As more and more businesses expand into international markets, the need for translation has increased. It can be tempting for companies to rely on bilingual employees or translation software for this work, but is that enough? Is it worth spending money on a professional translation service?

The dangers of going it alone

As with any professional service, qualified translators guarantee a quality product. Although translation software has come a long way, it still fails to produce nuanced texts which take context into consideration. And, while your bilingual employee might have no problems communicating with international business partners in their native language, without experience and training they will struggle to produce accurate translations that are fit for service. Not to mention it will take them much longer than a professional.

Relying on these subpar measures will lead to translations containing errors, leaving your customers with a negative impression of your company. Bad translations tell people that you are unprofessional and may lead them to question your company’s abilities in other areas. This could result in loss of business and, in the worse cases of mistranslation, legal action being taken against you.

The value of spending money on a professional translation service

Now that we’ve touched upon the issue of poor quality amateur translation, let’s take a look at how and why professional translators are able to produce such high standards of work. Like experts in most fields, it comes down to training and experience.

Professional translators like those working for BeTranslated have gone through many years of education in order to become experts in translation, as well as working hard to be skillful linguists in their language combinations. In addition to this, professional translators usually have experience and training in their specialisms. For example, financial translators may have studied economics or travel and tourism translators may have worked in the travel industry.

This education is continuous throughout their career; translators must stay on top of changes in both the translation industry and the industry of the specialism, as well as continually working on their linguistic skills. This effort leads to highly skilled professionals whose work cannot be compared to that of amateurs or machines. It’s also worth noting that when you hire translators through an agency such as BeTranslated, you can rest assured that all their translators are of a certain standard and that they exclusively translate into their native language.

Investing in translation means investing in your business success

If your company’s motto has been “let’s try to do it ourselves instead of hiring a professional” in relation to translation, we hope that the information provided in this article is making you question your stance. Your attempts to save money by skimping on translation could cost you big in the long run.

Instead of asking yourself if you should outsource to a translation service, you should start asking, “what is the best translation service for my business?” Finding the right translator for you, who is skilled and knowledgeable in your industry could make or break your international expansion.

At BeTranslated we work with talented translators with language combinations such as English to Dutch and Spanish to French. If you are in search of a reliable translation service, look no further. For more information or a free, no-obligation quote contact us today.