Love Your Work, Love Your Life: Make it Happen as a Freelance Translator (Part 1)

By Neil Maycock,
Tomedes Translation Services,
Sheffield, England
http://www.tomedes.com

Introduction

We decided to write this ebook in response to the many positive feedbacks we received from freelance translators. They told us we made their business so simple yet so different. They said that after implementing our methods, they started enjoying their working hours while doubling their output.

We believe you are already the best at what you do - you have all the skills of translation. Instead, we are going to show you how to make the best of your translation skills.

Be forewarned – at www.Tomedes.com, we think differently; some of the translators defined it as thinking outside the box. As you read the following pages, you will see how we are cracking down most of the fundamental assumptions of the translation profession one by one. So open your mind and give us a chance to help you expand your business.

We know your time is extremely valuable so we put this ebook together in a logical order with brief chapters. You can probably finish reading it in an hour.

We are offering this document as a free service to translators everywhere.

We want to help translators to make a positive change, so please forward this report, or the download link, to your colleagues. Then, register with www.Tomedes.com . It is totally free and takes only a couple of minutes. (It seems that translators can recognize a good product when they see one, because the large number of translators who have registered with www.Tomedes.com in our short existence has already outpaced our most optimistic predictions.)

The material in this ebook will help you answer crucial questions that concern many translators:

• Should I ever work at no charge?
• Should I charge more for rush, or urgent, jobs?
• Should I offer a discount for early payment? Should I offer a reduced rate for repeated words?
• How can I set realistic deadlines?
• Should I outsource my work?
• What payment terms should I ask?
• How to handle rude clients?
• And much more…

Part 1: Bids and Quotes

Working as a translator, you probably know that quoting a price is the most important part of the job, yet it is almost impossible to give the right quote if you have little to no information of the nature of the translation job.

We would solve this problem for you if we could, but at the moment, we don't know of an ultimate solution. We are going to give you some words of advice that may be worth a lot of money to you.

Did you know that only 60 percent of the professional translators work at it as a full-time job? Most of them say their business is a profitable enterprise, but less than half earn enough to make translation their sole occupation. Why? Because they forget they are translators.

The best advice we can give you is to never forget that you are a translator and not a financial expert. Follow your instincts more than you follow fixed rates.

Tammy, a great English to German translator, sent us a question about a state-of-the-art program she bought that calculates a quote for any translation job based on 25 different parameters. She asked us why the quotes she gets using the program are always too high or too low. Our answer was . . . you guessed it - follow your instincts. Tammy had already wasted money on the program but she hasn’t stopped thanking us for encouraging her to stop using it. We feel fortunate to work with Tammy, one of the first English to German translators to register with www.Tomedes.com

Chapter 1.1: Set your rates

The interest rate is not fixed, the currency exchange rate is not fixed and the price of the bread you buy at the grocery store is not fixed, so there is no reason for your rates to be fixed.

No matter what your clients or colleagues say, never commit to a fixed rate, even if you think you cannot get a better one. There are two vital aspects you must understand and act upon when setting your rates:

1. Don't try to re-invent the wheel – translators all over the world use the number of words to determine their basic rate. Don't invent other methods because they will not work. We have spoken with translators who set their rates based on the number of characters, number of lines, or number of words in the target document. They all came back to the old-fashioned way.

2. Experiment with the rate.Once you have set the basic rate for a document based on the number of words, start playing with it. Raise it or give a discount based on any factor you may think of separately.
This is not as easy as it may sound. Most translators are actually afraid of this stage. This is the exact place where you should follow your instincts.We will try to help you with the process in the next pages. At www.Tomedes.com we encourage you to bid for any job that fits your skills and your availability to do it. The more times you bid, the more you learn to properly quote for translation jobs.

We did not forget the other side of the equation – the clients. Once you understand the needs of the client and the way he thinks, everything gets easier. That will be described in detail in the Clients' chapter. Anyway, always be ready for a negotiation and for a discount in the rate you quote.

If you expected us to give you a fixed rate you should use, sorry to disappoint. Translators ask for anything between 0.03 and 0.15 USD per word. The average is about 0.11 USD.

Chapter 1.2: Which parameters should have effect on my rate?

Once you decide on the basic rate based on the language combination and the number of words, you will have to start playing with it.

Translators from all over the world keep telling us that this is the best method when setting up a quote for a specific translation job. At www.Tomedes.com , we try to give as much information as possible to the translator so that he can give his best quote.

This list of the parameters should be used as a checklist. Go over the items one by one, decide which ones are relevant for the specific job and use those items to change the rate in the percentage you believe will be proper. Usually the changes per parameter will not exceed 10%.

