Outsourcing refers to the practice of delegating work to another organization or person who is usually a third party and not associated with the business: it means that the responsibility for timely completion of these tasks is entrusted to that person. However, the ultimate responsibility for the completion of these tasks remains with the person or business delegating the work.

A company’s decision to outsource is usually a major strategic decision because it involves weighing up the potential cost-savings against a loss of control over the service or product. Generally, outsourcing occurs when a company purchases services or products from an outside supplier in order to cut costs. However, outsourcing can also be a strategy used for saving time. Tasks outsourced, rather than then being handled in-house, frees up personnel whose time could be better spent on more profitable tasks.

Efficiency is the key to success for any business, and outsourcing can be the key to efficiency.

So, What Tasks Can or Should Translators Be Outsourcing?

To answer this question, we need to ask another question: What is the purpose of outsourcing? For any person running their own freelance translation business, the purpose of outsourcing is to free up your own work time so that you can either work less or generate more income, and to free yourself from tasks that you either don’t enjoy doing or that you’re not very good at.

Therefore, for a freelance business translator, tasks that could be outsourced might be accounting, because you’re either not confident in handling your own accounting or you simply don’t enjoy doing it. This makes outsourcing your accounting a smart business investment. Another task that you might outsource is editing and proofreading. We know that some translators hire other translators to edit and/or proofread their work for direct clients because they simply don’t have time, or because they prefer to trust the editing process to another translator.

Focusing on Core Areas

Possibly the greatest benefit of outsourcing tasks or business processes is that it frees your energies and enables you to focus on other areas of your business such as building your brand and marketing.