{"id":393,"date":"2016-03-07T18:10:28","date_gmt":"2016-03-07T12:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ulatus.com\/translation-blog\/?p=393"},"modified":"2024-12-06T10:44:29","modified_gmt":"2024-12-06T05:14:29","slug":"translation-essentials-is-translation-service-a-cost-or-an-investment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ulatus.com\/translation-blog\/translation-essentials-is-translation-service-a-cost-or-an-investment\/","title":{"rendered":"Translation Essentials: Is Translation Service a Cost or an Investment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When the decision to have your work translated was made, surely you examined and reviewed the cost of services as you would have for any other business expenditures. When entering the expenses in your ledger, however, you may have paused and wondered where they went. Should they be listed as an investment, something you expect to see a return on, or were your translation<\/a> expenses simply costs to be listed under general or administrative expenses?<\/p>\n

To truly understand the dilemma, you would need to decide what you mean by a cost and an investment. Typically, costs are the time and money spent to create a product or service. They are simply the expenses necessary to do business. The hope is that the total sum of all costs is recouped and the benefits of those costs result in a profit. In contrast, an investment is an asset purchased with the expectation that it will appreciate and bring in greater benefits in the future.<\/p>\n

The real question, therefore, is whether the translation of your material is merely something you are doing as part of a process or if you are expecting your materials to produce a return on your investment<\/a>. Put another way, would the costs of not translating your materials be greater than the cost of having them translated?<\/p>\n

When viewing your translations as investments, consider the following:<\/p>\n