Here is the list of parameters you should take into account:

Job's Parameters:

• Size – you may want to give a discount for a long document or raise the rate for a short one.
• Domain – you may want to raise the rate for technical domains.
• Text's complexity – you may want to raise the rate if you will have to use glossaries or other sources.
• Repetitiveness – you may want to lower the rate if you have a high percentage of repetitive phrases so that you can use translation memory tools.
• Technical issues – you may want to raise your rate when having to deal with issues like PDF documents, PPT presentations, tables, or charts.

Time Parameters:

• Deadline of the translation job – you may want to raise the rate for a short deadline and discount it for a long one.
• Working hours – you may want to raise the rate if you will have to work on holidays / nights / weekends to complete the job on time.

Client Parameters:

• Client's location – you may want to raise the rate if the client is from developed countries or lower it if he is from developing ones.
• Client's business entity – you may want to set different rates for individual clients vs. corporations.
  
• Client's type – you may want to raise your rate if working directly with the end client or lower it when working with a translation agency.
• Client's history – you may want to set a different rate for new clients than for existing ones.
• Client's profitability – you may want to set a lower rate for clients you assume may be long term and profitable ones.
• Client's negotiation skills – you should add a negotiation margin if you believe the client is intending to negotiate for a better price.

Money parameters:

• Payment terms – you may want to raise your rate for future payments and lower it for early payments.
• Payment currency – you may want to raise your rate if you must accept the payment in foreign currency or uncommon currencies.
• Payment method – you may want to raise your rate if you must take payment in an unsecured or high commission payment method.

Your Own Parameters:

• Your experience as a translator – you may want to raise your rate if you are an experienced translator with a solid reputation and references from clients.
• Your relevant experience for this specific translation job – you may want to raise your rate if you have worked on similar jobs in the past.
• Your relevant education – you may want to raise the rate if you have completed academic courses which will help you do this job, or if you have official education as a translator.
• Your current workload – you may want to raise the rate if you are loaded with work and this job is not that important for you.

Chapter 1.3: Can I change my rates once I have set them?

If you read the previous chapters, you probably know that at www.Tomedes.com , we do not believe in fixed rates. In fact, we believe that every translation job is different and should have its own rate.

That said, we also know that any rule has its exceptions and so does this one.

1. When working for a client on a regular basis, the client may demand to know your rates for future projects. We suggest you explain to him that every project will have its own rate based on various parameters and that this method of calculating rates will yield more accurate quotes for his translation jobs.You will be surprised to know that many clients understand this and are ready to work with you without a schedule of fixed rates.However, some will demand that you make a hard decision, a decision that we cannot help you with. The biggest help we can give you is to register with www.Tomedes.com , where you will have no commitment whatsoever and will have all the information you need to give the best quote for each job separately.

2. Nothing is more important than your reliability as a translator. You should NEVER change your price for a job after starting to work on it even if you are losing money. You should also remember that the client is always right; if he claims that you promised him a fixed rate for future jobs, you may have to accept it.

Chapter 1.4: Should I ever work at no charge?

You would expect it to go without saying that you should never work for free, and in most cases, that’s absolutely true. On occasion, however, a client may ask you to complete a trial project at no charge to demonstrate your expertise.

Surprisingly, quite a few translators are willing to submit a brief sample, 200 to 400 words in length, at no cost to the client. However, no other service provider works for free, and there is no reason for you to do so. Clients may not understand that there are scammers in any market, and if someone wants to cheat them, he will do so. A test project will not stop cheats.

At www.Tomedes.com we believe you should never work for free. You will get a payment for every job, even for proofreading a 50-word document!

Chapter 1.5: Should I charge more for rush, or urgent, jobs?

Somehow, almost all translation jobs are urgent. "Urgent" is one of the first words client use when asked to describe the job, and it is the word translators hate to hear.

But "urgent" is too obscure to build a rate around. This word must be broken into pieces. (At www.Tomedes.com you can see the time left for the deadline – simplicity at its best.)

Get more information from your client; ask him when, exactly, he needs the job done. You may be surprised to learnthat for some clients, urgent means a couple of weeks.

Next, ask him if you can translate the document in several pieces so that the first ones will be ready for delivery in a short while.

Only then, if you reach the conclusion that this translation job really is urgent, should you consider whether the deadline is feasible at all, assuming that the average translator translates 1,000 to 3,000 words in an average 8-hour day. If it is not feasible, you must help the client understand that no translator will be able to complete the job in the requested time.

If the deadline is feasible, decide whether you can do it. Can you postpone the other jobs you intended to work on at this time? If you can, it is totally legitimate to charge more for an urgent job.

Chapter 1.6: Should I charge more for a job that involves weekend or holiday work?

One of the benefits of working for yourself is your freedom to set your own schedule. If you prefer to work at night, work at night. If you want to go to the market in the middle of the morning, go.

The other side of this very nice perk is that, when you give yourself a morning off, you sometimes must make up for that time on the weekend. In fact, 90 percent of your colleagues work on Sunday!

