Herrero said for legal documents to be properly translated, which sometimes range up to 1,200 pages, the average delivery time is around three or four months. The goal of Precise Translations has been to get the turnaround time down to around two weeks.
“Important local immigration firms are hiring us more and more because they are happy with the turnaround,” Herrero said. “That is our main differentiator from our competition.”
Finding a local need
Because of the varied number of businesses and industries around The Woodlands and Houston areas, Herrero said there is a strong need for local services.
“There are people that come here from all over the world,” she said. “There are two parts of necessities, from the companies that are from Houston that do projects in other countries ... or the other way around, where employees get sent to Houston and they have to bring their families.”
Herrero said when families come to work in the United States from other countries, they often need documentation translated for themselves, their families to put their kids into school and the companies they work for.
Precise Translations also offers work for individuals and families needing documents translated.
“We love working with the big companies, but also the individuals,” Herrero said. “Some people have said other translation companies would not take their cases because it is too small, or just a few pages. We consider all clients to be important, and we are happy to be a part of this community.”
Diverse clients, languages
Herrero said since starting with pharmaceutical companies back in 2009, both her team and the number of languages they translate have grown.
While virtually any language can be translated through being a member of the American Translation Association, Herrero said locally her team primarily works with about 15 languages, including Spanish, German, Chinese, Russian, Arabic and Portuguese.
“Our [local] team of translators are specialized by industry,” she said.
Herrero added a common misconception for the need of certified translators is that bilingual individuals are able to translate the types of documents her company works with.
“They are not linguists; they do not know how to handle certain terms,” she said. “Each industry has its own vocabulary, its own way of saying and naming things. A translator is also a deep researcher, so they are trained for in-depth research of terminology and the industry, and that takes time.”
