Start-ups, small developing businesses, are continually on the rise and are producing fresh crops of young entrepreneurs.
Thanks to the growth of remote working and the ease of low-cost travel, small businesses are able to cross borders and trade internationally in order to achieve success.
Every business owner’s main aim is to increase their turnover. With a start-up business, there are many recommended ways to go about this.
In this article, we will go through the main components you should focus your resources on.
How to make a start-up business competitive
In our fast-paced modern world, the business market changes rapidly and, as an entrepreneur, it’s crucial that you stay in tune with relevant new trends.
Keeping on top of new tools and methods of reaching your customers admittedly involves a time investment, but the financial return can be significant.
Harnessing the possibilities offered by different social media platforms could be key to your company’s success.
The international nature of the internet also allows businesses, with a little help from professional translation services, to connect with global audiences, thus expanding their earning potential.
This can be particularly beneficial to companies offering niche products or services that may struggle to find a sustainable market locally.
Do you know the value of outsourcing?
As small companies grow they inevitably need support in certain areas as the business can become too big for just one person, or even a small team, to manage alone.
One solution to this issue, of course, is to employ more staff, which can be a significant financial commitment. However, there are other, more manageable, ways to outsource work.
Recognising the areas where you need help is the first step.
There will be some tasks that you won’t feel comfortable delegating, but others, perhaps which aren’t your area of expertise, could benefit immensely with some outside support.
Instead of hiring a new member of staff, you can contract external companies or freelancers to work on specific one-off projects or on a regular basis.
Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses
As individuals, we all have strengths and weaknesses, and the same goes for our employees.
Recognising where your start-up business needs a little help allows you to contract the best companies or freelancers for your specific situation.
If you are planning on expanding into the global marketplace, however, there are a few areas we would urge small businesses to focus on.
Three of these that we recommend you focus on are finding a reliable shipping company, a high-quality marketing agency, and, of course, a professional translation service.
Three easy, viable steps
Let’s take a closer look at how you can use these outsourced resources to help your venture flourish. Following this basic strategy can lead to some outstanding results for any start-up business that’s ready to break into the global marketplace and experience major growth.
Expand your network through translation
As your business expands into international markets, it’s inevitable that some translation and/or localisation of your content will be needed. As well as correspondence between you and any overseas clients, you will need to consider translating marketing material, websites and social media, and, potentially, legal or shipping documents.
It is vital that this work is performed by professional translators who are specialists in the relevant field, as well as experts in the language and culture of the corresponding countries.
Poor translations can lead to serious errors such as giving a bad image of your company or even causing legal issues. Find a translation agency you can trust, build up a solid relationship with them, and you won’t regret it.
Reach new clients through strong marketing
Investing in marketing support can really make a difference when it comes to finding new clients. We encourage you to think digitally when it comes to marketing.
Consider using affiliate marketing and teaming up with bloggers and influencers whose brands align with your company’s ethos or target customer. This can be a relatively economical way of reaching large audiences through powerful platforms such as Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, and Pinterest.
Ensure you can get the product to the customer effectively
For a long time, it was only big brands and large corporations that could afford to ship their products overseas at a reasonable price for the customer, but these days that’s all changed.
By outsourcing your logistics and shipping needs, you can send your products to even the remotest countries around the world with minimum hassle.
Outsourcing your shipping and fulfilment also allows you to avoid many of the complications associated with international customs. For UK-based services, check out Parcel Monkey and Parcelhub.
Get started with your start-up business
Whether you’re preparing to launch your first start-up or expanding an existing business into new global markets, you are now armed with some valuable insights into how to reach your fullest potential without burning out. What are you waiting for? Start-up success awaits!
When you’re ready to hire a professional translation service, BeTranslated and our highly skilled translators could be a perfect choice.
Renewable, green energy is a well-known concept now, and our global aim to protect the planet and halt climate change needs environmental translation services.
Many businesses aiming to expand beyond the domestic market concentrate on B2B sales; sales between businesses, rather than between a business and an individual customer (B2C).
If your company plans to pursue B2B deals with companies overseas, the creation and delivery of a high-quality B2B marketing campaign are paramount.
Of course, going global creates the need for B2B translation.
If you plan to branch out into countries where a language other than English is spoken, said marketing campaign will have to be translated by a professional translator, along with a myriad of documents and correspondence.
In this guide, we will share the most important factors to be considered when hiring a reliable translation service for your B2B translation needs.
Define your target market
Having a clear target customer, whether they are an individual or another business, is crucial to producing a successful marketing campaign.
Be clear on who you are communicating with and what tone you wish to portray.
If your translator knows these details they will be able to produce translations that are perfectly tailored to the reader, giving your product or service the best chance of resonating with the potential client.
Establish language combinations for your B2B translation
Once you have established your target market and identified which language or languages your content will need to be translated into, you can begin to work with a translation service that specialises in those languages.
Although some languages are spoken in many countries around the world, the dialects vary greatly from country to country.
Let’s take French as an example; there are huge differences between the French spoken in France, Canada, Belgium, and Haiti, to name just a few French-speaking nations.
If you are expanding into more than one country or region that speaks the same language, the translation agency can give you advice on whether a different B2B translation for each country is needed, or whether their dialects are similar enough for that to be unnecessary.
Find a translator who understands your niche market
The best translation service for you will not only specialise in the right language combinations, but they will also have native translators who are experts in your specific sector.
