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Managing your time as a freelancer

November 25, 2009 by Corinne McKay

Time management is always an important issue for freelancers, and especially so at this time of year. It always seems that November and December are a triple whammy of the winter holidays, clients realizing that they need to squeeze in the last few projects of the year, and trying to finish up all of our own goals that we set back in January, so things get out of control very quickly.

When you think about how to manage your time, I think it’s important to first look at the utilitarian viewpoint: in what ways is your current time management strategy working and not working? Are you habitually scrambling to meet your deadlines (or worse yet, habitually missing deadlines)? Not sleeping enough? Having to cancel social engagements or feeling as if you have no life outside of work? Or are things mostly working for you? What are the objective restrictions on your time; do you have many commitments to other people or is your time primarily your own?

In addition, think about what sort of time management personality you have. Do rules and guidelines make you feel confident or constrained? Do you work better in a free-form environment or in a regimented one?

Looking over my own time management strategies, I feel that I am doing fairly well from the utilitarian standpoint. I’ve never missed a deadline, I sleep at least seven hours a night, exercise for about an hour most days and I rarely work in the after-school time slot in order to spend time with my daughter, so things could be worse. On the other hand, I feel like I could be doing better on projects that don’t have an imminent deadline: I want to do more direct client marketing, finish the second edition of my book and do a good job in my new role on the ATA Public Relations committee, and I feel that better time management could really help with these.

Here are a few time management strategies that work well for me, and I would be interested to hear what works for other people:

  • Use a prioritized to-do list. I rank my to-do items in high, medium and low categories so that I’m not tempted to focus on the fun but not urgent items (i.e. designing a marketing postcard, picking a new header image for my blog) rather than on the excruciating but urgent items (i.e. quarterly payroll taxes, entering receipts into my accounting software).
  • Put a leash on e-mail. Unless I’m waiting for a particularly urgent message, I check e-mail only on the hour and the half hour. Then, I respond immediately to any e-mail that requires only a really short response so that I don’t have a big stack to deal with at the end of the day. Also, I have all of my e-mail list subscriptions set to the daily digest mode so that I receive only one e-mail per day from them.
  • Break rules as needed. You know the “never eat at the computer” rule? I have to admit that I eat at the computer a lot, because it allows me to take exercise breaks in the morning or at lunch. I know some people think that eating at the computer is totally uncivilized and horrible (and I don’t do it all the time) but I’d rather run or do yoga at lunch time for half an hour and then eat a peanut butter sandwich while checking my e-mail when I get back. I think that the point here is to take the “always do this…never do that” rules that other people espouse and bend them to fit what works for you.
  • Work during the work day. This seems like an obvious one, but when you work at home, it’s sometimes hard to ignore the phone, friends wanting to get together, and all of the myriad other things you could be doing instead of working. My policies are: no answering the home phone during the work day (people who would be calling in an actual emergency have my work and cell numbers too); only one non-work commitment (school volunteering, etc.) per day, and the commitment has to last an hour or less, and no socializing during the work day unless I can combine it with another priority item such as exercising.
  • Set an overall limit on how much you are going to work. Know yourself and your capabilities; although I might really push myself for a couple of days in a row to finish a big project or do a good client a favor, I know that if I translate more than 10,000-12,000 words a week, I get tired and sloppy. So, I force myself to manage my time so that after the big push, I get at least a day off to recover and rejuvenate.

    • Now, over to the readers!

Posted in Freelancing | Tagged , | 5 Comments »

Coffee break links

November 17, 2009 by Corinne McKay

Here are a couple of interesting links for your coffee break reading:

  • Get Rich Slowly on How much house do you need?. As a small house dweller (we have our family of three and my office in an 1,150 square foot ranch with no plans to move or expand) and an envier of Tumbleweed Tiny Houses, I really enjoyed this post.
  • White House Notebook on Language skills on display. Whatever your political views, I think it’s impressive that President Obama has placed so much emphasis on language skills during his current China trip. He went to the trouble of greeting his town hall attendees in the local dialect, had the U.S. Ambassador introduce him “in polished Chinese” and even acknowledged his own linguistic disadvantage by telling the audience, “I’m very sorry that my Chinese is not as good as your English, but I am looking forward to this chance to have a dialogue.”

    • Happy reading!

