Ever since the current recession hit, the economy has been doing strange things. While most freelancers I know are at or above their overall income goals, I’ve talked to numerous people who have gone longer than usual with little or no work. In my own case, my usual holiday slowdown (normally lasting from about Christmas Eve to January 2 or 3) morphed into almost no work from mid-December to mid-January. Another translator I talked to had absolutely no work for the month of July; yet another said that she had been going about one week a month with no inquiries at all.
For those of us who are usually as busy or busier than we want to be, a short-term slowdown can be more of a blessing than a curse. However, there’s a point where the feast or famine phenomenon gets problematic, especially when it motivates us to accept sub-standard projects or low rates out of a fear that no one will ever hire us again. Or, we start contacting our current clients out of desperation, trying to find a way to sugar-coat “Do you have any work for me?” so that it doesn’t sound so pleading.
The Wealthy Freelancer just ran an excellent post on this very topic, in which the author (Ed Gandia) stressed the importance of marketing consistently. Ed advises that every freelancer block out 10% of her or his time and spend it on marketing in order to even the work flow out. He makes the excellent point that “…even when you’re slammed, getting leads you can’t pursue is good for your self-confidence, which helps you keep your fees where they should be (and even raise them in some cases).”
Lately I’ve been trying to spend 30-45 minutes a day on marketing; I find it’s a task I can do even when I’m physically or mentally tired, so a small chunk of time in the evening works well. I have a spreadsheet where I jot down marketing ideas as they pop into my head, i.e. “xyz is marketing to Americans but website is only in French” or “Look for more clients in same niche as xyz current client,” then I take action on them during my marketing time.
Has anyone else tried methods to even out the feast or famine cycle?
I agree that a consistent approach to marketing is the best method to ensure a consistent inflow of work – what you described in your post is a classic “ant and grasshopper” scenario, and I admit that I am currently more grasshopper-like than I would care to admit!
As a consequence, my workload is erratic and my income is irregular.
I am keen to adopt your approach of spending 30 minutes or so per day on marketing. Hopefully it will have the intended effect and bring in a regular supply of work.
Another avenue to explore is “productizing” your services. In translation, depending on our specializations, we can often go beyond the per-word pricing model to come up with package offers that generate regular repeat business (monthly updates to a website, or pre-paid translation “credits” to be debited as customers send small bits of work your way are two kinds I currently use). Talk to your customers and see what their needs are. How can you “package” your services in a way that delivers value and convenience while encouraging regular, repeat business?
Hi,
I wonder what good tips could a freelance translator use for marketing. Maybe search for more direct clients? Increase income by teaching languages?
One great way to even out workflow is to have a side project going, something big that you work on during lulls in business. I got a graduate degree this way and know a translator who got a certificate in translation that way. I’ve also translated many a novel in the spare time between choice, juicy, well-paid non-fiction jobs.
A book-length translation is great filler work. There are all kinds of books (fiction and non-fiction, high art and trash entertainment). Book translating doesn’t usually pay as well as other translation work, but it’s great marketing to have your name on the cover of a book. And if you ask for and get royalties, there’s the potential for lots of money if you pick a winning book.
A book deadline is often many months away, allowing you to say yes to the best non-book jobs that come in from your regular clients, but to safely turn down yucky jobs. Since you can just fill your day with working on your book instead.
Another great filler job like this is contractual work. A translation contract with the government or a company that doesn’t pay as well as your regular clients, but guarantees a specific amount of steady work for a year or however long. It makes for a very stable income. I did this working maybe 20 hours a week for a year. It didn’t pan out for me because the govt. rate was so low. I kept having to say no to jobs paying twice the govt. rate because I was too busy with my contractual work. But the contractual work guaranteed a safe base income. If you don’t like the fluctuations, this is definitely an option to consider.
I also find a great way to even out the fluctuations is to translate more than one language pair. When business is down in Language A, it may be up in Language B. Global diversification, don’t you know!
MT
I would love to translate a book. How would I find work in this field? So far I have not been able to do it!
Katharina, that’s a complicated question, but in general I would recommend contacting publishers in your target-language country, who publish the kinds of books you’d like to translate. The first step in any book translation project is to find out who owns the translation rights for your language, whether they are available, and whether the rights-holder is interested in selling them, and it’s a lot easier to have a publisher do that than to try to do it yourself.