| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5] | Dear translator: we've lowered our rates, please accept Thread poster: Benno Groeneveld
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MisaD
United States
Local time: 05:59
Japanese to English
| Seeking advice: received a message similar to "Dear translator" | May 6, 2015 |
I am relatively new to freelancing (going on my fourth year) and have received a similar message about lowering rates TWICE from the same translation agency. The first time, about two years ago, I was new to the company and wasn't receiving much work from them anyway, so I accepted. This lowered my rate from $0.10/source character to $0.08/source character. As a newbie translating mostly shorter texts, I did not realize how significant this was. Soon after, I began receiving a lot of work from t... See more I am relatively new to freelancing (going on my fourth year) and have received a similar message about lowering rates TWICE from the same translation agency. The first time, about two years ago, I was new to the company and wasn't receiving much work from them anyway, so I accepted. This lowered my rate from $0.10/source character to $0.08/source character. As a newbie translating mostly shorter texts, I did not realize how significant this was. Soon after, I began receiving a lot of work from them, which ended up accounting for 50% of my income. I enjoyed the projects and was happy working for them. They paid monthly, had a smoothly operating work management system, and the PMs were generally friendly and helpful. (Note: This company does not require me to use any CAT tools.)
Then, about six months ago, I received a message asking if I could lower my rates because they were losing jobs to competitors. I said I was unable to lower my rates, but I could potentially offer a large-volume discount on projects with relaxed deadlines, though it would be a case-by-case discount and I would need to see the entire file first. The work I do for them involves translating academic journal articles, dissertations, etc. There is also a fair amount of research and editing involved. They said they appreciated my offer. Then, I saw that they posted a job advertisement for Japanese-English translators with a rate of $0.06-$0.08/source character. I feel a little betrayed. I am also worried that I may be about to lose a significant portion of my income. Any thoughts or advice for me? ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Get more customers! | May 6, 2015 |
You should never have one customer that accounts for more than 50% of your income. A customer can go away at any time for any reason and without any warning. The optimum is not to have any customer accounting for more than about 20% (and less would be even better). Then you can tell them to go away (or something less polite!) without putting yourself out of business.
| | | | | Yes - get more customers! | May 6, 2015 |
You need more customers - allowing one company to make up such a big proportion of your income puts you in a weak position when you need to negotiate. You should be marketing yourself and looking for better opportunities on an ongoing basis so you can edge your rates up - not down!
| | | | | Sarcasm is not necessarily bad | May 6, 2015 |
I believe in being charitable but not in letting ridiculous offers pass without comment. An unqualified courteous refusal legitimizes those rotten apples by ostensibly making them a valid subject for discussion. Rather, colourful succinct illustration would be in order, e.g.:
– that's below minimum wage
– I'd be making $6 per hour
– it would qualify me for welfare
– it's 50% of my normal rate
– 30% less than the recommended minimum of such and such ... See more I believe in being charitable but not in letting ridiculous offers pass without comment. An unqualified courteous refusal legitimizes those rotten apples by ostensibly making them a valid subject for discussion. Rather, colourful succinct illustration would be in order, e.g.:
– that's below minimum wage
– I'd be making $6 per hour
– it would qualify me for welfare
– it's 50% of my normal rate
– 30% less than the recommended minimum of such and such association, and so and so forth.
Similarly, one ought to comment on something like:
– owners or managers asking translators to take a pay hit so that they don't have to
– competing on price alone
– any form of the middleman underselling the vendor
– asking for premium service in the same sentence or paragraph with budget rates, or begging a favour but still lording it over you somewhere else in the same e-mail (e.g. specific instructions)
– whining about bad times/crisis/recession/whatever at the same time as posting record profits, or any other form of deceit.
Gotta call people on stuff like that.