The time has a way of balancing itself, so most translation professionals do not charge more for a job that involves weekend or holiday work. Their reasoning is simple: work during the weekend and take Tuesday or Wednesday for yourself.

In today's global market, one's weekend is the other's working day and one's night is the other's day. If you try to charge more, you may find that your client will take another translator from another part of the world.

At www.Tomedes.com we do not believe in dates. We will offer you translation jobs and indicate how much time you have to complete them.

The bottom line is that your holidays and weekends are your problems.

Don't make them your clients' problems – don't charge more.

Chapter 1.7: Should I charge more for special services?

Anything special should affect your rate. Martha, an experienced American translator, told us that she thinks of her work as a production line in a factory: a standard product will get the standard rate, and any special product that has different features will cost more.

We do not agree with Martha on this one, because all translation jobs are not created equal and every job is a special one. Still, we realize that some cases require much more work than others and therefore deserve a higher rate.

Nearly 80 percent of source documents are delivered as Microsoft Word documents. Sometimes, though, your client is going to want it delivered in another format. Or perhaps the job is an especially difficult one. For whatever reason, you know this job is going to be more work than your usual .12 USD per word rate will cover.

You will be wise to preview the source documents and get a very clear description of the project before you quote a rate for any job. You want to be fair to your client, yes, but you also want to be fair to yourself. At www.Tomedes.com you will be able to see a portion of the document before placing a bid; you’ll also see the file type and other important parameters.

Chapter 1.8: Should I charge my personal clients at a different rate than I charge agencies?

Most of the translators we know would say they prefer working with end clients but almost all of them get most of their money from working for translation agencies.

The reason for that is simple. Translators are good at translation, they are not good and do not have time to deal with marketing. On the other hand, translation agencies are good at marketing.

So, if you can't beat them, join them. Try generating the best relationship with translation agencies and online marketplaces like www.Tomedes.com .

Remember that translation agencies are just mediators and as such, you will have to propose to them competitive quotes.

If you ask yourself why you should charge agencies less than private clients, the answer is simple – translation agencies usually pay on time, whereas getting the full payment from many end clients may be almost impossible.

The problem with online translation marketplaces is that you get the payments directly from the end clients and you have to negotiate with them. www.Tomedes.com brings a new approach to the process – you will just place a bid and forget about it till you get the email indicating that you had been awarded with the job. No negotiation, no payment terms, no chatting and wasting time - Just pure work.

In addition, as we mentioned before, you should count the jobs you work on and not the clients.

The bottom line is that if you work with private clients, don't feel uncomfortable in charging them more than you charge translation agencies and translation marketplaces like www.Tomedes.com .

Chapter 1.9: The Wisdom of Discount Pricing

You can offer several different types of discounts, including quantity discounts for clients who bring you huge jobs; seasonal discounts for those times of the year when business slows; promotional discounts to promote your business; and cash discounts to reward your clients who settle their account before it’s due.

The best and easiest way to make your client satisfied is to give him a discount. The problem starts when you have existing clients that keep asking for higher discounts.

The discounted rate becomes the standard rate and you end up losing money.

Unfortunately, there is no easy solution for this problem. Any direct contact between a client and a provider is a potential conflict. Many translators we have met take it personally and are frustrated by the never-ending conflicts with clients.

That is exactly the reason we believe translation agencies had been a good business model for clients and for translators. But not anymore; today, translation agencies are taking high commissions that make the reduced payment you receive look ridiculous.

The best model today could be found in www.Tomedes.com where there is no contact between client and translator. No one will ask you for a discount or exhaust you in an endless negotiation. www.Tomedes.com will take care of all the contacts with the clients.

Chapter 1.10: Should I offer a discount for early payment?

Eighty percent of freelance translators do not offer a cash discount for earlym payment and we believe they are doing the right thing. The problem with any kind of discount is that your client will expect a discount from now on, and he will expect it to get higher and higher.

We at www.Tomedes.com believe that you should do what you are good at – translation. The less you waste your time on other things - like negotiating payment terms - the better. Try to simplify all financial issues, as they are pretty complicated as they are. Focus on translation, and if you don't have enough jobs, focus on getting more jobs (that’s jobs, and not clients).

Chapter 1.11: Should I offer a reduced rate for repeated words?

At www.Tomedes.com we are strong believers in an ultimate combination of man and machine. We believe that any routine work can be replaced or aided by computers or machines.

If you are not using any TM (translation memory) program, we strongly suggest you start using one. We are not going to promote any program, although we have our favorite. TM programs will not replace you – they will just help you in translating more words in the same amount of time.

However, we do not support the current trend of translation clients demanding translators to use TM tools. We believe that every translator has methods that work the best for him.

A high percentage of repeated words or phrases can definitely make your translation work easier and shorter in duration. If that is the case, you should take it into consideration when calculating a quote. Our advice would be not to present it as a discount because one discount leads to the other and the client learns to expect discounts.

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