Useful info for translators about How To INCREASE Your Profits

There are numerous ways to increase your profits as a translator. The easiest is to do more work. This is a nice idea, but given that there are only 168 hours in a week and 1440 minutes in a day, you can readily see that there is an upper limit to how much work you can do. Assuming you have as much work as you are capable of (or something close to that level), the trick is to get as much money as possible for your work. In other words: learn to negotiate. Negotiation is very important when dealing with translation agencies. A little math makes this clear. For a 10,000 word translation, if you work at ten cents per word, you'll make $1000; at eleven cents per word, you'll make $1100, and so on. In other words, you should think of your word rate as your salary ratio. If the average word rate for your language combination drops by 10%, you'll effectively take a 10% cut in salary. Of course, the converse is also true. You should have a minimum fee below which you will not accept the job. Many translation assignments are quite small, running between fifty and two-hundred words. Such assignments include translations of inter-office memos, birth certificates, official documents such as driver's licenses, passports, family registrations, and so on. If you were paid by the word, you'd make only a few dollars for the job and probably not cover the cost of printing and sending the finished job to the agency. Agencies are aware of this problem because they are in the same position. If they take a very small job, they have to consider their fixed costs as well. Regardless of how small or large a job is, certain costs remain the same, and the agency knows this. Therefore, so should you. Sit down and figure out roughly how much it costs you to do a translation. Include the time and money spent on talking to the client, sending faxes or files, and printing the translation or the invoice. I won't do a job for below $20 and this has caused me little trouble. You should also know what word rate you are willing to accept for a job. Work this out ahead of time and stick to it. You might even keep a chart on your desk, telling you for example that you will do general material for $0.09/word, technical for $0.10/word and rush jobs for $0.15/word (these are just examples, not recommendations). You might also have a chart worked out for how you adjust your rate based on the size of the job. I regularly accept a slightly lower rate for jobs which exceed two weeks in duration. Make sure your rates are reasonable; there's no point in asking for twice the market average because you'll quickly find you have no work. There are lots of good translators out there waiting to replace you; so don't give anyone a reason not to use you. Stick to your rates once you establish them. There are times to change your rates, and I'll discuss that in a moment. But first, let's look at why you should stick to your rates. If you constantly let yourself be talked down, you are effectively cheapening yourself, and by extension, other translators and the profession as a whole. People value what they pay a lot for. And, people are willing to pay a fair price for what they value. Part of that sense of value and price comes from the quality and nature of the work. Part of that sense comes from the pride and professionalism of the practitioners. If you show no pride or professionalism, you will lose, and by extension, the entire profession will lose. I'm not saying that translators should all double or triple their rates. But when translators start accepting lower and lower rates, they create a crisis for themselves. As rates decrease, more and more good translators will be forced out of the business simply because they cannot earn a living. Some will leave voluntarily because they know they can make a better living elsewhere. Others will leave because they have no choice. Eventually, only those who are translating part-time and are not concerned about pay (do such people exist?) will be left. This brain-drain in translation will be bad for everyone, not just translators. Naturally, the same issue about rates applies to agencies and to end-clients. You get what you pay for is a maxim which is just starting to be considered in the translation industry. Translators have to do their part by insisting that their work has value and is worth so much per word. Agencies have to do their part by insisting that a project will cost so much if it is to be done correctly. And, end-clients have to realize that they are dealing with specialists and experts and respect their ability and judgment. There are, however, some times when you will want or be forced to change your rates. For example, I translate Japanese. If Japan suddenly fell into the ocean, I might have to lower my rates (though more likely I'd be looking for a new job; perhaps as a Japanese historian). On a more realistic level, when the Japanese economic bubble burst in 1991, rates for Japanese translation began to fall and have yet to recover. So, Japanese translators were forced to lower their rates to remain competitive. Right after the Tienanmen massacre, Chinese translators found themselves in a sudden dry spell and had a hard time finding work. Now, they are finding more (because in part of the Clinton administration's delinking of human rights and trade status). And, eventually, they may be able to raise their rates.