Plain sailing and stormy waters

Translation work was coming in and for a while things seemed to be set fair. Then the vessel started to ship water. 1992 might have been a watershed for European integration, but for the UK it brought a devastating recession. Our new company, now baptised with its present name, Anglia Translations, managed to survive, mainly because we had few overheads (my mortgage being the major component), but business was slow and difficult to come by. Battening the hatches seemed the appropriate response. These were painful months.

In days gone by, one of my former bosses said to me that “if you do the right thing, things will turn out right.” Such aphorisms are all very well but they are absolutely no help at all when you are wondering where the next mortgage payment is coming from. But my former boss was proved right. We didn’t do anything silly during those difficult months, we beavered away, contacted new clients, and provided, we thought, a good service.

It was at this time that the “I” became “we” when I joined forces with an experienced translator and together we rented a modest office in Huntingdon, where we are still located. My partner was forced to leave shortly after, for personal reasons, and now the dilemma was whether to take on an employee, with all that this involves with tax and legal issues. The step was taken and for the first time, Anglia Translations became a separate entity, although of course still very much my baby.

Economic confidence returned, and with it a welcome infusion of new work and new clients which brought fairly and squarely up against our next two problems: finding translators, and establishing quality criteria.

(to be continued)

Find out what services Anglia Translations offers now, 25 years on

Discover the languages we most commonly work with