Prune or Grow? What’s the Best Strategy Now?

Many companies have cut back drastically in the last year, in response to the downturn in the world economy. There has been a lot of cost-cutting, and pruning of unprofitable business ventures.

But pruning has limits. If you overdo it you can kill a business.

If the pruning helps to focus the company's goals, however, you can emerge as a winner and stimulate new growth. In today's economy, just how does a business stimulate new growth?

By finding new markets. The world is a big place, and there are thousands of markets just waiting to be tapped. At times like, this the visionary businesses are the ones that look to overseas markets or multilingual communities in our soil to find new opportunities. Trade barriers have been falling around the world, and many countries now have trade agreements that make it easier than ever to trade with their partners.

But what about the language barrier? The first rule for getting your message across to your customers is to put it in their language. Not only that, you have to do it fluently. Some companies think they can make do with translation software, or with an employee who may have a basic proficiency in a language, but that's a mistake. A professional translation company offers much more value to a business looking for new markets. Here are some ways that a good translation company can help a business in today's economy.

• By putting the message in the best possible language. There are software programs that can do basic translations, but they often miss the subtleties of language and expression that make the difference between good communication and simply words on a page. A trained professional translator has the fluency and knowledge to put a company's message into words that connect with the exact audience that company wants to reach.
• By eliminating delays and mistakes. Mistakes in translations make a company look unprofessional, and they can cost money in lost sales. If material has to be reprinted or republished because of mistakes that an untrained translator has made, there are delays and missed deadlines, which add more cost to the operation.
• By giving customized service. Most professional translation firms have people in their network who specialize in certain industries, and they know the industry terminology well enough to tailor their translation to the exact needs of the customer.
• By giving personalized service. A good translation often involves a give and take between the translations team and the company that has hired them . By creating working glossaries and constantly refining and giving feedback, the relationship grows and the translation process becomes smoother. This is something you can't do with a software program.

So, after the pruning, are you ready to start growing? This is a question that many companies are starting to address. It's a fact that the economic downturn won't last forever, and the companies that are positioned to succeed when things get better are the ones that are already creating opportunities in new markets.

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Martha Galindo