It is currently 2:44 a.m. MST. I played basketball last night until 11:00 p.m. “Got my exercise on,” as the young’uns would say. I came home, showered, watched Deadliest Catch with the wife and finally decided to go to bed at about 1:00 a.m. I have to be awake at 6:00 a.m. for a golf tournament.

If you are anything like my wife, you’ve just asked yourself “what are you doing awake?”

Truth be told, I’m thinking about document translation. I know, my life is ridiculously awesome.

Without further ado, here are 5 steps you should follow for your next document translation project:

1- Determine what type of qualification level you need. While Google Translate works for basic understanding and also for humor in our offices due to mistakes it often makes, it’s not what I would suggest you use for your international contract or the birth certificate translation for immigration purposes.  For anything other than translating a menu, I would suggest using ATA certified translators. Or you could also use your brother’s friend who speaks French. Or was that Spanish?

2- Understand it takes time to translate. I had a new customer email me a request for translation yesterday telling me that he needed the project completed ASAP for meetings early in the morning. I was able to complete the project within 30 minutes due to the fact that it was a short project. On the flip side, I had a graduate student ask me if we could translate a 45 page research that was due in 6 hours. (Isn’t procrastination awesome?) I told him no because I knew my translation team wouldn’t have been able to put in the time to do the job properly.

3- Determine your budget. Breaking news: document translation costs money.  Shocking I know, but I couldn’t tell you how many times people have asked me, “You mean you don’t do this for free?” In the world of Google and open source technology, we have become spoiled.  We want things for free and we want them now. But take a minute and think about the skill of translation and understand how much knowledge, training and skill a good translator really has. That doesn’t mean you should overpay for translation services. Determine your budget, find a good company with qualified interpreters and have them work with you on price.

4- Ask the right questions. What qualification does the company/individual have? Does their price include translation, proofreading and formatting, or are those extra charges? When will the project be done? What is their track record for delivering on time and on budget? Are you required to pay up front or upon completion?  What do they do with your original documents? Just a few ideas of things to think about.

5- Request that your document be sent back as a .doc file. If any person or company refuses to do this, run. It means they are trying to make you completely reliant upon them for any future modifications to your document. It should be easy for you or someone else to make simple modifications to a translated document. Don’t get caught by this shady tactic.

With that off my chest, I’m going to try and get some sleep so I can dominate on the golf course about 2 hours from now. That and stop bothering my wife with the sound of key strokes in bed. Aren’t laptops the greatest?

Related: Document Translation, Tips, Translation, Translators