Reach new markets to increase revenue with Levent Yildizgoren

Throughout three decades of running his localization company TTC wetranslate, Levent has seen countless companies attempt global expansion. Some have been successful and others, well, not so much.

Levent shares the biggest mistakes companies make in this process and has outlined a five-step formula for success called the LINGO model.

Tune in (or read below) to hear why you shouldn’t translate your whole website at once, the immense value of market research, and why, despite the many risks, expanding your company to a new market is still the best way to grow your business.

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Listen to episode 22

In the episode “Reach New Markets to Increase Revenue,” we discuss

• How Levent and his wife grew their business from a boutique translation company into a global service that translates into over 100 languages 
• The difference between translation and localization
• Why entering a new market is the best way to grow your business

• The two biggest mistakes companies make when expanding internationally

• The 5 most important steps to take before moving into a new market a.k.a. the LINGO model
• Why initial research, information gathering, and navigating the market are crucial to a business's success in a new market
• Why it’s vital to focus on your new market and support it with marketing and sales
• Why you shouldn’t translate your whole website right away when launching in a different country
• How Levent gets things done: hiring employees with the same values, saying no to micromanaging, and always looking for new solutions to be more efficient
• What’s next for Levent: working on his company instead of in it

Favorite quotes

“Because the moment somebody understands that it's a translation, that means the translator's task has failed. That should never be. For the reader, they want to read something in their own language and they want to get the message and that's how it should be, whether it is translated or written originally.” - Levent Yildizgoren

“When we are running our own businesses, most business executives, business owners, are too busy looking at the profit and loss accounts and trying to cut costs. Trying to make more profits by trying to cut costs. And sometimes we get too hooked up on that. And going to another market, expanding into another export market, is actually the best way to grow a business.” - Levent Yildizgoren

“In business, we all know nothing is guaranteed. I wish it was, but nothing is guaranteed. So until we take that step, we never know whether that's going to be a success or not. But I suppose that's the fun part of it anyway. The unknown and making it happen is the biggest buzz that business owners get, making a success of it.” - Levent Yildizgoren

“But innovation and creativity are so important. I love IKEA's model. Most of the user guides that come in IKEA have pictures on them because they sell in dozens of countries. They found that solution of providing pictures for instructions to put furniture together. How great is that? Why should a company spend money on translation or localization unnecessarily? I consider this as my job to advise them not to if I believe that it's not going to serve any purpose. And that is why I believe our industry, the localization industry, needs to be accountable to the customers because if it is not going to serve a purpose, they should not do it.” - Levent Yildizgoren

“But one thing, for sure, that I've discovered a few years ago, well, many years ago, is that having a good team in place that shares the same values and shares the same culture, organization culture, is one thing that I would recommend to any business owner or business executive. I have a great team in place that we share the same values. So the company values are so important and that's what keeps us together.” - Levent Yildizgoren

Meet today’s guest, Levent Yildizgoren

Levent Yildizgoren was born in Turkey but has spent the last quarter of a century

running a highly successful, professional localization service based in the UK.

His decades of learning about the pitfalls and prizes the export market presents are shared through Levent’s LINGO model in his book, Good Business in any Language.

He has helped companies do business in more than 100 languages!

Productivity resources to explore

• TTC wetranslate
• Free download of Levent’s book, Good Business In Any Language 
• Levent’s LinkedIn
• Get More Done podcast
• YouCanBook.me 

“Reach New Markets to Increase Revenue” full transcript

This transcript has been slightly edited for clarity and readability.

Ben (00:00):

From YouCanBook.me, this is Get More Done, the blueprint for managers to lead happy and productive teams. I'm Ben Dlugiewicz, and my mission is to help you stomp out inefficiencies so you can focus on work that will grow your business. How can you unlock more revenue for your company without creating new products? In this episode, I caught up with Levent Yildizgoren. For more than 30 years, Levent has been helping businesses expand into new markets with his company TTC wetranslate. He and his team are experts in localization. Using his lingo methodology, any company can navigate entering a new part of the world and increasing revenue. He shares the difference between translation and localization, along with the steps to avoid when undertaking a localization project. And we talk about his recent book, Good Business in any Language, all that and more on Get More Done starting now.

