5 Tips for Becoming a Freelance Translator
1. Don’t quit your day job just yet
To work full time, you’ll need a lot of clients; this will take a bit of time and tenacity, so it’s best to ease into the profession, supplementing it with another income source. In her book, How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator, Corinne McKay reveals that she contacted as many as many as 400 translation agencies in her first year as a freelance translator. If you browse translation message boards and other blogs, you’ll notice that it is not uncommon for beginning translators to send out five times that.
Although lots of translators—including Corinne McKay—earn the ATA estimated income average of $50,000 (not bad for working 30 hours a week and taking at least 4 weeks of vacation), it was not always so: In McKay’s first year of freelance translating, she earned a mere $9,000.
2. Put together an informal business plan
Don’t let “business plan” intimidate you. Yours doesn’t have to be complicated. Just keep in mind that freelance translating is a business venture, so it’s best to think of yourself as a business owner—not simply a linguistic athlete.
Consider supply and demand, for example: Say you want to be a court interpreter. The first thing you need to do is determine the supply and demand of the market and then compare that potential revenue stream to your immediate (and long-term) financial needs. But don’t stop there: consider other “revenue streams” that are associated, but not directly related to court interpreting. There are places outside the courtroom where you can put your judiciary-translation chops to good use, but you have to be proactive if you want to find them.
3. Find an accountant
4. How Much are You (and Your Translations) Worth?
This doesn’t sound like much, but if you maintain a strict adherence to deadlines, do good work and slightly undercharge clients the first few times, you will be pleasantly surprised when the same client comes back, this time with another job and an urgent deadline. This is the time to charge a higher rate. It may sound like common sense, but you’d be surprised how many freelance translators don’t do this.
5. “How Long Should a Translation Project Take Me?”
In addition to considering these 5 tips, you might read one of our other blogs, 5 Golden Rules For Finding Entry-Level Translation Jobs and pick up Corinne McKay’s book (amongst others). It should also be said that there’s no one way to become a freelance translator, but something that will give you the necessary experience and help distinguish you from all the other freelance translators is Marygrove College’s online program in Modern Language Translation. Our online translation certificate programs expose students to the linguistic and cultural aspects of language transfer; we also use a hands-on approach to translating journalistic, commercial, legal, and scientific texts that will give you an advantage over other uncertified translators.
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