through. Nor do you need to feel embarrassed telling your coach – after all, they’re being paid to provide you with this service.
• A coach helps you develop longer-term targets and plans, so you don’t get bogged down in the day-to-day running of your business (this is my particular problem!). Even better, they will hold you accountable for the tasks and goals you have set!
•  A coach can help you to “dream big”. Coaching sessions provide you with a space in which to develop new ideas and encourage you to aim for your wildest dreams rather than small things you can definitely achieve but won’t gain much satisfaction (or money) from.
• As business owners, we are so involved in our business that we often can’t see the wood for the trees. A business coach can give you a fresh, outside perspective on your business, and they possess the experience to recognise what can work and what can’t, saving you time and money lost in making mistakes.

If you don’t want to work one-to-one with a coach, there are other ways of getting similar input – for example, you might want to form a Mastermind group with some of your peers (I did this when I was starting out on my self-employment journey). Some coaches actually run online “circles” or “academies” (I particularly like the unabashedly hippie but extremely business-savvy Leonie Dawson). 

Here’s to all of us finding the support we need!

Any stories to share about coaching, mentoring or helpful support? Do leave a comment below!

A rare skill: Sütterlin script

Exciting news here – Margaret Hiley Translations has moved! Not very far, however: my husband and I have bought a cottage about five minutes’ walk from Pudding Bag Lane, so are still happily based in Exton and enjoying the beautiful spring flowers here in the village.

A rare skill: Sütterlin script

Over the past months, I’ve been making use of a skill I acquired as an undergraduate for one very specific university module, thinking afterwards that I would probably never need it again. This is the ability to read (and write, if necessary) a special kind of German handwriting called Sütterlinschrift that was widely used in the late 19^th and early 20^th century, eventually falling out of use following the Second World War.

I first re-used my Sütterlin skills shortly after I set up my translation business, when I was asked to translate some letters written to and by a German prisoner of war who was interned in a camp in Lincolnshire after the War. These letters provided a fascinating insight both into the POW’s life – his experiences, hopes and dreams for the future after his release – and into life in post-war Germany. The POW’s family had been forced to move from formerly German territory in what then became Czechoslovakia, and the letters included some very telling comments to the effect that the Czechs were now treating the Germans “like Jews”! (Germans were subject to a curfew and had to wear symbols on their clothing.) One wonders to what extent this treatment opened some people’s eyes to the dreadful injustices of Nazi Germany.

Last year, I started to work on a longer ongoing project that involves transcribing and translating the correspondence between the Austrian modernist composers Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern. These letters are publically available in PDF format in the database of the Vienna Schoenberg Center. Once again, they provide fascinating insights, this time into a slightly earlier period. Some of the statements I found most intriguing (besides the information on musical compositions and performances) concerned the outbreak of the First World War – for example, on 11 August 1914 Webern writes: “What terrible events. There is no way of understanding it all. [..] Where has all of this terrible hatred been up till now? And what will happen? […] I pray to heaven for the victory of the Austrian and the German army. It cannot be that the German Reich will perish, and we with it. A steadfast belief in the German spirit, which created the culture of mankind nearly on its own, has awakened within me.” Little did he know what was to come!

Last month I got to use Sütterlin again for some more personal correspondence, this time written by a family who found themselves on opposite sides of the Iron Curtain following the Second World War: the son, taken prisoner during the War, in England, and the rest of his family in the GDR. The letters revealed the difficulties faced by these individuals in simply trying to stay in touch under these adverse circumstances; this made particularly poignant by the information supplied by my client that they in fact never saw each another again.

Working on personal historical documents such as these always gives me a particular thrill; it is almost like being there at a given moment in time, seeing it through the eyes of those who experienced it. At the same time, it always also feels a little bit like eavesdropping; after all, these are intimate letters written for the eyes of one or two people, certainly not for mine. This makes the whole translating experience a particularly intense – and often moving – one.

Wishing you all a wonderful blossom-y May!

