Having too much work is a good problem to have, but it’s still a problem. If you’re drowning in work, is it better to raise your rates, outsource, become an agency, work more now and take time off later, or something else? Join pricing and business practices expert Susie Jackson tomorrow (Tuesday, April 12) for a two-hour master class on What to do when you have too much work. Registration is $75 including the recording (live class from 11-1 New York time), and Susie will present a range of nuts-and-bolts options for anyone who feels overworked and is unsure how to make a change for the better. We have a good group signed up, and there’s still room for you!
The big chunk of time is never coming
Here’s a quick tip: That big chunk of time that you’re planning on using to totally revamp your freelance business is never coming. Literally, never. Instead, start with 15-minute increments:
✔️Ping one dormant client (THE most boring, and most successful marketing technique out there; trust me on this one!)
✔️Apply to one agency
✔️Send one LinkedIn connection request to a potential direct client
✔️Comment on one potential client’s LinkedIn post, blog post, etc.
It adds up. Let’s say you did this even once a week. You set the lofty goal of spending *15 minutes a week* on marketing. And let’s say you take four weeks of vacation a year. That’s 48 chunks of marketing work a year. How many freelancers do you know, who applied to 48 new agencies last year (almost no one does that). How many freelancers do you know, who connected with 48 potential direct clients on LinkedIn last year (again: basically zero). Don’t discount the incremental effect of these small efforts!
French to English contract translation: coming up next week
French to English translators: You don’t want to miss next Wednesday’s master class (Wednesday, March 30, 2022) on Translating contracts from French to English. The live class runs from 2 PM to 4 PM New York time (recording provided), and our instructor is Tom West, a well-known legal translator, lawyer, and dictionary author. Registration is $75, and Tom will cover both the theory and practice of contract translation.
Rates: do they fit your financial goals
Tip for today: the number one question to ask yourself when you’re thinking about whether or not to accept a given rate is, Does this rate meet my financial goals? I get a lot of questions from freelancers, asking things such as:
-“Is X cents a word too little to charge?”
-“Should I offer volume discounts to clients with large projects?”
-“What should I do if a client tells me I have to decrease my rates by 10%?”
The factual answer to all of these is, I don’t know, because the real question is, does this rate meet your financial goals? Step one is to get clear on your financial goals, in as precise a way as possible. For example I can tell you that my financial goal is to earn about $90 an hour, billing about 25 hours a week, 48 weeks a year, which gives me a gross income of US $108K. That doesn’t mean working 25 hours a week, it means billing 25 hours a week; things like marketing, accounting, professional development, giving quotes, writing this newsletter, are all non-billable time, on top of the time I’m getting paid to work for clients. Knowing this information makes it a lot easier to say no to projects that don’t fit my financial goals.
If you have no idea what those numbers (required hourly rate, number of billable hours per week, etc.) are in your business, here’s a simple worksheet that you can use as a starting point. That link will allow you to download the worksheet. It’s not comprehensive, but it will help you start answering this question about rates that fit your financial goals.
Sizzling syntax and Spanish to English translation: coming up!
Training for Translators has two great classes coming up in the next week.
-This Friday, March 11, Joachim Lépine teaches a two-hour master class, Sizzling syntax for into-English translators. If you’re looking to take your into-English translations from bland to spicy, you need this class! The live class runs from 1:30-3:30 PM New York time, recording provided, and registration is $75.
-From March 14 (next Monday) to April 14, Holly Mikkelson, Professor Emerita at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey, teaches Spanish to English translation workshop, a four-week course with eight live sessions focusing on legal and international trade translation. $190, recordings provided.
When you take a class with us in March, $5 of your registration fee will be donated to World Central Kitchen, an organization that provides emergency food relief in crisis zones, currently in Ukraine. We’ve already donated $415 on behalf of the 83 people in our March Marketing Madness challenge group, and we’re looking forward to more!