I am a proud translator, but I do not live in a vacuum: I am also a consumer, and I find that my own experience as such is an essential tool in my dealings with any potential or actual clients.
It is a simple idea. Beyond languages, CAT tools and writing skills, customer service is one thing that can make me stand out from the global translation crowd. I still need to translate well but, all other things being equal, I will be a better translator if I am more customer-oriented.
Being a consumer in other works of life provides me with crucial information about my clients and their needs, and I make a point of keeping in mind that information at all times. What do I need when I need a service? When and how do I want it delivered? Who and why do I appreciate the most for the servicethey provide? Who do I call again, even if they have never actually worked for me?
As a consumer, I have dealt with a zillion unreliable and unfriendly service providers. There is the electrician who says he will show up on Tuesday and does not, and the plumber who says she will turn up at 2 pm and shows up at 3.30 pm, just as I am getting ready to pick up my children from school. There is the Internet company who says the line will be back to normal within two hours, which I can cope with, and again tells me it will take two hours when nothing happens and I call in again to report that things are still not working. And there is the lawyer who does not reply to my e-mails.
We have all been there, probably lots of times. In my case, the unreliability of my own service providers continues to drive me nuts whenever I have to endure it, but I have to admit that it also provides fantastic ongoing training in my effort to become a good translator. It is an always timely reminder of the kind of professional I do not want to be.
When I call a plumber, an electrician or a lawyer, it is because I need to get something fixed or sorted out. I need the job done sooner rather than later, although I can accept that I am probably not the only person in town with a problem that needs to be solved. In most cases, I can wait at least a bit, but I do need to feel that the service provider in question is taking me seriously, that they acknowledge the problem I am facing, that they will try to fix it as soon as possible.
I need them to be pleasant in their dealings with me - not to buy me lunch or sing my favourite song, just to be civil and helpful. I need them to show up when they said they would, to have with them any tools they might foreseeably have to work with, to acnowledge the fact that I know nothing about their trade without making me feel stupid or cheated.
I assume that potential clients who approach me as a translator want the same things, and I make a point of responding as I wish the electrician, the plumber and the lawyer would. Whether they are agencies or direct clients, people who seek out my translation services come up to me with a need, and it is essential that I respond to that need. I may not always be able to meet it, but I can always try, and I can certainly always aim to remain pleasant and point clients in the direction of a solution.
Responding means acknowledging the need, returning e-mails and calls, perhaps explaining why I cannot translate a document on aircraft engines at all or why I cannot translate a 5,000-word report by tomorrow morning, or noting that I am busy until a certain date. I may be able to provide a referral, or say I cannot do the job by Thursday but can do it by lunchtime on Friday.
It is hardly rocket science. All you need to do is to remember your dealings with your last two computer repair people, the annoying one you dropped and the one who saved your life. Presumably you, like me, know who of those you want to be.
At the end of the day, being nice will not make you translate better, but it will ensure that you provide a better service, and it will help you run a better business. As freelance translators, that is surely part of our job, and a major part of our job at that.
Friendliness is simply business savvy, even without considering its positive personal effects on ourselves and those around us. So... be pleasant, be helpful, be thoughtful, for your own sake as well as your clients'!
A linguist's leap into the world of professional translation: of languages, training, marketing and how a hobby became a profession that works for me and my clients.
19 October 2014
Pricing mysteries in translation: Anecdotes on rates and value
When I started out as a freelance translator, I had little idea about how to price my own work. My research eventually gave me an indication of how much some translators in some markets charged per word, but it still left me wondering how much I could quote myself, as a beginner with no clients, little knowledge of the market and no name in the industry. And yet ignorance is only valid as an excuse for a short time, and any freelancer who is serious about their career should do their homework and increase their rates to whatever their work is worth. I did that, or tried to.
I have learned a lot over the past two years, about rates and about a lot of other things. However, I have had a few interesting experiences on pricing in recent months that show the learning process is ongoing. Other people may perhaps benefit from those experiences too, so allow me to share them.
1 - I got an email from a potential client. The job seemed to be perfect for me, and the client appeared to agree: they found me, after all. It was a direct client, but they found me through ProZ.com, so I felt shy about quoting too high. They obviously knew about the bulk market and all that, and it was a nice project after all, so I quoted them my high agency rate rather than give them a direct-client quote. Their reply was plain embarrassing for me: they paid all their freelancers a figure that was about 40 per cent higher than my quote!!! They were nice enough to say it, and to pay me that higher rate too. However, it was not all good: I got to feel like a rookie. Still, I learned a valuable lesson about the value of my own work.
2 - I got an email from a potential client. It was a large corporate client, and someone at the company had referred them to me for my translation services. I knew I would need to do a good job, and I knew I would need to invest in proofreading. Beyond that, however, I realised that I was no longer just a freelance translator and was acting as a translation business instead. I quoted high, far above the rate I would quote any agency. However, that presented no problem: the client accepted my price, and I delivered work to compete with that of any translation agency. There was no reason to get paid less than them!
