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ATA’s 67th Annual Conference takes place October 28-31, 2026, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, and those four days will fly by. The attendees who get the most out of the conference are rarely the ones with the best luck; they’re the ones who did a little homework before boarding the plane. Here are nine things you can do ahead of time so you arrive ready to learn, connect, and enjoy yourself. 1. Order paper business cards now Yes, still. Paper cards remain the fastest way to close a conversation gracefully in a noisy hallway. Order them early enough so…
Money Talk
By Giovanna Lester Being self-employed is not for everyone. As self-employed professionals we must keep abreast of market conditions – pricing, demand, terminology changes, and technological developments, for example – and make sure we take full advantage of those that have a direct impact on our jobs. Also, we are our own secretaries, marketing directors, human resource department, and more.…
Helen’s Adventures in Translation, Chapter 2: Preparing to Launch
By the fall of 2010 I had done a lot of groundwork for launching: I had acquired enough credentials to be credible so that potential clients could trust me. I had the resources I needed. I had spent a few thousand dollars on dictionaries, plus another few thousand on training, a laptop and a smartphone with all the bells and…
ATA Business Practices: Red Flags For Avoiding Scams
Translators, like other business owners, are susceptible to scams. Although the internet makes it easier for scammers to find a target, it also helps potential victims to identify scams before it’s too late. See the article below for 4 red flags that should raise the suspicions of translators looking for new clients. Red Flags to Look Out For Before accepting…
ATA Business Practices: Workflow Management
What do we do during two weeks of enforced vacation, when the offices that usually send us work are on vacation? What do we do when we receive an email on Friday evening asking us to have a translation ready for Monday? Balancing work and life as a freelancer includes these challenges. The holidays are a good time to think…
The Top Three Things I Wish Somebody Told Me When I First Started As a Freelance Translator
By Pilar Saslow I earned a degree in translation and interpretation from a university in Peru a long time ago (I won’t share how long). I was naive enough to think my degree totally prepared me to enter the workforce. I had a rude awakening when I moved to the United States where the business of translation was handled very…
ATA Business Practices: Appropriate Prices for Services
Each month the ATA Business Practices Education Committee contributes a column entitled “Business Smarts” to The ATA Chronicle that discusses various management practices and business-related questions submitted by translators and interpreters. You can find this column online at www.atanet.org; in fact, this article was taken from the column at http://www.atanet.org/business_practices/smarts_2008_may.php. It addresses many factors involved in answering one of the…
Conference Wrap-Up
By Helen Eby & Jamie Hartz The 54th annual American Translators Association conference was held this year in downtown San Antonio, Texas, just a short walk from the Alamo and the beautiful Riverwalk. The conference was a huge success on several fronts: it drew over 1,400 attendees from all over the world, and it was the first year that featured…
Building Your Presence Offline
By Daniela Guanipa I am a big proponent of making communications more effective, handling matters electronically as much as possible, and I really enjoy the enormous benefits of being able to connect with people anywhere in the world, from the comfort of my computer or any other electronic device. However, in this era of Internet, emails, and social media, it…
From ATA’s Divisions: The Portuguese Division
By Mirna Soares Member of the PLD Leadership Council It took me many years to join a community of translators. When I started, I was unaware of best business practices, I missed all the interesting conferences and I never got any specialized feedback. Everything seemed to happen very slowly. Looking back, I realize I could have taken some shortcuts. I wasted…
Finding your First Translation Clients
By Corinne McKay Reblogged from Thoughts On Translation with permission from the author I receive a lot of inquiries from people who would like to become translators, and most of these e-mails have something to do with finding those first few elusive translation clients. If you ask 100 translators how they got started in the business, you’ll probably get at…