Taking Stock

Several of you commented on my Jan. 5 post about New Year's resolutions, so I thought I'd summarize how it's been going so far:

1. Marketing
   I have submitted one article, committed to two more, and proposed two to three other articles for various newsletters and blogs. Posting to this blog is also on track, although I need to develop a list of topics to cover. I attended, or have signed up for, networking meetings through March. While I've been trying to keep to my schedule for posts to this blog, I need to develop a list of topics I can use when inspiration doesn't strike. My Achilles heel here are the "cold call" e-mails. I've only done 4 and have some trouble identifying enough contacts to whom to send such e-mails.
   
   
2. Client Tracking
   The schedule I had set for myself is proving to be rather disruptive to my work flow. While I've tried to keep up with it so far, I'll switch to a fixed day of the week when I do that week's data entry and follow-up mailings.
   
   
3. Knowledge
   I attended the Introduction to Trados webinar and am working through the handout to prepare for the certification exam, which I am planning on taking in March. In addition, I've attended a couple of informative lectures, but no hands-on training. I've also run out of Spanish books to read and need to get to the library for more such reading material.
   
   
4. Marketability
   Besides working on learning Trados, I haven't done anything in this department yet. I am planning on taking the the certification exam at the American Translators Association's Oct. conference in Boston, but I need to start preparing for that exam.
   
   
5. Productivity
   I started training Dragon Naturally Speaking, but need to spend more time on that before I can really use the program. I've tried to teach myself ACT! as I go along, but I'm having trouble getting customized automation for reminders & such to work. Will need to look for a book on that software ...
   

Thanks for all your comments and encouragement. I won't bore you with frequent updates on the status of things, but I am planning to post a 6-month evaluation of my plans and their implementation by this July.

My New Year's Resolutions -- But Will They Last?

T'is the season for good intentions. So here are my attempts at New Year's resolutions:

1. Rev up my marketing by:
   
   
   
   • writing one outside article/guest blog post per month
     
   • sending five marketing e-mails per month to new prospects or people contacting me for the first time
     
   • keeping to a stricter blog schedule: every Wednesday night/Thursday morning
     
   • attending one networking event a month
     
   • adding one new page to my website (in both languages) each quarter
     


2. Better track clients by:
   
   
   
   • purchasing and learning customer-relationship management software (contrary to my earlier post -- more on that later)
     
   • entering potential clients in the software within one day of a new contact (e-mail, phone)
     
   • mailing brochure to such potential clients within 2 days of a new contact
   
   


3. Enhance my knowledge by:
   
   
   
   • learning Trados (now that I have the software)
     
   • improving my Spanish by reading Spanish texts twice a week
     
   • attending one training event/lecture a month on average
     


4. Increase my marketability by:
   
   
   
   • getting ATA certified in German-English
     
   • finding other translators to collaborate with
     
   • getting Trados certified
     
   • learning PowerPoint in detail
     


5. Increase my productivity by:
   
   
   
   • training Dragon Naturally Speaking and actually using it
     
   • learning to use software I own more efficiently (Trados, customer relationship, Dragon, ...)
     

I have started on a few of these already, but it will take quite a bit of time and energy to actually stick to them. Let's see how much of this I have accomplished by, say, June ...

Now I just have to find time to actually translate, too!