Fourth quarter is usually my highest-earning quarter of the year, but the pandemic has done weird things to all kinds of sectors, so I decided to run some calculations on my income for the first three quarters of 2021.
As a side note, I’m currently running a poll on Twitter: is posting one’s freelance income statistics a) tacky, b) helpful, or c) tacky but helpful. At the moment, “helpful” far outweighs the other two choices with almost 62% of the vote; 8% say “tacky,” and 29% “tacky but helpful.” So, with 90% of respondents finding it helpful in at least some way, here we go!
Personally, I don’t mind posting my income, because I am reluctant to take business advice from people who won’t, or don’t talk honestly about a) their rates, and b) their total income. If someone talks about a high per-word, hourly, or daily rate, I want to know how much work they have at those rates (i.e. are they charging a very high rate that very few clients are willing to pay?). And if someone talks about a high annual income, I want to know how much they charge incrementally, meaning how much they work (i.e. are they earning a high annual income mostly by working a lot?). So I feel like it’s important to be honest about those factors in my own business.
Between 2015 and 2019, I held steady at almost exactly US $100,000 in income. In 2020, I landed a couple of new clients (and specifically, for the record since I’m always promoting the virtues of direct clients, one of my good new clients is an agency!), and online courses exploded in the pandemic, so I made about $110K. This is my direct income, and doesn’t include income that Training for Translators makes, but that I then pay out to my instructors (so far this year, that is about US $55K).
Here’s what I made in the first three quarters of 2021:
-US $32K from direct clients
-US $12K from agencies
-US $7K from individuals
-US $2K from book royalties
-US $20K from classes that I teach
-US $15K (profit, not gross) from classes that other people teach for Training for Translators
Meaning that my total income for the first nine months of the year was US $88K, or about $9,700 a month, meaning that if the current pattern continues (which, with the ongoing pandemic situation, who really knows), I’ll make about US $117K this year.
Some trends: Translation work has continued to be strong. A couple of my clients are working on large, ongoing projects that will continue for several years at least. And as I mentioned above, for the first time in literally years, I landed two new agency clients that pay well and have a lot of work. Both of those have resulted in more than $6,000 of work each this year. An intermittent direct client who I hear from once every couple of years came back with a $6,000+ project, a new NGO direct client has sent several projects of around a thousand dollars each, and online courses have continued to be strong. Additionally, $7K from individuals isn’t nothing, considering that those projects are paid in advance and are very low stress. The $2K in book royalties is essentially passive income, since at this point I do virtually no marketing for my books (to be honest about it!).
One of my main goals from this point forward is to do more interpreting, and my goal within the next couple of years is to be divided around 50/50 between translation and interpreting. Income-wise, interpreting makes up a small slice of my income ($5K so far this year), partially because I was so busy with my Master’s in Conference Interpreting program that I didn’t have time to interpret. Even so, the interpreting trend is positive: in all of 2020 I made $6K from interpreting and I’m already at $5K this year, and this month will be the first month that I’ve made more than $1K from interpreting, partially due to a couple of jobs for local law firms and some half-day assignments for the local prison system (really interesting and hopefully the subject of a future blog post!).
All in all I’m happy with how 2021 is going, and I hope this data is useful to you in your own financial planning.
Congratulations, and thanks for sharing! My expectation was “tacky but helpful,” but you swung it solidly into the “helpful” camp with all your interesting business insights! It’s amazing how diversified you are, and now you’re adding interpreting as well. Really impressive, Corinne! Your 2021 numbers align pretty closely with the numbers from my best years as well—except that my pony doesn’t know as many tricks (= all translation, and anywhere from 70% to 98% from direct clients).
Thanks, Michael! I think diversification can feel motivational (when one thing’s down, another is usually up) or like “all over the place.” Personally I like it. Looking forward to doing the pricing panel with you!
Thank you so much for this information!
Sure!
Thanks for the honest, straightforward breakdown! It’s extraordinarily important for freelancers to learn budgeting skills early on. When you are a recent college grad (not your case!), you may still be living at home or at least partially on your parent’s dime, so things like rent, utilities, car payments may not be expenses that are top of mind. As we grow as professionals, however, all sorts of costs emerge.. including the time we spend invoicing! Your contribution here is extraordinarily valuable in that context, as it helps us all know what to expect and where the boundaries lie. Kudos!
Thanks, Katty! Yes, I always tell people that I am very frugal but I hate worrying about money, so I want to have the same level of financial security as someone with a traditional job. That’s pretty much the foundation of my pricing and marketing strategy. Glad you enjoyed the post!
Thanks so much for your insightful post. As an in-house automotive translator, I’ve been working a steady 40hrs/week for 23 years now. I wonder how many hours/week you typically work to achieve such a solid income. I love your diversification of clients and now the added interpreting. Great Job!
Thanks for your comment! Oh my gosh, in-house automotive for 23 years??? If that hasn’t killed you, freelancing wouldn’t stand a chance!!
Hours: good question, and I should write a post about that too! With the exception of last year when I was working and in grad school, I don’t work crazy hours. When my daughter (now 19 and flown the nest) lived with us, I’d say a busy week would have been 40 hours. Her moving out coincided with the pandemic (lockdown: nothing else to do) and me going to grad school while still working, so last year I worked a lot. My classes usually started at 8 so I’d get to work around 7:30 and usually stay until 6, and I’d usually work or do school work for at least a partial day on the weekend; I’d say I was at 55-60 hours a week total which felt like a lot. This year (meaning since August) has been a lot more manageable: I basically work 40 hours but it’s limited to daytimes (rarely evenings, pretty much never weekends) and I’m also trying to take Friday afternoons off to get some chores done (stuff around the house, take car to get oil change, etc.) so that I don’t have to do that on the weekends.