| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4] > | Negotiating rates or what's going on in the world today? Thread poster: Paula Hernández
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| Go right ahead. | Dec 24, 2010 |
PCovs wrote:
And one final thing: Usually when an agency is telling you something like: 'We cannot possibly go below this. We have a fixed budget', or 'We could easily get someone cheaper', then this is not true. Any budget can be shaped to fit if needs be, and if the agency has a cheaper freelancer at hand, why on earth are you two talking?
Just my input.
I end the conversation whenever a PM tries to pull the "We could get someone cheaper" card. Not only is it rude, i.e. "Who do you think you are, you're not all that", but it's also a clear bluff and I don't have time to waste on PMs who have to resort to such low tactics. No need to be rude back (though they deserve it), though. I just politely thank them for their time and move on.
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X) 
France
Local time: 16:42
French to German
+ ...
| Agreeing with PCovs and TransAfrique | Dec 24, 2010 |
TransAfrique wrote: PCovs wrote:
And one final thing: Usually when an agency is telling you something like: 'We cannot possibly go below this. We have a fixed budget', or 'We could easily get someone cheaper', then this is not true. Any budget can be shaped to fit if needs be, and if the agency has a cheaper freelancer at hand, why on earth are you two talking?
Just my input. I end the conversation whenever a PM tries to pull the "We could get someone cheaper" card. Not only is it rude, i.e. "Who do you think you are, you're not all that", but it's also a clear bluff and I don't have time to waste on PMs who have to resort to such low tactics. No need to be rude back (though they deserve it), though. I just politely thank them for their time and move on.
Basically, those PM's waste our time (hence: our money!). Why should we accept that?
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Best and most lucid piece I have read in a while !
Thanks.
@Paula - there will always be someone who will justify their cut-rate prices by claiming that "they have to eat (pay their bills, whatever)". All you are doing is embarking on a downward spiral. You should stop that at once, in your own interests and the interests of the translation profession. If you consider yourself a translation professional, you should behave like one. Period.
At my high, even very hi... See more Best and most lucid piece I have read in a while !
Thanks.
@Paula - there will always be someone who will justify their cut-rate prices by claiming that "they have to eat (pay their bills, whatever)". All you are doing is embarking on a downward spiral. You should stop that at once, in your own interests and the interests of the translation profession. If you consider yourself a translation professional, you should behave like one. Period.
At my high, even very high, rates, I often get asked to re-do the work of poor translators. The client may have got it cheap the first time round but the mess can be appalling and putting it right comes at a BIG price.
Educate your clients. Don't let them educate you!
Have a great Christmas for those who celebrate it and a Happy New Year to everybody. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
Netherlands
Local time: 16:42
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
| You did the right thing | Dec 24, 2010 |
Paula Hernández Sambeat wrote:
- Dear Mr X, What would the total amount of words be for the whole project? I do apply large volume discounts, but I would need to know the total volume. Thanks, Paula
- Dear Mr X, What kind of text is it? I can ... accept 0.04 EUR per word [if...]
Let me tell you what I think. I think you're making these rates up as you go along. And I think the agency knows it too. What you should do is to tell the agency your whole rate right from the start, and not tell him little bits about your rate every time the agency offers a new bit of rate-reducing information.
- Dear Mr X, I have forwarded your address to a colleague of mine who also translates Catalan. His name is XX. He does not have my experience but will most certainly accept your rate.
...My friend told me that they answered fast and offered him 0.03 EUR per word!
They probably had a rate of 0.03 in mind from the beginning, and were surprised by your "high" rate. The fact that they were ultimately willing to offer you 0.04 doesn't mean that that's the rate which they had hoped that you would accept -- it is possible that the 0.04 rate was actually a little higher than they had budgeted for. So when the colleague contacted them, they did the smart thing by offering him the exact amount that they were willing to pay.
I'm not sure if you should have told them that your colleague doesn't have much experience, though. If you want to distance yourself from your colleague's work, simply say that you have never worked with him before but that he comes highly recommended.
[Edited at 2010-12-24 12:13 GMT]
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| A very common misconception | Dec 24, 2010 |
Williamson wrote:
Law of supply and demand: The combination EnglishSpanish: Saturated. Too many translators for too little supply. Of course, if English>Spanish is all you have to offer: bad luck.
This is absolutely true.
However: the market for qualified, experienced, specialised English-Spanish translators who can offer good quality consistently: Saturated? Most certainly not.
| | | | Laurent KRAULAND (X)
France
Local time: 16:42
French to German
+ ...
| True for every language pair... | Dec 24, 2010 |
Ramon Inglada wrote:
However: the market for qualified, experienced, specialised English-Spanish translators who can offer good quality consistently: Saturated? Most certainly not.
Which is true for every language pair... and for specialties within language pairs.
The translation market may be saturated on a general level: saturated by new entrants for whom "anything goes" (like in: "Anything can cut butter")... freelancers and agencies alike.
| | | | | The right thing | Dec 24, 2010 |
Laurent KRAULAND wrote:
Basically, those PM's waste our time (hence: our money!). Why should we accept that?
You don't have to accept anything, but you don't gain anything by wasting even more time on a bad prospect. That's why I advocate cutting off the PM as soon as you realize your time is being wasted. Being polite about it is just the decent thing to do.
[Edited at 2010-12-24 16:06 GMT]
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Thanks for sharing valuable information, Will surely take care.
