Focus on the clients who can afford you

“Some clients can afford you, some can’t. Focus on the ones who can.” 

This piece of advice is so simple, and so important. I first heard it from Steve Lank of Cesco Linguistic Services when we were guests on a podcast more than ten years ago. Here’s how he put it (paraphrasing!): 

Just because a client won’t pay your rates doesn’t mean you’re too expensive, it means they can’t afford you. We all want things in life that we can’t afford, but that doesn’t mean that those things are objectively over-priced, they’re just not in our budget.

This idea came back to me last week, in the form of the Superpath newsletter (I’m very selective about the newsletters I read, and I love this one). Every month, Superpath profiles a freelance writer who’s willing to talk about how much they charge. This month’s profile subject earns around 90K per year working part-time (on purpose), and said:

I’ve never adjusted my rates in response to being turned down. There are some companies that can afford me and others that can’t, and generally I’m happy to focus my energy on those that can. 

Can we pause on that for a second? “I’ve never adjusted my rates in response to being turned down.” 

I love this, because it’s so easy to take price-based rejection personally, and to reflexively lower our rates. The worst? Self-inflicted discounts, where we lower our rates before the client even asks us to.

“Working is better than not working!” Except when it isn’t. 

One huge problem: we accept low rates, because we tell ourselves that working is better than not working. The problem: much of the time, that’s not true. 

–Low rates become a hamster wheel, leaving you with no time or energy for anything but churning out words.

People ask me, “How do you find the time to do (waves hand in air) all this other stuff: marketing, writing, teaching? I feel like I barely have time to brush my teeth because I’m working all the time!” My answer: I set my rates so that I can reach my target income with 25 hours of billable work per week, and then I market to clients who will pay those rates. If you’re translating/interpreting/writing/subtitling 40 hours a week, it’s not surprising that you have no time or energy to market for better work.

–Pricing is positioning. Your rates send a message about the value of your work and your expertise, and the tone of that message is up to you.

–Low rates are demoralizing. You think, “I went to school and honed my skills for years, to earn this??” When I’m working on a really challenging project or with a challenging client, and I think, “Am I getting paid enough to deal with this??” I want the answer to be a resounding, “Yes, I am!!”

But where’s the off-ramp? 

Right. All of this is nice in theory, but how exactly do you exit the hamster wheel if that’s where your paws are at right now? I think it involves three things:

1. Being really good at what you do 
2. Getting clear on who needs your skills and has money to pay you
3. Accepting that it’s going to take a lot of marketing to land better clients 

The language business has changed a lot since 2019. COVID, lots more people wanting to be freelancers, remote interpreting, ChatGPT, most agencies shifting to MTPE, now maybe they’re having second thoughts but who knows…it’s a lot to deal with, but I promise that exiting the hamster wheel is worth it. 

First, show clients how easy their life will be once they hire you. Most direct clients won’t perceive the difference between ChatGPT and really good human translation until you show them. Give them examples of where MT falls short and how you do better. Add in cultural factors: “A Japanese person would never say it this way.” Remind them that AI tools don’t provide any kind of quality guarantee, but you do. 

Second, don’t battle with clients who don’t see the value of your work. Lots of clients understand that quality work (of any kind) isn’t cheap, and they’re willing to pay well for it. I’ve recently landed several new direct clients, whose response to rates of $100+ an hour is, “We’re happy we found you.” They’re out there, and I’m not a unicorn; just someone with good skills who works hard. 

Third, you probably have to do a lot more marketing than you’d like to do, either in terms of volume, or in terms of the time you put into each pitch. I’m in the middle of my own marketing campaign right now; I’d like to land a couple of new content marketing retainer clients before the end of the year. 

I’ve so far marketed to 21 potential clients; I’ve gotten five positive responses, which is a lot, but each initial pitch e-mail took me about 30 minutes to write because I tailored it very carefully to the potential client. After a potential client expresses interest, I follow up with them about every ten days to two weeks until I get a yes or a no, and in each of those e-mails, I give them a new reason I think I’m a good fit for them or a new way I can help them. 

It’s a lot of work, and it’s getting a good response from potential clients. There’s definitely still good work out there!

Thanks, and have a great week!