Carole Ogden, owner, Ogden Translations

Ogden Translations is a complete multilanguage resource. We are a team of well-established, native-speaking freelance translators providing quality affordable translations of all types of documents. Bilingualism alone does not guarantee written fluency or skill in translation. Our team comprises fluent native professional translators and writers capable of producing texts that read well in the target language. I have, for every language, two or three team members.

What do you do?

We provide multilanguage translations into and from many language combinations. We offer translations in 25 different languages and continue to add to our list. Our current list of languages includes French, Croatian, French (Canadian), Slovene, German, Old German, Polish, Spanish, Slovak, Italian, Hungarian, Dutch, Russian, Swedish, Estonian, Norwegian, Lithuanian, Danish, Latvian, Finnish, Bulgarian, Portuguese, Romanian, Greek, and Czech.

How did you arrive at the decision to open this business?

Being trilingual and having lived overseas a good part of my life, translating or interpreting has always been a part of my everyday life. I speak English, French and Spanish. I entered the field of translations 13 years ago as Sears decided to have its Craftsman tractor, tiller, and lawn mower manuals translated into “Castelian” Spanish.

Who do you serve?

Through the power of the Internet, Ogden Translations is a nationally available service. For example, one of my biggest customer’s plant is located in South Carolina. I provide technical translations over the Internet in more than 24 different languages for the publication of owner’s manuals for the client’s products.

What kind of need is there for your services in the Ozarks?

As we become a more global market, I can assist businesses and manufacturers with the translation of brochures, Web sites, procedures, employee training materials and manuals.

What has been your biggest challenge in business?

My biggest challenge has been to build the amazing team that I now work with. When dealing with all the possible language pairs, one must look for the experts who can accurately express the customer’s message in the specific field. I can’t stress enough that to be a good translator, one must posses the skill to translate not just the words but also the message. You can easily find unpolished work, but that isn’t the work that you want to publish as your voice.

What are some goals that you have for your company?

To expand the reach of our native language translations to companies throughout the Ozarks.

What are you doing to reach those goals?

The availability of professional native speaker translations, we believe, has not been readily available previously here in the Ozarks. Our linguists make a point of keeping their language skills up to par and as most of them are living in their native countries, we are able to continue to provide the latest and most accurate terminology translations available.

Tell us about your family and spare-time interests.

My husband works as a pharmacist and we have four kids. As you can imagine, we stay quite busy with all of their activities. It’s really hard to find free time with four busy growing children but when I do, what I enjoy most is to read and paint.