Mathieu Marechal, Bewords CEO,  talks about his experience as a Founder and the early stage of development of a platform like Bewords.com.

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The early stage of the development.

The development of the platform was more difficult than we expected. One reason was our low experience, limited budget and wishes to provide everything from the day one of the opening (I must say that we failed in this goal). 

The second reason was that we also had to drive the development of our translation company at the same time…and as we are neither hundreds of people on the team, nor even dozensof collaborators, the load of daily work is far more than 35h per week.  

Many of what are called "details" (I would say hassle…) appeared very quickly. This is the drawback of wishing to do everything by ourselves…due to our limited budget and a bit also by "pride", will of controlling everything and building a strong and real asset (depending on any SAS solution, external code, etc.). 

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Mathieu Marechal, Bewords CEO,  talks about his experience as a Founder and the early stage of development of a platform like Bewords.com

Dear Readers, please fell free to react and discuss/comment on this article (here on the blog)

Genesis.

It is always difficult to identify the very beginning of an idea or innovation. Thinking back to the time when we first started talking and brainstorming about BeWords, I believe that two main observations came to us: the first was the value chain of the translation business. The second was our experience as language service providers (as a translation agency in other words) and the difficulties we had to face everyday for every scattered quotation request, one-shot customers (with limited budgets, etc.).

Let me come back to the first observation: typically, the value chain is organised as follows: Customer  translation agencies independent translators. 

Translation agencies have the capacity, experience and tools to manage multilingual translation projects, deal with multi-format files or data, and to insure the final quality of the translation (by basically providing proofreading carried out by a second translator). Basically it’s a “unique provider” which is capable to help customers in “great need”. 

And they also have the power, tools and processes to market/sell their services and find customers. 

But, and this "but" is according to me the key, two trends that can be observed are: 1 – crowd translation, which is the translation by the fans or the community 2 – Internet and the capacity of a single translator (or any expert), based "where ever he/she likes" to be visible and to be reachable by any prospect (anyone can contact/work with anyone else). 

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Laura Février, French/Portuguese/English to Romannian translator, tells Bewords more about her thoughts on translation.

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1. Could you kindly tell us and our readers about your personal and professional background in a few words?

As I have always had a knack for foreign languages, I studied philology in Bucharest, Romania and in 2004 I started to work as an in-house translator and consultant for culture and education at the Embassy of Portugal in Bucharest. After a while, not being able to choose between my passion for translation and teaching, I decided to take on a job as a teacher of Portuguese at the University of Bucharest (2006-2010), while at the same time working as a freelance translator

2. Tell us please a bit more about your current professional situation and status. What does it feel to be independent and what are the associated advantages and limits?

At present, I am a full-time freelancer, translating from Portuguese, French and English into Romanian. I enjoy the liberty of being able to choose when, how much and with whom to work, although I sometimes wish I had the security and steady workflow of an in-house job. On the other hand, I believe that being independent and well organized allows me to be more flexible and enjoy the time I spend with my family.

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Eniko Jano, English/Italian to Hungarian & Romanian translator, tells Bewords more about his thoughts on translation.

Dear readers please feel free to react and discuss/comment on this interview (here on the blog) 

1. Could you kindly tell us and our readers about your personal and professional background in a few words?

Italian citizen for marriage, Italian residency, 12 years experience of teaching English and Hungarian languages, as well as translating and interpreting from and to these languages. 7 years experience of translating technical, general, commercial, IT documents from Italian, English to Hungarian.

2. Tell us please a bit more about your current professional situation and status. What does it feel to be independent and what are the associated advantages and limits?

I am a freelance translator and Interprete, my working languages are: English, Italian and Hungarian. When you are independent you schedules are more flexible, working with an association it is more comfortable to find clients.

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Diana Rhudick, French & Spanish to English translator, tells Bewords more about her thoughts on translation.

Dear readers, please fell free to react and discuss/comment on this interview (here on the blog)

1. Could you kindly tell us and our readers about your personal and professional background in a few words? 

I am a native speaker of English with a Master’s degree in translation from the Monterey Institute of International Studies. I have been a translator of French and Spanish commercial texts for 23 years, both in-house and freelance.

2. Tell us please a bit more about your current professional situation and status. What does it feel like to be independent and what are the associated advantages and limits?

My volume of work was negatively affected by the economic crisis beginning in 2008 and is slowly picking up. The main disadvantage to freelance work is that you have to make constant efforts to find new clients. However, I much prefer the freedom of working how and when I want rather than having to work in someone else’s office.

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