Self-employment Stories: Part Two

We have been spared the worst of the wind and rain that have buffeted other parts of the UK here in Rutland, though it has not been the pleasantest of months in terms of weather! I was lucky enough to be able to distract myself from the wet by attending a few choice events: a Society of Authors event with two of my favourite childhood authors, Judith Kerr and Shirley Hughes, and the 2014 Sebald lecture held by the British Centre for Literary Translation, which this year was given by another one of my favourite authors, Margaret Atwood. I was delighted to hear all three of them, learning that Shirley Hughes started to draw and make up stories “because there simply was nothing else to do” in wartime Merseyside, that Judith Kerr’s Mog was actually based on her real cats, and that Margaret Atwood regarded herself as “a nightmare for my translators”!

Self-employment Stories: Part Two

In my last blog post, I wrote about the story of my own path into self-employment, and promised to continue the theme this month by sharing the stories of some other self-employed professionals from a range of different businesses. These kind individuals told me about their experiences in a short survey I designed to gather some interesting anecdotes and advice for a presentation on self-employment I gave at the University of Exeter last year, and I’m really pleased to be able to share them with you here as well.

Setting up a business – why and how

So why do people become self-employed? Among the things that “pushed” people into self-employment were the end of university, redundancy, they were fed up of working for others, they were unhappy with their jobs or simply unable to find employment; and among the things “pulling” them were the desire to achieve a better work-life balance (working with young children), a passion for specific field or industry, and their desire to be their own boss. They used a range of means to fund their start-ups; among those mentioned were redundancy packages, savings, bank loans, remortgages, family support, government grants and even credit cards! They found their first clients through telesales, leaflet drops, by buying an existing business, networking, through their website, newspaper ads, agencies, social media, word of mouth, referrals, university tutors, local events, and online profiles – once again showing a range of different strategies.

Things people value about self-employment

What is it that people value most about self-employment? The answers speak for themselves:

• “Time and Money are what I wanted from it and have achieved, but the other key benefit is developing a culture within the company that stems from my own business management views and style.” (Quality Water & Fruit Distribution Company)
• “It creates far greater potential to generate real 'wealth' than virtually any employed position.” (Consultant)
• “Being able to decide what I want to take on or not, choose when I want to be on holiday, the flexibility.” (Subtitling and translation provider)
• “No limitations to what I can take on or what direction I go in next - no one says no other than me!” (Interior and garden design specialist)
• “Not being badgered by management or having to put up with colleagues talking behind my back.” (Translator)

The challenges of self-employment

However, of course there are downsides to self-employment too! Here are some of the things that respondents struggled with the most:

• “Sometimes feeling a bit isolated. Uncertainty about where the next job will one from. “ (Freelance editor and writer)
• “Growing through a recession. Confronting my fears.” (Accountant)
• “There are no employer benefits (i.e.: sick pay) unless you pay for them yourself.” (Independent Financial Adviser)
• “It is an emotional roller-coaster.” (Language agency)
• “Never being able to shut down.” (Nutrition consultant)
• “Realising that every time you finish a job you’re technically out of work until the next one starts.” (Document management expert)
• “Actually buckling down and doing the work! I enjoy being out talking to people, doing presentations and training courses, but I often lack the discipline to get on with the preparation.” (Welfare Benefits Consultant)

Advice from business owners

I also asked respondents what advice they would give to a young person (or indeed any person!) thinking of setting up their own business. Their responses certainly gave me food for thought!

