No matter how meticulous you are about a) your translations and b) your business practices, you can’t work as a freelancer without dealing with disgruntled clients from time to time. First, let’s say this: unless you love interpersonal conflict, dealing with unhappy clients is awful. Running your own business means caring very deeply about your [...]
Archive for the ‘Clients’ Category
When a client is dissatisfied
Posted in Clients, Translation quality on October 10, 2011 | 19 Comments »
Passing as “one of them”: the client Turing test
Posted in Clients, Professional development on August 1, 2011 | 18 Comments »
During Speaking of Translation’s recent interview with Chris Durban (recording online for free, at that link), Chris mentioned an excellent quality metric for specialized translators: the 10-minute Turing test. A Turing test involves a human attempting to determine if he/she is having a discussion with a computer or with another human. For example, many of [...]
Working with direct clients: tips from Chris Durban
Posted in Clients, Professional development, Webinars on July 20, 2011 | 8 Comments »
This morning, Eve Bodeux and I (in our incarnation as Speaking of Translation) did an interview with superstar translator Chris Durban, focusing on her tips for working with direct clients. Whether you’re just testing the direct client waters or you’ve been in the direct client market for a while, Chris has lots of practical tips [...]
Some thoughts on hourly and salaried pay
Posted in Clients, Money, Productivity on June 21, 2011 | 12 Comments »
In the early days of Thoughts on Translation (March, 2008 to be exact), I wrote a post on charging by the word versus charging by the hour. For a long time, it was the most active post on my blog and it inspired some interesting and heated discussion. Get Rich Slowly’s post today is on [...]
What about TM discounts?
Posted in Clients, Marketing, Money on June 7, 2011 | 16 Comments »
During the recent discussion on volume discounts, a number of readers brought up the (very valid) issue of translation memory discounts. I feel a can of worms about to open here, but I’ll inject some of my thoughts on TM discounts. First caveat: I am neither a huge fan of nor a heavy user of [...]
Some thoughts on volume discounts
Posted in Clients, Marketing, Money on May 20, 2011 | 26 Comments »
I get lots of questions from beginning and experienced translators about volume discounts (charging a lower per-word or hourly rate for larger projects). I actually think that after “how much should I charge?”, “should I offer a volume discount” might be the second most frequently-asked question that I see. Here are a few thoughts, and [...]
Giving clients advice: how far to go?
Posted in Clients, Translation technique on January 29, 2011 | 17 Comments »
I gave some thought to titling this post “Should translators encourage their clients to be more gay-friendly?”, but the issue I’m mulling over is really about whether we should encourage our clients to be more inclusive in general. I should also say that although I’m not gay, I have a close family member who is, [...]
Reader question: cold-contacting with holiday cards
Posted in Clients, Marketing on December 17, 2010 | 10 Comments »
Here’s a followup to my post on What to send clients and colleagues for the holidays. This is a question that recently came up in the online course I teach, and I’d like to put it out to a wider audience. Is it appropriate to use holiday cards as cold contacts to potential clients? If [...]
What to send clients and colleagues for the holidays
Posted in Clients, Freelancing on November 17, 2010 | 28 Comments »
Since we’re on the topic, it’s also time to think about your end-of-year greetings/thank you plans for your clients and colleagues. Obviously these plans will vary depending on your country, customs, budget and time limits, but here are a few suggestions for spreading some cheer, gratitude and name recognition. Holiday greeting basics: Send something. OK; [...]
Making translation easy versus making translation cheap
Posted in Clients, Marketing, Money on October 11, 2010 | 21 Comments »
When you’re inquiring about a professional service, let’s say taxes, computer help or marketing consulting, which is more attractive to you: a service provider who seems ultra-competent and gives the impression that the process will be easy for you, or a service provider who charges low rates and gives the impression that the process will [...]
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Corinne McKay is an ATA-certified French to English translator specializing in international development, law and non-fiction books. She launched Thoughts on Translation in February, 2008 as a way to connect and share ideas with freelance translators around the world.
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