Every now and again, I feel inspired to post a random freelance tip on my Twitter feed. I could say that these are Zen master-esque pearls of wisdom that distill in my mind over the course of a few years, but they’re more like out-of-left-field thoughts that come to me while I’m washing the dishes or folding laundry. Here are two for today; feel free to add a comment with your thoughts on them!
The freelance startup phase: give it time, or pick another business.
One of the most common laments I hear from beginning freelancers is that it’s taking so long to develop a solid client base. “So long” could be defined as anywhere from a month to the better part of a year, depending on the person’s situation. First, I tell the discouraged beginners that for the first year and a half that I was freelancing–a time during which I had planned to work very part-time or not at all, since I had just had a baby–I wondered almost every day if I would be better off getting a full-time job. After about 18 months, I still wasn’t earning a ton of money, but it was enough that I felt encouraged to stay the course. It took about three years of freelancing until I got to the point where I no longer considered the option of returning to full-time work for someone else. Looking back, that was a long three years. But here’s the thing: now, after almost 11 years of freelancing, there is no way that I could replace my freelance income if I worked at an in-house job, especially if I looked for something with similar hours and flexibility. Partially this has to do with location: if I lived in a major East Coast city, there might be in-house jobs that pay more than what I make freelancing and offer generous vacation. But in groovy college towns in the foothills of the Rockies: no way.
If you need quick money–and there’s nothing wrong with that…haven’t we all been there?–pick another business. Another mom from my daughter’s school recently told me that she was in that situation, and although she’s bilingual, in a marketable language, she started a housecleaning business. Within three months, she was bringing in a full-time income. Is the work intellectually stimulating, or creative, or self-directed? Probably not so much. But if you need a source of income ASAP, cleaning houses or walking dogs is a much better option than starting a freelance language business. And I don’t mean that in a derogatory way, since my fantasy sideline career is to become a service dog trainer!
Well-paying work is out there if you look for it. But most people don’t look for it; they wait for it to find them, and meanwhile they complain.
I’m not sure how much explaining this one needs: it’s all right there. Yes, our industry has its share of low-paying work and bottom-feeding clients. In addition, as freelancers we often take that aspect of the industry very personally, as if it’s a reflection of our personal worth. For more on that, see Walt Kania’s insightful post Charge what you’re worth? Please, no on The Freelancery.
But here’s the thing. There is so much well-paying work out there; even clients who are looking to pay high rates to someone who does a really good job. But those clients are too busy with their own work to comb the web looking for you. Maybe they don’t even know that you exist. Seriously: when I interviewed Joanne Archambault about how to find direct clients at industry conferences, she commented that a lot of her clients said that they never knew that someone like her existed, although they desperately needed her. You can go find those high-paying clients at their industry conferences; you can send them postcards; you can give webinars for them; you can write articles for their industry newsletters. But you cannot wait for them to find you, and meanwhile complain about the bottom-feeders and non-payers. It’s tough love, but there you go.
I agree with you Corinne – you have to hang in there! In my field (law) I had personal contacts with German lawyers I went to law school with – and even with those connections it took in some cases over two (!) years until I got their first translation jobs…
Great pieces of advice, Corinne! I experienced a similar situation a couple of months ago when I attended a conference on renewable energy and found out that there was no interpreter for the Portuguese speakers. When I wrote the organizers an e-mail to suggest that, next time, they hire interpreters, one of them admitted that she hadn’t even realized that they needed the services of an interpreter.
I, definitely, couldn’t agree more with you. Instead of complaining, we need to think how to attract those busy prospects. I know that it’s not easy, but it’s more rewarding than expressing my disappointment because nobody sends me work or, even worse, because nobody accepts my rates.
Thank you Corinne for these very encouraging thoughts. I’m about 18 months in now, and have hardly had any paying jobs, but I am slowly developping a small customer base and my exposure on the internet through social and business media. Thanksfully I have a day job to pay the bills at the moment, and I am not giving up!
Couldn’t agree more!
It’s really tough starting but I have decided that if you can’t find me, I will surely find you.
Thanks for the great article. And also thanks to the translators who help us to grow our business all across the world without language playing any barrier for the same. Thanks for motivating them.
Thanks for this, Corinne. I’m about 6 months into my freelance career, so I still need some patience!
Real food for thought – and superbly written to-boot. 🙂
i think you have mention situation of most of the translators. I am have also faced similar kind of situation initially but now everything is perfect and earning more then expectation.
