I’ve noticed a trend, or at least a micro-trend, among the students who take my classes for beginning freelancers: more and more of them are interested in working with direct clients right off the bat. Typically, these are students who know that their language skills are solid; for example they currently work in a job where they use their non-native language all the time, or where translation is one of their job tasks, and they have significant experience in the business world, just not as freelancers. Is this a viable pathway? Is it a smart pathway? Let’s take a closer look.
In my mind, a translator has four core skills: language(s), writing, specialization(s), and business skills. In an ideal world, we’d all have those in equal measure. And certainly, some of those skills are deal-breakers: if your source language reading skills or your target language writing skills are terrible, you’re simply not going to make it as a translator. And in countries/regions where, when you say “I’m a translator,” it’s assumed that you have a degree in translation, that may be a deal-breaker (for better or worse, not the case in the US, where translation programs seem to be dwindling rather than expanding).
I’d also theorize that there are some market factors underlying this trend. The hardest market niche to break into is the middle; the edges of the market are easier. And in our industry (my take here…feel free to disagree), the edges are huge agencies, which base their hiring primarily or even exclusively on their own tests, and direct clients, who will trust that you can do what you say you can do. In the middle, you’re mostly looking at small to medium agencies, which often, and understandably, have barriers to entry such as three to five years’ experience, ATA certification or a Master’s in translation, and thus are not a great option for people with solid skills but not much experience. A typical student in this situation will tell me something like The higher-quality agencies won’t take me because I don’t have enough experience, and I’m not interested in working for the Wal-Marts of translation or they don’t need my specialization, so I’m thinking of just going straight to direct clients.
My honest answer to the direct-to-direct client question is “I’m not sure…I see pluses and minuses.” On the plus side:
- For translators who work in specializations that many agencies don’t handle (sports marketing, art history, nanotechnology), it may be the only way to pursue that specialization.
- For translators who work in language pairs with a lot of downward price pressure (English-Spanish, English-Russian, etc.), direct clients offer a way around the reverse auction scene that prevails on online job boards.
- I think that many direct clients are less concerned with formal qualifications than with what you can do for them: if you can solve their problem, you’re in.
But then again:
- To do this, you have to be really, really sure that your language skills are good enough. The direct client market is not the place to be working on your language skills.
- You have to get some objective assessment of your translation skills: if you’ve never done a translation that anyone else has reviewed, don’t start pursuing direct clients just yet.
- You don’t know what you don’t know, and that can lead to a lot of problems. Example: I recently translated a marketing brochure for one of my direct clients. When they sent me the pre-press PDF, it included a bunch of errors (text pasted incorrectly, etc.), and a tagline that didn’t make sense. But I never would have seen this, had I not told them to send me the pre-press PDF; things can go wrong when you don’t even know what to ask.
Wise readers, over to you: thoughts?
I took this path by pure happenstance (people asking me to translate things because I was living in a city with few English-speakers). I literally learned on the job, and would never want to employ someone like me at the beginning of my career. I was lucky: I had tolerant clients, constructive criticism and I learnt fast. But I also had scary moments where I was overwhelmed, and would have been grateful for the guiding hand of an agency (for example when managing larger projects with several translators, albeit into languages I was fluent in). If I were giving advice to my daughters? Two years minimum earning your stripes for some decent agencies and minimal rates, even if it means translating washing instructions for woolen socks (yes I have done that too!) and some kind of translation related qualification (I did study languages at least…). Old-school but ensures quality for future clients and restful sleep for the greenhorns! ; )
Thanks Galina! I laughed out loud at your comment that “I would never want to employ someone like me at the beginning of my career.” I think a lot of translators would say that about themselves, especially if you live in a country without much of a translator training pipeline (i.e. the US) or without a lot of native speakers of your language (i.e. Germany back in the day). But hey, it worked out…and I agree with your advice to your daughters. When I tell beginning translators about my first day as a translator (“I sat at the dining room table with my baby and the phone book, and started cold-calling agencies…”), I always stress that that is *not* the best way to to do it!
I totally agree with your recommendations for starting out!
Oh my … I hope your baby was sleeping, Corinne!
Like britbitch, from sheer ignorance I’ve known nothing but direct clients. It was where I started and where I am now. I wouldn’t know how to approach an agency. Five years on, more successful every year, and reading about other translator’s experiences, I wonder how I did it.
Hey, if it works, take it 🙂 Thanks Elaine for your comment.
