Whether to work with direct clients, translation agencies or both is a personal and business decision. I work with both types of clients and I feel that this mix keeps my work volume and income up while giving me a wide range of projects to choose from. Paula Dieli’s blog has an insightful interview with Peter Berends, the primary translator recruiter at LUZ, Inc. (a medical translation company). It’s well worth a read if you’re looking for agency clients. Here are some additional tips, and feel free to add your own!
- Target your marketing. As Peter comments in the interview, there’s no bigger turnoff than a generic, carbon-copied e-mail asking for work. The more personalized your e-mail is, the better. For example, something like “Your agency’s focus on the translation of annual reports caught my eye; during the 2010 annual report season I translated all or part of five companies’ annual reports and I would love to help you with similar types of projects” is much more attention-grabbing than “Dear Sir or Madam, I would like to offer you my services.”
- Don’t lump all agencies together. Yes, in general agencies pay less than direct clients and also add a middle layer between the translator and the client (which can be a plus or a minus depending on the project and the client). However, top-quality agencies pay respectably and can save you some of the administrative overhead that comes with working for direct clients. Just as in every other business sector, there are agencies that operate on the Wal-Mart model and agencies that operate on the Mercedes-Benz model.
- Charge real money and earn it. I think that a lot of translators eschew the agency market because they think it’s all 8 cents a word and 5,000 words for tomorrow. Insider tip: it’s not. I think that quality-conscious agencies know that quality-conscious translators save them money because their work needs less editing and they help keep the agency’s own clients coming back. Give some metrics of your quality: you proofread a hard copy of every translation (no missing text, no untranslated text); you compile a list of queries and send them all at once, allowing time to get the queries resolved before the deadline (no endless stream of e-mails to the already-busy PM, no file submitted right at the deadline with queries still outstanding); you always meet or beat your deadlines (no stressed-out PM having to make excuses to the end client).
- Focus on high-margin projects. For example if you actively seek out projects on which you can produce 500 finished words per hour and you charge 15 cents per word, you’re earning $75 per hour. I think that it’s also fine to let your agency clients know that you are most interested in medium to large projects, for example $500 or more. High-margin projects can also come in unexpected places, as I described in a previous post about translating official documents. Each invoice might be small, but on most official document translations I make at least 50 cents per word.
- Use the objective data that is available to you. Don’t market to agencies as if you’re throwing spaghetti against a wall; pick some agencies that mesh with your business goals and market just to them. For example, search the Payment Practices database for agencies that are rated highly by other translators.
- In general, target small and medium agencies. Not every big agency is a sweatshop, but I think that in general, large agencies are geared toward the high volume, low margin market. In addition, you’re more likely to find small and medium agencies that work primarily or exclusively in your specializations.
I have worked on both sides of the aisle – and also outsource a lot of work as a smaller “agency” (though I never call myself that). I think your comments are right on. There ARE people –even “agencies” — out there who will pay reasonable fees for good work. Who are, in fact, LOOKING to pay reasonable fees to people they know will do a good job for them and make them look good to their clients.
And, having also recruited thousands of translators for big agencies in my professional past, I would totally agree with the statement that it is a waste of time (as with any client) to just send out a zillion generic emails to agencies. You won’t get much response from people you’d actually LIKE to work with. Do the extra work to target your marketing and you will get a lot more back for the time you put it in (i.e. getting paid a good rate and working other quality minded professionals).
I also think Corinne’s tip on working with smaller to medium sized agencies is a good one. They are often focused on a particular niche and know their market and their customers very well, and are less focused on getting the cheapest translators out there.
I personally do not work with freelance translators OR agencies who say they do it “all” (any subject, any language). In fact, I run from them! That, to me, shows unprofessionalism, naivety about the language business and is a red flag for low quality.
Thanks Eve, it is great to have some information from someone who has worked on the client and freelance side. That is a great point (and I agree) that quality-oriented clients are actually *very interested* in paying real money for good work, I’ve even had clients say “We’re not going to nickel and dime you; we just want someone who does excellent work and is highly reliable.” And thanks for your point about agencies and freelancers who offer “all languages, all specializations, all the time.” There are freelancers and agencies who do many things very well, but I agree that it’s a red flag when someone can’t narrow down their range of services to what they are really good at.
Don’t spam us! If you’ve applied, it’s okay to follow up and make sure your application was received, but not to apply and re-apply every dang week.
And, when we DO contact you about an assignment, don’t start bitching about how you applied a month ago/a year ago/whatever and this is the first time we’ve called. Behavior like that and it will be the last!
Terena Bell, CEO
In Every Language
Thanks Terena for that viewpoint from the corner office 🙂 I agree, following up is one thing and is to be encouraged; resubmitting your materials over and over again is just annoying, and agencies deal with enough annoyances already!