Ben (01:06):

Excellent. Welcome back to the Get More Done podcast. I'm sitting down with Levent Yildizgoren, the author, podcaster, and localization expert. So Levent, welcome to the podcast.

Levent (01:19):

Hi Ben. It's great to be on your show.

Ben (01:23):

Yeah, I'm eager to learn all about language and just globalization and all that good stuff with you. But before we do that, we typically start these with an icebreaker question. So the question for you, what's the best vacation you've ever been on?

Levent (01:39):

Right well, interestingly it was a cruising holiday we had with my family. At the time, my daughter was 13, my son was 17. And it was the best holiday. It was a one-week stay in Spain and then a one-week cruise around the Mediterranean. It was a brilliant time. Yeah. As I'm getting older now, and with the pandemic as well, of course, now that we can't take holidays... Yeah, that was the best vacation that I can think of.

Ben (02:16):

Nice. I'm glad it was good because I imagine two teenagers on a boat, probably, they're just grumbling and cranky. But as long as they had fun and you had fun, right?

Levent (02:26):

They had fun. They had fun and we had fun. It was great. Yeah.

Ben (02:30):

Awesome. Yeah. Yet to be on a cruise, but that's on my bucket list. So that's awesome. So tell me, how did you get started getting into language and translations?

Levent (02:40):

Well, it was a little accidental like most things that happen in our lives, like buying that house could be a chance or, not an accident, but more like an emotional decision rather than logical. And for us, I'm saying for us, because I co-founded the company with my wife. But initially, when we had our first child, my wife didn't want to go back to full-time employment but she wanted to do something. So it led her to form a little small boutique translation company translating from English into Turkish and vice versa. And that went on for a few years and kept her busy, a little income coming, connecting her to the working world.

Levent (03:28):

And around about 1995, this is going back nearly 27 years - who's counting? And so we had an opportunity to acquire another business. At that point, things started getting really a bit much for her to do on her own. And I always wanted to run my own business. It always appealed to me. I didn't see dollar signs or pound signs, but it was more like being in control of my and my family's future, being able to make decisions. Of course, you have to accept the consequences of your own decisions. But it appealed to me so much. So my wife and I decided that and I resigned from my job as a director of a printing company. In two weeks, I was working with her in, at the time, part of our living room because we had a job that was quite large and we didn't have any chance to book an office or anything like that. So we had to start working right away.

Levent (04:39):

And those were interesting times, now trying to remember them. And it was a time when we had a mortgage, we had two small children, and the UK was kind of lurking in the recession. And then now I'm thinking about that, that was a very courageous decision. But it wasn't a logical decision. We didn't run Excel charts and look at Google sheets, it was an emotional decision. We said, "Yeah, we want to do it now." And we did it and we never looked back. But looking at the circumstances, now, would I do the same thing again if I had two small children and the mortgage and the recession? Probably not. Yeah, so this is how it happened. We were doing one language and then we added other languages. We provide translation and localization services in over a hundred languages. And the company is going now....this is our 30th year. Yeah, so we never looked back. That's how I got into translation and localization.

Ben (05:45):

Nice. Yeah. The humble beginnings of you and your wife just scrapping together. Like you said, there's never a good time to start, but you just dove in and you got to figure it out. And in those early days, was it mostly just documents and things you were translating? Because I can't imagine that many people were on the web back in the early nineties.

Levent (06:03):

No, no you're right. And it was a user guide. It was a computer-based training for an automotive company. So we were translating their user guide and how to do this, how to check this, and to service this, and also alongside other documentation, more in the form of user guides, user manuals. And at the time, the web was just taking off. Having an email was a little bit of a luxury, but we always fancied technology. And interestingly, localization is very much connected to how IT is doing. So everything that's taking place in IT like artificial intelligence, machine translations, is directly affecting our business. And we're very much continuing to grow because we are integrating them into our processes. So it is very much like combining human talent with whatever is going on in the technical world.

