Home business: translators and translation agency start up

Becoming a freelance translator/My Journey from freelance translator to translation agency entrepreneur

French and Spanish translation services translators in Los Angeles

Malaga, Spain. Photo : Copyright 2007, all-texts.com

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Lost in the Translation Industry

A "Reality" Blog About the Translation Industry, Freelance Translating, How to Start a Translation Agency, Surviving and Thriving in Internet Home Business Lifestyles

Chateau Landon, France, Seine-et-Marne

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Client asks: "How do you do the translations, what is the process?"

Occasionally, a client will ask about our translation process. Rather simple, we use a large terminological database, the translator translates and proofreads. Of course, they want a more detailed answer, but often I am not too articulate over the phone, and I tend to stammer if a big project is on the line.

I prefer to refer them to our translation methods page here.

Living Wage for Translators: Is it possible?

While giving a quote for a 35,000-word technical translation project today, I began to think how hard it is sometimes for freelance translators to earn a living wage; I mean, we got clients everywhere who want a "good deal",but somehow think that would mean paying us what would be the equivalent of $7.50 per hour for professional translation. Preposterous.

Clients must realize that translation is a demanding profession, hard academic work, which takes years of preparation and study. I have had clients balk at the price of large translation projects. What, $1,000 for a week and half's work too much? God, how do they expect a translator to survive on less than that?

After sitting down at the computer translating for 10 days straight, the translator needs to rest a few days anyway. And then back to work, so maybe he or she can earn $24K a year....

And we freelance translators and small agency owners have to pay our own health insurance, which can get really pricey. Hand it to dog-eat-dog American capitalism for the Dickensian working conditions of the self-employed....

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If this is so great, why am I bitching so much about the translation industry?

So far, and during much of this 4th page of the blog (refer back to site map for home page), I am doing nothing buy whining. Well, there are issues that come up when running a translation agency and being a translator. Hard work, but the rewards of autonomy, independence- simply not having a big fat boss staring down at you- are worth it.

Murphy's Law is alive and well in American business....

Thanksgiving Day

Been sending piqued emails to translator applicants: "Any attachment document(i.e., a resume or CV) not titled with  language combination and full name  will be deleted."

It is for their own good. What agency is going to spend time typing in "save as" with all the info for each download into database?

Special offer, $10.00: Put your freelance translator resume/CV on this blog!

Put a banner and link to your translation agency on this blog: One-time fee, $75

Contact me for details. Put "CV blog posting" or "Banner link" in email subject.

Holiday Season 2008

Holiday season for translation industry/Crazy friend and his mobile translation agency

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year translator friends. Business has slowed down quite a bit due to the worldwide economic recession and general holiday chaos. Nevertheless, it is also at this time of year / end of year/new year that we also get those projects that have been put off until now, those last minute translation projects, and lots of work from translation customers who can't find anyone willing to work at this time.

For example, the T-Mobile MDA IV, a new communication device.

Translating academic transcripts

Was translating academic transcripts today from a Spanish and Cuban university. Quite a mess Spain and Cuba make of their official documents. I quoted my normal price for translating diplomas, certificates, etc.; however, the job turned into quite a bit of neck and back-breaking work, not to mention strain on the eyes.

I should have charged 15% more per page for these transcripts. The tables of numbers, subjects, dates, and grades was stupefying. Trying to put it in a simple table was chaotic, so I just listed the data somewhat unevenly, but under the correct category. My god.

Then my regular notary was closed, so I went to the UPS store, and the notary was off for Friday. Finally went to a notary I used to use back in the beginning of my certified translation career. They were rude so I never used them again and too exacting: fingerprints, declarations of "qualification" as translator, unwilling to make out form for notarization, demanding to see the translation, etc--no end to hassle and overall rude attitude.

Good tip: find a polite and easy public notary who isn't anal-retentive about the procedure and just get it done. I go to a public notary at an insurance office and get my notarizations of translations done quickly and smoothly with no hassle whatsover. They know what is necessary and what is just excessive procedure, and they sometimes give me 2 notarizations for one price.

January 2009

Late Paying Customers of translation agencies

Another payment issue here for our agency. We did a large English to French translation for a marketing agency in Los Angeles, who apparently sold this translation to one of their clients, or did it special for a "favor" ( and of course, they are going to take a cut of about 20% I assume).

Well, now they are 2 weeks late in paying our agency. They are waiting for their client, who has become a translation customer for them, to pay. So, they are putting us off for a full 30 to 60 days. I had to tell them that as an agency we only deal directly with our translation clients, and we expect payment no later than 2-3 weeks. It is clearly stated on our invoice We can't run an agency with late payments; we have to pay our translators. We are not a bank!

This marketing company said, after we gave them notice of unpaid invoice, that they have to wait for their client to pay them. They never told us they were selling this translation to their own client. They also said that with the economy as it is, many of their clients are paying later.

I told this marketing agency that they are my direct client. I did the translation for them, and they purchased it.

Our terms of payment are 30 days for our translators. We usually pay them within two weeks, and they get used to this fast payment; then they are a bit alarmed if they don't get a check in a week! Standard terms of payment of 30 days for freelance translators is a translation industry standard, almost universally, and some agencies pay their translators up to 60 days after delivery of the finished document.

Well in to January, 2009: unpaid invoice, computer problems

The client mentioned above has still not paid for the translation we did for them at the beginning of last month. I had to repeat to them that they purchased they translation, not their end client. Their company is on the invoice. Now 41 days have passed since we delivered the translation to them.

Moral of the story: Make your terms of payment clear, repeatedly, before you start a translation for a customer. Make sure they understand the terms and/or negotiate a bit on terms, possibly extend by a week or little more, but be certain the original or extended terms are agreed upon before going ahead with the project.

Update on late paying customers: February 17, 2009:

62 days, and still no payment from that marketing agency Los Angeles. The staff who ordered the the translation: One person, who then passed the problem off to another person, have made no attempt to contact me after I sent 5 notices of late payment, plus 2 telephone calls.

I would urge any translation agency or translator not to do work for that marketing agency in Los Angeles.

HP and Vista

I have spent over $2,000 on HP computers. Both , especially the laptop, have had major problems; and both came with the infamous Vista operating system. Spent all morning fixing my desktop HP. Turns out the new Logitech Quickcam webcam is screwing everything up. The cam worked for about a week or two, but now I can only operate my computer after uninstalling it. I suspect a combination of HP and Vista have f-cked things up.

Also yesterday I did a an R-Wipe and Clean on my laptop. This is a great program. Nevertheless, even though I only used my poorly functioning HP laptop for about 3 months in total, and rather minimally actually; it took about 12 hours to clean and wipe temporary and deleted files. I don't even think I finished, as I still had the NTFS thing left to wipe.

This HP laptop takes about 12 minutes to fully boot! It always has, from the very beginning. This is the computer I brought to Spain when I tried to operate my mobile translation agency.

Tema di Andrea - Alberto Baldan Bembo

Some music I like listening to and dreaming of Europe this spring