Posted in Links | 4 Comments »

Translation makes the front page of the LA Times

November 16, 2009 by Corinne McKay

Having recently joined the ATA Public Relations Committee, I was excited to receive an e-mail this morning about a story on the front page of today’s Los Angeles Times. “Demand grows for niche translators” profiles German to English waste management translator Abigail “Trash Girl” Dahlberg and features extensive quotes from ATA President Nicholas Hartmann and national media spokesman Kevin Hendzel. Congratulations to reporter Tina Susman for researching this story so thoroughly…it’s exciting to see our sometimes publicity-shy profession on the front page of a major paper!

Posted in Links | 4 Comments »

Why you need your own domain name

November 13, 2009 by Corinne McKay

What’s in a domain name (corny, I know, but too obvious to pass up…)? A lot, as it turns out. As freelancers who are dependent on e-mail to keep our businesses running, domain names are very, very important. The three basic options when it comes to e-mail are:

  • Use a domain name provided by your Internet Service Provider (ISP), for example yourname@comcast.net, @earthlink.net, etc.
  • Use a domain name provided by a free or fee-based e-mail service, for example yourname@gmail.com, @yahoo.com, etc.
  • Use your own domain name, for example yourname@yourdomain.com

Having your professional e-mail attached to a domain that you don’t own has a few disadvantages:

  • You are at the domain owner’s mercy. When I first started freelancing back in the days of dialup Internet, I learned this the hard way after moving cross country. I kept the ISP I had used in Boston and several months later, they stopped offering dialup access in Colorado *on one day’s notice,* and there went a good bit of the effort I had put into my nascent freelance business. As cable companies merge, similar things can happen if your cable provider changes its name and thus its domain names.
  • Your own domain looks more professional. Not to point fingers, but when I receive a professional e-mail from a Hotmail address, I have the same reaction as when I see the “Get your free business cards at…” imprint on the back of someone’s card. It makes me think that this person will not even invest $25-$50 in their business to create a professional image.
  • You risk having to change your e-mail address at some point. When you work in a business where probably 90%+ of your contact with clients is by e-mail, having to change your e-mail address is something you want to avoid at all costs, especially if the old address becomes inactive at some point

After doing some unscientific research, I’ve come to the conclusion that many freelance translators just don’t know how easy it is to purchase and use your own domain. So, here’s a short lesson (now you have no excuse to keep using Hotmail!).

  • Do your homework *before* you determine whether your desired domain name is available. Do not assume that just because there is no website at a given web address (URL), that means that the domain name is available. First, read this article on Important Precautions to Take When Buying a Domain Name from The Site Wizard. Be a little paranoid and follow the advice there: make a list of domain names before you ever log on to a registrar; pick the registrar you want before you search for your domain name; never run your potential domain name by anyone you don’t trust completely and when you find out that your desired domain name is available, purchase it immediately.
  • Buy the domain name from a domain name registrar. Thanks to The Site Wizard for another excellent article on How to Register Your Own Domain Name. This doesn’t mean that I endorse the domain registrars that are listed there, but they’re a good place to start. Your ISP may also provide domain name registration services (just make sure you really trust the ISP!). Domain name registration should cost you about $10 a year; don’t go with a fly-by-night registrar just to save a dollar or two. In my case I register my domain through my ISP because I trust them more than I trust myself, and they will automatically renew my domain name and bill me for it (more on domain name renewals below).
  • If necessary, purchase an e-mail hosting package so that you can use your domain name for e-mail. If you want to put a website at your domain, e-mail access will probably come with your web hosting package. If you just want to use your domain name for e-mail, you need an e-mail hosting package. For example (and again, I’m not endorsing them, this just gives a good example), GoDaddy has e-mail hosting packages for as little as $1.19 a month. Even the most expensive package, which gives you 10 e-mail addresses and unlimited storage is $2.50 a month.
  • Don’t forget to renew your domain name. Of anything you need to remember about having your own domain, this is the most important. Especially if you purchase your domain for only one year at a time, make sure you’re clear on how the domain name registrar is going to contact you to ask you to renew; a cut-rate registrar may “forget” to remind you to renew, then one day you go to check your e-mail and you’re locked out. You can semi-circumvent this problem by purchasing a multi-year domain name subscription, but you should still make sure you don’t forget to renew it.
  • Follow the domain name registrar’s instructions on how to use your e-mail. If you purchase a hosting package with unlimited storage you can probably use your registrar’s web mail if you want to, or you can use an e-mail program on your computer. Your domain name registrar should be able to give you instructions on how to do this.