Ben (07:08):

Yeah, totally. And with that 30 years under your belt, just more evidence of just the globalization of the world. And the world is becoming more of a flat place. I mean, obviously, it's not flat, but I mean, that's debatable for some folks. But it's really awesome to see just that track record there. So when we talk about translations, what's the difference between just translations and localization?

Levent (07:35):

Good question, Ben. That's a great question. Translation is very much taking one - say if you think of a user guide, taking its source language, which generally is English, into other languages and translating. Of course, making it understandable for the target audience. That's very much what the translation is about. It never is just translating word for word because that's the biggest worry for our customers or anyone who doesn't know the translation industry, which is perfectly fine. So it's making the content in the source text understandable for the target audience. That's very much the translation.

Levent (08:19):

Localization is a step further than that, making everything packaged in a way that the target audience never thinks that this came from another country. So it is getting all the nuances, all the formats suitable for the target audience. What I mean is that for instance, in the UK we use postcodes. But in the USA it is zip code. And the way you write addresses is different from how it is written in other countries. So even in the English language, localization is critical because a customer in the USA, if they don't understand the address, will not engage or they may not place that order. They may not do that last transaction, which is the critical one, for the company. So localization is taking everything into account, all the cultural aspects, language aspects, data formats, everything else, colors, taking all this into account and making the source text, user guide, marketing message, whatever that might be, available for the target audience. That target audience looks at the text and says, "Oh yeah, that's fine. That's great."

Levent (09:45):

Because the moment somebody understands that it's a translation, that means the translator's task has failed. That should never be. For the reader, they want to read something in their own language and they want to get the message and that's how it should be, whether it is translated or written originally. So this is the kind of difference between translation and localization.

Ben (10:12):

Sure. So it should just be a seamless experience for that consumer of whatever that is, not even knowing that it was translated. I love that point that you said if you can spot it as a translation, then the translator failed at their job to do that because they didn't take into account something, and kind of broke the mirror essentially with that. So that makes total sense. Now, why is it important for a company to embrace internalization? What is the benefit for them, I guess?

Levent (10:39):

What's the benefit? Good question. Ben, when we are running our own businesses, most business executives, business owners, are too busy looking at the profit and loss accounts and trying to cut costs. Trying to make more profits by trying to cut costs. And sometimes we get too hooked up on that. And going to another market, expanding into another export market, is actually the best way to grow a business. There's nothing wrong with trying to control the cost. I don't want to mislead or give the wrong impression to the listeners. It's very important to control the cost because we haven't got money to waste. We have to work really hard for the money we are earning.

Levent (11:30):

And most business owners, we work six days if not more. And the business doesn't stop at half-past five in the evening, so this is very common to work all the hours. So getting the cash is hard enough, and it's important to control the cost. But when we focus on that too much, we miss other opportunities. So growing into another export market is one of these opportunities. A great example is when Apple said, in 2009, "We are taking the iPhone to the Chinese market." Their shares grew straight away just on that point because the stock market knows that if a company goes into another country, there's a fresh set of audiences that have never experienced that product. So there's great potential, almost like doubling your growth. But for China, it's probably quadrupling your growth because of the millions of potential customers.

Levent (12:35):

So for business owners, business executives looking to expand into a new export market is one of the best decisions they can possibly make because of the rewards that it can bring to the business. And it's the same thing whether it's a product-based business or service-based business because there are very good examples of both making huge success internationally.

Ben (13:05):

Yeah. That makes total sense. Expanding your business globally and doing it effectively can signal more sales if it's done right. So on that note, what mistakes have you seen companies make when they're trying to do this? Or what would you say to avoid those types of mistakes to help save time, to be more efficient in this process?

