Entrepreneur Or Freelancer? - Interview With A.M. Sall (part 3)

Q:- So an entrepreneur or a freelancer, what are the difference(s) between them? Why do you encourage translators to think, act like entrepreneurs?

Sall:What they have in common is independence: they don't like to work for anyone else. And there are many, many differences, for example:

When asked what they do, freelancers will mention their crafts, their skills, and their work. “I’m a photographer. I’m a web designer. I’m a translator”, whereas entreprene*rs are more likely to identify with an industry. “I’m in real estate. I’m in e-commerce. I’m in restaurants. I'm in translation/localization.”

Freelancers sell themselves while entreprene*rs sell their business.

Freelancers ARE their product or service. Without themselves, their business is not sustainable. Entreprene*rs, on the other hand, are all about their business, and it is just a matter of time before their small business expands. An entreprene*r's business is sustainable and can survive after they are gone.

"Freelancers dream about getting better. But entreprene*rs think about getting bigger."

Says Seth Godin: "An entrepreneur... builds a business bigger than herself, that scales for a long time, that is about processes and markets."

And there's the related issue of ‘escaping from your personal branding prison’, whereby you are strongly advised to brand your business instead of branding yourself, just in case you start your move from freelancer to entrepreneur, which you will sooner or later have to do if you want your business to survive when you're no longer around :-)

Entrepreneurship is a state of mind, more than anything else. It is a great shift you have to make, psychologically, strategically, tactically, and in all other respects.

Q:- Social media is a hot topic these days, but some translators complain that a social media presence doesn't bring more business to them. What do you have to say?

Sall:As in all marketing, market research is of paramount importance. You must know your market, which includes knowing where to find them, for example, what social or business network do they go to, what social media do they use.

Are they on Twitter? Facebook? Linkedin? Or maybe some specialized social media sites?

Remember that social media's main goal is not necessarily to directly increase sales, i.e. bring you new clients. You can use it to expand your internet footprint, to establish yourself as an expert, to improve communications and feedback, to get publicity...

You can use it to drive traffic to your website, improve your search engine ranking.

And something people often forget, or are not inclined or do not want to learn how to do: You must have a clearly defined strategy, i.e. know exactly what you want to get from Social Media (Goals/Objectives), then pick out the tactics, tools and techniques to get whatever you want. ( to be continued in part 4 - Importance of Marketing)

Interview With A.M.Sall (part 1)

Interview With A.M.Sall (part 2)

Interview With A.M.Sall (part 4)

Read other interviews with professional translators

Interview with Joey Wong

Interview with Suzanne Deliscar

Interview with Clint Tustison(part 1)

Interview with Clint Tustison(part 2)

Interview with Aya Takasuna (part 1)

Interview with Aya Takasuna (part 2)

Interview with Glenn Cain(part 1)

Interview with Glenn Cain(part 2)

Interview with Joanna Scudamore-Trezek (part 1)

Interview with Joanna Scudamore-Trezek (part 2)

Translator turned entreprene*ur shares tips with business minded linguists (part 1)

Translator turned entreprene*ur reveals her secrets to sell from home successfully (part 2)


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