Really enjoyed the post…one quick thought, which is that there can also be a middle ground for those who need a stable income; its possible to dip into translation little by little rather than jumping in all at once. I started freelancing part-time a little more than two years ago, and am still about a year away from becoming a true full-time translator (although even now there have been many weeks where I’ve put in 30-40 hours of translation work). Not sure what everyone else thinks, but it seems to me that there are definitely advantages to translating part-time before making the leap to full-time, depending on one’s situation.
If things keep going well translation-wise, I hope to be able to make the transition to full-time much more smoothly than if I had jumped right in two years ago. I will admit that I have a ‘full-time’ job as an English teacher that only requires about 20 hours of work a week, so that does help time-wise as well!
Yes Preston, I entirely agree and this is what I am doing too, although my full time job, is a ‘full’ time job (40+ hours a week), so it’s evenings and week-ends for me mainly… Hopefully one day I will be able to give it up and only live from my translations and private tuition…
Thanks for your comment; I do think that unless you have a significant savings cushion, “dipping in little by little” is the way a lot of people get started. As you commented, I think that the downside is that sometimes you can end up working two full-time jobs! Thanks so much for letting us know about your experience!
This is so true… Thanks for this great post.
Thanks, Corinne. Insightful comments and yes, one to three years was my time frame to earn enough. Thanks for the push to contact local industries to offer my services. Congratulations on your latest publication. NOTA will give it away as a prize at our workshop this weekend. Another note – again today I’ll refer a newbie to “How To Succeed As A Freelance Translator.” Of course, I’ll mention your blog. All good wishes, John
Thanks John; that’s excellent to know about the three-year period. I think it’s really helpful for new translators to have a specific time frame in mind!
Excellent article of encouragement! Thanks!
Underscoring the note about well-paid work being out there. In my experience, that’s definitely true. Thanks Corinne for reminding us to raise the bar!
And thanks Paula for concurring!!
This is a really great post for novice translators! I’m a student getting my master’s in translation via NYU, and so far we haven’t received any information about freelancing or starting our own businesses; there are no classes offered on these topics in the translation program, and I think that’s a mistake. Many of my classmates already work as translators and so they’re already established to a certain extent, but as someone making a career change, I’m having to work from the ground up and seek out this kind of information. Thanks for sharing your experiences!
Thank you Samantha! Feel free to share any of the information with your NYU classmates! I know that the NYU translation certificate program offers, or at least used to offer, some business practices courses taught by experienced translators. But there’s always more to learn, and thankfully there are lots of good blogs out there. Also, you might enjoy this post: http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2013/03/12/why-do-some-freelance-translators-fail/ The comments are much more enlightening than my original post!
Fab advice as always, dear Corinne. Another great post for my beginning translator students who are taking my Intro to Translation class at UC San Diego. Great insight. I completely agree with you — one must find the clients, as they are out there (the well-paying, fantastic ones). But one must be able to be found, too, so that’s an investment we must all make (good website, outreach, volunteering, SEO). Having high-paying clients isn’t something that comes easily. It’s a lot of work, but it’s very much worth it.
I enjoyed reading @Samantha Link’s thoughts on the lack of entrepreneurial advice in master’s programs. It’s quite a pity that we don’t give new graduates the skills they need to succeed in the marketplace. I think those skills are essential, and many universities are finally changing their curricula.
I agree wholeheartedly with your first paragraph Judy!
(re the second I’m on the “Don’t Know” category – an unfamiliar condition for me..)
Hello @Judy,
Thanks for your comments! When I initially enrolled in my current program, I knew very little about the industry and so the lack of business-oriented courses didn’t bother me. However, the more I become involved in the field via organizations like the ATA and researching for information, the more I am feeling the dearth of those courses. I’m signed up for Corinne’s course for freelancers beginning in August, and I’m also considering taking some business courses at the local community college. I have a translation mentor through the local chapter of the ATA whom I met with just last week, and she encouraged me to focus on how many opportunities are available for beginning translators now than there were just a few decades ago. I think this is true; we just have to find those opportunities and resources for ourselves sometimes, which is what I’m attempting to do.
I want to be a free lancer and this informative post has given me a valuable information. Thanks Corinne.
The tips are fantastic. I would love to share this to my friends and colleagues at the Southeast Asian Association of Professional Translators and Interpreters (https://www.sea-proti.com/).