Now, what are you waiting for? Go to it!

Posted in Marketing, Technology | 14 Comments »

Overcoming psychological barriers to success

November 6, 2009 by Corinne McKay

This week, two blog posts on the psychology of freelancing caught my eye: this one from Get Rich Slowly, entitled “Knocking out the beliefs that hold you back” and this one from I Will Teach You To Be Rich, entitled “Success and the shrug effect” (and by the way, it’s not that I love blogs about how to get rich, but these two are interesting!).

In the Get Rich Slowly post, GRS staff writer April Dykman points out how “limiting beliefs” hold us back from success. In April’s case, a college professor once told her that it was impossible to make a living as a freelance writer, which led April to a miserable stint in real estate while her freelance career went nowhere. Far from advocating a “make a wish and it will come true” approach, April gives a detailed, step-by-step guide to destroying your limiting beliefs and getting through to success by setting defined goals, finding mentors, ignoring other people’s limiting beliefs and taking small, concrete steps toward your goals. Likewise, Ramit Sethi argues in his post that we often sabotage our own success by focusing on why other people have “made it” but we can’t. For example we focus the external factors that separate us from the successful businesspeople we admire and convince ourselves that it’s those unchangeable factors that are holding us back… that person went to a name-brand school, that person has connections, that person is so much smarter than we are, etc. Ramit points out that focusing on those types of beliefs is  “an excuse to stay in your current state and do nothing.”

While I don’t agree with everything in these posts, I think that this self-defeating phenomenon is really prevalent among freelance translators, and I don’t exclude myself here. The real question is how to overcome these psychological barriers to success. Here are a few techniques I’ve used, and I would be interested to hear from readers a) what are your psychological barriers to success and b) what are you doing about them?

  • Keep tangible reminders of your success. April says that she keeps a Word document with positive things that people have said about her. I keep two files (one in my e-mail and one on paper) called “Inspiration” where I store e-mails and notes that say something nice about me. I know, it’s a little cheesy…but when I’m feeling discouraged about a goal that I’ve been struggling to reach (such as finishing the second edition of my book), I crack these files open and remember that someone once said “no one is as thorough as you” or “your book changed my life.”
  • Force yourself to accept compliments. Many translators are naturally self-effacing people who naturally discount anything positive that someone says about them. Try this: when someone says something positive about you, just say “Thank you, that’s so nice of you to say” or something like that, rather than “My work isn’t really that good” “I’m not really that smart” or whatever else you were thinking of saying in order to negate the compliment!
  • Rewind. One of my struggles this year has been figuring out how to add more direct clients to my portfolio. It has really helped to take myself back 7+ years to the start of my freelance career, when the idea of being successfully self-employed seemed like such a dream. When I think back to how hard I worked during my first two years of freelancing, I think that if I could start out with *no* clients and get to where I am now, I can certainly continue making the jump to *better* clients.
  • Do something about your deficits. Once upon a time, I spoke French really well. I lived and went to school in France for a year, then went back pretty much every summer for six or seven years after that, during which time I also had a job where I spoke French for a large part of the work day. Over the years since then, I just haven’t had as much of an occasion to speak French even though I read it all day for work. I realized that in terms of marketing to direct clients in France, one of my limiting beliefs was that “I can’t do it because my spoken French is not strong enough” and I was probably right! So, I decided to start taking French conversation lessons with a native French speaker for an hour every week. This has made a *huge* difference in my confidence level; although my spoken French is not where it was when I got off the plane from living in France, it’s actually enjoyable for me to speak French in social situations with native speakers again.
  • Quit waiting for that big block of time. If I had to single out just one psychological path to success, this would be it. Whether it’s writing a book, marketing to direct clients or keeping your office more organized, any goal is more achievable when you do a little bit every day. If you wait until you have nothing on the calendar in order to do some marketing, three months could easily go by until you find the time. But if you send out just one résumé per work day day during those three months, you will have contacted 60 potential clients.

