Training for Translators

Classes for translators and interpreters


Corinne McKay

New podcast: Translation memory tools and their use (or not)

Eve Bodeux and I just released a new episode of our podcast, Speaking of Translation. In this episode, we discuss computer-assisted translation tools. What are CAT tools? What are they useful for? When are they not useful? What flavors of CAT tools are out there for translators to choose from? How do TM tools differ from MT tools?

Links mentioned in this episode (note: none of these are affiliate links):


Corinne McKay

Upcoming online courses: English to Spanish legal translation; Organization and productivity

I have two brand-new online courses coming up in September; after 12+ years of offering business skills courses for translators, I decided earlier this year to branch out into other areas. The inaugural course in that vein, French to English translation workshop–taught by Michele Hansen, Judy Lyons, Karen Tkaczyk and Tom West–sold out and received very positive reviews from the students (“Better than many of the courses in my MA program”). I’m excited to build on that with these two upcoming courses:

  • English to Spanish legal translation, with lawyer-translator-law professor Paula Arturo, beginning on September 4 (that’s next Tuesday!). Exclusively for English to Spanish translators, this course will help you become more knowledgeable about and confident in legal translation and legal writing in Spanish. Instructor Paula Arturo has 17+ years’ experience as a lawyer and translator, and the course will be divided into three thematic modules covering: comparative law, contracts and business law, and human rights and humanitarian law, which are the three main areas in which most legal translators work. Includes two weekly live sessions (one slide presentation and one question and answer session), and individual feedback on six practice translations. The course runs from September 4-October 16, and registration is $525. Registration closes on September 3. ATA members, use coupon code ATA for $25 off.
  • Organization and productivity for translators, with translator and productivity expert Dorothee Racette, beginning on September 24 (early bird discounts through September 10). If your freelance life feels like it’s dominated by stress and time crunch, you need this class! With Dorothee’s expert guidance, you’ll learn how to get more done in less time, while feeling happier in your business. There’s lots of cookie-cutter time management advice out there, but this course is exclusively for translators–you’ll learn how to create your ideal physical and digital work environment, how to set up an efficient translation project work flow, and how to minimize the feast-famine cycle in your business once and for all. The class runs for four weeks with two live sessions and one homework assignment per week, plus an individual 30-minute consultation with Dorothee when the course wraps up. The course runs from September 24-October 19, and registration is $365 through September 10 ($380 thereafter if spots are still available). ATA members, use coupon code ATA for $25 off.

I’m excited about these courses and the benefits they’ll offer to everyone who participates–lots of individual attention and expert guidance. I hope to see some of you there! And if you have an idea for a future online course you’d like to see offered, let me know in the comments. My November-December courses German to English translation workshop and Marketing to direct clients are also open for registration.


Corinne McKay

Breaking up with a client: how and when to cut the cord

Breaking up with clients–agencies or direct clients–is sometimes painful, but it’s a necessary part of a thriving freelance business: if a client treats you poorly, a breakup is a must. If you’re ready to move on to better-paying or more interesting work, a breakup may be in your best interest. Whatever the case, you want to think ahead of time about how to end the relationship in a way that leaves you feeling like you did the right thing. Let’s dig in.

When to cut things off right away
In some situations, you don’t want to worry about diplomacy or sugar-coating or not burning bridges: you just want the client out of your life. These include:

  • A client who does not pay you, or who unilaterally reduces your payment
  • A client who unfairly criticizes your work
  • A client who treats you in a way that feels abusive or harassing

In those cases, just cut the cord. “Effective immediately, please remove me from your roster of available freelancers. Please do not contact me for future assignments with your company. Thank you.” That’s it; you don’t need to say more than that.

When to give the client an ultimatum
In some situations, the client has just one problematic behavior. Perhaps they always pay in 60 days rather than 30. Perhaps they check in with you six times a day during a project. Perhaps they try to downwardly negotiate your rate when you’ve been firm about what your rate is. In those cases, it’s worth giving the client one more chance, but that chance must come in the form of an ultimatum that you are willing to stand by. Such as:

“Thank you for contacting me about this project. As I’ve mentioned before, your company has repeatedly paid me more than 30 days after the agreed-upon due date on my invoices. I value my relationship with you, but my payment terms are net 30, not net 60. I am willing to take on this project, but if I do not receive your payment within 30 days, I will not accept work from you in the future unless you pay in advance. Thank you.”

