Tomedes Translation Services,
Sheffield, England
http://www.tomedes.com
Part 3: Managing the Financial End of the Business
It’s a lucky person who has an opportunity to work at what he/she loves. Love won’t pay the bills, though, so you need to develop a business mentality and manage your finances in a businesslike way. www.Tomedes.com will give you a secure source for payment, but it’s up to you to handle things after that.
Two pieces of advice regarding finances can go some way toward helping you keep the business on solid footing.
First, keep a separate invoice for each client. Make a note at the top of the fees you and your client agreed on for the job (for example, $.12 per word). Make a separate entry for every task you complete, along with its associated charges. And indicate payments you receive from the client.
And develop a bookkeeping system that will allow you to track your income and expenses. There are a number of good electronic systems, or you can get a ledger and keep your books by hand. The numbers work the same, either way.
At www.Tomedes.com we want to help you focus on translation and not on bureaucratic issues. You will get a single secure payment for all the jobs done in the same month. No payment delays, no partial payment and no need to chase after unreliable clients.
Chapter 3.1: What payment methods are available to my clients and which are best?
Any payment method would be applicable as long as you are compensated for commissions, late deliveries and so forth.
It’s very difficult to identify one best payment method. If you can wait for the post, your clients can mail you a check. They can wire money through Western Union. Or they can send payment to your PayPal or Moneybookers account.
There are some unscrupulous characters out there who will cancel payment on a check or a credit card transaction, even at PayPal. It’s nearly impossible to protect yourself from these types, although www.Tomedes.com can help. Fortunately, the bad ones are vastly outnumbered by your good clients, who want to treat you fairly.
In today's online business environment, most of the freelance translators prefer getting their payments through Paypal or Moneybookers. They have little or no commission at all and are consider secure (both are supported at www.Tomedes.com ).
Chapter 3.2: What payment terms should I ask?
It is a sad fact that there are people out there who are less than honest. There is always a risk that you won’t be paid for your work if you deliver copy before receiving payment, although registration with www.Tomedes.com reduces that risk dramatically.
You can protect yourself to a certain extent by asking for a retainer before you begin any job, coupled with a payment schedule tagged to your deliverables. It is not unreasonable to ask for 25 percent of the final fee at the project’s outset; 50 percent upon completion of a first draft; and 25 percent when you deliver a final, revised draft.
We believe that you should never reject a translation job because of payment terms. The standard in the translation market is full payment done after the job is completed and approved by the client. The chances are you will not find clients that will pay you before the job is completed. Many professional translators we meet report that their clients expect them to deliver revised copy without compensation; overcome this challenge by figuring the cost of revisions into your original bid/quote.
Remember, if you do a thorough proofread on your work before you deliver it, your client is less likely to ask for revisions. Most often, when there is an error in a translated document, it is a typo; look for typing mistakes, grammatical gaffes, and incorrectly translated text.
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