While I tell my students to specialize in order to be successful translators (and interpreters), the recent and current crisis has made it clear that being too specialized or having specializations that are all in the same sort of field can really backfire.

Of course, it is still true that doing everything also isn’t the best strategy, but diversifying your translation business can be a literal lifesaver when unforeseen things (like a pandemic) happen – and don’t go away.

There was a very interesting thread on Twitter by Jost Zetsche aka @Jeromobot last year, brainstorming the community for ideas on areas into which to branch out. Madalena Zampaulo also wrote about this on her blog, giving both good reasons and ideas.

The suggestions range from areas of specializations like e-commerce, game localization, and no-contact delivery services to types of services like transcription, project management, and voice-over work.

Really, there seem to be a plethora of options (and opportunities) out there for those interested and willing to try something new and perhaps completely different.

Although I consider myself already pretty diversified – I have three quite different areas of specialization (music, business, and sustainable technologies) and do three different things with languages (translating, interpreting, and teaching), I have been looking into diversifying myself even more and am actually in the process of trying something new (which I will surely blog about one of these days).

You never know what will happen next and how that may or may not affect your business, so being prepared is never a bad idea.

Photo by vivekchugh