
Robert Gephardt introduces a practical, step-by-step course on setting up and growing a translation agency, from finding clients and translators to maintaining relationships and scaling success.
Assess whether this translation agency course fits you by reviewing earnings scenarios. Explore whether to freelance or build an agency through per word rates, work days, and multilingual projects.
Explore the course Q and A features, search or ask questions and receive replies within about twenty four hours, then rate the course and contact the instructor via their profile.
Explore how life changes from freelance translator to agency founder, with emphasis on finding clients and translators, project management, word counts, ocr, and payments.
Identify the pre game steps before launching a translation agency, such as selecting a simple, easy-to-pronounce, and easy-to-spell company name with no dashes to ensure clear communication across languages.
Create profiles on major translation sites like prose dot com, translators cafe dot com, upper works, and LinkedIn to ensure your agency is findable.
Set up your own website with a dot com domain and a simple template to look professional, plus a domain email for credible communication.
Establish a legal entity to manage liability when operating a translation agency, especially for U.S.-based business; explore affordable options like LLC or S corp online.
Forming a legal entity enables a company bank account and clarifies country-specific rules; research with your local small business association and government or non-government organization resources for your translation agency.
Use business cards strategically: they help project a professional image but aren’t essential at startup. Wait for profits, then purchase cards and other marketing materials to avoid early overspending.
Explore the in-house versus freelance models for a translation agency, weighing overhead, fixed salaries, and trust, and learn why starting with freelancers unlocks global talent.
Navigate the legal aspects of setting up a translation agency, showing how requirements vary by country and region and how to use a local small business association for guidance.
From freelance translator to agency owner, start small by partnering with other translators, manage projects, and gradually expand to agencies and end clients with clear pricing.
Discover where to find translators for your translation agency, how to identify the best candidates, and whether to hire before or after securing a job.
Learn how to find translators on top platforms and compare just in time versus just in case hiring, evaluating their pros and cons for project readiness.
Post your translation job on sites like prose dot com or up work to attract candidates, get pricing, and choose quickly, or pre-search for translators to speed up hiring.
Walks through posting a translation job on a popular marketplace, detailing agency vs translator profiles, services, language pairs, word counts, deadlines, paid member access, and freelancer visibility.
Learn how to run a translation agency by posting private job offers, screening translator quotes for instruction compliance and deadlines, and hiring through Prose for streamlined invoicing.
Build your translator database by hiring French to German translators using paid tests, leveraging ratings from ProZ, TranslatorsCafe, or LinkedIn to secure future jobs.
Choose just-in-time hiring: post a confirmed job, test translators with a short translation in your language combination, and pay promptly while enforcing confidentiality and NDA when needed.
Learn how to identify a good translator by testing with a short translation, and having a trusted editor review within the same language pair to spot pitfalls and ensure quality.
Leverage agency platforms like pros.com and translators cafe, plus freelance sites, to find translators. Build and maintain a database of the best translators for future needs.
Research translators by profile, experience, and ratings; narrow to two; assign a paid 200-word test to one, then have the other edit for quality, establishing a four-eyes team.
Follow a step-by-step guide to finding good translators, set tight 24-hour deadlines, and use editor feedback and freelance platforms like Upwork to deliver natural, polished English to Japanese brochures.
Prioritize finding clients first to secure paying jobs. Then find good translators; in crunch time, just-in-time matching yields the best translators.
Find and attract clients for a translation agency by targeting end clients or agencies, applying diverse sales and marketing methods tailored to a new up-and-coming firm.
Reach out to your current translation clients to expand services and languages, showing ongoing collaboration while upholding quality.
Consider a controversial method for growing a translation agency: use other translators to handle translations without telling current clients, then disclose after delivery and assess reputational risks.
Learn how to win new translation clients through personal contacts, starting with friends and family, by notifying them about your agency and offering referral commissions.
Reach out to current and past business contacts to announce your translation agency and offer services. Suggest a coffee meeting or email to explain what you can provide.
Join translation and industry organizations to establish your agency, stand out in finance or legal sectors, and leverage events for networking, marketing, and growth.
Use Google and other search engines to locate potential clients and geographic targets, then leverage alumni networks and business directories like Manta and SBA.gov.
Target cold prospects via google with customized sales emails by industry and location, including finance and legal variants; use bonus templates and examples to enable face-to-face meetings.
Discover practical, real-world client outreach through chambers of commerce and professional associations, learn where clients and competitors hang out, and consider setting up your own networking organization.
Add logos of associations to your website to show membership and boost marketing, then target end clients by speaking their business language and focusing on localization for brochures and websites.
Set up passive marketing by creating an online presence on free translation sites and LinkedIn for better search engine optimization, then let it work while you focus elsewhere.
Learn to set a fee structure for a translation agency by paying freelancers, charging clients, and ensuring you earn more from clients than you pay freelancers to sustain the business.
Prioritize reliable, experienced translators over the cheapest options to save time and money in the long run; evaluate ratings, specializations, and then price, using Prozac com for standard rates.
Review translator rates on a translator rates site, including language pairs, minimum per-word pricing, and sample size; learn how profile rates and job rates differ.
Set prices by paying translators their rate plus a 40 to 50 percent margin at the start, aiming to charge around ten to eleven cents per word.
Learn how to set translation agency rates by researching online pricing guides, understanding per-word pricing and language tiers, and balancing client quotes with translator pay to maintain margins.
Set up an independent translator payment schedule not contingent on client payments. Pay translators promptly, even when client payments lag, since their contract is with you, not the end client.
Explore a specific job post with AI to assess your fit and the job's fit for you. See how this approach can help you search for jobs and clients.