I started with a single client, a media company in Mexico City that gave me magazine articles, and left that for a big agency that I’m still with when they stopped paying me. I’m going to start looking for my own clients this year, after 5 years with the agency. People complain a lot about agencies, but although there is a ceiling on what you can make, it really is good experience, and I’ve learned a ton both about the industry and also been exposed to an enormous breadth of material. I’m getting ready to move on, but now I know 1) what niche I like best and what I’m best at, and 2) what kind of client I need to work with. I’ve had some of my own clients over the years, and there are many that are best avoided in my opinion.
Thanks Matt; definitely true that agencies provide a wide range of experience, plus somewhat of a safety net. Thanks for your comment!
I always assumed that direct clients were the ultimate goal to being a successful translator, but the more translators I speak to, the more I’ve realised that there are pros and cons to working with direct clients (just as there are with agencies). I’m glad that I worked with agencies first because my previous work experience comes from working in a training agency, and I felt more comfortable establishing the relationships and asking silly questions. I feel like you need a bit more business know-know before you pursue direct clients, but that’s just me!
Thanks Natalie!
I worked as an inhouse translator for some time, then I started freelance cooperation with translation agencies all over the world, and both these things brought me great experience. When you are a newbie in translation, you still have to learn a lot, something that you can’t be taught at the university. In a translation agency it is the agency who is responsible for the end result, so you have a right for making mistakes (it’s a normal part of the learning process). When you work for the end client, the price of your mistakes is much higher. So I think it is not bad to start the career from working with agencies. It gives an insight in this business.
P.S. Your remark about “downward price pressure (English-Spanish, English-Russian, etc.)” is so true!
Thank you! Definitely true that “the price of your mistakes is much higher” when working with direct clients!
Translation is not such a simple task to perform. Translators who come from countries where local languages are influenced by English, often face a bigger challenge in finding some corresponding meaning of certain words in their local language. of course they can do their best to have everything converted pretty well but the issue is that the words influenced by English if converted purely in the local language may not be understood by the target audience as well. Now the issue is balancing between the client and the target audience. That is where the Four skills of language(s), writing, specialization(s), and business skills have to be utilized well. and the translator needs to understand the client requirements and to balance with what the intended audience would love to read.
Thanks Andrew, glad you enjoyed the post.
It depends a great deal on the context and type of translations you are doing, I suppose. I sort of stumbled into my career as a translator and haven’t found time yet to look into contacting agencies! But since I specialize in academic texts (history), and my clients have sophisticated English skills themselves, it doesn’t make sense to work with agencies. There is a back and forth within the translation process here that I value; I can’t imagine just sending off a translation and not having the author send it back with a few sentences tweaked for a final review. In a way, though, the authors themselves are my QA team, and I’m not sure what I would do if I were working with authors who couldn’t proof the final product themselves. (My terms & conditions specify that the author is responsible for reviewing the translation prior to translation or providing for a third party fluent in both languages to do so before publication, but I’m not sure that’s actually enforcible!)
Thank you, very interesting!!
Thanks for your insightful thoughts as always. I started as an in-house translator and continued for about half a year, and then eventually became a freelancer working with direct clients about 7 months later. It’s been 5 months since I embarked on this freelancing, direct-to-direct-client career path. Sure, it’s been a rocky road, and the pay has certainly been rather unstable since I haven’t worked with agencies which might more or less have provided me with a more stable stream of cases. The only two cents I have is: Don’t start as an independent freelancer (i.e. working with direct clients) unless you’ve already had enough money to keep you through when the workload is low…I learned this the hard way. I might have to seek an in-house position to continue my passion for translation and interpretation (my translation experience is about 1-2 years) as soon as possible.
I agree with your post Corinne and with the comments! I’m starting out – and don’t feel confident in my skills (both language and translation) to do direct quite yet. I am still learning things every day and that works well with the multiple person QA process that usually comes with agencies. I love reading about this and other posts (getting higher income, etc) for my future. But as a “newb,” I agree that working with direct clients is something for my future instead of now 🙂
I started freelancing part time in addition to working full time in another field, off and on for years. Now I’ve gone down to part time at another job and freelancing the rest of the time. This is working out quite well for me so far!
Good read!
Hi, could someone share what are best, success proof practice for finding, direct clients? Are there any lead generations sites, companies that can provide this service?
Thank you in advance. CA
Thanks, Carlos! I would recommend looking at associations for the industries you want to work with (i.e. bar associations, associations for international marketing agencies, etc.).