For a company, deciding to take the international step is complex. It involves not only assuming relevant investments in different aspects (from premises or offices to hiring personnel) but also engaging in a highly risky process that includes making complex decisions in which the "cold" numbers do not always help us.

Being able to understand the idiosyncrasies of people in each of the countries and the ways of communicating "locally" are two of the essential non-numerical keys to success in international business and that, unfortunately, are rarely kept in mind. Many companies will make a number of excuses for not contacting a professional translator. Among them, that it is expensive, that we can use Google Translate or that anyone can do it. However, this decision can be detrimental to both large and small companies.

An example of a bad translation is what happened with the Spanish company Mango in 2013, when it became embroiled in a controversy in France over an erroneous translation from Spanish into French of the word “slave”, used in the description of a collection of bracelets and a necklace on their French website.

Although in Spanish the term "slave" is accepted in jewelry as a type of bracelet, in French this meaning of the term does not exist and an important commotion was generated that forced Mango to apologize for the error and the misunderstanding. It is only a small example, but we can affirm that a translation error seriously damages the image of a company.

The are many advantages of hiring a translation agency. One of them is that companies can save money. Translation agencies allow clients to hire them for specific jobs. This allows them to save money as they don’t have to hire full time translators. In addition, given the great competition in the sector, prices for professional translations are quite affordable.

Given the large volume of work carried out by translation agencies, they have a lot of experience, which results in professional results that will add value to the company. For example, if a company needs a well done translation of its portfolio, a professional job will succeed in creating a good image for it. Conversely, a poor translation can ruin an entire business exchange.

Another advantage of translation agencies is that a client can get translations in many languages. Why can translation agencies carry out work in many languages? The main reason is because they have a wide network of freelance collaborators spread all over the world that allows them to make translations in many languages and in a multidirectional way.

Also, agencies can assure agility and speed in translations. In addition to good professionals and quality translation services, agencies offer speed and diligence in delivering the work. There are even some translation companies that have “Express” type services. That is, fast translations that are needed for unforeseen events.

Agencies also specialize in very specific topics. Along with having freelance professionals in many languages, these same translators also have their specialty. Thus, only translation agencies are capable of translating highly technical, scientific or language-specific texts that are highly localized in some regions.

Also, translators take days off, but agencies don´t. they have total availability throughout the year. In addition to the fact that they use web platforms that are online 24 × 7, translation agencies are always available with something like a "guard service" that receives requests and puts them in the hands of translators quickly to be able to start to work. On many occasions, the agencies' web platforms have an Intranet that brings together the translators and where each one can obtain the works and then upload and deliver them to the parent translation agency.

Additionally, communicating correctly in the client´s language is vital to achieve their trust and loyalty. A translation professional is necessary for the company to ensure that the message it sends to its potential clients is correct, both in terms of content and in terms of form, and that it is translated by professionals with extensive experience, since only they will find the right words. A translator does not literally translate a text, but searches for the correct words in a specific context.

Also, there is nothing worse than a commercial message that has a spelling or grammatical error since that impacts not only on costs (because the company is forced to throw away thousands of brochures) but on the professional image of the company. Reputation is one of the values most demanded by companies today and you have to take care of it no matter what. A professional translator is an expert in finding and identifying these kinds of errors and correcting them.

On the other hand, many companies do not realize that time is money. Spending hours of an executive to translate texts should be understood as a cost for the company since it is not dedicating itself to its main function: developing business. By outsourcing translation to professionals, company staff will not have to spend hours on this job, which they are not prepared for, and will be able to focus on their core tasks.