WEEK 1:

1. What the vendor side does:

(1) receive requests;
(2) break them into well-defined chunks;
(3) manage execution per chunk;
(4) reassemble;
(5) deliver;
(6) invoice;

The job is not to re-debate whether something “should be translated.” The first duty is to deliver on scope, quality, and schedule. That’s the promise the LSP makes, and that’s the ground truth we should operate on.

How I frame ownership with clients: each client sees one single point of contact “me <—> for their project”. Internally, I absolutely will coordinate with the broader PM team, but externally the experience must feel unified. This model reduces confusion, supports clear decision-making, and ensures accountability.

Team topology (how work scales): an LSP serves many clients. Each client is owned by one PM team (and yes, one PM team can cover multiple clients). Resources sit with teams, and some resources are shared.

Thoughts:

• Define resource reservation rules (who can borrow what, when), and use a visible queueing mechanism so shared linguists/engineers aren’t overbooked.
• The fastest way for a vendor-side PM to fail is to blur accountability. Single external owner + disciplined internal collaboration is the pattern that survives pressure.

2. Rate Cards: Not “Barely a Card”

What a rate card is:
A confidential summary of rates by task type: Translation, Review, DTP, LSO, etc. (negotiated and agreed by both sides) (freelancer included).

Clients should never see other clients’ quotes.

leaking invites “are we over/under-charged?” distrust and damages the relationship.

Leveraged (Trados-style) rates: industry-standard because we leverage CAT/TM.

Three components:

• Base rate = fully new content
• Fuzzy rate = partial TM match
• Match rate (100%) = complete match
  Different CAT tools label the bands differently, but the economics are the same.

Activity 1.1: Spreadsheet First, Calculator Never

In future projects, rate cards will inevitably involve elements such as base/fuzzy/match ladders, per-language differentials, and task add-ons (terminology work, engineering, desktop publishing).

When managing these, the ultimate goal will be to build automation into the quoting process so the system can scale across 20–30 locales, rather than relying on manual calculations.

Takeaways: use formulas, replicate with copy/paste, and use checksums to catch errors.
My thoughts & extension: at scale, quotes are systems problems, not arithmetic problems. When I managed vendor quoting on the buyer side, I built a set of Google/Feishu Sheets that included the following elements. (Partially, just for future reuse):

• Named ranges + VLOOKUP/XLOOKUP for rate pulls
• SUMPRODUCT for fuzzy-band rollups
• Data validation for locale/task selectors
• Cross-sheet checksums (e.g., word-count totals must reconcile to source analysis)
• Cross-sheet references (Link data across different sheets (e.g., pulling figures from a “detail sheet” into a “summary sheet”) to keep info synchronized and reduce duplicate input.
• Protected cells to freeze business logic

What’s Important: SAVE TIME & ELIMINATE MANUAL ERRORS.

3. POs:

What a PO does:

• Signals formal intent to buy
• With Finance, locks funds so vendors can invoice against real money
• Creates the first half of the purchase
  What a PO must include: (1) what is being bought, (2) for how much, (3) delivery deadline; nice-to-haves include condition, delivery to whom/where, and a PO reference. Issue concrete POs downstream so freelancers feel safe starting work.
  PO vs Invoice:
• PO = buyer’s commitment to purchase on specific terms (pre-delivery).
• Invoice = seller’s request for payment for delivered work (post-delivery, referencing the PO).

4. Markup vs. Gross Margin

Definitions:

• Markup = % added on cost when setting the price.
• Gross profit = Revenue − COGS.
• Gross margin = Gross profit / Revenue.

Markup vs. Gross Margin

Thoughts:

• Markup is cost-based. It shows how much percentage is added on top of the cost to determine the selling price.
• Gross Margin is revenue-based. It shows what percentage of the selling price remains as profit after costs.

In practice, markup reflects a pricing perspective: how to set the price over cost, whereas gross margin reflects a profitability perspective, showing how much of the revenue translates into profit.

So…What Value Does an LSP/PM Bring When “Reselling” Translation?

Thoughts:
(1) Quality governance: define the bar, instrument it (style guides, termbases, translation memory), and enforce it through review loops (not just “find a translator.”)
(2) Risk management: coverage for vacations, bench strength, backup linguists, and shift handoffs across time zones.
(3) Engineering: preflight, regex extraction, placeholder protection, segmentation rules, TM cleanup, and DTP handshakes that prevent expensive rework.
(4) Vendor: finding the right freelancers (experience with the content and genre, domain fit, locale nuance), maintaining scorecards, and mentoring to improve over time.
When these are present, markup is earned. When they’re absent, markup is a tax. :)