“Thank you for contacting me about this project. As we’ve discussed, my base rate is X cents per word. To save your time and mine, you don’t need to contact me for projects for which your budget is less than that amount. If this happens again, I will have to ask you to remove me from your roster of available freelancers. Thank you.”

“But they’re such nice people!” The worst reason for sticking with a client
If you, like me, have a bit of a doormat streak when it comes to breaking up with clients for purely economic reasons, stop what you’re doing and read this blog post by Carol Tice, on her blog Make a Living Writing (but it applies to translators too).

In this post, Carol mercilessly dissects the misplaced loyalty that a lot of freelancers have toward their clients–clients who don’t pay well, but are “such nice people.” She’s better at giving tough-love advice than I am, so I’ll quote her here:

“Don’t delude yourself that nice people who underpay you are still good clients. They’re not. They are sucking the life out of your business and putting your freelance writing business at risk of failure.”

That’s pretty blunt, but I agree: if you’re sticking with low-paying clients out of a sense of loyalty, you’re being loyal to the wrong side of the equation. You’re valuing your relationship with a low-paying client over your own financial security, your kids’ future, and your relationship with the people in your life who depend on you. That’s who you should really be loyal to–and that means working only with clients who will pay what you need or want to earn.

When to be eternally unavailable
Sometimes, breaking up with a client is unnecessary. In my experience the #1 reason that freelance translators or interpreters want to break up with a client is because they’ve moved on to work that pays better, is more interesting, or both. And that’s what should be happening over the lifecycle of your freelance business.

Before you write the breakup e-mail, as yourself if it’s necessary. With a direct client, it may be; most direct clients are not going to wait for you to turn them down 15 times before they find another translator. With agency clients, you may be able to just dodge their inquiries–or only accept their projects once in a while–while keeping the door open to working with them if you have a slow period or lose a major client. As an example, I know at least two translators who have taken in-house assignments that kept them busy full-time for six months or more. They decided that rather than burn bridges with their agency clients, they would simply respond, “Thanks for contacting me about this project; unfortunately I’m not available, but please keep me on your list!” And it worked; those agency clients enthusiastically sent work once those translators were available again. The same technique would probably not work with direct clients, but agencies (hopefully) have other translators to choose from.

Unilateral rate raises: make sure you mean it
Another situation that falls on the spectrum of client breakups is unilateral rate raises; when you inform a client, “As of January 1, my base rate will increase to X.” This is a fine–if abrupt–technique, as long as you mean it. As long as you are willing to stop working with the client if they won’t agree to the increased rate.

Problems arise when you backpedal. Let’s say the client responds, “Thanks for letting us know. That’s outside our budget for your language pair, so we won’t be able to work with you anymore. Just let us know if you change your mind.” That’s not at all out of the question, so envision that situation before you send the e-mail. The issue is that if you backpedal, the client knows that you were bluffing all along; it’s completely legitimate to tell a client that you are busy all the time at your increased rate, so you won’t have room for them in your schedule if they can’t pay more. But you really don’t want to pull a “just kidding” with a client once you’ve put a higher rate out there.

Annoyance fees: also worth considering
Another common situation is high-maintenance clients–clients who pay well and pay on time, but who take up a disproportionate amount of your time with phone calls and e-mails and special requests that exceed the bounds of what would normally be expected in a freelancer-client relationship. If you hate working with these types of clients, don’t do it. Life is too short and your time is too limited to work with clients who cause you to cringe every time their number pops up on your caller ID. However, another option, particularly with direct clients, is to find a way to charge the client enough that the annoyance is worthwhile.

I speak from personal experience when I say that this technique can work with clients whose budgets are ample and whose need for personal attention is high. For example, you might tell the client that your rate includes one five-minute phone call per day, and all additional phone calls will be billed at your regular hourly rate, in 15-minute increments. If you read this and think, “My clients would never, in a million years, agree to that,” I say, simply, “Try it.” If your direct clients work with attorneys or accountants or auditors, those people do not sit on the phone for 45 minutes without charging for it, and neither should you.

Readers, over to you: have you broken up with a client recently? Let us know how it went!


Corinne McKay

Freelance money mistakes you’re probably making…and how to fix them

I say “probably making,” because these are all mistakes that I’ve made along the freelance path–hopefully this post will save you from repeating them! Of course, everyone is at a different stage of freelance financial management; if you answer no, no, and no to these…great. That means you can focus on doing what you actually do for work, not worrying about money. But if you do need some help, read on!

