This year’s U.S. election campaign has begun echoing the core economic theme from Bill Clinton’s successful 1992 run for the presidency — “it’s the economy, stupid.” Meanwhile, second-quarter results from major American companies underscore our advice on how to recession-proof your business — seek opportunity abroad while your economy is in the doldrums. Read the rest of this entry »

Are you missing out on international sales because you cannot accept the payment options that your global customers want to use? We’ve found that people won’t buy what they don’t understand. The corollary is that they won’t buy what they can’t pay for. No, this isn’t about tight credit, but rather the ability of people to use their familiar methods of payment to buy online. While it’s second-nature to many Americans, PayPal isn’t the preferred way to pay in every country where you sell online. Read the rest of this entry »

Earlier this week, the European IT and Certification Institute, a for-profit limited liability company that is also developing translation management software, sent an e-mail blast about its List of High Quality Translation Companies. According to the Institute, the goal of the list is “to promote translation companies which have implemented either standard ISO 9001:2000 or EN 15038:2006.” In other words, if an LSP has the ISO or EN certification, it is deemed to be a translation company of “high quality.” This isn’t the first attempt by a vendor of language services and support software to produce a list of organizations that have met a certain criteria. We’ve commented in the Global Watchtower about the plethora of lists, guides, and catalogs of “high-quality” or “certified” LSPs.

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