Guides
Designing translation agency service packages: seventeen shapes and their failure modes
Seventeen translation agency service package shapes described by boundary and failure mode: recurring content, product and interface work, and asset engagements.
What to take away
- Seventeen package shapes, described by their boundary rather than by a price. No figures appear here, because a price that did not come from your own cost model would mislead you.
- Each entry names the one thing that breaks it. That is the useful part.
- Shapes 1 to 6 suit buyers with recurring content. Shapes 7 to 12 suit product and interface work. Shapes 13 to 17 are advisory or asset work that pays for itself indirectly.
- Do not offer a shape whose failure mode you cannot cover on a bad week.
- Every claim a package page makes about coverage or turnaround has to be supportable on any project a buyer picks at random.
Recurring content
- Fixed window, fixed language set.Content received by a stated cutoff is delivered by a stated day, in an agreed set of languages. Breaks when the language set is extended informally and nobody reprices the reviewer coordination.
- Monthly volume band.An agreed range of volume per month at agreed terms, with a rule for above and below. Breaks when volume arrives in one lump on the last day of the month.
- Retained capacity.The client reserves a share of your throughput rather than a volume of words. Breaks when the client uses none of it for two months and then wants both months at once.
- Translate and revise.Every item passes a second linguist. The clearest package to sell and the easiest to underprice, because the revision hours are real. Breaks when the reviser and the translator disagree and no one is named as the decider.
- Translate only, client reviews.Cheaper, and honest, if the scope note says plainly what has not been checked. Breaks when the client's review never happens and the unchecked text is published anyway.
- Post-edited machine output at volume.For content where speed matters more than polish. Breaks when the definition of done was never written, so every project renegotiates it.
Product, interface, and multimedia
- Release-cycle string updates.Tied to the client's release calendar rather than to a monthly date. Breaks without a freeze point: one late English change can mean rework in every target at once.
- Interface strings with character limits.The package includes checking that the target fits. Breaks when the client cannot supply limits or context screenshots, so the linguist is translating blind.
- Pseudo-localization readiness check.You run the client's build through length and encoding stress before real translation starts. Breaks when the client treats the findings as your problem to fix.
- Continuous small-batch.Frequent small handoffs rather than scheduled deliveries. Breaks when per-batch setup cost is not priced, because the setup is where the hours go.
- Subtitling with a script freeze.Reading-speed and line-length rules stated up front. Breaks when the video is recut after the subtitles are timed.
- Voice recording with casting.Includes sample voices and one retake round. Breaks when retakes are unlimited by omission.
Advisory and asset work
- Termbase build.A defined number of terms extracted, proposed, and approved. Breaks when nobody on the client side has authority to approve a term.
- Termbase maintenance.A recurring engagement that keeps the approved list current. Quietly the best value a client can buy, and the hardest to sell.
- Style guide for a market.Conventions for tone, address, dates, numbers, and units for one target market rather than one language. Breaks when the client assumes one guide covers every country that shares a language.
- Source readiness edit.You improve the source before translation so that ambiguity is resolved once instead of in eight languages. Breaks when the client's author treats the edit as criticism.
- Memory cleanup and handover.Reviewing accumulated memory, removing content that belongs to another account, and exporting it in an agreed format. Breaks when the exchange format was never tested.
How to choose which shapes to offer
| Question | If the answer is no |
|---|---|
| Can you staff this shape twice in every language it names? | Offer it as a project, not a package |
| Does it have a written freeze point where source changes cost money? | Add one before publishing it |
| Can a project manager apply the change-order rule without calling you? | Rewrite the rule |
| Do you know its earning rate from your own records? | Measure it first using the contribution method for ranking service lines |
Note what shapes 15 and 16 have in common. Both address the fact that source quality and market convention decide the outcome long before a linguist sees the file. Selling them is hard, because the client experiences the benefit as an absence of problems.
Choosing which shapes to offer
Can you staff this shape twice in every language it names?
Offer it as a package
Offer it as a project, not a package
Say only what you can back
Any package page that names a turnaround, a language count, or a quality standard is making an advertising claim, and the FTC advertising guidance for small businesses states the standard: claims must be truthful and supported. That applies to "native speakers", "certified", and "24-hour delivery" equally.
Interpreting is a distinct profession with its own supply and scheduling, as the profile of interpreting and translation occupations describes. Do not fold it into a written-content package.
Anything described as certified or attested depends on what the receiving institution accepts. That varies by authority and jurisdiction. Confirm it with them rather than stating a rule.
Keep each package definition versioned, dated, and filed with the client's project record, so a later dispute is settled by a document rather than by memory. The general expectation that records support what was billed is set out in the IRS summary of records a business should keep.
Construction method for all seventeen is in how to design a package that does not leak scope. The underlying menu is in what each language service line involves, and the staffing depth each shape assumes comes from building the linguist bench behind the promise.
The handover mechanics live in how a new account is onboarded and delivered.
Common questions
Should a small agency offer all seventeen?
No. Most agencies can support three or four well. The list is a menu to choose from, not a target to reach.
Which shape is easiest to start with?
Usually shape 1 or shape 4, because both have a boundary a client already understands. Shape 14 is the most valuable and the hardest to sell first.
Can these be combined?
Yes, and that is where boundaries blur. If you combine two, rewrite the change-order rule for the combination rather than stapling two rules together.
Why are there no prices here?
Because a price only means something against your own cost base, your own language pairs, and your own payment terms. A number printed here would be a guess about a business this page has never seen.