3 - I do some work for one of those translation marketplace websites. The website has a standard, cheap rate and an "expert" rate, and I like the fact that I can pick and choose jobs. Through them, I had a client I liked, with interesting texts paid at the "expert" rate, and they apparently liked me too: I was their designated translator for those jobs. Then, one day, a few months into this peculiar partnership, I started being offered those jobs at the standard rate. I must have taken one or two until I realised! However, when I realised, I wrote polite messages to both my anonymous client and the translation marketplace website: I did not feel comfortable suddenly doing the same work for almost half the money; I understood that the client would want to see if they could spend less, so I wished them good luck in the search; if they actually found that the end result for almost half the money was not up to standard, I would be more than happy to resume collaboration at the expert rate. Three weeks went by in which I continued to be offered the jobs, and refrained from taking them on. After three weeks, lo and behold, the client had cash to spare! Either that or they had realised that what they got for the standard rate was not actually up to standard at all. Their jobs were back at the "expert" rate, so they got back their expert, preferred translator - me.
I think these experiences show that rates are much less of a given than beginning translators usually realise. It is not true that no one out there is prepared to pay double-digit rates. It is also not true that clients do not notice the difference between poor work and reasonable work, and even between reasonable work and outstanding work. Finding the right clients and standing one's ground is important, but what is really crucial is to become aware of the value of one's own work.
I have learned a lot over the past two years, about rates and about a lot of other things. However, I have had a few interesting experiences on pricing in recent months that show the learning process is ongoing. Other people may perhaps benefit from those experiences too, so allow me to share them.
1 - I got an email from a potential client. The job seemed to be perfect for me, and the client appeared to agree: they found me, after all. It was a direct client, but they found me through ProZ.com, so I felt shy about quoting too high. They obviously knew about the bulk market and all that, and it was a nice project after all, so I quoted them my high agency rate rather than give them a direct-client quote. Their reply was plain embarrassing for me: they paid all their freelancers a figure that was about 40 per cent higher than my quote!!! They were nice enough to say it, and to pay me that higher rate too. However, it was not all good: I got to feel like a rookie. Still, I learned a valuable lesson about the value of my own work.
2 - I got an email from a potential client. It was a large corporate client, and someone at the company had referred them to me for my translation services. I knew I would need to do a good job, and I knew I would need to invest in proofreading. Beyond that, however, I realised that I was no longer just a freelance translator and was acting as a translation business instead. I quoted high, far above the rate I would quote any agency. However, that presented no problem: the client accepted my price, and I delivered work to compete with that of any translation agency. There was no reason to get paid less than them!
3 - I do some work for one of those translation marketplace websites. The website has a standard, cheap rate and an "expert" rate, and I like the fact that I can pick and choose jobs. Through them, I had a client I liked, with interesting texts paid at the "expert" rate, and they apparently liked me too: I was their designated translator for those jobs. Then, one day, a few months into this peculiar partnership, I started being offered those jobs at the standard rate. I must have taken one or two until I realised! However, when I realised, I wrote polite messages to both my anonymous client and the translation marketplace website: I did not feel comfortable suddenly doing the same work for almost half the money; I understood that the client would want to see if they could spend less, so I wished them good luck in the search; if they actually found that the end result for almost half the money was not up to standard, I would be more than happy to resume collaboration at the expert rate. Three weeks went by in which I continued to be offered the jobs, and refrained from taking them on. After three weeks, lo and behold, the client had cash to spare! Either that or they had realised that what they got for the standard rate was not actually up to standard at all. Their jobs were back at the "expert" rate, so they got back their expert, preferred translator - me.
I think these experiences show that rates are much less of a given than beginning translators usually realise. It is not true that no one out there is prepared to pay double-digit rates. It is also not true that clients do not notice the difference between poor work and reasonable work, and even between reasonable work and outstanding work. Finding the right clients and standing one's ground is important, but what is really crucial is to become aware of the value of one's own work.
15 October 2014
Freelance translation as a learning process
It has been a long time since I last posted anything here. The year has been a roller coaster, so it has taken me months to be able to think about it conceptually, and therefore to write about it. However, I have come a very long way over the past few months, and since the purpose of this blog from the start was to help anyone treading a similar path after me, it makes sense to revisit the walk.
January and February were disappointing, with little work and little money from translation, and generally with a massive sense of relief that I still had a day job. Those two months had also been rough a year earlier, so by I now assume that they are just a dry patch in my working year. And, come to think of it, that may be quite convenient since those are the school summer holiday months in Argentina. I have to admit, however, that I was not so enthusiastic about the lull back in February.
Two months with little work made me doubt my strategy: I had raised my rates considerably, but I had not managed to find any new clients for a couple of months, which was not great one year into my freelance career, and I was working so little that I actually earned less than over the same period a year earlier.
I was confused and a bit discouraged. Starting out as a freelance translator had almost seemed easy, and then, all of a sudden, it was tough. I wanted to keep moving, but by then I did not really know where I should be going. So I did what one should probably do in such cases, regroup and take one step at a time.