• “Turnover is vanity, profit is reality and cashflow is sanity - it's too easy to underestimate the importance of financial planning.” (Property developer)
• “Don't undercharge or accept dumping prices.” (Translator & editor)
• “Put by one third of everything you earn as soon as someone pays you to pay tax bill with surplus used to cover any extra investment needed, e.g. a new computer.” (Writer and editor)
• “Don't fear failure (learn and bounce back from it) and have a mentor.” (Career turnaround coach)
• “Get some employment experience first. That way you will learn your trade and make contacts.” (Translator)
• “Do your market research before you start. Too many businesses fail because they thought their business was a good idea but there was no market for their products and services.” (Business mentor & coach)
• “Determine if you have the self-discipline and drive to continue and make difficult decisions without a safety net.” (IT consultant)
• “Your working life is a marathon, not a sprint and so you can build on a range of skills, not just what you learn at college/uni.” (Language service provider)

For me, reading others’ thoughts, experiences and advice was really enlightening; I found it fascinating how peoples’ experiences across so many different sectors and professions were similar, and how the best advice was applicable to any kind of self-employment. Perhaps my favourite piece of advice came from a people development consultant, whose message to those considering self-employment was: “Don't let anyone tell you you can't make it work! YOU CAN!”
Have you got any advice you’d like to add to this list and share with other readers? Any comments on the issues raised here or things that you would do differently? Do leave a post below – I’d love to read what you have to say!

Self-employment stories – Part I: My story

Happy New Year! It’s been a wet and foggy one here in Rutland so far, but luckily not very cold – the first snowdrops are already emerging!

Self-employment stories – Part I: My story

In October last year I visited the University of Exeter to speak to their students about my experiences of setting up and running a successful self-employed business as part of the university’s Global Entrepreneurship Week. While preparing my talk, I spent a lot of time reflecting upon my experience of self-employment – how I’d ended up becoming self-employed, the main challenges I’d faced, the most valuable lessons I’d learned. The students told me they found hearing about my own experiences really helpful, so I’m going to be sharing them in this post. Here is my self-employment story (scroll to the bottom if you just want my top tips)!

My way into self-employment

I grew up in England, Canada and Germany as a bilingual native speaker of English and German. After finishing school I went to university, which I enjoyed so much I decided I wanted to take a PhD and then get a lecturing job. However, once I had become a lecturer,

I realised I wasn’t enjoying myself. In particular, I wasn’t enjoying the lack of freedom to decide what and how I wanted to teach, the huge amounts of paperwork, the constantly changing policies and procedures, and the overall dependence on government whims for funding. I had assumed that what attracted me to academia was the ability to engage with literature, theory and the arts. But now that I was missing freedom and independence, I realised these were actually far more important to me than my subject. Was there a something I could do instead that would give me the self-sufficiency I longed for? Suddenly it seemed very obvious: throughout my undergraduate and postgraduate years I had always worked as a translator on the side as a way of earning extra pocket money. As a native speaker of English and German, I kept getting asked to do this – I didn’t have to look for clients. Some clients I had even worked with regularly for several years. Might it be possible to start doing this kind of work again, earning enough money to make a living?

Starting out

I decided to take the plunge and switched to part-time work so I could earn some regular income while building up my translation and editing business. Given that all of my professional experience was in academia and the cultural sector, I decided it made sense to specialise in this area.

I contacted all my old clients as well as my university colleagues and let them know I was looking for work. I also asked them for testimonials that I could use on the website and marketing materials I was planning to create. I joined the Institute of Translation and Interpreting (ITI), the UK’s professional association for translators, which gave me access to a professional network of colleagues who proved a fount of knowledge concerning the industry. As I felt I had very few “business skills” as such, I took a 6-month group course on self-employment called “Turn your Passion to Profit” with Corrina Gordon-Barnes, a specialist business coach – probably my single most useful step! I also took an “Orientation Course” organised by ITI for newcomers to the industry, which again is something I would highly recommend. I attended several free workshops on self-employment and taxes run by my local HMRC office. I also had a professional website built for my business. This was comparatively expensive but really paid off – I still get compliments for this website years down the line and it really helped me to stand out and look professional.

