How to branch out into a new specialization or service

How to branch out into a new specialization or service

As we look ahead to 2026, many of us may be thinking about diversifying: offering a new specialization or a new service (interpreting, editing, subtitling, copywriting). A few newsletter readers have asked me about this, one of whom wrote, “I wanted to reach out because I’m thinking about branching into a new area (literary/book translation) while continuing to work in my current (unrelated) specialization. I’m curious about strategies for marketing such different niches, optimizing my LinkedIn profile, and managing the transition effectively.”

Here’s a list of six options to consider. I’m giving you six, because the best way to do this depends on a lot of factors: what the new specialization/service is; whether you can afford to take an income hit as you make this transition; whether the new specialization/service requires additional training, and so on.

1. Minimum Viable Product. Test the new idea in a low-risk way. Think of the smallest step you can take, and offer it to a low-pressure client who already likes you. For example, our aspiring literary translator doesn’t have to start with an epic novel. They could start by approaching a short story author who’s published something in a literary journal that they like to read. Get a feel for what literary translation consists of, how long it takes, the pluses and minuses, without giving up any of their existing work. If you’d like to start offering copywriting in addition to translation, pitch that to one of your existing translation clients. Offer to write one press release, or improve one page of their web copy.
2. The sidestep approach. Branch out into a service that is adjacent to something you do now. I’ve recently talked to a few subtitlers who are thinking of learning how to do SDH (subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing). If you’re an interpreter, have you thought about offering translation and voice talent services to companies that produce museum audio guides? If you love translating press releases, what about writing press releases in your own language? The sidestep takes a lot of the anxiety away, because you’re already doing a very similar thing.
3. Collaboration. Look for people who are a couple of steps ahead of you in this new specialization or service. What kind of help might they need from a junior person? Do they need someone to prepare files for them? Someone to create glossaries? Someone to run consistency checks on their finished work? This can be a foot in the door and you may learn a lot.
4. Make your own portfolio. Instead of waiting for clients to give you work, do your own work and show it off. If you want to do multilingual fact-checking, pick a public domain document, fact-check it, and write an article about your process. If you want to do SEO, improve your own website’s SEO and write an article about how you did it.
5. Volunteer for a cause you support, donating time instead of money. I have mixed feelings about pro bono work; it runs the risk of looking like you think your work is worth nothing. But here’s an exception: if you would actually donate money to an organization, or if you really support their cause, do a limited amount of pro bono work as a way to test the waters. If you just took a subtitling class, look up some causes you support on YouTube, and see if their stuff needs subtitling. If you have a friend or family member who suffers from a rare disease, find that disease’s research foundation and offer them a small amount of work for free.
6. Take the big leap. Get a graduate degree. Do a specialized certification. Enroll in a months-long class or bootcamp. Sometimes, it’s the only way! When I did my conference interpreting Master’s (after growing weary of seeing clients hire untrained bilingual people), I knew that it would be expensive and really challenging, but I thought (correctly, I think) that in order for clients to see me as legitimate, and for me to have the confidence to market myself as a conference interpreter, I had to get a degree in conference interpreting.

What about marketing multiple specializations or services?

Marketing a “portfolio” business requires some strategizing on your part, but it probably bothers you more than it bothers other people. A good rule in life in general: other people really don’t think about you as much as you think they do.

You also have to work with the options and constraints of your marketing platforms: you can put as many sub-pages as you want on your website (I’d do individual pages for each specialization), but LinkedIn makes it really difficult to set up multiple profiles, unless one is your personal profile and one is a company.

Here are three ways you could market multiple specializations (and again, very personal decision).

1. Go from broad to specific. Use a broad headline (“English to Spanish translator”) then narrow down, even if the specializations are a little disparate (“Patents/Intellectual Property | Non-fiction books”). Again, you’re probably more bothered by this perceived disparity than other people are.
2. Market different specializations in different places. For example, I would wonder whether our aspiring literary translator really needs to highlight literary translation on LinkedIn. Maybe just market that directly to publishers? Put it in your LinkedIn About section but not your headline? This could work particularly well if you want to translate or interpret for a creative sector: maybe market that on Instagram, or in a series of articles on your website?
3. Write a case study that combines your specializations. This probably won’t work for our aspiring literary translator, but it could work if you do something like UX (user experience) writing and NGO translation. “Improving user experience for a German NGO,” or “How I helped a Swiss NGO communicate its results in fewer words, with greater impact.”

If you’re thinking about shaking things up in 2026, I hope these tips are helpful!

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