Mistake 1: Not separating your business and personal finances
If you make one change to your freelance finances after reading this post, I literally beg you to choose this one. Where do I start…commingled finances are a rat’s nest of problems…a rat’s nest that you’ll be stuck untangling if/when you are audited by the IRS. Was that ream of paper for business or personal use? How about the lunch? The postage? Things get really messy when you only have one set of accounts. I’ve talked to freelancers who don’t even have a clear record of what they earned, because they look at their bank statement and don’t know if that $75 deposit was from a client, or from a personal friend who owed them money for something. Stop the insanity and (completely) separate your business and personal finances.

Do this: Open a separate set of accounts for your business. Even if you are a sole proprietor, just get a separate checking and savings account in your own name. This also frees you from saving receipts (say goodbye to your shoebox of barely-readable thermoprinted receipts) unless you pay cash for a business expense. Simply use the debit card associated with your business account to pay for all business expenses, and you have them in one place. Which brings us to…

Mistake 2: Not having a business savings account
In my experience, very few freelancers have a business savings account; they just deposit everything into one big bucket–their business checking account. I did this too, for about the first 10 years of my freelance career. Problems here: Most critically, you can end up without enough money to pay your taxes, especially if you unexpectedly earn more than you expected to.

A business savings account also allows you to create a paid vacation fund by depositing a set amount of money every week/month/quarter, then using that to pay yourself when you’re not working. You can also use a business savings account as a rainy day fund, in the event that your computer dies–which also happened to me–or you get sick and can’t work for a few weeks, and so on.

Do this: Best option, open a separate account. Second best, create a partition or earmark in your business checking account. Then, designate a certain percentage (I do one-third) of each client payment and put it in that account. Most importantly, do not touch it except for its designated purpose. The designated purpose can be, “Break glass in case of emergency.” I did that this year, when I planned to work for part of the month that my family spent in British Columbia, then decided that life’s too short and I didn’t want to work. Instead, I drew money out of my business savings account to pay myself. At the very least, do not get caught short at tax time: sock that money away in a business savings account.

Mistake 3: Underestimating how much you need to earn
This is a big one for many freelancers–in fact, I wrote a whole post about it. Lots of freelancers calculate their target income like this: “My last salaried job paid $72,000 a year. So if I work 40 hours a week, 50 weeks a year, that’s 2,000 billable hours, so to make $72,000, I need to make $37.50 an hour. That doesn’t sound hard at all!” I’m exaggerating here, but only a little. Don’t forget that as a freelancer, you:

  • Won’t, and perhaps shouldn’t even try to bill 40 hours a week. You have accounting, marketing, issuing quotes to potential clients, keeping up to date in your specializations, learning new software, attending conferences and webinars, and so on. Trying to bill 40 hours a week as a translator is a recipe for burnout. Let alone the fact that many beginning translators have periods when they would like to be working but have no work.
  • Have many expenses that a salaried person does not have. US self-employment tax is a pretty big hit at 15%; translators in Europe probably pay even more. Then there’s health insurance, which can be a very big hit if you live in the US. Then there’s paid vacation, retirement, computer equipment, continuing education, work-related travel, professional association dues, and so on. All of that is on you.
  • Are much more at risk than a salaried person if you get sick or injured and can’t work. Some translators carry disability or loss-of-income insurance, but most–in my experience–do not. Even something as benign as a sprained wrist, and certainly something critical like cancer, or a heart attack, or a very sick child who needs full-time care, can put you in a serious financial pinch.

Do this: Be honest with yourself about how much you need to earn in order to achieve a similar level of financial security to someone with a traditional job. Or, in 2018, maybe we should say someone with a traditional job at a place that treats its employees well. Not only do you deserve that, you need to put those safeguards in place if you want freelancing to be your “forever” job.

Mistake 4: Not incorporating when it would make sense to incorporate
Here I’ll talk about the US system, but I think many European countries operate in a similar way. Incorporating involves some paperwork, some hassle, and potentially some money in the form of filing fees and/or payroll and end-of-year tax returns. This varies by state; check your state’s Secretary of State website for information.

