If you’re wondering how to save money on Chinese translation services while maximizing your budget, you’re not alone. Here’s how to find a trusted long-term partner and avoid costly mistakes.
From an insider’s perspective, you’ll learn how to make the most of your budget if this is your first time to work with a translation agency. What’s more, not only you save money, but also learn how to manage your expectations when working with the team.
READ MORE >>How Our Client Saved Thousands of Dollars from Chinese Mechanical Engineering Translation Work
1 For technical documents, ask for for the CAT Tool assessment
The Importance of Transparency in Business Relationships
Building long-lasting business relationships requires transparency. If you’re planning to work with a team of Chinese translators, understanding the role of CAT (Computer-Assisted Translation) tools is essential, especially for large projects with hundreds or thousands of pages to translate.
How CAT Tools Enhance Translation Efficiency
CAT tools are highly effective for technical documents that require translation. They review and analyze repetitive words, significantly reducing the word count and, consequently, the translation costs.
Examples of Cost Savings with CAT Tools
- Mechanical Engineering Translation
- One AZ-Loc client saved $1,419 USD on Chinese translation.
- The initial cost was $3,831 USD, but with CAT tool analysis, the final cost was reduced significantly.
- Rush Legal Translation Project
- The client saved more as the team charged only 10% of the standard price for repetitive content.
- Many other agencies typically charge 30% to 100% for repetitions.
- Property Management Sector Translation
- A 29-page PDF document with approximately 20,000 source words was reduced to 17,703.6 words.
- This resulted in a 12% savings on the project’s total scope.
Why Ask for CAT Tool Analysis for Large Projects?
For massive projects, requesting a CAT tool assessment ensures:
- Reduced word count through repetition analysis.
- Lower overall costs.
- More accurate and consistent translations.
CAT tools not only save time but also make your budget stretch further. Working with a transparent and experienced team ensures you reap these benefits effectively.
2 Watch out for rush fees and hidden charges
Now you already know the wonders of CAT tool, some of the things you need to watch out are the rush fees and hidden charges that may incur in the middle of the project or even the negotiation phase.
Some agencies will charge rush fees, and that may be reasonable depending on the work scope and requirements.
On your side, to save money, better submit or look for your local supplier ahead of time so you won’t have a hard time negotiating on the fees and total cost of the project.
However, in some cases, this can’t be avoided. Urgent projects that your company needs to work on should be pushed and launched ahead of time. Legal documents that needed to be signed or reviewed. Manuals and guides that need translation ahead of time.
One of the reasonable cost the team has offered so far in a rush project was the one with the property management sector.
AZ-loc didn’t charge any rush fee
Delivered the documents on time
Apply 10% late penalty for any day of delay on the team’s side.
So, before you work with a team, make sure you negotiate well and also be specific when it comes to the terms and conditions, especially for rush projects.
3 Ask About Promos and Make the Most of Them
Take the initiative to ask for promotional offers, especially if you’re a first-time client.
Before you know it, you’ll be saving a lot of money from the initial cost the team has quoted.
For example, the team at AZ-Loc are generous to first-time clients, offering them 20% off on their first translation project.
And if you still have other tasks or projects, you may also ask for other packages that may suit your needs and work scope in the future.