Becoming established

There were still a few bad patches in the first 6 months, but then – almost overnight – things started to pick up; I gained a couple of good regular clients; old clients kept coming back; I got recommended on. I started making money. In fact, everything went so well that I was able to quit lecturing after a year and a quarter, not 2 years as originally planned. I spent a lot of time building a professional profile (networking, blogging, publishing in trade journals, presenting at local and national business events). This usually doesn’t cost anything but time and is a very effective way of “showing up” – becoming visible to your colleagues and target market. I now find that most of my work comes from referrals and repeat customers; they basically do my marketing for me. Today I am in the very lucky position to not have been without a project on the go for a very long time, and despite the challenges of self-employment (my particular demons: dealing with my terror of “money issues”; learning how much my work was actually worth and charging that; managing periods with a very high workload; learning how to respond to criticism; learning how to say “no” to clients), I now can’t imagine working in any other way.

My top tips for self-employment:

•       You need to be able to motivate yourself.

•       Do something you are passionate about – it makes it easier to motivate yourself!

•       Define a clear niche or “tribe” for your service or product (and make sure it really exists).

•       Get support – you don’t have to do it alone (professional networks, mentors, mastermind groups).

•       Have a financial safety net in place, at least for the first while (savings, loan, part-time work).

•       Marketing is all about becoming visible to your “tribe” – find where they hang out (in real life or online) and let them see you.

•       Making your clients happy so they recommend you on is the most sustainable form of marketing.

•       Keep showing up – networking, marketing, sharing your expertise in whichever          way.

In next month’s second installment of this blog post, I’m going to share the self-employment stories of colleagues from a whole range of businesses and sectors – do check in again for their experiences and advice! And if you’ve got any tips to add to my list in the meantime, please leave a comment below!

Why I'm no longer offering translations into German

As I write, I am gazing not at my beautiful garden in Rutland, but at my sister-in-law's beautiful garden in Upper Bavaria. The view goes out across a meadow and a little stream overhung with willows, and behind that the ground rises in fields covered with corn. I had forgotten how much corn they grow here (as animal fodder, not for human consumption)! I am currently spending a few days in Bavaria with family before heading off to Vienna for the annual "Internationales Texttreff" (meeting of the German-language women's network Texttreff). It's nice to be back!

Why I'm no longer offering translations into German

One of the beauties of self-employment is that often we can work from anywhere (such as Bavaria instead of Rutland). Another is that our businesses can grow, develop and change as we ourselves do. If we realise that something is no longer working for us, we don't have to go through a lengthy application and justification process - we can change it. I've recently decided to make such a change in regard to the language combinations I offer.

I grew up in the UK, Canada and Germany as a bilingual native speaker of both English and German. When I started translating as a student, I worked both from German into English and from English into German (I also studied translating both ways at university). Amongst translators, it is regarded as good professional practice to translate only into one's native language, but as a native speaker of two languages I have always defended my ability to translate into both English and German. However, recently I have found myself becoming increasingly uneasy about offering translations into German. Here's why:

• I feel increasingly out of touch with everyday language and culture. I lived in Germany for 15 years, went to school and university there, am married to a German and do in fact speak and read German every day. However, it's been ten years now since I actually lived in Germany, and I feel I no longer have my finger on the "pulse" of the language (to use a German expression). For most of my work - which is academic - this might not seem too much of an issue, as academic German is a very formal, resolutely old-fashioned language that changes very slowly. Nevertheless, I have felt increasingly that my German has lost its spark, a certain "aliveness" without which texts feel boring. And I don't want to produce boring texts, even if they are accurate translations.
• All of my creative work is in English. I don't think this loss of my German "spark" is a coincidence. For the last ten years, I have neither been required nor felt inspired to write creatively in German (by which I mean actively producing content in German). By contrast, I have written essays, a book, poetry and blogs in English. English quite simply is the language I feel creative in - including in my translations. In English, I get a real sense of "flow" when translating; my translations into German feel a lot more laborious, even though the outcome may be perfectly acceptable.
• It doesn't make financial sense. Because I feel less attuned to and less creative in German, it takes much longer - in fact, significantly longer - for me to produce a translation into German. However, I can't charge significantly more per word for that translation to compensate for the additional time. It stands to reason that the obvious thing to do in financial terms is to concentrate on producing high-quality English translations as I can complete more of these in shorter time, earning more income.

