It’s important that you target clients who fit your niche.
Check out other translators’ websites to see what they charge for your specialization or language pair, and market yourself accordingly. If you’re relatively inexperienced and new to the translation industry, it may take a little longer for you to complete a translation, but you need the practice and your speed will increase with experience: it won’t be too long before you’re translating with the best of them!
Who Are Your Clients?
It could well be that a client is very happy with your work, but perhaps they don’t have any need for your specialization or language pair more than a couple of times a year. Part of your marketing strategy should be to target clients who have ongoing work. For one-off clients, why not ask them for a testimonial and use this reference to market your translation services to other clients.
Don’t Forget to Ask Your Clients for Feedback!
If you’ve delivered a high-quality translation, met (or even beat) the deadline, and you know the client is happy with your work, then it’s appropriate to ask that client for feedback. Some clients are not interested in providing either constructive or negative feedback, and of course, that’s their prerogative. With translation agencies, it’s not the Project Managers job to evaluate their translators, which means that if you don’t receive feedback then you need to ask for it. Ask your client’s if they have any feedback on your translation services, and if there’s anything you could do better to meet their requirements. This tells the client that you want to work with them again and that you’re open to receiving constructive criticism. It makes you look professional, and isn’t that what you’re trying to achieve!
Are You Targeting the Right Clients?
It’s important that you target clients who fit your niche. Large agencies generally prefer translators who charge moderate rates, are experienced in a variety of specializations, and are capable of turning around large amounts of text in short amounts of time. In return, successful agencies can often keep their translators working almost full-time. On the other hand, the boutique-style smaller agencies seem to prefer specialized translators who perhaps charge higher rates but are meticulous with their translation work. Make sure the clients you’re targeting are clients who fit your work style.
Consider Supplementing Your Income
For the time being, why not consider supplementing your income with another job? We’ll assume that you enjoy translating, so, because you’ve already come so far, rather than abandoning your freelance business have you considered teaching language courses, working at a library or bookstore, doing tutoring, anything that will help keep your business afloat during the first few years until such time as you reach profitability. Supplementing your income in this way could well reduce stress and give you time to consider better ways of marketing your translation services.