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| Really?!? And how do you get them to notice you? | Jan 6, 2011 |
Steven Capsuto wrote:
Again, there's no reason to limit yourself to clients in a particular country, especially if you're a generalist translator. There are plenty of agencies and direct clients in Canada and the UK and the US that are probably worth exploring.
I'm serious. I have been a freelance translator for over 2 years now, after having been a project manager in a translation company for almost a decade, and even with all my experience, I have a really hard time penetrating good agencies. A few of them have approved me (meaning, that they have added me to their databases after checking my references and work experience) but I am yet to receive a single job from them. My main client by far is still my former employer. I want to diversify, but I get lost in the crowd, and believe me I AM very good at what I do.
Ideas on how to accomplish what you claim to be options?
Mariela
| | | | pcovs
Denmark
Local time: 16:42
English to Danish
| Up the stakes | Jan 7, 2011 |
Raise your rates to a decent level to make the outsourcers take you seriously.
A rate of Euro 0.04 for translation is really not serious in this part of the woods - it screams 'low quality', 'machine translation' and the likes to a high price market like the European market.
Even in the US this rate would be thought in the low end. IMO - please anyone correct me if I'm wrong. This is just from my own experience.
Then make yourself noticed by replying to as many jo... See more Raise your rates to a decent level to make the outsourcers take you seriously.
A rate of Euro 0.04 for translation is really not serious in this part of the woods - it screams 'low quality', 'machine translation' and the likes to a high price market like the European market.
Even in the US this rate would be thought in the low end. IMO - please anyone correct me if I'm wrong. This is just from my own experience.
Then make yourself noticed by replying to as many job posting you can, seek out translation agencies with online registration forms when you have time on your hands to fill them out, or contact agencies directly if they don't have online forms.
Keep your profile and CV updated - set your availability on the ProZ calendar to anything but 'Fully available' and 'Not available'.
Spend your free time brushing up on things, learn new stuff, read forums for tips and tricks, seek out new clients, set up more profiles on more translators' sites etc. etc.
It is hard work getting the word out there, but you will not get new clients by simply waiting for a job posting or direct contact from the clients.
Good luck ▲ Collapse
| | | | | saturated language pairs | Jan 7, 2011 |
Ramon Inglada wrote: Williamson wrote:
Law of supply and demand: The combination EnglishSpanish: Saturated. Too many translators for too little supply. Of course, if English>Spanish is all you have to offer: bad luck. This is absolutely true. However: the market for qualified, experienced, specialised English-Spanish translators who can offer good quality consistently: Saturated? Most certainly not.
But how long can such Excellent translators "survive" when they have thousands of "less professional translators (or wannabe translators)" invasing their work field?
They do pose a huge threat; because low rates in this language pair will become the standard, if nothing changes, i'm afraid.
| | | | | market is saturated | Jan 7, 2011 |
Laurent KRAULAND wrote:
The translation market may be saturated on a general level: saturated by new entrants for whom "anything goes" (like in: "Anything can cut butter")... freelancers and agencies alike.
You are absolutely right; internet-based agencies are popping-up like crazy, and - working at a "real" translation agency - I've never come across so many applications from wannabe-translators, who are unskilled, but just think they can take on the job of translator!
Fortunately for our agency there are still many clients out there who don't care about the almost frantic use of (price-cutting) CAT-tools and are still prepared to pay decent rates for high-quality translations and services!
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| marketing techniques | Jan 7, 2011 |
Mariela Diaz-Butler wrote:
Ideas on how to accomplish what you claim to be options?
Mariela
Do what no-one else is doing: ring agencies up or send a REAL letter by post!
Just sending a nice email with your CV won't do the trick; since zillions of others are doing the same around the entire world and agencies are getting fed up with the many applications in the inbox.
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PCovs wrote:
Raise your rates to a decent level to make the outsourcers take you seriously.
A rate of Euro 0.04 for translation is really not serious in this part of the woods - it screams 'low quality', 'machine translation' and the likes to a high price market like the European market.
Even in the US this rate would be thought in the low end. IMO - please anyone correct me if I'm wrong. This is just from my own experience.
Well, my rate is US $0.10 (or Euro 0.07), which is actually pretty much the going rate these days for my language pair here in the U.S. I say this based on my own experience as a project manager. At the beggining, we used to have tranlsators who charged higher than that, but guess what, as more and more qualified translators surfaced, the competition got more cutthroat, and our agency would routinely choose the good translators that charged less than the ones that charged more. We never negotiated rates down, and always picked quality over cost, but there were plenty of really good translators that were just cheaper and that is what I'm having to compete with now. It is a simple matter of economics, we were a business and as such, it was in our interest to increase our margins while still ensuring good quality (we never picked translators based solely on cost, though, they always had to have a proven track of great quality work). I do agree that I could probably increase my rates for direct clients, but agencies are getting much more difficult to deal with. And for the record, I have been approached by agencies to lower my rates in order to send me work, and I have always declined. Even at my *low* rate, I am worth every penny and more.
Thanks for all the other good avice, though!
Mariela
| | | | Gina W
United States
Local time: 10:42
Member (2003)
French to English
| I agree, Paula's original rate is too low | Jan 7, 2011 |
Gudrun Wolfrath wrote:
0.065 EUR/word is way to low for your good work.
Gudrun
Right, this starting point was too low to begin with.
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