So, from now on, I am going to be concentrating on German-to-English work. I will still work with my current English-to-German clients (who constitute a relatively small part of my client base anyway) for the time being, but any new enquiries for translations into German will be referred on to trusted colleagues. I do want to experiment privately with "playing" and writing more creatively in German - who knows, my "spark" may come back - but for now, English is going to be my only target language.

What are your thoughts on language combinations and offering translation both out of and into a language? Have any of you had similar thoughts or experiences regarding your languages? I'd be very interested to hear them - why not leave a comment below?

Proofreading – what’s involved?

Perhaps surprisingly, August is one of the noisiest months here in the country! The farmers are working from dawn till dusk (and beyond) to get the harvest in, and for the past weeks, the combine harvesters have been rumbling away constantly in the distance. Like the farmers, I’ve been working most of August – one of the big benefits of being a freelancer is that you can choose to space your holidays out and avoid being off work at the same time as everyone else.

Proofreading – what’s involved?

At this time of year, I routinely receive requests for proofreading from people with dissertations or final theses that need to be submitted by the beginning of the new academic year. I often find myself explaining what my proofreading services involve, and so I thought this might be a good opportunity to summarise what I do when I proofread a text, and share some tips for things to try before hiring a proofreader.

When I proofread, this usually involves three rounds of going through a text.

·      Round One: A first, extremely thorough read on my computer, where I make corrections to grammatical and spelling errors in the text. I also make small amendments to the text to ensure it “flows” better, and insert comments where I think more major intervention is required – for example, if the argument does not make sense, or information is missing (such as references) that I am unable to locate. If requested, I will also adapt references and citation to a particular style. Usually these changes are made using the “Track Changes” function in Word. If I am sent a PDF document, I will highlight passages that need correction and insert the correction as a comment.

·      Round Two: I print out a hard copy of a “clean” version of the text (i.e., one where all my suggestions have been accepted) and read it again on paper. It is always surprising how many more errors I am able to find when I read a text on paper rather than on a screen! I write corrections and comments into the hard copy by hand, and then return to the computer to add them to the original file.

·      Round Three: By now, the text is usually in pretty good shape. I now use computer magic to go through the text again with a spellchecker. This will often pick out a few last typos. Sometimes I will search for particular terms to make sure they are used consistently throughout the text (e.g. “dataset” versus “data set” – the spellchecker won’t pick up something like this). Last of all, I run a search for multiple spaces – these are often hard to see on screen and are often not obvious on paper, either, especially if the text is justified. Once all of this is done, I scan the text one last time just to make sure of everything.

My top 4 tips for DIY proofreading

Some of these steps can be applied to a text before passing it on to a professional proofreader and may in fact reduce the overall cost of your proofreading bill.

·      Number One: Run a spellcheck. It’s so simple it almost sounds stupid. But computer tools like spellcheckers really can be a big help, picking up on a number of mistakes you may not have noticed. They can be especially useful when you’re writing in a language that is not your native tongue. Remember: If your word processing programme is set to a language other than the one you are writing in, you will have to change the settings of your spellchecker.

·      Number Two: Run a search for double spaces. The convention in printed English these days (including on the web) is not to have more than one space after a word or a punctuation mark in a running text (back in the days of typewriters, it was common to leave a double space after a full stop to provide a clear break between sentences). Double spaces tend to sneak in when you copy and paste parts of text. Run a search to help find and eliminate them.

·      Number Three: Print your text out and read it in hard copy. Nothing reveals mistakes like a paper copy of your text. Yes, it means you have to use up extra toner and extra paper. Yes, it’s going to take a bit more of your time. But it really will be worth it.

·      Number Four: Choose whether you are using British or American English…and stick to it! British English and American English are the two main variants of the English language, and as a writer you will probably be asked to use one or the other. If you haven’t been given any specification, you should choose for yourself which variant you prefer to use. Regardless which one you end up with, it is important not to confuse the two. Change the setting on your spellchecker to make sure you pick up on the differences! (You can find a useful list of differences on Wikipedia, and if you want something more thorough, the Economist Style Guide which devotes an entire section to the differences between UK and US.)

