Article Specialisation as a way to diversify your income

There’s no getting away from the fact that, recently, many of us freelance translators have found that there’s less work out there. That, ever since artificial intelligence really made itself known in the world of translation, certain clients have gone quiet on us and it feels that bit harder to get new ones.

Now, everyone’s experience has been very different, and we definitely don’t think that AI is about to put us all out of a job. We are and always will be staunch believers in the importance of professional translators and think there’s always going to be a call for qualified, experienced, talented and capable linguists.

And we also know that a lot of companies have experimented with using AI for translation over the last year or so and have been less than impressed by the results, quickly doing a U-turn and going back to the translation professionals they know they can rely on.

But that being said, a lot of us have noticed a difference and have been spending time thinking about ways we might be able to diversify our incomes and future-proof our businesses, to make sure we thrive and can continue to enjoy all the upsides of a freelance life.

For us, the answer lies in specialisation. In developing concrete skills that offer your customers added value and mean you produce outstanding results that, let's be honest, no machine can match. Because whilst AI is slowly gaining ground, it can’t hold a candle to the power of a specialised, expert human mind.

If you’re a translator who’s been feeling the pinch and is keen to find ways to stabilise or increase your freelance income, keep reading for our suggestions for diversification through branching out and offering new specialisations.

Diversification vs specialisation

We know this might sound a little confusing. After all, you might well be saying to yourself, surely specialising means narrowing down your offer rather than diversifying it?

Well, we believe that freelance translators can be specialists in more than just one thing. And that the specialist knowledge we acquire can usually be put to a few different uses.

Widening your range of specialist services doesn’t mean being a jack of all trades, but it might mean you’re able to support one client in multiple ways, which translates into more work, boosted profits, and a happy client who’s found a fantastic solution to multiple problems.

That’s not the only motivation for diversifying our businesses, though. Over the years we’ve also learned that having a few different strings to your bow is great because it:

• Helps level out the peaks and troughs.
• Acts as an insurance policy if there’s suddenly less demand for one service, or one industry, and one stream of work dries up.
• And makes your work days more interesting and stimulating, as you’re not always working on the same kind of project, and variety is the spice of life.

We just want to be extra clear, though, that we’re not advocating for offering new services that you’re not really qualified to deliver.

It’s all about finding new ways to use your existing skills and putting the work into developing new ones.

Thinking outside the box will unlock the best ideas, and everyone’s different, but here are a few pointers for ways to move forward.

Play to your strengths

Sit down and think carefully about what you’re best at, what interests you and what motivates you and how you can develop new specialisations based on that.

Because when you’re thinking about introducing something new into your business, it really needs to be something you’re confident about and excited about, as you’re going to need to pour lots of energy into establishing it and marketing it.

There’s no point being willing to offer a certain service if no one knows about it, after all!

Let your profits be your guide

As well as thinking about what you enjoy, this is also a good time to consider which of your services or specialisations is the most profitable.

Because we’re professionals, and no matter how much we love what we do we need to be prioritising the things that will allow us to make the most amount of money in the least amount of time.

If you’re an LSP.expert user and track your time you’ll have stacks of information about which of your services and clients are most profitable for you.

Study that information carefully and use it to make decisions about how to move forwards, using your time and energy in the way that makes the most financial sense.

Revisit anything you might have dismissed in the past

Our businesses are always changing and evolving, as are our priorities, and chances are that in the past you’ve stopped offering certain services that you felt didn’t make sense for you anymore.

If that’s the case for you, then now might be a great time to look back and consider whether any of them could be resurrected and given a new lease of life.

Maybe there’s a language combination you’ve let fall by the wayside, for example, but you feel like now you’re more established it might be time to bring it back, putting your subject matter expertise from your other languages to good use.

Don’t bring something back just for the sake of it, though. Be honest with yourself about whether it really makes sense for you, whether you’ll enjoy it, and whether you can offer your clients a stellar service.

Get trained up in a complementary skill

Is it time to learn something new?

Perhaps you’ve been wanting to develop your skills in something like transcreation, subtitling, SEO, copywriting, post-editing… The list of options goes on, and branching out into any one of them could be excellent news for your business, especially if you’ve found your clients enquiring about whether you could also offer that particular skill.

The first stop is always taking an in-depth course, gaining the knowledge and confidence you’ll need to be able to support your clients.

It’ll take you a long time, and client work experience, to become a true specialist in your new skill, but a course (perhaps recommended by your fellow freelancers) is a wonderful place to start.

Create packages

If you’ve already got a clear specialism, or specialisms, or a well established service, rather than trying new things, there might be a way you can take what you’ve already got on offer and package it up to make it super accessible and appealing to your clients.

We’re talking about creating set packages, with set prices, and displaying them on your website (if you have one), so that your prospective clients can see at a glance how you can help them and what it’ll cost.

This is a fantastic way of positioning yourself as a true expert and reeling in clients who want simple solutions to their needs.

Let other freelancers inspire you

Copying the things other freelancers do isn’t cool (but it’s amazing how often you see stories of people copying someone else’s text word for word or shamelessly stealing their idea).

But there’s a big difference between just copying someone else’s work and letting what other freelancers are doing inspire you, sparking a new business idea of your own.

This is one of the wonderful parts of having a strong freelance community. You’ll see things other people are doing and start getting excited about new directions in which you could plough your own furrow.

It might be a new service they’re offering for their language combination that you think could work well for yours. Done in your own unique way, of course.

It might be a course they’ve taken that they’re recommending, as it’s opened up a whole new avenue of opportunity for them, giving them a strong grounding to confidently help their clients in a new way.

There are also all kinds of ways you can collaborate with other translators who offer the same services as you, or services that complement yours, offering your clients the added value of having two specialised brains working on their materials.

It’s so much easier to make decisions about where to go with your business when you’ve got black and white figures that give you a clear picture of how things are right now.

And that’s exactly what LSP.expert will give you. Give our 30-day free trial a go to see how it could transform the way you run your business, helping you move forward with confidence.