At a certain income level, incorporating can save you a bunch of money by allowing you to (legally) avoid paying self-employment tax on a portion of your income. Even one-person corporations to legally draw some money out of the company as “wages” (which are subject to self-employment tax) and some as “corporate profit” (which is not subject to self-employment tax. In my case, I pay my accountant to do my S Corp’s quarterly payroll taxes and end-of year tax return. That costs me about $1,000 a year, but I would estimate that even with that expense, I still save over $4,000 in self-employment tax because of the S Corp. The question is when it’s worth it to incorporate: I’ve heard $40,000 gross income, $50,000 gross income…it kind of depends. Talk to an accountant.

Do this: Talk to a knowledgeable accountant about whether you should incorporate, and if so, as what type of entity. A couple of pieces of advice here: if you use an accountant to prepare your business taxes, use someone who is an IRS Enrolled Agent (EA). This means that they can interact with the IRS on your behalf, and you should rarely, if ever, have to personally deal with the IRS. Also, note that the method I described above (wages versus corporate profit) can have some broader repercussions. First, your wages are a lot lower than your gross revenue, which makes you look as if you earn less money than you actually do–perhaps not the greatest option if you want to apply for a mortgage or other type of loan. Second, this may affect your level of Social Security benefits; if you are close to retirement or if you see Social Security as a major source of your retirement income, make sure you understand what you’re doing here.

Readers, over to you!! What’s a financial mistake you’d like to help other freelancers avoid??


Corinne McKay

How much marketing is enough?

When you’re actively looking for new clients, how much marketing is enough? I hear this question frequently, from beginning and experienced translators alike: beginners need more work, while experienced translators need better work. I’ll admit that I often give subjective answers, such as “Until you have as much work as you want,” or “Until you’re consistently meeting your target income every month.” Those answers aren’t wrong, but they dodge the issue: “enough” marketing is more, or way more, or waaaaaaaay more than most freelancers are doing.

Like many people who give business advice to freelancers, I frequently hear from people who are discouraged that their marketing efforts aren’t yielding better, or faster results. “I’ve contacted so many potential clients, and I still don’t have enough work.” One metric I often give: during my first year of freelancing, I applied to over 400 translation agencies, and it still took 18 months until I was replacing the income from my previous full-time job. Here’s a better answer; I found this in Jennifer Goforth Gregory’s book on business development for content marketing writers (not an affiliate link, I just liked the book!). If you’re having freelance marketer’s block, you should buy the book, and read Jennifer’s blog. Her posts on topics such as what to do when you lose an anchor client combine great advice about the freelance mindset with do-it-now advice on freelance marketing. I implemented a lot of the suggestions in that post when I simply wanted to make more money although I hadn’t lost any clients (it works!).

In her book, Jennifer puts some numbers on “enough” marketing, while commenting that many freelance writers think of 20-30 contacts as “enough,” when that’s actually very few. She recommends:

  • When you are actively looking for new clients, contact at least two new potential clients every business day.
  • After 50 contacts, you should have gotten at least one positive response (“We’ll keep your information on file.”)
  • After 100 contacts, you should have landed a new client
  • If you aren’t seeing results, adjust. Perhaps you’re contacting the wrong kinds of clients, or perhaps your chosen method isn’t working well, or something else. But if you are seeing those results, just keep swimming
  • If you are in urgent need of work–let’s say you’re new to freelancing, got laid off from your in-house job, or lost a client that provided the majority of your income–you should immediately launch a massive-action marketing plan. Jennifer’s blog features a guest post from freelance writer Holly Bowne, who contacted 139 potential clients in five weeks (using individual letters of introduction, not “Dear Sir or Madam”). If you simply don’t have enough work, you should be marketing yourself in every second you’re not generating income.

I really like Jennifer’s advice, because many translators make the mistake of expecting too great a return on too little marketing effort–feeling that after 25 contacts, they’ll surely be overwhelmed with high-paying, interesting work. Compared to when I started freelancing 16 years ago, two things are certainly true:

  • Translators at the low end of the market have a harder time making a living
  • Translators at the high end of the market face more competition

Back in the day (“the day” being the early 2000s; I started freelancing in 2002), things like meeting direct clients on their own turf, writing informational content for direct clients, and joining direct clients’ professional associations were novel concepts. Now, I talk to translators who run into multiple other translators at client-side conferences. It definitely takes more effort to break through the noise in 2018. If you want a definition of “enough” marketing to help you break through, Jennifer’s is a good one!

Readers, over to you: any thoughts on “enough” marketing?