Apply ai tools like perplexity, Claude, and mistral le chat to craft translation job prompts. Analyze compatibility, strengths, and weaknesses, then follow tips for remote work and job applications.
Learn to use LinkedIn ads to target specific clients, including precise individuals beyond basic demographics, with a step-by-step walk-through for effective outreach while traveling.
Use tools like Get Prospect and Claycomb to collect up to 1000 client emails during trials, compile them in Excel to form an audience, then run ads.
Target specific clients on LinkedIn by building a contact list from emails, exporting to csv, uploading as a matched audience with a minimum of 300 contacts to run precise ads.
Learn strategies to keep clients once you have translators and completed jobs, focusing on client happiness to reduce marketing and sales effort and maximize translation work.
Deliver a good translation and build trust for your translation agency by rigorously reviewing every term, using multiple translators and editors for justification, and maintaining a transparent, reachable online presence.
Be punctual and aim to deliver early about 60–80 percent of the time to build client trust. Maintain a friendly attitude and accommodate odd requests, including translation plus formatting.
Identify how to replicate and maintain early success across clients and jobs over time, using repeatable steps.
Visualize what success means for your translation agency, refer back to the first lesson, and assess which aspects (clients, profitability, lifestyle, remote work, and stress) align with that vision.
Create a repeatable system by writing down the steps and a checklist that led to success, so you can train assistants or a project manager as you grow.
Learn to project an international translation business using multiple mailing addresses, phone numbers, and coworking spaces. Discover practical setups with Swiss, US, and Taiwan contacts for a professional global presence.
Explore bonus tips and tricks to accelerate growth in a translation agency, covering marketing and sales strategies, plus future additions as new ideas arise.
Develop a concise cold emailing exercise by drafting five bullets that describe your translation freelancing services, including financial and legal translations, localization editing, and matching Italian English documents.
Speak the client's language by avoiding industry jargon and bullet points, reframing benefits to their needs, and putting yourself in their shoes to communicate outcomes clearly.
Master sample sales emails for a translation agency, personalizing messages to prospective clients with names and titles. Present packages offering website localization, marketing materials translation, and pricing for b2b translations.
Leverage LinkedIn for retargeting by keeping your profile visible to potential clients, using profile views and notifications to stay top of mind.
Start now with a name rather than delaying, then test it with friends for spelling and pronunciation. Choose an intuitive, easy-to-spell option like Lugano translations to support branding.
Learn how optical character recognition (OCR) tools help translators in a translation agency convert client scans into editable text by turning PDFs and images into Word documents.
Learn how to document translation work via email and use templates properly. Access templates for translator and agency contracts, including end-client versions, with tips to customize them and consider legalities.
Merge with another agency to expand your translation business by combining strengths in client acquisition and translator management, and expand presence in new countries.
Learn to tailor strategies for finding clients and jobs for your translation agency, and use the provided contact options to get personalized help.
New sections include:
Finding Clients and Jobs using AI
Ensuring you are compatible with the jobs
Let AI customize your approach
Use technology to hyper-target Ads to your specific target clients
This Course will help you expand from being a translator to running a full agency. Instead of just relying on one language in order to get business and clients, you can make full use of many languages in order to achieve full potential.
Learn How to Expand into an Agency so that:
You can Hire the Translators
You can be in Direct Contact with End Clients
You can become familiar with being the go-between, and facilitate workflow both ways
You can Manage the Projects in a Professional Manner
Content Overview
This course is structured to serve as reference material, so you can go through the whole course in around one week, but, as your agency progresses, you will probably want to go back for refreshers, so to see how various steps can apply to your new situation.
Most of this course will be taught via videos, with some written notes and explanations for those wishing to go further in depth.
By the end of this course, you will be able to use your knowledge to set up and run your own agency. You will understand what exactly you wish to achieve, how to find translators, how to find clients, and how to maintain the business running with both.
The world is becoming increasingly global, while jobs are less and less secure, and the Internet is, by now, near universal. Combine all these factors, and you have a perfect storm of opportunity for people who wish to set up their own translation agency!
Don't be limited by the number of hours you can work on a translation, or how much you can get paid per hour/per word! Set up a Translation Agency so You can have other Translators work for You!
See what other students have had to say:
"Some good solid advice here from someone who's been there, done that and bought the t-shirt. Highly recommend this course for anyone looking to set up a translation agency - some great overall tips even if it's not a translation agency." - Eleanor Goold
"I have found this quite insightful and do recommend to anyone who may be interested! Robert has a very clear way of communicating facts and ideas in a structured manner which makes it quite easy to follow. I had already attended another course of his and just might look into the other ones he offers. :)" - Nejla Nur Güney
"This Course was excellent, although I am not a translator I have been an Interpreter for many years and actually own a language services agency that provides interpretations services, and want to expend my services to document translations, this course was very informative as I lacked knowledge on the ins and outs of the translation side of the language services. I have a lot more to learn but this course definitely put me on the right path to expanding my services and business." - Jean Marc Cajuste
"El curso me gustó y entusiasmó mucho. Resolvió algunas dudas con respecto a cómo saber si una traducción es buena cuando se trata de idiomas que no manejamos. Gracias!" - Patricia Verde
"Fantastic course!" - Helena Maria Rudelich
“Great course. Lots of practical information” - Anna Phippen
“Thanks for all the good principles and Excellent Tips! – Chantal Gaulin
"Thank you so much. The lessons were clear and easy to follow." - Abdi Jiijiile
"Thank you for this great course! I definitely feel more confident with the step I am about to take for my career." - Can Inan
Once you register for this course:
1. You will have lifetime access
2. You will receive a certificate upon completion
3. You can ask questions at any point and I will respond
See you in the course!
- Robert G