Love Your Work, Love Your Life: Make it Happen as a Freelance Translator (Part 2)

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

Part 2: Managing the work

It sounds so simple: you make a bid on a translation job, you are awarded the project, and www.Tomedes.com handles much of the paperwork. That part is simple; the complicated part is in getting that job, and all the others you have on your calendar, finished in a timely manner to your clients’ satisfaction.

Freelance translators frequently work on more than one job at once. And it’s not uncommon for those jobs to have a 24-hour turnaround. You can handle the workload in a couple of different ways. On the one hand, you can wing it, go without rest and food, and finish your tasks as best you can in an unstructured environment. Or, you can get a planner, establish regular hours for work, set up office space, and manage your time and your work efficiently.

Clearly, the second option is the better option. It’s up to you to decide how many projects you can juggle, given your own personal time constraints. There are a few translators who say they have never missed a deadline, but it happens more than you may think. And it’s not good. So be honest with yourself and your clients about your ability to deliver.

Chapter 2.1: Which job takes priority? Where should I start?

Most of the translators accept different jobs from more than one client, all with the same deadline. It takes time to learn how best to manage this scenario and decide which of your jobs takes priority. You will undoubtedly make a mistake or two along the way; as long as you develop a system in the process, you’ll be okay.

Two important insights we keep getting from translators we meet:

1. There is no good trouble – If you have trouble with too many translation jobs today and you do not handle it properly, you might find yourself with no translation jobs tomorrow.

2. Failing to plan is planning to fail – You must plan your tasks if you do not want to fail.

We believe that each translator should develop his own planning methods so we will not recommend any planning tool. Writing notes might be as good as using Microsoft Calendar or a Gantt chart (a type of bar chart that you can use to illustrate your schedule) to plan your tasks.

Prioritizing translation jobs is not an easy task. We are going to present you 3 common methods. They all have their pros and cons; we tend to think the third one is the best one for most translators.

1. FIFO – first in first out-

According to this method, the order you work on translation jobs will be based on the time you received them from the client; it is not dependent on the due date.

You will first work on the first job you get, then on the second one and so forth.

Translators that work with this method claim that it is the simplest method and if they work around the clock, they never miss a deadline.

2. LIFO – last in first out-

According to this method, the order you work on translation jobs will also be based on the time you received them from the client, only in this case, you will first work on the last translation job you received.

Very few translators that we know work with this method which requires many resources but might be efficient.

3. Early due date

According to this method, the order your work on translation jobs will be based only their due dates.

You will work first on the translation job you must deliver first (the one with the earliest due date).

This method is the most efficient one in today's dynamic world. It will ensure you finish all your translation jobs in time.

At www.Tomedes.com we believe that the early due date is the best method. The minute we offer you the job, we will make sure you know the time left to deliver it.

Chapter 2.2: How can I set realistic deadlines?

Deadline – the very word has an ominous ring to it. Actually, deadlines can be your friends if they are realistic and achievable. Your challenge is to set deadlines that you can meet and that meet your clients’ needs. Before you get started, distinguish between “hard” deadlines, those that you absolutely must meet, and “soft” deadlines that will motivate you to keep to a schedule without carrying dire consequences if you miss one.

Here are a few tips to help you set good deadlines:

• Pick deadlines for tasks that need them, but don’t get so excited about due dates that you create unnecessary stress for yourself. And setting a bunch of frivolous deadlines won’t help you manage your time on task.
• Be totally honest with yourself: if you know for a fact that a project will take you at least two days, don’t give yourself a deadline of tomorrow. On the other hand, if your client wants the job completed tomorrow, that must be your deciding factor; it’s a hard deadline.
• Set due dates that will come up in the near future. A deadline of two days from now will light a fire under you in a way that one next month just can’t do. If you’re working on a project that really is due in a month, break it into smaller parts and establish a series of deadlines that start as soon as tomorrow.
• Write your deadlines down in your planner. It’s fine to have them in your head, but you’ll find they have much more of a driving force when they’re looking back at you from a page in your calendar.

Many of your clients are going to specify a drop-dead date for the completion of their project, and that will help you map your time. If someone is vague on dates, don’t be shy about asking; it will save misunderstanding in the future.

Chapter 2.3: How can I keep on task and on time?

It is relatively easy to stay focused on your job when you go to someone else’s workplace every day. When you work for yourself, especially if your office is in your home, you may find it more difficult to spend time on task. Your business cannot flourish if you don’t devote yourself to it when you’re supposed to. One very simple way to stay focused on your work is to remove outside distractions. Cell phones, instant messages and personal email are interruptions that you don’t need during your working hours. Discipline yourself to read your email at the end of the day; don’t log on to your IM server while you’re working; turn off the cell phone and do your text messaging after-hours. Make an appointment with clients who want to use IM to discuss business during the day.

Begin each day by going over the tasks planned for the day. Keep them in your mind as you work through your day.

Schedule time in your day for personal tasks. Resist the urge to bake cookies or scrub the floor during working hours, especially if you work from an office in your home. Write those tasks in your planner, assign a priority to them and handle them as you do the rest of your projects.

You can avoid fatigue and “translator’s block” when working on a lengthy project if you look for good stopping places and set it aside every now and again throughout the day. Use the time to work on something else. Better yet, do some yoga or take a walk. You’ll return to work refreshed and reinvigorated.

