Well, I started my activity back in 2009. I mean, loads of us, freelance translators try to become PROFESSIONALS, we like to think about ourselves like real divas of the linguistic and we love “transplanting” a text – even if in very painful ways – into another language. (I mean sometimes you need to, you really have to violate your language’s rules. Today I have a very large – and annoying – job to deliver, where I only have the source language’s strings length to write the translation into. These strings will appear in a highly complex machinery for operators, who will understand – or not – alarms, notes, commands. I mean, I have to abbreviate everything. Wo.y.und.st.an.fr.th.? (Would you understand anything from this?))
Anyhow, today’s topic is something even more interesting. My company and me. Since I am not my company. Actually I am, but I like to consider myself as an entity above the company.
Before I opened my activity, I let design my logo and used it in every invoice and in every e-mail, to let people understand, that they are not e-mailing with me, they are e-mailing with Kiss To Language (me, I know…you know).
Much more active people have bought immediately their domain for e-mailing and getting a website done under that domain. When I heard about a friend of mine – a very good friend of mine and a goddamn good translator from Italian and French into English. (Ach, even subtitler). So, when I heard that she has her own domain, since she started to work, I immediately wanted to have mine.
So I set up a k2l.biz e-mail address with info and jobs users and re-directed the e-mails to my gmail account.
This is, where the story begins.
First of all, why did I buy this domain?
First, because I want to have my peace in my private e-mail folder. I want to be able to manage my company, without being sucked into it completely. I can’t tell you, what is the big difference, maybe – probably – it only exists in our heads, but it makes a huge difference, if you are not available with your surname.name@gmail.com address, but you apply from an info@yourcompany.anydomain, you get and send out the jobs from jobs@yourcompany.anydomain and the invoices from invoice@yourcompany.anydomain. (and after a first period surely I would stop redirecting it anywhere, it would be only available for me, when I want to be available)
It gives you structure, you have the power of the labels of gmail to use with different users and you only have to pay for a domain, like for toilet paper in these times, so you really only have benefits….If you can manage it.
In a structured company there are people, who respond on 1 address. There is someone responsible for invoicing, someone for applying and for working. In my company these 3 people are me. Or I am them. So, “having only benefits” means to me after 2 weeks and 3 email addresses the following:
1. I get job offers for bidding into the info@ address, – they come into the gmail account after like 15 minutes. I control the offers immediately from my phone and can’t be bothered to click on them with the phone’s browser to apply with the phone’s touchscreen. Just delete them (miss outreaching to potentially new customers)
2. I send my invoices from the info@ address, but I send a copy to my gmail account, so when the customers come back to me, I respond to them from the gmail account – forgetting to switch the sender’s address to info@ (confusing the client…although the names are identical and they know me, it shouldn’t be necessary, it is only a click, I mean)
3. I directed the linkedin group discussions and association’s discussions to the info@ address, and since I control that from the phone, I don’t really follow any of them anymore (my biggest nightmare, that I will not know about something important or I will miss something in my business’ new ideas, etc)
It is my fault that I use the domain like this. I just should make the right settings. Maybe download firefoxes mailhandler or buy outlook to set up the different users.
Moreover I decided to rent space from another company – which also offers a safe connection – and I since am at Vistaprint, I actually just rent this email domain, I have no idea, how I could without a disruption take them with me and register for the same domain also a website. Ridiculous as it seems, I have NO TIME to ask them. (see: Time management)
This is, where my business eats me up, so I really just want to let it go to live its own life without disturbing me in the evenings, but to achieve this, I have to invest and invest and invest the most precious thing I have: MY TIME.
