Review: The General Theory of the Translation Company

The General Theory of the Translation Company by Renato Beninatto
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

If you want to set up a translation agency, this book won't really help you. 

Don't get me wrong, it is very interesting and has a lot of background, history and theory. So it's quite informative and interesting. 

However, it doesn't really contain any actionable information, like How to set up a company, how to find clients, how to find good translators, dealing with payments, with competitors (although it has quite a bit of background and theory on this), with setting up bank accounts, or with legalities. 

Also, it seems to discuss agencies with in-house translators/employees more than anything. No discussion about freelance professionals, even though I think most LSPs use those these days. 

And it seems to focus mostly on larger LSPS (separate vendor managers and project managers, sales team, finance, team, supply chain manager, account manager, etc.)

But actually, this was pretty helpful in its own way. For example, by viewing my LSP as a larger one with separate departments, I can envision what I should concentrate on when wearing different hats (marketing, vendor relationships, finance, etc.)

In fact, I found this book pretty helpful in terms of ideas for focusing on my niche, etc., as well as not using the word "Agency". 

Anyway, you can find it for free here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWGISRZ0csY&list=PLbLEqr5KQOXN6XfpI7jTvpdvKfHMZILhH  so feel free to listen to it there, but I'd say it's not actionable enough to make it worth it. 

2.5 stars

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