Here’s to many successful proofreading endeavours and a good start to the autumn!

A Hot Topic: Branding

We are actually having a heatwave! This is one of those times I find myself (once more) deeply grateful to be living in the countryside where it doesn’t get quite as relentlessly hot as in town and there are plenty of shady places for both humans and animals!

A Hot Topic: Branding

Throughout this hot month I’ve been thinking a lot about a pretty hot topic: branding. Before I became self-employed, “branding” was a word I associated primarily with cattle farming and with big, slick multimillion corporations. However, once I set up my translation business, I realised very quickly that not only did I need a clearly defined target market – I also needed a way of becoming visible to that particular market in such a way that they would remember me when a need for my services arose. I needed a brand!

Initially, my idea of what this “brand” was to be like was fairly hazy. However, as I worked with a lot of clients in the creative and cultural industries, I knew I wanted a website and business materials that reflected that creative flair in a way that was both professional (I wanted to be taken seriously as an expert in my field) and personal (I wanted to build strong relationships with my clients as individuals, not just as potential sources of income). I was pretty confident that I could produce the words to convey this effectively, but I needed more than just words – and here I enlisted the help of my artist sister Catherine Hiley, who produced a series of beautiful images that I felt captured what I wanted to convey to a T. I then worked with Astrid Nielsch, another artist and web designer, to create a website that incorporated these images and my text, reflecting my core values of creativity, professionalism and personal service. I am still thrilled with the result, several years down the line!

However, since then I have learnt a lot more about what a “brand” is. This month, my thoughts on the subject received fresh input in a brilliant workshop led by creative branding expert Jo Bradshaw of Minestrone Soul. Many of us solopreneurs feel self-conscious (or downright megalomaniac) when thinking about creating a “brand” – isn’t that something we should be leaving to the really big players? However, Jo encourages her clients to think about branding as something that is not really about them so much as about their “tribe”, or target client base. “A lot of marketing is really about providing a mirror so your tribe can see themselves and feel witnessed,” she writes. “Think about branding as the coat hook next to the mirror. It’ll give you and your people a sense of coming ‘home.’” A brand helps to reassure our clients that they have come to the right place for their needs.

Image © Catherine Hiley – www.cahiley.com

A brand also needs to reflect our core values, as “when your ideal client lands on your website (or lands face to face with you), they actually have a real need to know that you see eye-to-eye”, writes Jo. Ideally, it will convey your own unique strengths and skills, traditionally known as “unique selling points”. Jo charmingly defined USPs as “unique squiggly places”, comparing our strengths and skills to the squiggly shape of an enzyme travelling round the body looking for its ideal fit. Obviously, the more clearly defined our USPs, the easier it is for an ideal fit (our ideal client) to be found! 

Bearing all this in mind, I undertook a first miniature attempt at “rebranding” some of my business materials this month – in particular, my business cards! My old cards were home-designed and printed for me (very kindly) for free by the print room at the college where I used to teach. They were fine for starting out, but by now I felt they no longer conveyed the level of professionalism and class my brand required. Rather than use a cheap online printing service, I decided to work with local bespoke printers Spiegl Press (who I knew from a local business networking group) and we have worked together on a beautiful design that includes one of my sister’s images. The final results have not been produced yet, but I am confident they will be both creative and professional with a personal touch – exactly the qualities I want my “brand” to convey!

Some further resources on this topic:

• Jo Bradshaw at Minestrone Soul is a source of inspiring information when it comes to creative branding! Thanks, Jo, for letting me share some of your insights in this blog post.
• Valeria Aliperta of Rainy London Translations has written a very popular series of articles on branding for translators in Institute of Translation and Interpreting’s Bulletin, and her website and social media pages contain many excellent examples of successful branding.
• Two translator colleagues whose websites I consider great examples of brands that work well are Megan Onions of Speechmarks Translation  and Sarah Appleby of Sarah Appleby Translations.