| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Income security and working with big agencies Thread poster: Dylan J Hartmann
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| I feel your pain | Nov 12, 2014 |
At the moment, I'm finding myself in a similar situation. I am very happy with one agency that is sending me lots of regular work that is varied and interesting at a rate I can live with. And I have several other symbolic clients that send me a few smaller projects every month.
I find myself in a catch 22 - I don't want to accept large projects from other clients because then I risk disappointing the one giving me most of my work with availability issues. On the other hand, I do... See more At the moment, I'm finding myself in a similar situation. I am very happy with one agency that is sending me lots of regular work that is varied and interesting at a rate I can live with. And I have several other symbolic clients that send me a few smaller projects every month.
I find myself in a catch 22 - I don't want to accept large projects from other clients because then I risk disappointing the one giving me most of my work with availability issues. On the other hand, I don't want to refuse work with other clients because I would be much more comfortable if my client base were more balanced. At the moment, this translates into me working much more than I want to because I'm hardly refusing anything - this means early mornings, late nights, weekends, holidays - not sustainable in the long term, I'm getting worn out.
My problem is that I have a hard time saying no, and I find it easier to say "No, sorry I can't take on this project because I'm already working on X, Y, and Z projects for you and I can't do more" than to say "No sorry I'm busy with another client".
Sorry I'm not much help. But thank you for this post. It's reminding me that I need to rethink things and develop a different strategy for filling my schedule. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:00
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Tiffany Hardy wrote:
.... early mornings, late nights, weekends, holidays - not sustainable in the long term, I'm getting worn out
Me too, but after 2 months of almost no work, I have to accept this because these avalanches of work don't last forever. If the client is someone you know well, you can always gently tell them "you must understand that you're not my only favourite client and there are others I also have to keep happy". Anyway it's good to switch between jobs: the change of style can have a very positive refreshing effect on the other jobs you're doing.
But it doesn't make any sense to overwork, because this will lead to mistakes and oversights, leading to more wasted time later on.
| | | | Navarut Y. 
Thailand
Local time: 14:00
Member (2014)
English to Thai
| Do not lower your rate and find more clients | Nov 14, 2014 |
Hi DJ,
I would suggest you to find more regular clients, maybe at least 4. You should not translate for only one or few agencies. This is what I encountered last year. At that time, i felt that my career was not insecure. So, I looked for more clients by applying PROZ. Now, the situation is much better.
Do not give up and lower your rate. You only need to revise your strategy.
| | | | Dylan J Hartmann
Australia
Member (2014)
Thai to English
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MODERATOR TOPIC STARTER | Lesson learned, thanks! | Nov 14, 2014 |
I highly appreciate all of the excellent advice given by my fellow Prozians.
As expected, it was only a minor lull in work and I am once again being bombarded with translation requests, from a multitude of clients (but still most regularly from the 'perfect' agency that I first mentioned).
I have taken many of these lessons onboard and realise that there is no such thing as a spare moment while we're running what is in fact a small business. Every working moment not sp... See more I highly appreciate all of the excellent advice given by my fellow Prozians.
As expected, it was only a minor lull in work and I am once again being bombarded with translation requests, from a multitude of clients (but still most regularly from the 'perfect' agency that I first mentioned).
I have taken many of these lessons onboard and realise that there is no such thing as a spare moment while we're running what is in fact a small business. Every working moment not spent translating should be spent marketing, leveraging ourselves for more work at higher levels.
I think, given the responses to this post, income security is a major concern for most of us! There have been great suggestions, such as asking agencies to sign an agreement to provide a certain amount of work per month. If anyone has any experience or proof in being able to achieve this, please share it!
Dropping my rate is certainly not an option, as I'm supporting my wife and child on this income, as I'm sure many other Prozians do.
Thanks again,
DJH ▲ Collapse
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Balasubramaniam L.
India
Local time: 12:30
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER | Spread your bets | Nov 14, 2014 |
It is very important not to become too dependent on one client or agency or one geography. What if the agency goes under, or finds a cheaper translator, or resorts to MT, or the region flounders economically?