Stay on top of your clients’ deadlines, but don’t panic if one is looming. Panic isn’t productive; relax, catch your breath, get a glass of water.

Chapter 2.4: How can I manage my time?

Unfortunately, most freelance translators don't know how to manage their time.

The majority of freelance translators have a steady flow of work, yet only a small percentage work a regular schedule. The majority work at least five or six days every week, juggling up to three projects at a time. When you register as a provider with www.Tomedes.com and manage your time wisely, you may quickly find yourself with a happy assortment of translation jobs.

At www.Tomedes.com we believe that you, as a translator should focus only on translation and not on other issues like managing negotiations and conversations with clients. We want to help you manage your time more efficiently.

Start keeping a planner; prioritize your projects; reduce distractions and you will have done much of what time management experts recommend. The trick now is to follow through.

Don’t let yourself be sidetracked by bells and whistles from tasks that are important. Use the tools you have put in place to manage your time, and be serious about it.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

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.

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia

Spatial Requirements for an Effective Translation Agency

In principle, translation, like mathematics, is an abstract art that requires no more than a pencil and a piece of paper. However, rather more in the way of equipment and space is required for a modern commercial translation agency to function properly. In this article we will direct our focus towards the spatial facilities that will need to be in place to ensure the proper separation and cooperation between the various functions that make up your translation business.

Any independent translation agency that employs more than one or two persons should have an office plan that allows for the segregation of the three basic operations: translation, marketing and sales. Anyone who plans to combine these three functions in a single space – or indeed within a single person – will soon discover his mistake. The concentration required for high-quality translation work is such that it needs to be performed in a space that is free from ambient interference. At the same time, the marketing and sales functions – or departments if you like – by their nature involve a great deal of verbal communication, telephone calls, consultation and discussion. Clearly, the three operations do not go together, and the basic spatial layout of a translation agency should reflect this simple fact. Below we will describe each of these three spheres in some more detail.

More than anything else, the people in the translation department will require silence. They cannot work, or at least not properly, if they are unable to concentrate. So positioning your translation area at the front of a building with windows opening on to a major thoroughfare is obviously not a good idea. Despite fashionable trends in office design, moreover, it is our strong conviction that the translation department should have a spatial structure that effectively discourages people from physically communicating with one another. Ideally speaking, each translator should have his or her own room where they can work in peace and quiet. If that is not feasible, at least make sure to provide an environment where people can work quietly and independently, rather like a library reading room. We are not suggesting that there should not be any communication at all; obviously, professionals need to consult with each other to improve their knowledge and skills. The important point, however, is that the translators should be able to communicate on their own initiative, rather than being disturbed at random and distracted, unpredictably, from the constant attention that the translation process requires.

Something rather like the opposite applies to the marketing & sales department – or at least to its marketing section. This is a far more dynamic part of the translation agency. The basic function of the marketing department is to fuel a constant flow of ideas to attract business, and of techniques to put those ideas into practice. This calls for a great deal of consultation and planning, either internally or externally over the phone. The people working there should obviously not be bothered with calls for silence and reproachful glances, but should be able to chat and telephone as they please. The marketing department should be positioned and equipped to reflect its dynamic nature.

The sales department is again a different story. In terms of spatial demands, it hovers somewhere between the pristine silence in the translation rooms and the dynamism of the marketing section. This has to do with the dichotomy between the verbal and written client contacts comprised within the sales function. On the one hand, sales employees will have to be able to answer client calls, canvass prospects and follow up quotations, amongst the myriad of other sales-related duties. As a result, this part of your business will look – and sound – rather like a call centre. On the other hand, sales employees need to be able to study client requests (especially the more complicated ones), calculate offers and draw up quotations, operations that are at least as error-sensitive as the translation process itself and require the same type of concentration.

To sum up, the design of your office will have to recognise the three basic functions which any professional translation agency, however small, should be able to accommodate: translation, marketing and sales. Ideally speaking, each of these functions should be granted a space of its own that does justice to the nature of its operations and provides an optimal environment for the associated work processes. In other words, the translation department should have as many rooms as there are translators, or otherwise consist of a communal working space with facilities, rules and customs similar to those in a library reading room. The marketing department should be equipped and designed to promote optimum internal and external communication, whereas the sales department also requires a separate space, if only to accommodate the non-verbal aspects of its processes.

Segregation is of the essence, and if you cherish any wish to use an open plan office design for your translation business you are well advised either to abandon that wish or move to a different profession.

About the author

Fester Leenstra is co-owner of Metamorfose Vertalingen, a translation agency in Utrecht (The Netherlands). After having worked for several translation firms in paid employment, he took the plunge in 2004 and incorporated his own company.

For further details about Metamorfose Vertalingen, visit:

http://www.metamorfosevertalingen.nl
http://www.beedigd-vertaalbureau.nl
http://www.vertaalbureau-engels.nl
http://www.vertaalsite.eu
http://www.oost-europavertalingen.nl
http://www.scandinavie-vertalingen.nl
http://www.medisch-vertaalbureau.nl
http://www.technisch-vertaalbureau.nl
http://www.juridisch-vertaalbureau.nl

Corporate Blog of Elite - Professional Translation Services serving ASEAN & East Asia