Levent (13:25):

Very good question. Very good question, Ben, because working with dozens of customers over the years, we are coming across mistakes. Sadly, most of it was similar mistakes that companies keep making over and over again. That's what led me to write my book, having witnessed successful businesses growing internationally and seeing the benefit of them and also looking at some global brands and how they're doing it. The biggest differentiator between a business being successful and a business making mistakes seems to be the framework they're adapting or the lack of framework. So the methodology, if they have used a methodology for their growth, is that they seem to be a lot more successful than a company just heading into a new market thinking that what worked in our domestic market will work in any country. That seems to be the biggest, what's the word? Assuming that what works in your domestic market will work in another market, seems to be the biggest mistake that I'm coming across.

Levent (14:43):

The other thing is not following a methodology. When companies follow a methodology, take those steps, and often they are simple steps, but making this agenda and making sure that every single step is taken care of before they take the final step seems to be working really well.

Ben (15:08):

Yeah. And apart from having a methodology, what other things would a company need to consider before looking at localization or expanding into new markets?

Levent (15:18):

Yes, we both know this, it's not easy to earn our money. So before departing with any cash, yes, it's important to make all the considerations. I believe methodology is really important. And in my book, I talk about a simple five-step LINGO model. It's five steps. The most important one is the research stage, learning about the market. Is this new market viable for our product or service? Is it going to work for us to invest in that market? So that stage is the most critical stage. And on that stage, it is possible to evaluate or assess multiple markets. I'd like to expand into Germany, I could consider Austria because it's close by and also it's in German, so there are similarities. I could expand into Spain, Portugal. Why? Because they're so close.

Levent (16:22):

So the proximity is important. So it could be helpful at that stage to evaluate a couple of markets and then compare which one is more beneficial. Often this can be done through desk-based research. So yes, okay, it will be easier to go there and research it. That's fine. That's perfectly fine. But often that costs money, takes time, and you have to do a few more preparations. And often it's not necessary. We have Google for this. We can check Google trends, use a Google keyword planner, Google research to gauge the demand for that product or service. So that could be as simple as that. And once we establish that there is actually a market for this product or service, then we need to move into the second stage.

Levent (17:21):

The second stage is information gathering. And this is about analyzing the potential of the market and going a bit more in-depth to see what that is. This is essential for assessing the marketing potential because we shortlisted the company, because we did the Google research, keyword tool, and Google Trends, and then we say, "Okay, there's a demand for our product or service in that market." Now in that second stage, it's actually going a bit deeper. What are the marketing requirements? And what are the distribution channels? If you are a service-based business, will VAT be applicable to your services? If you were to operate in this country, do you have to register for VAT?

Levent (18:21):

This is the stage to look into all these details, to make sure that there are no surprises, because I know a company, just after Brexit happened, a company who sells to consumers in Europe, a UK-based company that is selling to consumers in Europe. Now after Brexit, VAT comes into the equation. So it's no longer viable for them to sell to the EU market because VAT is 20%. And by the time they add 20% to their prices, they outprice themselves and they couldn't possibly absorb 20%. So it strikes out that market for them all together. So is this applicable to you as well? So if it's a service-based business or product, what are the VAT regulations? And to understand all the steps is very important.

Levent (19:22):

The third step is navigating the market, which is the pre-implementation step. This is the step that you start planning. If you export products, this is the time to find local distributors or arrange storage facilities. And also time to decide is it best to work with distributors, best to have a representative, or to use an online marketplace? There are thousands of marketplaces. And a business executive, if they assume that it's just Amazon or eBay, it'll be a big mistake because there are country-specific, even product-specific marketplaces. For China, it's Alibaba and JD Digital. But if you're selling luxury goods, then there is another marketplace, by the way, which is also owned by Alibaba. But it's important to be aware of this.

Levent (20:31):

In Poland, there is a different marketplace that takes the tangible size of the country's marketplace. So just assuming that it'll be Amazon or eBay will be a mistake. This is why the pre-implementation stage is important, to look at all these systematically. I've seen an example, a rather bad example, of a very good company with an incredible product having failed in the Polish market because they didn't do enough research. They just bypassed step one, step two. They just went into the implementation stage because somebody said to them, "Look, this product will do great in Poland." And it was an easy mistake for them to make because their products sell really well in the UK. But for some reason, they didn't in Poland.

