Category: Clients
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 …
Working as a freelance translator means working in a bit of a vacuum. The upside: no pointy-haired boss! The downside: no on-location colleagues off whom to bounce ideas, and very little feedback on how you’re doing. If you work as an in-house translator, your work is probably reviewed by a senior translator or in-house reviser. Hopefully …
This post originally appeared as a newsletter to my mailing list; I’m reprinting it here while taking some time off from blogging this summer! Lots of us have heard the advice that “it’s time to move up in the translation market,” in response to changes in our industry brought about by–among other factors–technology and globalization. “Move …
“I get too much work from one client. Should I be worried?” This is a question I often hear from freelancers, especially those who work for agencies. Is a client that/who provides 50%, 60%, or even 80% of your income a problem? On the one hand, someone with a full-time salaried job earns 100% of their …
I wonder a couple of things about translation agencies. And when I say “I wonder…,” I mean that honestly. Not as in “most agencies do it this way, and that’s clearly the wrong way.” As in “I honestly wonder.” Here we go: Why don’t more agencies have in-house translators? The knee jerk answer to this is …
“I know I can do this job, but clients don’t want to hire me without experience. So how do I get experience without experience?” This chicken/egg dilemma stymies many beginning freelancers, and it’s admittedly hard to find a way out. High-quality agencies often require at least three years of experience, and they’re the clients that many …
“Can you give us a quote and a turnaround time?” As freelancers, we hear or read those words a lot: a client, or prospective client, has a document that they need translated, and they want to know about how long it’s going to take, and about how much it’s going to cost. So, when you’re on …
Eve Bodeux and I just released a new episode of our podcast, Speaking of Translation; here it is! We are also on iTunes if you’d like to subscribe to us there. In this episode, Eve and Corinne discuss how to identify, market to, and successfully work in non-traditional translation specializations. Drawing on their own experiences translating …
When it comes to marketing your freelance business, it’s important to cast a wide net. Taking an “if you build it, they will come” approach, for example by putting up a website and waiting for the work to start flowing in, is definitely not the way to go. But how wide should that marketing net be? …
Here’s a conundrum that I hear frequently from freelancers at all experience levels: agencies won’t pay my rates, and I can’t find any direct clients. What should I do? Well, let’s see: First, adjust your mindset. Tough love tip: if you truly believe that *zero* agencies will pay your desired rates, and that you will *never* …