I signed up for the ATA's Mentoring Programme. I needed directions, and the ATA was offering some, so it looked like a good match. The experience has turned out to be fantastic. I got a very nice mentor, and the opportunity to bounce thoughts and experiences off a veteran translator who has seen everything many times more than I have has proved to be invaluable. I can only recommend it, and I promise to devote a full post to the programme once I have completed it, around March.
As planned, I sat my DipTrans exam in English-Spanish in late January. Several months later, I learned that I had managed to pass all three papers in one go. Now, that was obviously what I had been hoping for, but it was more than I expected based on the exam's pass rates. With hindsight, it has been one of the highlights of the year. It was great for my confidence and, while I am not really certain that it has brought in extra work, I honestly suspect it may have.
Having my EN>ES DipTrans prompted two further moves. I signed up to take the exam in the opposite direction (ES>EN) in January 2015, and since I already had some certification in EN>ES I also switched my NYU Certificate in Translation to ES>EN.
During the first few months of the year, a major project kept me busy. However, I almost dismissed it mentally from my freelancing list: it did not come from a 'real client,' but was actually an assignment from my employer. And then it hit me that, surely, all the fuss about networking and word of mouth should apply to past- or parallel-life employers too!
My employer was hiring me to do freelance work. Since I had been working for them for 14 years, it was probably due to the fact that they know I am good. And, from then on, it was just another freelance translation project, one I needed to do, and do well, not just for a certain per-word rate but also for the chance to keep the ball rolling, to make sure people who know me and have worked with me continue to think I am the best translator they can find, and recommend me to their friends!
Beyond all this, the year 2014 gave me the chance to feel like a real, top freelance translator too, but that should be the subject of another post. Let's just keep this one at the start of the roller coaster year, when you are up there on the ride thinking, 'Oh, no! Why did I ever get on this thing?' Suffice it to say for now that I am loving it now and I am determined to hop back on as soon as it is over.
January and February were disappointing, with little work and little money from translation, and generally with a massive sense of relief that I still had a day job. Those two months had also been rough a year earlier, so by I now assume that they are just a dry patch in my working year. And, come to think of it, that may be quite convenient since those are the school summer holiday months in Argentina. I have to admit, however, that I was not so enthusiastic about the lull back in February.
Two months with little work made me doubt my strategy: I had raised my rates considerably, but I had not managed to find any new clients for a couple of months, which was not great one year into my freelance career, and I was working so little that I actually earned less than over the same period a year earlier.
I was confused and a bit discouraged. Starting out as a freelance translator had almost seemed easy, and then, all of a sudden, it was tough. I wanted to keep moving, but by then I did not really know where I should be going. So I did what one should probably do in such cases, regroup and take one step at a time.
I signed up for the ATA's Mentoring Programme. I needed directions, and the ATA was offering some, so it looked like a good match. The experience has turned out to be fantastic. I got a very nice mentor, and the opportunity to bounce thoughts and experiences off a veteran translator who has seen everything many times more than I have has proved to be invaluable. I can only recommend it, and I promise to devote a full post to the programme once I have completed it, around March.
Having my EN>ES DipTrans prompted two further moves. I signed up to take the exam in the opposite direction (ES>EN) in January 2015, and since I already had some certification in EN>ES I also switched my NYU Certificate in Translation to ES>EN.
My employer was hiring me to do freelance work. Since I had been working for them for 14 years, it was probably due to the fact that they know I am good. And, from then on, it was just another freelance translation project, one I needed to do, and do well, not just for a certain per-word rate but also for the chance to keep the ball rolling, to make sure people who know me and have worked with me continue to think I am the best translator they can find, and recommend me to their friends!
Beyond all this, the year 2014 gave me the chance to feel like a real, top freelance translator too, but that should be the subject of another post. Let's just keep this one at the start of the roller coaster year, when you are up there on the ride thinking, 'Oh, no! Why did I ever get on this thing?' Suffice it to say for now that I am loving it now and I am determined to hop back on as soon as it is over.
24 November 2013
Interesting borrowed post on specialization, with fantastic info in the comments section
Corinne McKay's latest post in Thoughts On Translation, Choosing your translation specializations, derived into a very interesting discussion in the comments section, with input from some great names in the industry (and I certainly don't mean mine!). Lots of things to bear in mind when approaching specialization and more generally when thinking about growing up to be a serious, conscientious professional. Enjoy!
6 November 2013
The ultimate translation interview: Chris Durban by Katarzyna Slobodzian-Taylor
If you are planning to read only one translation-related post this month, or even this year, do make sure it is this one: Translators' Wall of Fame: Chris Durban.
I fell upon this post in the Mastermind Translations blog thanks to Catherine Christaki, and I found it hugely inspiring. The interview has a fantastic texture and feel to it. It holds every reason why I want to be a freelance translator and puts forward a sort of ideal picture of what I want to be when I grow up professionally. I can only thank Katarzyna Slobodzian-Taylor, and of course, Chris Durban herself, for reinforcing my urge to work harder, learn more and do things better. I really hope you enjoy it too!
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