You are taking the plunge or have been using translation services for some time now. What was your criteria? Do you simply hire native speakers for instance and assume they will woo over your overseas market with sleight of pen?

Let me put it this way. If I were to hire an native English speaker right off the street, and asked him if he's a native English speaker- to which he responds yes, do I hire him on the spot?

Hopefully that clarifies one thing, not all people can write, even if they are a native speaker. So taking this example further, would you hire someone based on their native speaking skills to write a full fledged salesletter to target your foreign market? Sure, if you like to take foolish risks.

The bottom line is, being a native speaker doesn't cut it anymore. Don't just hire someone based on that. This holds true the bigger the project is that you are looking at.

Why am I saying all this, well the bottomline is you only get once chance to make a lasting impression. The extent to which that impression is a favorable one in the eyes of your market largely attributable to the decisions you make with regards to your plans on taking your company to new foreign markets.

It is far more complicated then saying, hey you, translate this to xyz language. Does the person have a good track record? Good references? Even beyond that, have they had DIRECT experience with what you are trying to achieve? By delving into your translation strategy further, it will bring to light important and valid questions that you can use to help evaluate a translation service company, and be on your way to becoming more global.

By simply perceiving more deeply into something as seemingly trivial as translation services, you will leap frog ahead of many of your competitors in this department. This holds true for anything else in business and life.