Web-Translations has been commissioned to implement the Leeds City College online rebrand and help engage new audiences as part of the college’s commitment to Entrepreneurs.

In a move that will see the college opening up a whole host of creative services to entrepreneurs in and around the area, from screen printing and laser cutting, to retail and office units, Leeds City College is to streamline its web presence to help illustrate more clearly what they have to offer and engage with young businesses from around the region.

Bringing together the current offerings of Factory4, The Unit and The Workshop, the new website will see all 3 current offerings sit under a new brand called ‘Inc’, with a strapline of ‘Inspiring Enterprise’. The sub-brands will then be Inc Enterprise (formerly The Unit), Inc Creative (formerly The Workshop) and Inc Workshop (formerly Factory4).

Although Web Translations are primarily specialists in helping organisations do business internationally online, and do not specialise in web design projects, Leeds City College felt the experience of the company’s M.D, Daniel Rajkumar, aligned the company with the college’s target audience. Daniel’s previous experience as Commercial Director for web design company Clever Clover will stand him in good stead for this project.

Rifat Bashir, Business Incubation Manager at Leeds City College (shown above on the right) said: “It was important for us to choose an agency who really understood our core values. The fact that Daniel set up Web-Translations straight from Leeds University Business School, is a member of many entrepreneurship organisations, and has won several awards for entrepreneurship over the last 9 years convinced us that he and his team would understand our audience”.

The website will provide information for those who are interested in renting office space, or in undertaking creative workshops, as well as information about mentoring services available. It will also have full social media integration to enable entrepreneurs from around the region to share knowledge, advice and experiences through Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.

Daniel Rajkumar said: “We are delighted to be working with Leeds City College on this project as I think the services they are offering are fantastic resources for people starting out in business. I’ve always found Leeds to be a great place for business people being supportive of each other and I hope our work on this project provides a further resource to bring entrepreneurs together”.

To speak to Web-Translations about your website or international brand strategy, call +44 (0) 113 8150460 or email sales[at]web-translations[dot]co[dot]uk.

Once you make the important decision to localise your website for a foreign market, and select a provider to deliver the project, your work is not quite yet done. It’s equally important to identify which sections of the website should be included in the localisation project, not least from a budgetary perspective.

We usually advise clients who are embarking on their first localisation to omit the following sections:

- News

- Meet the team, or equivalent

- All blog posts

The reason being that this type of contact can quickly become out of date, unless a strategy is in place to manage multilingual updates.

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In today’s competitive business environment, it pays to be the first company to market with a new product or service. Here are our tips on how to beat your competitors and take full advantage of global opportunities in your sector.

1. Be the early bird - get there first!
Localise your homepage for multiple markets - then you have the pick of where to focus your attention & resource rather than being forced out of the markets your competitors already operate in.

2. Forge your own path
China, Russia, and other fast-growing economies will compete with you in markets you hadn’t even begun to consider. Don’t follow the herd, but blaze your own trail. This takes confidence and a strong business plan but it is the only way to keep competitive advantage.

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Selling online has enormous advantages over a traditional business model.The main one is the ability to be instantly global, in the sense that your website can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, anytime. However, very few e-businesses take a global approach from the outset or even seriously consider harnessing this potential once they have reached scale in their home market. (more…)

We’ve expanded Web-Translations and opened an office in Bath to meet the needs of our growing portfolio.

Andrew Carter (pictured right, below) who has been with us for over 2 years as a freelancer, has now become a full-time employee, and is heading up the new satellite office with his latest recruit, Jonathan Power (pictured left).

Andrew says: “I worked with Web-Translations on a freelance basis for 2 years, and became a full-time employee just a few months ago. I enjoy working with a wide variety of clients, and love knowing that whatever their aims are we have a product in our multilingual website “toolkit” that will help them succeed in international markets.” (more…)

It is with a sense of anticipation that we enter into our 9th year, celebrating the recruitment of four new team members and carefully planning our expansion into Germany.

For as long as we’re helping our clients to grow their profits from international markets, we can be confident of the growth of our own business. While organic growth has been steady, I feel that the business could be achieving more rapid growth. However, such growth wouldn’t be possible without access to funds. In today’s market, capital doesn’t come easy. While the base rate of interest is remarkably low, the banks are using the opportunity to improve their margins, failing to pass on the rate reduction. Before the economic crisis, I obtained a loan at 4.5% over base. However, the rates I’m currently being offered are in excess of 17% APR.

Obtaining funding to grow has been unusually challenging…
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Diageo announced a 5% growth in annual profits today, an increase that Chief Executive Paul Walsh largely attributes to its activities in emerging markets.

While sales fell in Greece, Spanish and Ireland (all economies that have struggled in the last few years), Diageo’s acquisition of the leading Turkish spirits company Mey Icki, and its performance in North America and Asia-Pacific have offset the downturn in European trade.

This makes them the latest in a line of successful global companies who are spreading the risk of underperformance in developed markets such as Western Europe by expanding into countries further afield, or the path less trodden by competitors. (more…)

The arguments for outsourcing any type of work are clear: costs are reduced; efficiency is improved; economies of scale can come into play; and there is usually an application of appropriate technology that would be less likely to take place if the work was kept in-house.

The outsourcing model has also been successful in cutting costs and improving efficiency in the public sector. Council and government tenders have been big business for years, and although cuts have had a dramatic effect on certain sectors such as consultancy, in others there are still opportunities to be had. (more…)

Well, where to start? Not wanting to blow my own trumpet, as a former project manager, but project management is, in my humble opinion, vital to a smooth, problem-free, well-executed translation project!

A recent article handily backs up my opinion, stating that project managers are, in fact “indispensable to the process due to the vast number of project variables, requirements, exceptions to project scope, etc.” Project managers liaise with both clients and translators to see a project through to completion. Their role involves understanding clients’ needs and requirements, ensuring that they can all be met, and then creating a logical sequence of tasks to be carried out to a specific deadline, not to mention assigning the work to suitable translators and proofreaders who specialise in the subject in question. (more…)

Yes, it’s a bit early to mention Christmas, I know, but savvy online retailers are already in the midst of preparing for the festive period.

Success stories such as Amazon and ASOS have shown that international sales can have a huge impact on an ecommerce business, so it’s hardly surprising that more retailers are jumping on this bandwagon and localising their websites to open up shop to international customers.

Before jumping in with both feet, however, there are a few things you can do to ensure your international online sales go smoothly ahead of the festive season: (more…)