Truly, bartering is a lost art – in today’s age, when the US dollar is worth less than the paper its printed on – bartering is the way to go.

Sit down, figure out what you have to offer and start trading!

As a graphic designer, it just amazes me how many freelance business (even some graphic designers–who should know better) don’t put on the professional front in their business identity. And it is so important if you want to win the contract or bid.

Something I tell my clients when explaining that to them is simply this:

“Pretend your bid/proposal/invoice is like a job interview. Would you wear sweats or some ratty old jeans to a job interview? Would they take you seriously? Nope.

You would look your best and try to be as presentable as possible and let the interviewer know you mean business.

Business Identity is the same way. You need to look your best so they take you seriously.”

That out of the way, I would note that I strongly doubt that you will see any response from the people being described, especially if they do not have an e-mail address. The first exception would be if your blog were syndicated into a traditional press periodical. It’s not that they are not, or would not be interested, it’s just that they are not participating in the community this article appears in. The second exception would be if a consumer of the interpretation forwards the article as a printout to one of the subjects.

I’m reminded of the issues of business executives, and secreteries with the release and development of the personal computers.

In the 70’s executives were not expected to be able to type. They would hire a typist, (or a pool of typists if needed) and someone who could take shorthand dictation, or if they were really pressed would buy a wire or tape recorder called a Dictaphone.

30 years later, it’s almost unheard of for a business executive to have a typing pool. Shorthand is very much a dying art. And the most direct example of a dictaphone, a voice recorder, is far more likely to be found in the hands of a podcaster or reporter than anywhere else in business.

It is very unusual to find an executive who is unfamiliar with using Power Point to prepare a presentation, even if most do not know the 10-20-30 rule (no more than 10 slides, no more than 20 min, and no less than 30 point typeface) much less the rule of not reading the slides as a script for the presentation. The slides should be treated as a set of subjects for an outline for a presentation.

If I were to offer a recommendation, it would be to publish a set of rules that you work by. It might go something like:

My first notice of a need for interpreters is a twitter message you can get a twitter account at twitter.com.

My second notice will be a detailed e-mail message explaining what I am looking for.

My third notice may be to people who are on my list of people to call, in the order of my choosing, and this option will only be used if sufficient interpreters have not responded already.

Acceptance of a bid to interpret will be reviewed and accepted or rejected based upon a combination of speed of response and professionalism being demonstrated by the respondent, then a determination may be made based upon the perceived ability of the interpreter in the field being discussed.

If you are not getting notices of opportunities, and would like to know why, let me know, and I will be happy to discuss the situation with you at my earliest opportunity.

Questions that the reader may ask are:

- What’s Twitter? and How do I get an account?
- Does Kelly have my current e-mail address? Do I need an e-mail address that could page me, or that has really good spam filters like a gmail.com account?
- What are some of the things Kelly is concerned with about professionalism? How can I improve my own professionalism in Kelly’s eyes?

As an observation, improving professionalism can just as easily mean improving reachability as the appearance presented in documenting what happened in billing.

If you send out a monthly, yearly, or other cycle periodical that your interpreter’s read, an article like the above, with the ‘rules’ and ‘processes’ you use, and go through examples. Then offer to help with classes, etc.

But then I’m tired and this may all seem to be an oversimplification of the topic.