Operating a business in Quebec means sometimes having to write documents in both English and French. Since most people are usually native speakers in only one language (in my case, English), writing in their second language can sometimes be problematic. I usually have friends double check my French documents (e.g. emails) before sending them out. However, this whole review process can be time consuming.
Enter a new feature from Google Docs. At the click of a button, you can translate your text into your choice of 42 languages. All have to do is select the text in your Google document, click ‘Translate Document’ and then select your language.
I haven’t tried all 42 languages, but I can definitely vouch for the English to French and French to English translators. I remember how not too long ago, the quality of online translators was extremely poor, sometimes even comical. Since then, however, there has been some major improvements.
I still wouldn’t rely on this tool as my sole translator. In other words, it is still necessary for a native speaker to proofread the translation. However, it is much better than starting a translation from scratch. From my experience, It also reduces the time needed for proofreading by at least 50%.
A thumbs up once again to Google for thinking of another cool way to make our lives easier.
Tags: entrepreneurship, Productivity, starting a small business, Technology
Keeping costs down in the first year or two of operations is crucial for any new start up. Since new businesses typically have small revenue streams, they need to stay lean, especially in the first year or two of operations. This is why having a ‘virtual office’ can go a long way in keeping administration costs down. What do I mean by a virtual office? It means essentially outsourcing all functions of an office from the phone number to the civic address to where you hold your business meetings. Read more »
Tags: entrepreneurship, lower administrative costs, starting a business, virtual office
At the last networking event for Edge Networking, we invited Patrick Depriest, an Internet marketing specialist to give a presentation on search engine optimization. The full audio presentation will be available shortly on our website. In the mean time, here is a summary of the key points he presented.
There are 5 key factors that determine how well a site is ranked on Google: Read more »
Tags: lead generation, search engine optimization, seo
Here’s a great tutorial from Google containing valuable pointers on search engine optimization. If you want your site to score high on internet searches, follow the suggested guidelines.
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I was out of action the last 3 days. No posts on my blog. No working on my business plan. No sleep until 3 or 4 in the morning. All this stress because of a trojan (malicious software) I accidentally downloaded called ‘Virtumonde’. It absolutely crippled my computer. Although I had a backup of all my important files, they weren’t the latest versions. I was also afraid of losing all my emails in the past year, which I neglected to backup. Read more »
Tags: open source, Technology, virus
There was a post on lifehacker a few weeks ago providing free access to a great “Small Business Resource Guide” put together by Sarah Gootnick. It contains information on everything from free anti-virus software to Voice Over IP to where to find virtual assistants. A must have for every start-up, so here it is in its entirety.
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Tags: guide, resources, SME
