Links

As we wrap up the week, here are a few links I’d recommend!

• Don’t quit your job to chase your dreams until you’ve read this, an excellent post from ProBlogger. I agree with ProBlogger on this one: whenever I have students who say, “That’s it! I’m giving my two weeks notice and failure is not an option!,” I feel equally excited and terrified for them. This article includes a really balanced look at how to decide whether to quit your job and freelance full time (just replace “start a blog” with “start a translation/interpreting business,” and this article applies to us too).
• Tracking your freelance income and expenses, a very helpful article from Freelance Taxation.com. Horrifyingly enough, another tax season will be here soon, and this article includes some excellent thoughts on income tracking methods (Excel versus QuickBooks, for example), and emphasizes the need to completely separate your business and personal finances.
• Pleasantly persistent, a great article on The Muse, about how to follow up without making people want to block your e-mail address. Following up with potential clients is both important and tricky; I agree with this article that I *hate it* when someone who sent me an unsolicited marketing e-mail then follows up by saying, “I haven’t heard back from you and would really appreciate a response either way.” Mmmm, sorry…when I didn’t ask for your e-mail, you don’t get to coerce me into responding. At the same time, there are *really useful and helpful* ways to follow up, and this article highlights a few of those.
• I’ve talked before about the benefits of Do It Days (and I need to write a blog post about them!), and I noticed that the Get it Done Guy, Stever Robbins, is now offering free group Do It Days that you can sign up for online. It looks as if the fall series is now over, but you can sign up to be notified of future days, and that page also includes a great description of what Do it Days are.
• How to build a six-figure translation business by increasing your productivity, an interview on Marketing Tips for Translators, where Tess Whitty interviews French to English translator Jenae Spry. Lots of great ideas here, especially if you’ve been toying with the idea of using speech recognition.
• Lastly, my final online course of 2016, Getting Started as a Freelance Translator, starts Monday, and I have three spots left. The course price will increase from $355 to $380 after this, so it’s a good time to join if you’ve been considering it!

If you’re looking for some interesting reading/listening, I recommend:

• Paula Arturo’s blog post on earning six figures as a Latin America-based translator. I *love* this post, and I think anyone who’s ever said, “I can’t make much money as a translator because…” should read it.
• Tess Whitty’s blog post on using LinkedIn to find translation clients. I’m one of those people who uses LinkedIn very haphazardly and inefficiently, so I need this advice!
• The Smart Passive Income podcast reader success story interview with Carrie Clark, a speech therapist who has built a thriving business creating information products for other speech therapists. Interesting information on how to create information products for other people who do what you do.
• Carol Tice’s blog post on three types of people who fail as freelance writers (the undisciplined, the emotionally fragile, and those not fluent in English…sound familiar??).
• The Penny Hoarder’s blog post on productivity tips for freelancing parents. A reader of my blog recently asked for tips for freelancing parents of very young kids, and this article has some excellent ones.