Levent (21:36):

Now, could they have found this out sooner or earlier? I mean, who knows? But the chances of them spotting this a lot earlier are very high by following step one and step two. In business, we all know nothing is guaranteed. I wish it was, but nothing is guaranteed. So until we take that step, we never know whether that's going to be a success or not. But I suppose that's the fun part of it anyway. The unknown and making it happen is the biggest buzz that business owners get, making a success of it.

Levent (22:19):

And the fourth step is going, of course, operational. This is the implementation step where all the previous three steps come together. And this is important to do in a timely manner. Companies that take too long to do this may lose motivation. The data they have may get outdated, or in worse cases, a competitor may step in. So it'll be so easy to miss the opportunity. So that stage has to be taken in a timely manner.

Levent (22:55):

And step five, the last step, is open for business, which is the running and monitoring step. This is, "Okay, the operations are going." It's important to monitor the progress and make changes to suit the changing circumstances. So it's not assuming that, "Okay, it started working now, it'll work all the time." Monitoring this is very important and then making adjustments as necessary. So these are the five steps that can be applied in any business, whether it is product-based or service-based.

Ben (23:38):

Wow. That LINGO model is very comprehensive. And in your book, you go more in-depth on that, that Good Business in any Language. And you mentioned briefly when we talked before that you have a free download for folks to check that out and that's at levent.team, is that right?

Levent (23:55):

That is correct. I'm very happy to offer this to your listeners, visiting levent.team, they can download a free version, a free ebook version of the book. And there are also a couple of goodies, totally free of charge. And also we have a Facebook group that any ambitious or curious people can go to. Because curiosity is so important, to be curious about finding out things. So the Facebook group is very much for that, where people can ask questions, listen to the conversations. And we put out some interesting posts about culture and language effects. So it's a platform for them to get started and, of course, ask questions.

Ben (24:42):

Yeah. It starts with that curiosity and I'm sure having that community of just people going through the process as well, because as you went through, that five-step seems pretty straightforward, but that's a lot of work that maybe some folks need to do and figure out. And one question I had on the back end of that ongoing upkeep, is that a business would need to constantly be marketing within that localized world now that they're entered? So that has to be a continual thing that they're working on?

Levent (25:10):

Absolutely. Absolutely. It's so important. I mean, one example that I heard and it makes total sense, is we know about Google. Everyone knows about Google, how big a company they are. And if I want to purchase Google AdWords and open an account and start putting money into the account, I can do it only with a phone call and it's done the next day. If Google is not taking any chances for my business and considering how big they are, how rich they are, then that sets the limits because if they're not taking any chances for somebody's business, then small businesses must do this all the time. And marketing and sales are part of that. So we've set in a country, expanding in the country, regularly advertising, selling, and monitoring the progress is so important. And I mean, if Google feels that they have to do it, then I have no excuse not to do it for my business.

Ben (26:19):

Yeah. It makes total sense. Now, what's the typical cost of translating a website? And maybe the ongoing stuff too, because I assume, if you are expanding into a new market in the new language, new localization, you may not have somebody internally that can help support that, so you have to go external. So what does the cost usually look like for that?

Levent (26:42):

Yeah. Yes, I mean the planning part is so important because most companies have websites and it takes years to build their website. And we have lots of information, we add information. Now the most important part here when it comes to getting a website into another language is that what is our purpose for translating that website, localizing that website for that target audience? I think some companies are missing that question. And what they do, the biggest mistake I come across: they want a quotation to complete the whole website. Now that is a big mistake. It wastes their money, it wastes their time, and it often doesn't serve a purpose.

