When you were in school and the teacher threw a question to the class, do you remember raising up your arm and thinking: ‘I know this! Me! Me! Pick me, please!’, do you remember the feeling?
I’m sure you do; even if you weren’t the smartest in the class, we all have been in that situation at least once in our lives, back in school, college, university or even at work.
During the last three years, I have myself been in that situation at work more than once; not so much in terms of having all answers (I don’t), but feeling ‘I can do this, just leave it to me’, or ‘if this was my company, I’d do it this way’. This is by no means a criticism to my previous employer, where I’ve enjoyed the past 4 years and learnt many good things, but there is a moment when you know you are ready to pass from college to university and face new challenges.
So one morning, about 3 months ago, I woke up and thought: ‘I have to start my own translation agency.’
This had actually run through my mind several times before, but I kept pushing the thought of being a business woman away; I used to think, “come on, Eva, all through your life you’ve seen (and been affected by) the headaches your parents and your employers have every day as business owners, do you really want that?”
But the truth is, it’s not just that I feel able to start this new venture, it’s the fact I want to make my little contribution to the world:
- I want to raise the awareness, recognition and quality of the translation profession;
- I want to show freelance translators that many translation agencies actually care about them and aren’t governed by greediness;
- I want to show translation agencies that translators are, really, their main asset;
- I want to do fair business in a caring, honest and trustworthy manner;
- I want to put a smile on everyone involved in this agency; and
- I want to be genuine in the process.
Stay tuned for the development of this new venture, or contact me at eva@genuinetranslations.co.uk if you want to know more.
I hope you enjoy what is to come.
Eva Adeoti