[Edited at 2015-05-06 21:14 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Natasha Ziada (X) 
Australia
Local time: 20:59
English to Dutch
+ ...
| Telling it like it is | May 6, 2015 |
Łukasz Gos-Furmankiewicz wrote:
– that's below minimum wage
– I'd be making $6 per hour
– it would qualify me for welfare
– it's 50% of my normal rate
– 30% less than the recommended minimum of such and such association, and so and so forth.
Similarly, one ought to comment on something like:
– owners or managers asking translators to take a pay hit so that they don't have to
– competing on price alone
– any form of the middleman underselling the vendor
– asking for premium service in the same sentence or paragraph with budget rates, or begging a favour but still lording it over you somewhere else in the same e-mail (e.g. specific instructions)
– whining about bad times/crisis/recession/whatever at the same time as posting record profits, or any other form of deceit.
Gotta call people on stuff like that.
Yes! I completely agree.
| | | | Phil Hand
China
Local time: 18:59
Chinese to English
MLindberg wrote:
...The work I do for them involves translating academic journal articles, dissertations, etc. There is also a fair amount of research and editing involved. They said they appreciated my offer. Then, I saw that they posted a job advertisement for Japanese-English translators with a rate of $0.06-$0.08/source character. I feel a little betrayed. I am also worried that I may be about to lose a significant portion of my income. Any thoughts or advice for me?
That work is difficult, and if you do it well, then you are one of only very few. Don't feel upset about it - they're a business, it is their job to try to cut costs. But the most likely course of events is: they will find a cheaper translator. Cheaper translator will turn out to be rubbish. They will come back to you. And when they do, you'll be in quite a strong position. You might even be able to raise your rates. Have confidence, you are a precious commodity.
| | | | | +1 Have confidence, you are a precious commodity | May 7, 2015 |
Phil Hand wrote:
MLindberg wrote:
...The work I do for them involves translating academic journal articles, dissertations, etc. There is also a fair amount of research and editing involved.
That work is difficult, and if you do it well, then you are one of only very few. Don't feel upset about it - they're a business, it is their job to try to cut costs. But the most likely course of events is: they will find a cheaper translator. Cheaper translator will turn out to be rubbish. They will come back to you. And when they do, you'll be in quite a strong position. You might even be able to raise your rates. Have confidence, you are a precious commodity.
@Phil: Your advice is the best piece of advice to many excellent fellow translators working in niche markets who might lose confidence at some point. I don't think lowering your rates is a viable long-term strategy.
One of my favorite quotes which is very relevant to the topic:
“Everything will turn out right, the world is built on that. ... You should never ask anyone for anything. Never- and especially from those who are more powerful than yourself. They will make the offer and they will give of their own accord.”
― Mikhail Bulgakov, The Master and Margarita
[Edited at 2015-05-07 03:53 GMT]
| | | | MisaD
United States
Local time: 05:59
Japanese to English
| Wait it out--Thanks for the advice | May 7, 2015 |
Phil Hand wrote:
MLindberg wrote:
...The work I do for them involves translating academic journal articles, dissertations, etc. There is also a fair amount of research and editing involved. They said they appreciated my offer. Then, I saw that they posted a job advertisement for Japanese-English translators with a rate of $0.06-$0.08/source character. I feel a little betrayed. I am also worried that I may be about to lose a significant portion of my income. Any thoughts or advice for me?
That work is difficult, and if you do it well, then you are one of only very few. Don't feel upset about it - they're a business, it is their job to try to cut costs. But the most likely course of events is: they will find a cheaper translator. Cheaper translator will turn out to be rubbish. They will come back to you. And when they do, you'll be in quite a strong position. You might even be able to raise your rates. Have confidence, you are a precious commodity.
Thank you for your words of confidence and advice. I will wait rather than lower my rates. In the meantime, I will do more marketing and try to expand my client list, as others suggested!
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| Find the right customers | May 7, 2015 |
If that means more customers, fine by me, but it is the 'quality' that counts, not the 'quantity'.
