Translation Company in Poland - would it be profitable here?

Good Morning Everyone!

I would like, again, to ask for your advice :) As some of you know, i plan to open a business in Poland in the beginning of 2017. But while i will need to wait for the building be prepared and other things, i was thinking:

I Speak fluently Portuguese (Native), Spanish, English and French, and i am learning Arabic.

Would be profitable if i opened in Poland a translation company? Besides english (probably a saturated market) are there demand for translations from those other languages to Polish?

PS: I have a polish partner to help with the bureaucracy.

Instead of opening a new business I would recommend to contact already running translation companies and get work from them till you gain a strong foothold in the market.I think one has to be a sworn translator for which there is a test to be passed.

There is basically no need for translators unless they have abundant technical qualifications and experience. For example, scientific, medical and legal translators are very much in demand. Business translators, less so. So unless you have a ready pool of qualified scientists, physicians and lawyers, your plan is not realistic. There are scads of non-specialized translators fighting for general translations in the country, and every possible non-specialized niche has already been filled, so you would have great difficulty finding a foothold.

By the way, your English is not at the level where you would be able to do professional translation into English. I'm guessing that your French isn't, either. And if you don't speak Polish, how are you going to translate, anyway?

I wouldn't bother if I was you, however like Pigsy says you could get in touch with existing translation services and offer yourself as a proofreader in the various languages.

You might get lucky and get loads of work, but I wouldn't be overly optimistic.

Yes, i am not optimistic. Actually this would be just during the meantime until my real business is open, less than 6 months. I am a very productive person so wait all day long the time to pass is terrible. So more like a profitable hobby.

I am not sure if you really understand what it means to open and grow a succesful business. If you are serious about your "real business", the hostel that you want to open, having a hobby will be a luxury, leave alone actually turning a profit from your hobby. In the beginning which includes the time before your business actually kicks off, you will most likely be working 14 - 16 hours a day. I am not sure how you want to squeeze in a translation / proofreading "hobby".

I really think that you need to sit down and clearly think about your options and what you really want to do. Talking about a "profitable hobby" while also planning your "real business" sounds a tiny bit deluded to be perfectly honest with you.

I second that. You're just not a businessman, Levi, and never will be, no matter what you do. You just don't have it in you. At all.

Agreed. That is what i will do until July of 2016...


Of course i am not a businessman, yet. I am very young and willing to learn.

About your predictions about the future (My Future, even not knowing me), well, keep your BS for yourself. If they were so good, you would not need to immigrate to Chicago to clean toilettes.

No personal attacks!

Hi. I like your idea.
I work with translation companys already 3 years. Preparing files for translation, DRP-engineer.
I will be glad to cooperate. If you are interested - write in PM.

In Warsaw and I assume in all big cities in Poland there are already too many translators and only a few of them do make a living.

As to proofreading, it is necessary to be a native speaker of language to proofread in order to dare working as a proofreader and I seriously doubt OP can proofread 5 or 6 FOREIGN languages. I do occasional proofreading (in my native language) and no need to say, that it is very difficult. Sometimes I don't understand what the he..ll the translator means since no sense in target language.

A good translation must be accurate and makes sense to natives of target language and therefore if no adequate skills, no need to bother claiming to work in the field. Translating and/or proofreading is not a mere search of unknown vocabulary in Google ;) and putting words next to each other. I've seen terrible translations made by socalled professional translators in Warsaw. Translating/proofreading also implies a thorough native knowledge of culture of the target language.

Of course, almost anybody's grandma can open a translation agency but to make a living income out of it is another story ;).

InPolska is right, there are tons of translation agencies in Warsaw today, but if you have the right reputation and right connections you can do well, but reputation and connections are not created overnight and they certainly don't come easy. People with reputation and connections have been here for years and decades usually.

On a related topic, there is high demand for sworn translators, especially for Arabic and European languages other than English.

Also, languages like German, French & Spanish have a higher demand vs. supply ratio than English today. Even better, people that speak Polish, English and a third language are (depending on profession) in particularly high demand.

True, Polsyr, and don't forget that in order to translate, high skills and relevant diplomas are demanded. A translated text should look as if it were written by a native.

True too, in Warsaw, there are a few translators who've been around for ages and who get most work and the rest of translators do translate occasionally and have to do other things in order to eat.. There is no room for newcomers.

True too re languages other than English. Also other languages since "rarer" and also more difficult are paid more than English.