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Ideas For A Business - 3 Ways to Increase Your Income

If you are a freelancer, you may have been looking at various ideas for a business (or ideas for self employment).

As our economy takes a downturn, many people have realized that there’s no such thing as a secure job.

Situations for freelancers are even tougher.

Businesses are cutting their expenses to the bones. This means fewer freelance projects are available for more competitors on the market.

Whether you make a living doing translation or try to bring in some extra cash by moonlighting, you need to find profitable ways to use your language talent.

Don’t think so? Go to any freelance job site, you’ll have no difficulty finding jobs that are offered at almost laughable low rate, yet there are still people applying for them. Are we that desperate?

Let’s do things differently! Remember - you are running a business, not a sweatshop! So here are some valid ideas for a business:

1- Identify a profitable market

Don’t we already have a profitable market – the language translation market? I’m sorry to break this to you, but the answer is “No”. Do you have any idea how many competitors are out there in your language niche?

Yes, even when you have already chosen to become a translator/interpreter, you still need to have some ideas for a business.

It’s great if you are specialized in legal or medical fields, but you don’t need to squeeze into a tight niche if that’s not your call. For example, I find it easier to attract more clients when I offer writing and translation services at the same time.

If writing is not your strength, you may want to consider working together with a writer. Don’t try to cover all grounds. The nicher you are, the more profit there is.

2- Learn from others but don’t copy

There’s a lot to learn from your colleagues and competitors. What works for others may not necessarily work for you. But you can avoid making the same mistakes. Try to offer something unique, different.

If you don’t have any unique business ideas, try to focus your marketing message on something that your competitors are not talking about. Particularly focus on the results your clients will get from your service.

Although I personally don’t believe that technology is going to replace human translators any time soon, I have to admit that it presents a huge pressure to us language professionals.

There are plenty of clients try to bargain on the basis that translators can use certain software to speed up their work. That’s why it’s critical to find new ideas for a business.

Do you know that most successful businesses made their profit from services and products different from their original plans? Ideas for a business can be found everywhere.

One way I get new ideas is when my clients ask me if I could provide a new service. You know what? When there’s a need, there’s a market.

3- do whatever it takes

It feels great when some of my regular blog visitors email me and say “thank you for those great tips.” Unfortunately many of them don’t actually act on these strategies. Believe me - results won’t happen automatically, you have to make them happen.

Maybe you have all sorts of reasons - too busy; too complicated; don’t know how to start; don’t feel like doing it at the moment etc.( you name it). The truth is, if you allow these excuses, you’ll never take actions.

I’m also speaking this from my own experience. I knew many of these strategies many years ago, but there were always excuses not to take actions:

I’m too busy; it’s too much work implementing these strategies; I know these strategies and they won't work. Or I’ll use that idea later when I’m more established… But couple years later I was still where I started and my business wasn’t going anywhere.

That’s when I made a decision to act. Once I started there was no return. I didn’t get everything right at first, but I learnt a lot along the journey… Today my business is better than ever and it’s still growing.

You can have all the great ideas for a business, but if you don’t act on them, they are just ideas.

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