I went to sleep last night only after I had written a short e-mail to a person I don’t know.

That’s not utterly true. I know her through a collaboration with a middleman (a company) who asked me to translate this person’s business website into English.

The day I decided to send the email I had previously read an article in a Croatian business newspaper I occasionally turn to to filter out potential clients. Her name stood out as one of the winners of the title “Best woman entrepreneur in Croatia”. When I looked at the business associated with her name, I instantly remembered that it was her business that I had done the translation for, although she did not request it directly. I felt exhilarated and was sincerely glad to hear that. I can’t say that I felt pride, because translators of websites are not that visible and the business doesn’t necessarily have to flourish because of the translator’s aptitude with which the website was translated.

We shape the image by words and by the imagery we instill into the minds of our readers, who will eventually become clients of our own clients. We are made visible when we interpret and our presence is indirectly felt when we translate.

I sent the email spontaneously, not awaiting any response. How pleasantly shocked I was to find early the next morning that the addressed person replied. Somehow I could have known that words of praise would be readily accepted. The person thanked me for the kind email and went on to say how good it felt to be recognized in her trade, where the competition is merciless. She ended the email by wishing luck in my further endeavours. She sent the mail probably before business hours, a  few minutes before 8 am.

So, in a way, you show to others, your potential clients and those with whom you are working with or would like to take on more work with, that you care and that you follow what they are doing. You won’t keep what you hear and read about them you to yourself, but will share the knowledge with precisely those people who the news was about. Thereby you are not just sitting on the sidelines, letting the information reach you, but you send out this information to those who have created it.

This example also shows that if you congratulate and speak with words of praise and recognition, the recipients of this message will quickly get back to you, even if it’s just to thank you. They in turn might keep in their minds that you are a person not just willing to cooperate on pure business terms, but also want to relate to them and reach out to them when they experience success.

This is just one example I have in my portfolio of business practices. I’ll write about another one, which ended on a more sour note, later. Post of similar subject here: http://tralangia.com/communication/