Ha! I don’t know if I’d call mine a corner office, yet, but I certainly appreciate the compliment!
Great commets and tips. I agree with every one of them. I have also noticed that if you target your marketing from the start, show up in the right places and such, then the good agencies will come to you. That has happened a lot to me lately and I have been able to start putting them into a funnel of “ideal clients”. There are many agencies that I absolutely love working for these days, and others that not so easily slipping through the funnel.
Thanks Tess! I agree, working with agencies is really a matter of separating the wheat from the chaff (I like your funnel analogy!). There are definitely agencies that want the fastest, cheapest translators they can find but there are a lot of agencies that are focused on quality and are excellent to work with.
Thank you for your article, Corinne.
I found it really interesting. Actually, I have add it to the Quicksilver Translate Linkedin group, in order to discuss it.
It would be great if you also join our conversation.
http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=2566701&discussionID=19656257&goback=.ana_2566701_1273572959367_3_1.and_2566701_19656257_*2_*2&report.success=8yZhBZ7jgBud0L6JXgsAwLtbJa9-P3wJObHXv0gnfx3ndfc69shXr0h1GEWSE3PHXsH9DAgnuhf4nyHDq8
Kind regards,
Malena Robe
My advice to translators would be: In my experience, it makes sense to stay away from big agencies. Many of them see translators as “overhead” rather than as highly skilled and highly educated professionals who actually do all the work (other than finding the client). I still work for agencies, although I mostly work for patent law firms. I am also a mini agency – just about every month I subcontract translations in languages that I don’t know. I try to treat people who work for me on patent translation projects respectfully, and I always pay their invoices on time.
I don’t think that an agency coordinator, who is probably half my age, has any idea that I find it rude when he or she (usually she) calls me “Steve” right off the bat. Don’t we need permission from people we don’t know before we can call them by their first name?
Answer: Yes, but not when we are addressing cheap hired help.
(Incidentally, you can call me Steve as long I can call you Corinne).
Best regards,
Steve Vitek, technical translation since 1987
Steve (yes of course, you can call me Corinne!), I agree that large agencies do tend to view translators differently than small and medium agencies do. I just think that as Eve pointed out, small and medium agencies are much closer to their *own* customers and therefore really want to find the best person for the job. Personally I’m OK with people calling me by my first name (maybe now that I’m approaching middle age it makes me feel young; also sometimes they go with “Mrs. McKay” and that’s my mother!) but I do agree that a small or medium agency’s PM is much more likely to tailor an e-mail to one particular translator. Thanks for your comment!
Great advice Corinne, spot on. I’ve recently started working with a couple of small agencies again after 5 years of almost all direct clients, and am finding the experience to be very rewarding. I’ve also enjoyed the more collegial and relaxed interactions.
Something else worth bearing in mind when dealing with agency coordinators, although this certainly doesn’t apply to all agency staff of course: they may well be earning a lot less than you are, assuming they’re not unpaid interns and particularly if they really are half your age. (Although with any luck, they won’t be as quick to cast aspersions on us based on our age, as we sometimes are on them ;)) I found this in the UK a lot when I was starting out in the industry.
Anyway, none of this excuses (perceived) ill manners, but it does shift the power balance somewhat and muddies the waters with regards to cheap hired help, etc. Just some food for thought.
Thanks, Sarah! Great point about the translator-PM relationship. As I progress into the “double the age of the average PM” bracket, I do really try to keep that in mind, i.e. this person may not always “get” my side of the issue, but he/she likely works longer hours than I do and for less money. I do think it’s important to take the empathetic viewpoint that, as you point out, many PMs are right out of college and say/do the kinds of things that all of us did when we were right out of college. But yes, hopefully they’re more forgiving of our senior moments than we are of their twentysomething moments. Thanks for the comment!
Hi Corinne,
Great tips, thank you.
I have been working freelance only so far, but would like to spend less time marketing myself while getting work coming in more regularly. So I am considering signing up with a few agencies… with the fear that I might end up with a sweatshop. I have have never had anything to do with agencies so don’t even know the names of the famous ones.
You mention going for smaller agencies. But out of the thousands of agencies that show up on Google, how on earth do you identify the size of an agency from a website?
I translate French to English mostly and am based in the UK.
Kind regards,
Constance
It really is a disadvantage when you’re writing something especially when it’s to be done in foreign language. Doing business with something or anyone which language that you can barely understand can bring up a lot of communication issues. Hiring certain translation agencies may do you good. Computer translation are sometimes inaccurate and could lead you to misinterpretation. It is always best if you seek help from someone who masters that language.