Levent (27:33):

A company wants to expand into Japan or one of the European countries. Now, which product or service will they be marketing for their target audience? Once they establish that, they need to have their localization strategy built around that. Often a landing page may be sufficient if they're just going to test the market for one or two products. And they may have 20 products or even more. So what is the point of putting all the products on that website? That could end up confusing the customers. That's why the initial steps are so important that they say, "Okay, we've got these three products that we want to target for the customers in Japan. Why? Because it's the most suitable following our market research." Then building a localization strategy around that will save them a lot more money because they may need a landing page, a contact form and the order form all in the target languages, and the cost of that will be minimal considering what they have already spent on their English website.

Levent (28:54):

And most importantly, when somebody visits that landing page, they will have concise and fit-for-purpose information for them to make a purchasing decision. So the cost is normally based per thousand words. But I think when people stay on that per thousand words price, that's when they make wrong decisions. Because on most websites, there are thousands of words. The thing is, you don't need thousands of words to attract the attention of the potential customer. Now, once you do, once you are established there, now it is time to spend money. But that's perfectly fine because once there's revenue coming in from that market, then of course it is important and critical to keep providing information in that target language because customers are four times more likely to make a purchasing decision if they receive the information in their own language.

Levent (30:03):

So this has been proven. And if you look at global brands such as Apple, Samsung, Facebook. I mean, Facebook is such a big organization. Why? Because they appear in over, I think, 150 languages last time I checked. They appear in those languages. Take away the languages, Facebook will still be a large company, but not the world leader in social platforms. It was only because they came to that level by adding languages to their platform. So it is proven it really works, but it's important to follow a strategy so that there's no need to waste money or time to get things done unnecessarily.

Ben (31:03):

Yeah. That makes total sense to start small and maybe have a more focused approach with it because that constraint of that thousand words or just making your message more concise makes total sense. And that staggering statistic of four times more likely to make a purchase if it's in your language, that's phenomenal. And on that, is it also important to then provide support in that native language for those customers, or is that a bit too jarring, if it's not? Let's say I purchase on this Japanese website and I go and get the product and now I'm dealing with customer service that's in English. Is that ever a problem?

Levent (31:42):

I think it's so important that you mentioned that. That is so important. I think the product information and after-sales support need to be aligned. It's again, going back to the five simple steps. In these steps, this alignment is necessary. There are certain products that may not require this sort of alignment. But if it's a product, I mean, just imagine you're buying this expensive product and iPhones are really expensive. So you buy this expensive product, but you can't get any support in your language when you have a problem. Just imagine how disappointed that customer will be, and rightly so, because they bought this product believing that it'll work for them. And if it doesn't, someone will help them. So this alignment is so important.

Levent (32:41):

But innovation and creativity are so important. I love IKEA's model. Most of the user guides that come in IKEA have pictures on them because they sell in dozens of countries. They found that solution of providing pictures for instructions to put furniture together. How great is that? Why should a company spend money on translation or localization unnecessarily? I consider this as my job to advise them not to if I believe that it's not going to serve any purpose. And that is why I believe our industry, the localization industry, needs to be accountable to the customers because if it is not going to serve a purpose, they should not do it. And IKEA has a good solution for that purpose. But going back to your question, yes, I think after-sales care needs to be aligned with the information that was provided in the first place. It is so critical.

Ben (33:56):

Yeah. Just continuing that relationship and just understanding that you welcomed them in and now you can fully support them, that makes total sense. So I want to take a moment to just talk about your own personal productivity because you're a very busy guy. So how do you manage your day and do you have any processes in place to help streamline things?

Levent (34:17):

Well, I'm learning every day and I'm reviewing this every day because I noticed that there's so much new stuff coming up that can be useful. But one thing, for sure, that I've discovered a few years ago, well, many years ago, is that having a good team in place that shares the same values and shares the same culture, organization culture, is one thing that I would recommend to any business owner or business executive. I have a great team in place that we share the same values. So the company values are so important and that's what keeps us together. But even now, it's more important because we are all working remotely at the moment in our company. And so it is these values that are keeping us together.

