OK, the first question is, what does she want to translate, exactly? "Documents" covers a lot of ground.

If she has specialized knowledge from a previous line of work, that might be a starting point for cold-calling (soul-searing as that is).

For commercial and/or technical work, she might want to consider putting her profile up on proz.com. That will be agency work (= not particularly well-paid), but that would at least be a way to build experience. Plus that site has a killer terminology resource. :-)

Also, she should look around for a local translator "Stammtisch". Translators are very helpful to newbies (and can often pass on jobs at better terms than agencies!!).

But I guess I have to come back to my first question: what exactly does she want to translate. They answer is not written in stone (and will change over time), but the more differentiated an answer she can give to the question "What areas do you work in?", the more she will be seen by prospective clients as being knowledgeable.

OTOH, if she wants to do literature, the foregoing  might well be absolutely useless (as I am almost totally clueless in that sector).

And she's welcome to email me if she has any questions.

The fact is that what we're experiencing right now is a top-down disaster. -Paul Krugman