The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2018 - 23

5

When Did You Drink Your Last
Coke? Repeat Business is
Critical: The average citizen of the world
consumes a Coca-Cola product once
every four days.5 One of the secrets of
the Coca-Cola company's success is its
ability to attract repeat customers. If you
want to succeed in selling your business,
your clients must be on board, which
requires their trust and loyalty. How
often do your clients return with new
assignments? What percentage of your
clients are repeat and what percentage
are new? How big are the projects from
returning clients? In other words, how
loyal are clients to you and your brand?
Loyal clients can also help you gain
"social proof," meaning that your clients
talk positively about you online and your
positive reputation creates positive word
of mouth referrals (the best kind!).

6

Be a Fruit Loop in a Bowl of
Cheerios-Stand Out from the
Competition: The more specialized you
are and the more you stand out among
peers and competitors, the more value is
created. Review your marketing
materials, such as your website or
newsletters. What makes you different?
Is this difference clearly visible to the
average visitor? Does anyone care deeply
about the services you provide?
One way to differentiate yourself and
encourage loyalty is by providing clients
with content that is thought provoking.6
Another way to set yourself apart is to
take a positive attitude when others are
defeatist. If the word on the street is how
Google Translate is taking business away
from translators, be the translator that
demonstrates how your translations are
inherently superior to anything a machine
can produce.

7

The Disney Principle-Customer
Satisfaction: You've likely been asked
to fill out a customer satisfaction survey for
some product or service. There's one simple
question that all major companies, including
Disney, Apple, Google, and Facebook, ask:
"How likely are you to recommend this
service to a friend?" The collected answers to
this question are known as the "net
promoter score."7 True satisfaction is
reflected by people willing to personally go
out on a limb and recommend your services
to others.
www.atanet.org

This is why you need to start tracking
your success with clients. It's important
that this evidence be more than
anecdotal and can be backed up by data.
Celebrating success and learning from
critique is the only way businesses can
grow. That may mean spending more
time making sure your current clients
are happy than on recruiting new ones.
If you can demonstrate a high level of
customer satisfaction, the value of the
business can skyrocket.

now to ensure that others will value what
you've created and want to continue
developing the business after you've
moved on. What do you want the legacy
of your business to be?
NOTES
1
This article is based on a presentation
given at the 2017 ATA Annual Conference
in Washington, DC. You can find a
recording of the full presentation here:
http://bit.ly/Staiman-ATA58.
2

Davies, Stuart. "Small Business
Growth through Acquisitions,"
http://bit.ly/Stuart-acquisitions. One
example is academic publishers who have
added language services to their portfolio
to expand the range of services they offer
their clientele.

3

Kokemuller, Neil. "Diversification and Its
Importance," http://bit.ly/Neil-diversification.

4

Huls, Alexander. "The Key to
Managing Profit and Cash Flow for
Your Small Business and Knowing the
Difference between the Two,"
http://bit.ly/Huls-small-business.

5

Bhasin, Kim. "15 Facts about CocaCola that Will Blow Your Mind,"
http://bit.ly/Kim-Coca-Cola.

6

For an example from the world of
academia, see: Lagotte, Brian. "Academic
Editing Tips: How to Use Your Abstract
as a Tool to Create New Publishing
Opportunities," http://bit.ly/Lagotte

7

Information on Net Promoter can be found
at http://bit.ly/Net-Promoter.

8

For more on this topic, see Warrillow,
John. Built to Sell: Creating a Business
That Can Thrive without You (Portfolio,
2012), http://bit.ly/Warrillow-sell.

9

Handelsman, Mike. "Managing the
Emotional Toll of Selling Your Small
Business," http://bit.ly/Handelsmansmall-business.

8

Letting Go-How Dependent Is
the Company on You? It's
important to document the processes used
in your business. While no one translates
the same way, there are concrete and
repeatable actions that can be modelled
and copied by others.8 Think about what
processes can be automated to make
things easier for someone else. For
example, if you've created glossaries or
termbases, these may be able to give your
buyer a step up. Selling your business also
requires the humility to say that there
might be someone else in the world who
can translate materials in your niche at a
high level.

If you want to succeed in selling
your business, your clients must
be on board, which requires their
trust and loyalty.

WHAT WILL YOUR LEGACY BE?
Selling a translation business isn't a
very common practice and comes with
significant obstacles. However, by
improving the value of your business
while still working, you can create a
system that's efficient and sellable. You'll
also have a better chance of passing
the business on to someone else when
the time is right. This process requires
reflection, honesty, and even the fortitude
to let go.9 Parting with a business can
be difficult and painful, but it can
also be an important step. Beyond the
financial considerations, it's important to
remember that you've created a legacy.
Therefore, it's important to take steps

Avi Staiman is the founder and
managing director of Academic
Language Experts, a company
based in Jerusalem, Israel,
that has helped clients publish
their academic research
since 2011. Prior to founding the company, he
worked as a freelance translator and editor in
the humanities and social sciences. He has an
MA in education from the Hebrew University of
Jerusalem. Contact: avi@aclang.com.
American Translators Association

23
http://www.bit.ly/Staiman-ATA58 http://www.bit.ly/Stuart-acquisitions http://www.bit.ly/Neil-diversification http://www.bit.ly/Huls-small-business http://www.bit.ly/Kim-Coca-Cola http://www.bit.ly/Lagotte http://www.bit.ly/Net-Promoter http://www.bit.ly/Warrillow-sell http://www.bit.ly/Handelsman-small-business http://www.bit.ly/Handelsman-small-business http://www.atanet.org
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of The ATA Chronicle - July/August 2018