You should have a mix of clients from different geographies. I learned this lesson during the recent meltdown in the US where most of my clients were located. For a year or two, work inflow reduced to a trickle. Since then I have developed a more balanced basket of clients base... See more It is very important not to become too dependent on one client or agency or one geography. What if the agency goes under, or finds a cheaper translator, or resorts to MT, or the region flounders economically?
You should have a mix of clients from different geographies. I learned this lesson during the recent meltdown in the US where most of my clients were located. For a year or two, work inflow reduced to a trickle. Since then I have developed a more balanced basket of clients based around the world in most of the main translation markets - US, Canada, Europe (which has several sub-areas like UK, Germany, France, and the low-rate areas consisting of the poorer countries of EU), Japan, Australia, China, Brazil, etc. ▲ Collapse
| | | | John Fossey
Canada
Local time: 03:00
Member (2008)
French to English
+ ...
DJHartmann wrote:
Every working moment not spent translating should be spent marketing, leveraging ourselves for more work at higher levels.
Absolutely. This is probably the most important thing to understand. The trap many translators fall into is thinking their lack of work is due to too high prices. In fact it's almost always due to insufficient marketing.
Every translator (in fact, every freelance professional in any field) must develop a clientele.
| | | | Arianne Farah
Canada
Local time: 03:00
Member (2008)
English to French
| Learn to diversify | Nov 15, 2014 |
My first few years translating freelance (it seems forever ago!), I had a large company that represented about 80% of my income. The collaboration was good; they paid on time, they would put pressure on rates but if I pushed back I had no trouble obtaining what I asked for which was already a good rate (actually I learnt a valuable lesson about standing my ground there, is seems their SOP was to try to push just in case it would work, but I grew wise to it after a few months and figured out I wo... See more My first few years translating freelance (it seems forever ago!), I had a large company that represented about 80% of my income. The collaboration was good; they paid on time, they would put pressure on rates but if I pushed back I had no trouble obtaining what I asked for which was already a good rate (actually I learnt a valuable lesson about standing my ground there, is seems their SOP was to try to push just in case it would work, but I grew wise to it after a few months and figured out I wouldn't lose jobs if I stuck to my rate), the projects were interesting; on their side, I was a great, reliable, specialized translator, I got some negative feedback about 5 times overall in over three years, so maybe 1/3th of 1% of the work I did for them. Fast-forward to their next 'growth by acquisition' were they bought a company that was specialized in my language pair, over the next 6 months, despite rave reviews from the newly acquired native language PMs in my target language (feedback passed on from the clients themselves that they had the knowledge to validate, and the decency to pass on), I was phased out - it's simply cheaper to translate in-house than with freelancers if you have the volume to justify it. It had nothing to do with my ability, and everything to do with the fact that the company's needs had changed. But it killed my monthly income!
That's when I learnt to diversify for diversity's sake - even if the relationship is good, even if the client is solid, even if you're a great translator, even if they love your work... diversify!
Thankfully after all those years I had a good cushion and I was able to support myself and market myself all over again, but I've never forgotten the lesson - I don't allow any client to represent more than 30% (and that's a lot!) of my income.
If I receive such a large project that it monopolizes my time, I ask for a longer deadline; if it's sent in batches, I can offer an availability (say up to 40%) and then only take more if I have nothing else on the table. Meanwhile, I never turn down my 'irregular' clients - I fit them in, even if it means I'll have to do a longer day, because I know that some day those 'irregular' clients and their projects might make the difference between a bad month and a horrible month! I've had some of my 'irregulars' for over a decade now - they rarely have FrCan work, but when they do, they send it to me, because I've never let them down in 10 years - they'll never be enough to sustain me, but they might be enough to save me when times are tough. (cute story, a PM once returned to an agency they had left several years before and emailed me to place a project, asking if I remembered them because they had originally recruited me and adding that they were glad to see I'd become the goto translator for my language pair in their agency on a parallel note, I've had PM 'poach'me and contact me when they'd moved to new agencies)... so diversify! (and be nice to PMs, they might take you with them when they move, same as financial advisors who bring their clients, or they might clue you in to when a company is having financial difficulties, and you would be better off dialing back on work for that agency). ▲ Collapse
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