| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | How to find more direct clients? Thread poster: Paola Grochi
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Paola Grochi 
Uruguay
Local time: 04:28
English to Spanish
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TOPIC STARTER | Thanks to you all | Oct 21, 2009 |
Thanks everybody, your tips have been very useful.
@John, Chris Durban's advice has been quite inspiring indeed. (now we are all going to overflow the market with the "free trial" offer, maybe?)
@Emilie, my Local Chamber of Commerce has no member list on their website, and I'm afraid they won't give me any information even if I show up in person. On the other hand, my local Chamber of Industry has a searchable database I'm gonna try. I'm also looking for other bi-nation... See more Thanks everybody, your tips have been very useful.
@John, Chris Durban's advice has been quite inspiring indeed. (now we are all going to overflow the market with the "free trial" offer, maybe?)
@Emilie, my Local Chamber of Commerce has no member list on their website, and I'm afraid they won't give me any information even if I show up in person. On the other hand, my local Chamber of Industry has a searchable database I'm gonna try. I'm also looking for other bi-national chambers in my country. Worth the try.
@Edward, I am an active member of the local Xing branch and we meet every month. Lately, I've been giving networking more time and effort, not so much to my website, as you already noticed. Truth is, I never paid much attention to it, but I'll do now!
@ALL, what's your opinion on using Press Releases and free PR distribution services? Have you tried them out? ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Rawlins
Spain
Local time: 09:28
Spanish to English
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| Get out of the house | Oct 21, 2009 |
Mariela Diaz-Butler wrote:
Then you're the person we want to hear from! I guess my question is, how exactly did you get started? How did you acquire your direct clients? About how long did it take you at the beginning to land your first direct client and how did you come about it?
Mariela
I probably had an easy start. I used to teach English to corporate clients and they became my first translation clients.
An unfortunate image sometimes pops into my head when I think of translators. The image is of a caged hamster running furiously around a treadmill. The poor creature has to run constantly because the low agency rates he receives means that he must keep busy or starve. The cage is his little home office.
The easiest way off the treadmill is to leave the cage and find your own clients. If you haven't a specialisation and nowhere to begin networking - then I suggest you look around at local businesses and organisations. Try to work out for yourself who is likely to be buying translation services. Then phone or visit - or both.
Despite all the talk about globalisation and virtual workspaces, you will find the most people like to meet useful people. Most folk also prefer to contract local people and companies.
Now this advice is not very helpful if you live in the middle of North Dakota or Western Australia. But if you have a city nearby, then you probably have some potential clients nearby. As industries tend to cluster, you may find yourself specialising quickly.
So - in a nutshell.
'Get out of the house - use the net but meet local business people.'
| | | | | Build it and they will come? | Oct 21, 2009 |
Paola, I'm not sure that I have a lot of useful advice on deliberate, active acquisition of direct customers. My business model was originally set up to work predominantly through agencies, because this saves me a lot of project management time (with a good agency) which often translated to the same or similar real earnings. In my experience, the only thing that beats working with a good agency is working with a direct customer which has well-organized project managers for language servic... See more Paola, I'm not sure that I have a lot of useful advice on deliberate, active acquisition of direct customers. My business model was originally set up to work predominantly through agencies, because this saves me a lot of project management time (with a good agency) which often translated to the same or similar real earnings. In my experience, the only thing that beats working with a good agency is working with a direct customer which has well-organized project managers for language services, and these are a minority. Other types of direct customers can be quite good and satisfying, but you must consider and allow for considerable extra communication time in many cases.
Thus I have never actively pursued direct clients. However, the number of direct clients on my books has grown steadily; they find me here on ProZ, in the directory for the German translators' association (BDÜ), my own web sites, word of mouth and other means. Over the years the proportion has grown far greater than I imagined it would - I suspect it's probably somewhere around half now, though I do not have exact figures (transitioning between several PM apps for translation lately has thrown my former good statistics into confusion).
My advice for relaxed acquisition of direct customers is to establish a credible presence here, on your web site and in the directories of useful professional associations and let things take their course if you are very busy. If you are not, of course, more active acquisition is important. There I would start making contacts in professional associations, at trade shows and local business clubs, perhaps offer free seminars on subjects of interest if you are able to do so. I actually do have plans for a very active acquisition campaign for a favorite area of work, and when/if I carry it out, I'll report the results. I've never been much of a cold caller, but just relax and get to know the people and offer solutions where asked, so I have no idea really what to expect. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Concrete stuff you can do/read/attend to get your business up and running | Oct 22, 2009 |
- The Fire Ant & Worker Bee column in (online) Translation Journal regularly fields questions from translators starting out (oh, and oldies, too); you can check back issues at http://translationjournal.net/journal/
- For translators working in France, the SFT offers a day-long course four or five times a year on setting up in business & building a portfolio of direct clients. Next session: ... See more - The Fire Ant & Worker Bee column in (online) Translation Journal regularly fields questions from translators starting out (oh, and oldies, too); you can check back issues at http://translationjournal.net/journal/
- For translators working in France, the SFT offers a day-long course four or five times a year on setting up in business & building a portfolio of direct clients. Next session: Nov. 14 in Paris (but other sessions are in various towns & cities around France). See www.sft.fr ("formation"). [Note that this course has nothing to do with proz clones of it. ]
- For translators attending ATA's annual conf in NYC next week, Lillian Clementi and I will be presenting a session on using ATA's new Client Outreach kit to build up a direct clientele (Oct. 29 at 2 pm)
- This past summer, translators who attended the Translate in the Catskills writing workshop (www.translateinthecatskills.wordpress.com) got two sessions on finding & keeping direct clients. There may be another workshop next summer.
- The "Style Matters 2" workshop offered by ITI in London in February also tackles finding and keeping demanding direct clients, and "Style Matters (1)" may be offered in Paris in Feb.
Onwards and upwards,
Chris Durban
(full disclosure: yes, I am involved in all of the above)
[Modifié le 2009-10-22 11:36 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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