3. Think international from the start

If your company has its eye on markets abroad, start looking for translation talent now. And once you begin producing texts for translation, give your translators as much lead time as possible.

Avoid culture-bound clichés. References to your national sport may well fall flat in another country or culture. Ditto literary and cultural metaphors. Tread carefully with references to parts of the human body, viewed differently by different cultures.

For written documents, don't box yourself in by linking your pitch to visuals that may not carry the same meaning outside your native country -- forcing translators to resort to cumbersome wordplay and workarounds.

Keep some local flavor if you like, but check with your foreign-text team to make sure that adaptation is possible.