I’m sure that any freelance linguist who has not completely ignored the all-important need for continuous professional development must already have come across the idea of niching down countless times.

Whenever I’ve been reading an article or attending an online session dealing with this topic, I have always wondered whether this is a realistic concept for my business, often feeling this will never work for me. I don’t even want to set myself such a goal or limit my client base to such a great extent.

If your native language is English or French – which both have pretty large markets to fish clients from – your niche will almost certainly already be narrow enough without you even having to think too much about making it happen.

But what about smaller language worlds like mine? Is it even safe to specialize to such a high degree when you are a native Slovak (Slovenian, Croatian, Flemish – feel free to add any other amazing smaller language) translator?

Niching down – yes, please!

Finding a highly specialized market area on which to focus can be an immense help if you want to establish a long and loving relationship with your freelance life. Just do what you love and let the joy spill over onto your work desk and feel it fill your whole inner self. You will then have nailed one of the most basic rules of lifelong happiness. Check!

The advantage of this approach is you’ll almost certainly become a recognized specialist in your field and, most importantly, you’ll feel like one, too. It will hugely boost your everyday job satisfaction. Plus, you’ll also know you’ll be making a difference in your small part of the market and be providing top-notch services to your clients at the same time.

Moreover, when you dive deep into your niche market, you obtain a fantastic superpower: the ability to watch trends and even predict the direction of your niche market. Then you can act upon it by customizing your services to meet the current needs of your market on the fly. 

Just do what you love and let the joy spill over onto your work desk and feel it fill your whole inner self.

Every marketer around will tell you that if you try to sell to everyone, you will sell to no one. I can’t argue with that, in fact, I entirely agree because it’s simply impossible to catch the attention of every visitor to your website or any other form of professional presentation. So, it comes as no surprise to discover that the way to recognize a quality translator is by watching them refuse the idea of pleasing everyone, instead seeing them set up some lines which are not to be crossed (ever again).

The way to recognize a quality translator is by watching them refuse the idea of pleasing everyone, instead seeing them set up some lines which are not to be crossed (ever again).

You might also find that while bathing in the rays of glory for providing excellent linguistic services to your narrow niche, your clients might quite possibly have fallen so in love with your work that they’ll stick with you for as long as they can.

Yay, you made it! Congratulations! I hope your part of the market stays stable forever (no irony intended).

Perils of niching down too much – lessons from the crazy C-year 2020

Back in normal times, I considered the biggest peril to me of niching down too much would plain and simply be of getting bored.

You try translating the subject closest to your heart for two weeks in a row or even for three months and you’ll know what I mean. If you have ever worked on a massive project or even translated a book, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Crawling towards the finish line of such a project always makes me feel as though my brain is about to crumble and once I’ve handed in the completed translation and am finally free, I’ll switch to another profession.

Crawling towards the finish line of a massive project always makes me feel as though my brain is about to crumble.

This is one of the most decisive points as to why I just can’t imagine myself being a translation specialist exclusively for fashion, machinery, ecology, or fiction. And the reason why I am grateful that becoming one is fairly difficult on the Slovak market.

We are slowly getting to the point of what influenced my thoughts the most while I was drafting this article.

It is the events of the last couple of weeks – you are probably getting sick of reading about this over and over again – but the financial instability many interpreters and translators are facing nowadays has troubled me deeply and provoked doubts whether niching down purely provides a translator with benefits and whether it is even inevitable to becoming a real professional.

What to do then?

Crisis and market turbulences such as these, once again show the importance of diversification in the services you provide and in the client base you are catering to. However, building a nicely broad and colourful client portfolio takes a lot of time, so there’s no magic bullet I can give you to make this start working from next Monday onwards. It is tough work. It does take time, but it is a whole lot of fun, too. You get to know lots of new people (even if it’s just online), explore a variety of exciting topics, and you can even incorporate many of the ideas you come across in this process into your personal life.

Building a nicely broad and colourful client portfolio takes a lot of time. It is tough work. It does take time, but it is a whole lot of fun, too.

I feel so lucky and grateful that such a strategy has always been a goal of mine and I instinctively followed it. Nowadays, it has proven itself to be a secure safety net that holds me above the rough waters of the current business world. And those who know me well, know that I don’t like swimming in unknown deep waters at all.

To wrap things up, I would generally say yes to niching down. Still, I most definitely do not recommend having just one area of specialization (tourism or book translation are examples of unfortunate choices because these are the most affected areas just now and who knows what the crazy future holds for our next journey). Pick at least 3 or 4 areas to stay on the safe side – and these should be as different from each other as they can possibly be.

I do not recommend having just one area of specialization. Pick at least 3 or 4 areas to stay on the safe side – and these should be as different from each other as they can possibly be.

So, to sum up, I do not imagine a niche to be a square with firmly set borders. I think of it having more of a circular shape, which I can expand and squeeze from any side depending on the situation. This is the secret of my ability to make it through the unforeseen circumstances of a freelancer’s life.

I wonder how your niche is doing these days? Have you recently learned something new, which will have a positive effect on your future steps in your role as a freelance translator? Feel free to share your thoughts and arguments – pro and contra – in niching down. I will be more than happy to read them!