I do a pretty brisk business translating for individual clients (anything from birth certificates through self-published books). It’s a niche that many agencies and freelancers avoid, so it can be a good niche to address if you’re interested. In this six-minute video, I give you some thoughts on what’s appealing about the individual-client market and how to dive in if you’d like to.
I do a LOT of translation with individual customers and, you are right, it has many advantages. Not least the fact that by cutting out the agency middleman, it is cheaper for them and a better rate for you.
I generally find individual customers to be very grateful. Many have had awful experiences with agencies in the past. After a while, word-of-mouth brings in a lot of work.
However, I would definitely avoid PayPal for large sums. With PayPal the money is never truly yours until the complaint period has expired.
I had one customer raise a complaint with PayPal a month after delivery. The pretext was an unimportant typo, which I had immediately corrected (the name of a subject in an academic transcript). PayPal refunded his money in full and no amount of explanation on my part did any good. The same kind of thing has happened to me with e-bay scams. It seems PayPal always protects the buyer, never the seller.
I usually take payment in cash from individuals. Most of the translations are certified and in the country I work in that means they have to be on paper, so the customer picks them up. Bank transfer is the other option, of course.
@ Marc
Unfortunately, PayPal’s job is to protect the buyer, not to seller, if it wants to retain its customers, and the fact is that there will always be clients who are unreasonable and/or idiots. Cash is better than PayPal, but with PayPal you are not geographically limited and you don’t need to meet the client in person, two great advantages.
I once translated a mostly handwritten college transcript for a client who seemed perfectly normal but the client then called, extremely irate that I wrote in some fields [illegible name]. He could read the name perfectly well, he said. Well, of course he could read them, they were teaching him for 5 years.
So I told him that I would refund him the money, just to get rid of him, and I did send him a check for about 200 dollars.
I’d rather give the money back than having to deal with idiots.
Thank you, Corinne, for all of your helpful hints! This is definitely an income stream that is not to be ignored.
Such horror stories in individual translation. PayPal’s protection on buyers can be admirable at times, but getting the tail end of scams is very painful for freelancers.
Individual translation can be lucrative; translators will just have to watch out for scammers as well as difficult-to-deal-with clients. Asking clients to pay in advance will certainly increase the chances of getting payed for the project, and stating clearly about your fees and your requirements is a skill new freelancers need to master so that they can do it successfully and properly.
Great pointers again, thanks for sharing.
Reblogged this on JCU // Creative Writing Workshop.
Thank you, Corinne. I translate solely for individual clients–more specifically, for handwritten family heirlooms. PayPal is great, and I ask for half as a deposit before proceeding. (I only started this past year parttime, and things are going great.)
My question is for the official document market, how critical is the ATA certification? Are your clients looking for this? Is this somehow stipulated in the requirements for their official documentation?
Thanks Nick! Wow, that sounds like an interesting niche as well! Concerning ATA certification, my honest answer is that I don’t know how critical it is, because I always tell clients, “I am ATA-certified, so the translation should be suitable for any purpose for which you need to use it.” Entities like USCIS cannot require that *every* translation be done by an ATA-certified translator, because there are lots of language combinations for which there is no ATA certification test. But as to what entities will accept a translation from a non-certified translator in a language combination where certification *is* available, I don’t really know. Anyone else have thoughts on this?
@Corinne and Nick
I’ve been able to successfully certify translations without being ATA-certified myself and usually have no problem as long as the translation is being submitted to an institution or government entity in a common-law country with no sworn translators. I always tell my potential clients to get specific instructions from where they are submitting the translation to avoid any headaches down the road because, even though many places are not required by law to accept certified translations, they might prefer their translators be certified by an organization like the ATA, ITA, NAATI, etc.
When places request an officially-certified translation, I work with a Mexican sworn translator (I’m based in Mexico) with a government-approved seal and stamp who reviews the translation and certifies it for me. I just add this to the quote, which has never been a problem for my clients.
I usually only have to certify translated academic transcripts and other university documents.
Thank you for your video, Corinne. I like the way you are laid back, but still wholly professional. I feel like I am in your office and it’s nice to have some face time with you!
As a translator certified by the Judiciary Council of the state of Jalisco (called perito traductor) I really enjoy working with individuals, in my case, mostly students. It’s just like you say, Corinne, these people need help with something intense, important and crucial so it feels great to be able to get them on their way with that. I also ask for specifics, some of which are very interesting (that the translation be on official letterhead, that the translator be an “official” translator). For many cases, the requirement is that the translator be “certified” but there is no specification about by what governing body.
In line with Marc’s comment, word-of-mouth is a great benefit with these kinds of clients. Thanks! I’m looking forward to more videos.
Here’s a tip swiped from a translation agency specializing in immigration documents: do a Google Maps directory search for lawyers and legal firms that deal primarily with immigration and send all of them an e-mail offering your services (use merge mail options to customize the letter with the lawyers’ names). You might even want to do this with some colleagues in other language pairs so you can cover the most common ones that these lawyers deal with.
The translation agency that I mentioned above charges clients a mere $30 per page (and 50% discount for the first batch!), so you can imagine how little is left over for the translator! I say don’t let the middlepersons exploit you like this: go out and get the clients yourself!
Catherine