If your company produces medical equipment, working with a translator specialised in the medical field to translate your instruction manuals, for example, will guarantee clear and accurate translations.
Don’t underestimate the importance of localisation
If you haven’t worked with a translator before, you may see the process of translation as simply replacing words in one language with words in another.
Of course, it’s much more complex than that, and one of the major considerations for the translator is making sure that the target text will be understood in the context of the target culture.
This process of tweaking the text to suit the new audience is called localisation and takes into account issues such as humour, pop culture, religion, and superstition.
Hiring an experienced, native speaker as your website translator will help you to build a relationship with your new clients, which will directly benefit your sales.
A professionally translated website will give a good impression to those local businesses you are interested in working with on a B2B basis.
If your website is not available in their language it not only sends the message that your company is not invested in their market, it also forces them to use automated translation which can lead to serious misunderstandings.
Always follow local regulations
Remember that different countries and regions may have different laws and requirements when it comes to information such as ingredients lists, disclaimers, and instructions, and getting these wrong could lead to serious ramifications.
Do your own research, but also discuss these issues with your translation service so that you are all on the same page.
In our increasingly globalised world and thanks largely to the internet, expanding into international markets is a reality for many businesses.
Most companies are well aware of the importance of having an active online presence, but this digital content is of no use to potential international customers if they can’t understand it. Hence the importance of a multilingual website.
Having your website translated by a professional translation service will make your products or services accessible to new clients and allow them to feel connected to your brand.
But why are multilingual websites so important, and what factors need to be considered when translating them? Let’s take a look.
Translate your website for strong customer relations
Studies show that 55% of customers prefer to shop in their own language : who can blame them?
Navigating the web through your native language is not only a much more relaxing user experience that eliminates the chances of misunderstandings, but it also makes you feel like the company is speaking to you, that their products or services are for you.
These days many web browsers offer instant machine translation of websites and, while this function can be useful in a pinch, the quality is extremely low which leaves users feeling frustrated and confused.
Customers can’t be blamed for questioning why they should give money to a company that has made no effort to make their digital content accessible.
Is this the impression you want your business to give?
By hiring a professional translation service to translate your website, you will open your business up to a whole new world of potential clients!
Your multilingual website should be easy to find
As well as helping you create strong relationships with prospective clients, translating your website into relevant languages actually increases your search engine rankings, making it easier for your company to be found online.
This is because having your content available in multiple languages means it appears in keyword searches in those languages, not only English, giving your business better exposure.
While we’re on the topic of SEO and search engines, it’s worth acknowledging that around the world different search engines are used: in Russia people use Yandex, in China it’s all about Baidu whilst in South Korea, Naver far outperforms both Google and Yahoo.
It pays to research how people use the internet in the country your business wants to expand into to give your website the best chance of being found by potential customers.
Make switching between languages easy
It’s all well and good making your website available in multiple languages, but if people can’t find the language switcher, they will be stuck viewing the site in English regardless!
It should be an intuitive process so that users don’t have to waste time and get bored. Most websites opt to place the language switcher at the top right-hand side of the page, so this is usually the best option.
Once you’ve settled on the position of the language switcher, you have to decide if you’re going to use flags or words to indicate the languages (or both, though this can look overcrowded).
Flags have the advantage of being visually appealing and simple, but can be rather exclusive; think about all the countries that speak Spanish, for example, they won’t feel represented by a Spanish flag.
If you decide to use words, we recommend having the language written in the relevant languages, i.e. the button should read ‘Deutsch’ instead of ‘German‘ or make it easier for users to find.
Localisation can be just as important as translation
Translating the verbal content of your website is only part of what goes into creating a successful multilingual website; you should work with a translation agency that can also localise your site.
Localisation is the process of altering content, whether that’s a website, a video, or a brand’s advertising campaign, to make sure it is received in the appropriate manner by the target audience, taking culture into account.
When it comes to localising websites, things to consider include images, date and address formats, and brand slogans, to name a few.
How to ensure an efficient translation process
Allowing your translator access to links to the original website they are translating will make life much easier and ultimately result in better translations.
Translation does not exist in a vacuum and knowing if the text they are working on is an image caption, a CTA (call to action), or button will inform how a translator renders it. Similarly, communicate with your translation agency about the best format for the source and target texts.
This will help both your translator and webmaster, who is not likely to understand the target text.
Now that we’ve convinced you of the importance of having a multilingual website, perhaps you’d like more information about BeTranslated’s talented website translators? For more information or a free, no-obligation quote, get in touch today.
This strategic setup makes it possible to combine linguistic precision with strong cultural knowledge while supporting companies, institutions, and international organisations across Europe.
Belgium plays a central role in multilingual communication within the European Union and international business ecosystems.
With three official languages and widespread professional use of English, Belgium offers a unique environment for high-level language services.
Belgian operations coordinate multilingual projects across Northern Europe, while the Spanish presence strengthens linguistic support for Southern Europe and international markets.
From Valencia to Belgium, a shared European vision
Belgium and Spain share architectural and cultural connections through landmark infrastructure and urban development projects.
From Valencia’s cultural institutions to major railway stations in Liège and Mons, architecture reflects innovation, mobility, and European cooperation.
This connection mirrors the linguistic bridge created through coordinated operations between Belgium and Spain.
Clients benefit from structured multilingual workflows, cultural accuracy, and consistent terminology across borders.
Need multilingual support in Belgium or Spain?
Work with experienced language professionals supporting companies, institutions, and international organisations across Europe.