Posted in Freelancing | Tagged , | 10 Comments »

Audio interview: getting started as a freelance translator

November 4, 2009 by Corinne McKay

While I’m formulating a few posts on the recent ATA conference in New York, here’s an interview that I’ve been meaning to post for a while. Colorado-based Portuguese translator, interpreter and voiceover talent Cris Silva (who has the distinction of being Colorado’s only ATA-certified English to Portuguese translator) recently interviewed me about getting started as a freelancer. Cris is teaching a freelancing class for the University of Denver translation certificate program and she asked me the following questions:

  • What were the first steps you took to get started as a freelancer?
  • What does a typical day in your work life look like?
  • What is it that you love about being a freelancer?
  • How does your Internet presence fit into your freelance identity?
  • If you had only one piece of advice for beginning translators, what would it be?

    • Click here to listen to the 15-minute interview on drop.io’s site. There’s an audio player (no download) right on the site, or the whole interview is 3.3 MB if you’d like to download it. Two context notes, when you hear us talking about “CTA,” this is the Colorado Translators Association, and “Eve” is Eve Bodeux, with whom I co-host the podcast Speaking of Translation.Thanks to Cris for her great questions, and happy listening!

Posted in Getting started as a translator, Interviews | 2 Comments »

Links: ATA social media presentation

October 30, 2009 by Corinne McKay

At last week’s ATA conference, Eve Bodeux, Michael Wahlster and I co-presented “Web 2.0 Tools for Translation Industry Professionals”. Following are the links that Eve and I mentioned in our portions. You can find Michael’s links at http://snurl.com/sbuoq.
Corinne’s links:
Technorati, a blog search engine
Google Reader, a browser-based feed reader
Blogging on bilingualism
Musings from an overworked translator
The greener word
Naked translations
Masked translator
Essential project management
Translation times
There’s something about translation
Translate this!
Speaking of translation
WordPress
TypePad
Blogger

Eve’s links:
Bodeux International
Facebook
LinkedIn
LinkedIn for Mobile
Twitter
Ning
YouTube
Flickr
Viadeo

Posted in Links | 8 Comments »

Off to ATA

October 28, 2009 by Corinne McKay

This year’s annual conference of the American Translators Association promises to be a record-breaker, with about 2,200 attendees expected. I’m really looking forward to attending the French sessions, and Eve Bodeux, Michael Wahlster and I will be presenting “Web 2.0 for Translation Industry Professionals” at 2PM on Friday. Eve will be covering social media etiquette, LinkedIn and Facebook, I’ll be covering blogs and podcasts and Michael will be covering Twitter; we’re packing a lot of information into an hour and a half! I’m hoping to be able to do some short posts from the conference, but if not, I’ll post a general wrapup here next week. Hope to see many of you there!

Posted in Announcements | Leave a Comment »

OT: Iconic photos website

October 21, 2009 by Corinne McKay

If you’re looking for some coffee break viewing, check out Iconic Photos, a website of “Famous, Infamous and Iconic Photos” that run the gamut from haunting to hilarious. The background notes that go along with the photos are also really interesting. My husband found this site last night; I was working late and he was keeping me company in the office, and the entry that caught his eye was Mitterand’s Funeral, a photo of former French President François Mitterand’s wife, longtime mistress and out of wedlock daughter standing before his coffin. Another must-see is Nixon meets Elvis which is (who knew?) the most requested reproduction from the U.S. National Archives, surpassing both the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights.

I’ll let you choose whether or not to look at the more graphic (mostly war-related, not X-rated) posts on the site, but some non-graphic images I found interesting are Secretariat wins the Belmont Stakes, Shooting the apple and Lindbergh lands in Paris.

Posted in Links, Off topic | 1 Comment »

An interview with Francois Lavallee

October 15, 2009 by Corinne McKay

François Lavallée, a certified translator (OTTIAQ) since 1985 and founder of Magistrad, a professional development school for translators, is now Director of Training at Vencomm, a linguistic services company located in Québec City, after having worked on his own for 20 years. He has also taught general, commercial and legal translation at Université Laval (Québec City) since 2002, and he is the author of two collections of short stories, a collection of fables in the style of La Fontaine, and a translation guide entitled Le traducteur averti. He has an honors degree in translation from Laval University. François’ books can be ordered on-line, among other places, at www.renaud-bray.com. François recently took a moment to answer a few questions from Thoughts on Translation.

