Category: Freelancing
When I talk to freelancers about how their businesses are going (what’s going well and what needs to change), I often ask the same four questions: Do you have enough work in general? Are you earning enough money? Do you enjoy your work? Are you working too hard for the amount that you’re earning? As a …
Your first year as a freelancer is a time of overwhelming highs and lows, plus a whole lot of analysis paralysis (Should I work on my website? No, my resume! No, getting certified. No, my marketing plan! No, I have no idea how much to charge, so what on earth am I doing looking for clients…). …
Should you incorporate your freelance business? The information in this post is based on my knowledge of the US market, so these tips may or may not apply to other countries. Additionally, I am not an accountant or an attorney, and you should speak with an accountant or attorney for specific advice. When freelancers think about …
As the final week of 2018 dawns, it’s a good time to take stock of what went well and what could have gone better in your freelance life this year. I’ll suggest a few metrics that might help you assess how this year went, and then it’s time to set some goals for 2019. Most importantly, …
Note: this post originally appeared as a newsletter to my mailing list, but I received so much feedback on it that I decided to publish it here as well. Thanks to all the readers who responded with your own stories about health insurance! Here in the US, it’s health insurance open enrollment time, which means that …
Here’s an issue that several readers have asked about lately: What to do when a client treats you like a cog in the machine? A podcast listener recently referred to this as “dehumanization” in our profession. Examples may include: Applying to work with a client without ever interacting with a human–the application process is a series …
I’m still recovering from spending all of last week in New Orleans at the 59th annual ATA conference, so here’s a topic for all of you while I catch up on work and sleep: A colleague is weighing the options for working (or not) with small children, and specifically whether to take a sabbatical (stop working …
One of my all-time favorite quotes about freelancing comes from Walt Kania of The Freelancery: “Multiple prongs of income is a fine thing. (…) A few prongs is good. With twelve prongs you have a manure fork.” The question for us as freelancers is: Where do we cross the line between multiple prongs and the manure …
This is a guest post by Rachel Sinn, a Spanish to English medical and pharmaceutical translator based in Colorado. I asked Rachel to write a post on her experiences managing her freelance business since giving birth to her first baby eight months ago. Specifically, Rachel has managed to juggle motherhood and freelancing while using little to …
I hear, with some regularity, from freelance translators–or aspiring freelancers–who worry that they’re “too old for this.” Depending on the individual, “this” might mean: Starting a freelance business in general Pursuing higher-level clients Pursuing a new specialization or niche (i.e. transitioning from translation to interpreting or vice versa) Adding something like a new language to their …
