Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / The Translator Who Built a 30K Side Hustle in Localization
Transcript
- Lucas: So, August 2026, and there's a woman named Aisha in Austin who's pulling in thirty thousand dollars a month from a side hustle she started with zero portfolio and zero clients. And she's not a professional translator — she's an IT project manager during the day. Luna: Thirty thousand a month? That's more than most full-time salaries. How did she get there? Lucas: She got into video game localization. That's the niche. She's fluent in Arabic and English, and she realized that game companies were desperate for people who could do more than just translate words — they needed someone who understood cultural context, humor, and idioms. Luna: So she wasn't just a translator, she was a cultural bridge. That's a different skill set. Lucas: Exactly. And she started small. She had no experience in gaming, so she did a few unpaid projects to build a portfolio. She volunteered to localize a small indie game on a forum, then used that as proof she could handle tone and nuance. Luna: That's smart. Getting that first reference is always the hardest part. How did she transition from free work to paid clients? Lucas: She targeted mid-sized game studios that had released a hit but hadn't cracked the Middle Eastern market yet. She pitched them a specific problem: 'Your game's Arabic version reads like a machine translation, and it's hurting your reviews.' That got her foot in the door. Luna: So she wasn't selling translation, she was selling a fix. That's a smart pitch. Lucas: Her first paid gig was a two-thousand-dollar contract for a mobile game. She charged per word, which is common in the industry, but she quickly realized that pricing per word undervalued the cultural work she was doing. So she shifted to project-based pricing, charging for the value, not the volume. Luna: That's a key lesson. If you price yourself like a commodity, you'll always be treated like one. Lucas: By her third month, she was making five thousand a month from three regular clients. Then she hit a bottleneck — she couldn't handle more work alone, so she started subcontracting to other bilingual freelancers she vetted. She built a small team of five, and that's when the income really scaled. Luna: So she moved from being the translator to being the project manager. That's a huge mindset shift. Lucas: It is. She still does the quality control, but she's leveraged her time. Now she's making thirty thousand a month, and she's actually thinking about leaving her day job. But she's cautious because she likes the stability. Luna: That's the classic dilemma. But before we dive deeper, I want to say — if you've been getting value from our episodes, whether it's a career idea or just a fresh perspective, that's exactly why we keep this show ad-free. Listener support is what makes that possible. If today was useful, you can keep it going at buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. Lucas: Yeah, it genuinely helps us keep doing what we do. And it's a small way to say thanks if you've been following along. Luna: Right. So back to Aisha — what are the biggest mistakes she avoided that others typically make? Lucas: The first is underpricing early on. She initially charged five cents a word, but she saw that experienced localizers charged fifteen to twenty cents. She did the research and moved to ten to twelve cents quickly, which still felt fair but reflected the nuance she brought. The second mistake she avoided was over-promising. She never said she could localize a game in a week when she knew it would take a month. That built trust. Luna: Trust is everything in this business. If you miss a deadline, you're out. Lucas: And the third was not investing in the right tools. She uses a translation memory software called memoQ, which helps her keep consistency across projects. That's a small monthly cost but it saves her hours and makes her look professional. Luna: Tools can be a game-changer. What about the workload? How does she balance a full-time job and this? Lucas: She's very disciplined. She dedicates two hours every evening and four hours each weekend day to her side hustle. She also uses a virtual assistant to handle emails and scheduling, which she started doing once she hit ten thousand a month. That freed her up to focus on the creative and management work. Luna: So she's essentially running a small agency. That's impressive. How does she find new clients now? Lucas: Referrals are her biggest source now. She also attends industry conferences like Game Developers Conference, where she's known as the person who can handle Arabic localization. She doesn't even pitch much anymore — clients come to her. Luna: That's the dream. She's become the go-to person in her niche. What's the long-term potential here? Lucas: The video game market in the Middle East is growing rapidly, especially in Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Governments are investing heavily in gaming as part of their economic diversification plans. So localization demand is only going to increase. Aisha is positioning herself to ride that wave. Luna: That's a smart long-term bet. What about someone listening who's bilingual but doesn't know where to start? Lucas: First, pick a niche. Don't just say 'I translate.' Say 'I localize for e-commerce' or 'I localize medical apps.' Second, build a portfolio, even if it's volunteer work. Third, network with people in that industry. And fourth, price based on value, not just effort. Luna: And be patient. Aisha didn't hit thirty thousand overnight. It took her about eighteen months of consistent effort. Lucas: Exactly. And one more thing — she recommends learning basic project management. Because once you start scaling, you're not just a translator anymore, you're a coordinator. That skill set is what allowed her to grow from a side gig to a serious business. Luna: So the takeaway is: find a niche where language meets culture, build your credibility, and then scale like a business. Lucas: I think that's a perfect summary. If you're thinking about a side hustle like Aisha's, the first step is to pick one niche and start networking today. It's all about momentum.