Getting started in the translation business is not as hard as it sounds. Obviously, you have to know the language you're translating from quite well, but it's equally important to know your own language too. If you're fond of writing and obsess over little details in other people's writing, then you're halfway there.

One useful side-effect I have found is that translation has helped to improve my overall level of Spanish. When I started translating Spanish over eight years ago, I started from scratch, going in to detail with the dictionary to find every little nuance. These days, certain phrases come to mind automatically as I'm typing.

That's not to say it's an automatic process: a lot of what I do happens at the level of meaning. I have to think very carefully about what the original author wanted to say and then think about how they would say it if they were to say it in English. You have to beware of thinking too literally or adapting the text so much that it doesn't resemble the original any longer. It's important to find a happy medium somewhere between those two extremes.