Tips for freelance translators on how to raise their rates and gain more translation company clients

1. Grow Your Client Base, Increase Your
Rate, and Make LSPs Love You:
A How-To
Terena Bell, CEO
In Every Language
6 September 2008

2. “About thirty years ago, Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with
only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate
Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the country of
Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a
baronet’s lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an
handsome house and large income. All Huntingdon exclaimed
on the greatness of the match, and her uncle, the lawyer,
himself, allowed her to be at least three thousand pounds
short of any equitable claim to it. She had two sisters
benefited by her elevation, and such as their acquaintance as
thought Miss Ward and Miss Frances quite as handsome as
Miss Maria, did not scruple to predict their marring with
almost equal advantage. But there certainly are not so many
men of large fortune in the world, as there are pretty women
to deserve them. Miss Ward, at the end of a half of dozen
years, found herself obliged to be attached to the Rev. Mr.
Norris, a friend of her brother-in-law, with scarcely any
private fortune, and Miss Frances fared yet worse.”
--Jane Austen, Mansfield Park

3. What’s Jane Austen got to do with me?
• Everyone was shocked that Maria got the job.
• Maria didn’t do what she promised.
• She still got to keep her job AND recommend her
sisters for new jobs.
• There were more women (translators) than there
were husbands (LSPs). So, simply being qualified
wasn’t enough.
• A good reference wasn’t enough to get the job
either.
• And so, even IF her sisters were prettier (worked
smarter/faster), she got to be the baroness and
they were stuck being paupers until they died.

4. What’s Jane Austen got to do with me?
Fact of the
matter is,
some folks have
all the luck.

5. So what can we control?
• How good we are at what we do
• How well we present what we know
• How hard we try
“Success is only 10% talent,
the other 90% is perseverance.”
--Al, “Quantum Leap”

6. Grow Your Client Base
• No one will hire you if they don’t know you’re
there.
• No one will hire you if they don’t know you’re
able to do the job.
• No one will hire you if you don’t follow
directions.
• No one will hire you if you’re CLEARLY
overestimating yourself or your abilities.

7. Etiquette of a Groundhog

8. Grow Your Client Base
• Don’t call acting like you’re a prospective client, just to reach a higher level exec, then say, really, you don’t
need a translator/interpreter, you ARE a translator/interpreter. Similarly, don’t be purposefully ambiguous
just to achieve this same thing.
• Watch your email address and reply to line identity! (Would you hire pissy2018@aol.com?)
• If you stop using an email address and get a new one, make sure you tell us.
• Make sure your contact info is in your resume and in your cover letter.
• Don't forget your last name and contact information in any phone messages or your email signature.
– Not everyone has caller id and caller id doesn’t always work correctly.
– You might not be the only “Joe” they know.
• Make sure your signature is professional (no scripture, no movie quotes).
• Don't forget business correspondence etiquette is different from personal correspondence etiquette
(colon after salutation instead of comma, first name basis issues, etc).
• Be clear in subject line of emails & change them when they need to be changed.
• Don’t cc people who don’t need to be cc-ed.
• PROOFREAD your email before you send it.
• Don't forget your cover letter!
• DO WHAT YOU SAY YOU WILL DO. PERIOD.
• Don’t ask us to fill out a WWA if we’ve never worked with you.
• If you make a mistake, admit it. Don’t get all self-righteous if we ask you to clarify something that a
proofreader or in-house linguist has brought to our attention.
• “Hurry” and “rush” can mean different things to different people. Get a firm deadline so they don’t think
you’re late, while you think you’re on time.

9. Increase Your Rate
• Start low enough that you have somewhere to
go and high enough that you can eat.
• Don’t be afraid to negotiate.
• Develop client-specific rates.
• Consider ALL the factors.
• “Never change horses mid-stream.”

10. Increase Your Rate
Gradually.

11. Make LSPs Love You
Resumes In
Linguist Database
“CALL SO-N-SO,
WE LOVE HIM”
LIST
(15-25%)
Trash Can
(20-35%)
DO NOT HIRE LIST
(≤10%)

12. So How Do I Get on That List?
• BE PROFESSIONAL.
• Do a dynamite job.
• Remind us every now and then that
you still exist.

13. So, Back to Jane Austen.