Once I was asked to lower my rates, and I refrased the question to the PM if she had to give in on her salary. She was quite surprised, 'of course not', she got a raise each year. So I am wondering why we highly educated translators, who are delivering the most important product, namely the translation, have to pay the price for 'their' succes!
| | | | Abba Storgen (X)
United States
Local time: 04:59
Greek to English
+ ...
| Way too many agencies, killing each other | May 13, 2015 |
That's probably because lots of young entrepreneurs are starting a "new language provider" on the internet.
If you haven't realized it yet, all agencies are pretty much sharing the same translators. That's why full time translators work with at least 15-20 agencies on a regular basis.
Nowadays they' ve become so many, that they started attacking each other on price. The writing quality of most is pretty much at the level of "google-translate" that their underpaid translators u... See more That's probably because lots of young entrepreneurs are starting a "new language provider" on the internet.
If you haven't realized it yet, all agencies are pretty much sharing the same translators. That's why full time translators work with at least 15-20 agencies on a regular basis.
Nowadays they' ve become so many, that they started attacking each other on price. The writing quality of most is pretty much at the level of "google-translate" that their underpaid translators use (can't blame them).
As I said years ago, lots of agencies will disappear or just maintain a slow/inactive web page "just in case someone ever uses it". Most of these "agencies" have less than 10 clients with small jobs, and operate by one person on a part-time basis.
Here's the damage: even if all those shooting stars have no adequate resources, they still give offers of 0.12 to end-clients, which in turn forces good agencies to lower their prices (they are tricked too!).
I believe good agencies should not engage in that race to the bottom, falsely forced by the semi-fake agencies. The writing quality keeps resembling "google" more every month; end-clients will react by just going to google themselves directly, and avoid the entire industry or use it just for necessary editing. This is where it's going.
PS. Every time you see even your doorman talking about a stock or an industry or a "hot new job", it's time to leave. ▲ Collapse
| | | | MariusV
Lithuania
Local time: 12:59
English to Lithuanian
+ ...
Dear Translation Agency,
I am writing to you on my own behalf, free will, and being (hopefuly) still in satisfactory mental health condition. It is regarding certain upcoming changes.
As you are aware, people, and even translators, live in real world, in real time, and they must generate certain budgets for themselves in order to satisfy their physiological and, sometimes, even other basic needs (i.e. “to vegetate”) as to be able to continue working in that damned... See more Dear Translation Agency,
I am writing to you on my own behalf, free will, and being (hopefuly) still in satisfactory mental health condition. It is regarding certain upcoming changes.
As you are aware, people, and even translators, live in real world, in real time, and they must generate certain budgets for themselves in order to satisfy their physiological and, sometimes, even other basic needs (i.e. “to vegetate”) as to be able to continue working in that damned business area. In order to do so, I have developed new rates scheme for every language pair I provide, and from now on you must ensure (and I have any doubt that you will) that you adhere to these new rates. The new rate has been set at [my standard absolute minimum rate plus 20%] per source word for translation.
You have been a crucial part of my professional, business, personal, and even intimate life for many years, and I recognize that the quality of your Accounting and Payment Department work has been outstanding, which is why I feel a huge moral obligation to bring these urgent matters and changes to your kind attention. It is not easy for me, as a translator, to ask my preferred clients to accept my new rates – I am doing it with tears in my eyes. However, I have no choice at this point, as I have extraordinary certain demands which I must fullfil for myself. I understand that this proposal will affect my invoices; however, I ensure that we will keep on accepting any crap you send for translation always expecting some higher volume of work, at least sometimes. As you could probably understand, I do value you as part of my clients’ team and I hope to continue our working relationship with you.
If you agree to the rate of +20% per source word, I will send you an updated Service Agreement and a new Client Registration Form, and my new business assistant Rex (my French bulldog) will be also aware that you are available for consistent cooperation. ▲ Collapse
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Not in my style, but well said.
Rob
[Edited at 2015-05-14 20:32 GMT]
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