Business Translation and Interpreting

Business sector

Business translation and interpreting for companies trading abroad

Selling into a new country means talking to customers, partners, staff and regulators in their language, and getting it right first time. Inaccuracy causes confusion and can be very costly: a contract clause that means something different in the other version, or a product page that reads as if a machine wrote it. That is why we work only with business translators and interpreters who have extensive knowledge of the sector.

Translation is everywhere in business, from instruction manuals and food labels to the screens in a shop. We provide a full range of services, can work in any file format and offer a turnkey service, delivering press-ready documents that are ready to publish. Our clients include Marks and Spencer.

Business documents we translate

Our qualified business translators handle a broad range of documents, including:

• Business plans
• Marketing materials and advertising campaigns
• Income statements and balance sheets
• Annual reports
• Prospectuses and public and private offerings
• Insurance documents
• Contracts and terms and conditions
• Packaging, labels and instruction manuals
• HR policies and employee handbooks
• Presentations and tender documents

Contracts and company filings

If a contract exists in two languages, the contract itself should say which version prevails if the two differ. That is a decision for your lawyers rather than your translator, but raise it before the translation is ordered, not after the signing.

Companies House asks for a certified English translation of any document delivered in another language. It usually comes up when an overseas company registers a UK establishment and files its constitution and accounts. See our certified translation service for how certification works.

Marketing, brand names and text length

Marketing copy rarely survives a word-for-word translation. A slogan that works in English can fall flat, or say something unfortunate, in another language, so it needs rewriting by a translator who writes well for that market. The industry calls this transcreation. Check brand and product names at the same time, before the packaging goes to print.

Plan for length as well. German and French usually run longer than English, often by a fifth or more, which matters on packaging, buttons, slides and anywhere else with a fixed amount of space.

Any file format, delivered ready to publish

Send us the InDesign or Illustrator files, the PowerPoint deck or the spreadsheet, and you get back the same file in the new language, laid out and checked, rather than a Word document for someone else to paste in. Right-to-left scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew, and Chinese, Japanese and Korean text, need a typesetter who works in them. Pasting translated text into an English layout is where a lot of print errors creep in. See brochure localization and software localization for more.

Websites and online shops

A translated website has to be found in the new market as well as read. That means keyword research in each language rather than translating English search terms, translated page titles, descriptions and image text, and a separate web address for each language version. Prices, date formats, delivery terms and returns policies need localizing, not just translating. Our website localization page goes into the detail.

Business interpreting

Our business interpreters work at meetings, negotiations, site visits, supplier audits, training sessions and trade fairs, and at HR meetings with staff whose English is limited. Consecutive interpreting, where the interpreter speaks after each speaker, suits meetings and site visits. For conferences and large events, simultaneous interpreting with booths and headsets is the usual choice.

Brief the interpreter before a negotiation: the deal, the names, the figures and any terms you expect to come up. And remember that the interpreter is not part of your negotiating team. Their job is to say exactly what each side says. If you want advice on the other side's business culture, ask for that separately.

Languages for international business

We work in more than 350 languages and dialects, including the main trading languages: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Dutch, Portuguese, Arabic, Turkish, Japanese and Korean.

For written Chinese, tell us whether your readers are in mainland China, which uses Simplified characters, or in Hong Kong or Taiwan, which use Traditional. For interpreting, Mandarin and Cantonese are not interchangeable. Portuguese and Spanish differ between Europe and Latin America too, so tell us where your audience is.

Before you send us the files

Will you sign a non-disclosure agreement?

Yes. If you need one in place before you share documents, send it with your quote request.

Can you keep our terminology consistent?

Send us any glossary, style guide or previous translations you have. They help the translator use the terms your customers already know, and keep every document saying the same thing.