Levent (35:17):

So for me, having colleagues in place and not doing any micro-management is so important for me because then I can get on with the tasks that I have in my hand. And I know that my colleagues are doing the same thing. If anybody needs any help, or if somebody makes a mistake. I mean, who doesn't make mistakes? What's important is that when the team member is feeling secure enough to come forward and say, "Look, I made a mistake. How can we sort this out?" And so having this environment I think is the most important part.

Levent (35:58):

And the rest is really trying to find new things. And one thing that I'd love to share is the colors that I started using. On my calendar, I'm using four colors. So previously, when I looked at my calendar, there was a lot of text. It's so hard to get, and you have to check each one, "What's this about? What's this about?" Now I've got colors. For personal, it is green. Any meetings that I have are red. Strategy time is black and any team meetings are in blue. So when I look at it, "Oh, got a meeting coming up, or..." So having stuff like that, I'm finding it very useful. But I didn't invent this myself. I learned it from another entrepreneur.

Levent (36:49):

So this podcast, I'm finding them very useful in that respect because every time I speak to somebody, I learn something like I did with you. You told me about this do not disturb feature on the Mac, which I didn't know. I didn't know that. Something simple, but it saves a lot of time. Instead of going to each application to turn off the notifications, I can just go to do not disturb and I know that job is done. So thank you by the way. Thank you for that. I think it's keeping an open mind, yeah.

Ben (37:28):

Yeah, absolutely glad to share some tips. And thank you for your tips too, because that color-coding the calendar, I think that a lot of people could find value in that because then it's a quick glance so you don't have to spend a lot of brainpower, burn a lot of calories to figure out what you need to do. To your point of having a strong team around you that can work autonomously and do the things they need to do to help out and have those shared values, that's great advice too. So what's next for you? What's on the horizon?

Levent (37:55):

Well, interesting question, Ben. Thank you for asking. In order to write my book, I stepped back from my company and one of my colleagues became an Acting Managing Director, that was last April. And October, I published the book, and then we said, "Look, guys, this works really well. So why don't we make this permanent?" So my colleague who was the Acting Managing Director now became the Managing Director. And I've taken a role more like a coaching consultant type of role. And I'm still working for the company, but working on the company, not in the company, and putting my expertise and experience into use in a way that is best for the company. So my colleague who is the Managing Director can tell me, "Okay, we need this." Then I work on that one. Or it could be somebody that requires similar services or sharing problems that we've been through that I can help them.

Levent (39:02):

So it gives me a little bit more time to do stuff on a slightly different level, which I'm grateful for because it is how we scale up. Doing the same job, okay, I love my job. I could do this until the cows come home. That's fine. But scaling up is even more fun because then I can see that my team is developing into roles that they haven't done before. And there's a great satisfaction to see the team around me developing themselves.

Ben (39:41):

Yeah. That's really awesome to hear that you are able to step away and step into a new role. And that's really great because a lot of entrepreneurs maybe don't have that ability because they haven't figured out how to delegate or get good people in those positions. So we talked earlier about the free download at levent.team, L-E-V-E-N-T.team. But where can folks go to learn more about everything that you and your team are working on?

Levent (40:06):

Well, thank you. Thank you for asking Ben. I'm very easily found on LinkedIn. I would be happy to connect with your listeners. Or if there is any question, they could come forward and ask me without any obligation, I'll be only happy to speak with them. And we have a website, company website, ttcwetranslate.com. That's on the internet. But LinkedIn is probably the best place for people to contact me. And I'll be only happy to speak on anything to do with international expansion, localization, or translation.

Ben (40:45):

Yeah, absolutely. So if anybody's looking to conquer the world, Levent is your man. You can find him on LinkedIn and we'll put the links in the blog post that we'll release on our site as well. So Levent Yildizgoren, thank you so much for your time and being on Get More Done. It was a pleasure to learn about localization with you. And I hope you have a good rest of your day and you have a good rest of your week as well.

Levent (41:05):

Thank you very much, Ben. It has been a total pleasure. It was great being on your show. Thank you for having me.

Ben (41:12):

Yes. Thank you, sir. Have a good one. Thanks.

Levent (41:14):

Thanks, man.

Ben (41:16):

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