Note from Corinne: François answered in French and I translated his answers, so address any complaints about the English to me, not him…

-François, can you tell us a bit about your background and how you became interested in translation?

J’ai toujours été intéressé par les langues. Dès l’âge de 11 ans, j’apprenais l’espagnol par moi-même dans un vieux livre poussiéreux ayant appartenu à mon grand-père (que je n’ai jamais connu). Au cégep [college level specific to Québec, two years long, between high school and University], j’ai opté pour les langues et la littérature, par goût, même si, en raison de mes bonnes notes scolaires, tout le monde me conseillait de me diriger vers les sciences. Au moment de choisir un programme universitaire, j’en cherchai un qui pût me donner un métier (ce que ne serait pas allé de soi avec un diplôme en littérature ou en allemand, par exemple) : c’est là que j’ai découvert le programme spécialisé en traduction de l’Université Laval, à Québec. Travailler avec les mots tout en découvrant des choses nouvelles à chaque jour, passer mes journées le nez dans les dictionnaires et les ouvrages de référence… et être payé en plus pour le faire, pour moi, c‘était presque trop beau pour être vrai!

I’ve always been interested in languages. I started teaching myself Spanish when I was 11, using a dusty old book that had belonged to one of my grandfathers, who I never knew. When I got to cégep (a college level specific to Québec, two years long, between high school and University), I decided to study languages and literature because I enjoyed them, even though everyone told me that because of my excellent grades, I should go into the sciences. When it came time to pick a major in university, I wanted to find something that would be a good career path (which wouldn’t have been easy with a degree in literature or German, for example). Then I found out about the translation program at Laval University in Quebec City. Working with words, learning new things every day, spending all of my time poring over dictionaries and reference books and getting paid to it…it almost sounded too good to be true!

-What inspired you to start Magistrad? What are some of your favorite elements of running a continuing education school for translators?

Je traduis depuis 25 ans. Au fil des ans, à force de chercher des solutions originales, de réfléchir aux faits de langue et d’observer l’anglais et le français tels qu’ils existent, j’en suis venu à faire un certain nombre d’observations que j’avais envie de partager avec mes collègues traducteurs. C’est là que j’ai écrit Le traducteur averti, dont le succès m’a montré à quel point il existait un besoin. J’aime beaucoup l’enseignement en général aussi, et je me suis dit que ce serait intéressant d’enseigner non seulement aux jeunes qui s’inscrivent à l’Université, mais aussi aux traducteurs chevronnés, pour que, tous ensemble, nous puissions améliorer l’activité traductionnelle dans un pays – le Canada – où tant de textes de la vie courante nous arrivent en traduction.

I’ve been translating for 25 years and during that time I’ve had to look for creative solutions to translation problems and I’ve had to think about linguistic issues and look at English and French as we know them today. This led me to some observations that I wanted to share with other translators, and for that reason I wrote Le traducteur averti. Its success showed me how great the demand for translator resources was. I also really enjoy teaching in general and I thought that it would be interesting to teach not only young university students but also experienced translators; together, we can improve the entire translation profession in Canada, a country where so many documents that we come across in our daily lives are translations.

Quand je donne des cours, j’adore rencontrer des traducteurs professionnels comme moi qui travaillent dans des contextes si différents, et qui peuvent ainsi tellement m’apprendre, et discuter avec eux de nos problèmes communs… et des solutions qu’on n’ose parfois pas utiliser. Les dimensions « rencontre » et « utilité » sont certainement celles qui me motivent le plus à continuer.

When I teach, I love to meet other professional translators who work in a wide range of environments because I learn a lot from them too. I enjoy talking to them about the issues that all of us face, and especially about those solutions that we’re sometimes hesitant to use. The interpersonal and problem-solving aspects of the job are definitely the main factors that keep me going.

-What types of translation work do you do when you are not teaching?

