Diversification Social Saturday

Translators and interpreters are often told that their business needs to ‘diversify or die’, and that there is a conventional range of fields into which they should be diversifying in order to boost their income. This presentation will look at what diversification is, and what it isn’t. It’s not necessarily about technology (although it can be), or about doing new things, like having to re-train to work in fields that lie outside your normal area of competence; it’s not about diversification versus specialisation; it’s not even necessarily about identifying and exploiting that killer business opportunity – although we would all love that, of course.

Diversification is about utilising the potential that’s already there in your business: you have potential opportunities for diversification lying undiscovered among your activities. Some will be close to the surface; others will be more deeply buried. Some will involve a greater degree of risk than others.

This kind of theoretical underpinning is all very well, but what the sensible translator/interpreter needs is a set of concrete tools for improving their working practice and, ultimately, their lives: this presentation proposes a diversification toolbox, designed to help language professionals to prepare for diversification, and to identify key drivers of diversification opportunities in their individual business profiles (via a ‘diversification audit’), so that they can maximise their chances of seizing those opportunities when they emerge.

Translators and interpreters already have the power to diversify: it’s simply a question of harnessing that power by building on existing capabilities and contacts, and shedding the inhibitions and misconceptions that can sometimes hold us back.

Audience takeaway

A clearer understanding of diversification, and what it means for freelance translators and interpreters. A diversification toolbox, containing a set of practical tools designed to help freelance translators and interpreters to prepare for and identify diversification opportunities, giving them the best possible chance of seizing opportunities when they arise. A sense of translators and interpreters as business people with powerful, valuable (and often untapped) skills and potential.

Translators and interpreters of all levels of experience who want to understand the opportunities presented by diversification and would like a diversification toolbox to help them maximise their chances of success. Input and questions from professionals from a range of backgrounds and with a range of experiences will enrich the discussions around the presentation.

Host or Publisher NWTN