La traduction administrative (soit la traduction de textes gouvernementaux et de textes de communication interne des entreprises) a occupé la majeure partie de ma carrière. Toutefois, je fais aussi des textes à saveur marketing, et aussi du juridique, une autre de mes grandes passions. Durant certaines périodes, j’ai aussi fait du technique et du financier. J’aimerais bien me mettre à la traduction littéraire un de ces jours, but hey, there are only so many hours in a day…

I’ve spent most of my career doing administrative translation (meaning translating government documents and internal corporate communications documents). However I also translate marketing materials, and I’m really passionate about legal translation. Over the years I’ve also done technical and financial translations. Someday I would really like to try my hand at literary translation, but hey, there are only so many hours in a day…

-You recently published a book of modern fables written in the style of La Fontaine. Can you tell us a bit about the process of writing this book and some of the challenges?

J’ai toujours été passionné par les textes écrits en vers. Je trouve dommage que cette forme ne soit plus utilisée par les auteurs d’aujourd’hui. Un jour, j’ai décidé de faire un pastiche de La Fontaine en traitant d’un sujet qui faisait l’actualité à l’époque. J’ai tellement aimé l’expérience que j’ai décidé d’en faire d’autres, sur divers sujets contemporains. Ce que j’aime le plus, dans cet exercice, c’est de se donner des contraintes (rythmes, rimes) pour se dépasser, et arriver à un résultat qui fait jouir le lecteur aussi bien pour la forme que pour le fond. Je peux réécrire et réviser une fable des centaines de fois après un premier jet… Et je n’ai pas l’impression de tourner en rond : j’ai toujours l’impression de l’améliorer. ‘

I’ve always been fascinated by texts that are written in verse and I think it’s unfortunate that modern authors don’t make more use of this literary form. So one day I decided to write something in the style of La Fontaine, but dealing with a subject that was in the news at the time. I enjoyed it so much that I decided to write some other fables about different modern-day subjects. To me, the best thing about this exercise was forcing myself to use the rules of rhythm and rhyme in order to be creative, and to create something that was enjoyable for the reader as much in terms of its form as of its substance. After I write the first draft, I sometimes rewrite and revise a fable hundreds of times, but still I never feel like I’m going around in circles; I feel like I’m perfecting it.

-You recently took an in-house job after a lengthy career as a self-employed translator; what are some of the advantages and challenges of working in-house?

Avant de travailler en entreprise, j’étais fier d’être assez polyvalent pour m’occuper de tout dans mon entreprise individuelle. C’est quand j’ai commencé à travailler comme salarié que je me suis rendu compte à quel point tout cela était lourd finalement, et comme il peut être utile de pouvoir partager une charge de travail et certains types de décisions avec des collègues en qui j’ai confiance. En revanche, travailler en équipe m’oblige à apprendre à négocier et à faire valoir mon opinion, au lieu de m’en tenir à mon vieux réflexe, qui consiste à faire les choses tout seul à ma façon. Il y a aussi un autre effet inattendu au travail salarié : il est plus facile de blâmer les autres pour nos malheurs, alors que le travailleur autonome ne peut jamais s’en prendre qu’à lui-même. ‘

Before I worked in-house, I took pride in being able to multi-task and handle every aspect of my freelance business. But since I’ve been an employee, I’ve realized what a burden all of those tasks put on me and how helpful it is to be able to split up the workload and certain types of decision-making with colleagues who I trust. At the same time, working as part of a team means that I’ve had to learn how to negotiate and how to support my point of view instead of doing things as I did before– on my own and in my own way. One thing that has surprised me about being an employee is that it’s easy to blame other people for your problems; as a freelancer, you have only yourself to blame.

-What are some of your plans for Magistrad in the coming year?

Magistrad peut enfin prendre son envol grâce au travail de mes deux coéquipiers, Mathieu Foltz et Éliane Massicotte. Pour les prochains mois, je compte offrir un nouveau cours sur la traduction des contrats, et aussi des cours sur les outils d’aide à la traduction. La difficulté consiste toujours à trouver des formateurs à la hauteur des attentes créées par Magistrad. Et à moyen terme, la formation à distance me semble être une voie très prometteuse.

Magistrad will finally be able to reach its full potential thanks to my two colleagues Mathieu Foltz and Éliane Massicotte. In the upcoming months I’m planning to offer a new course on contract translation and also some courses on computer-assisted translation tools. The hardest part is always finding trainers who are up to Magistrad’s standards. In the longer term, I think that distance education is a really promising possibility.

Posted in Guest posts | 5 Comments »

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