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Just getting started, any tips for a new member to get some gigs?
Thread poster: Israel Cortes
Israel Cortes
Israel Cortes
Mexico
Local time: 17:35
English to Spanish
+ ...
Nov 21, 2020

Hello everyone, I just finished my account here with expectations of finding some translation/subtitling jobs, I know they won't land on my lap just for making an account here so I would like to know some tips to improve my chances.

 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 00:35
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Juan Nov 22, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:
I just finished my account here with expectations of finding some translation/subtitling jobs. I know they won't land on my lap just for making an account here, so I would like to know some tips to improve my chances.


The first thing you need to do is to regard yourself as a business (or a full-time self-employed person who wants to win clients, who are often also businesses). This does mean, unfortunately, that today was last time that you used the word "gig" (-: No client wants to think of himself as a gig. If you want to win jobs, you have to make clients happy.

Secondly, you have to start contacting translation agencies and offer them your services. You do that visiting the Blue Board, filtering the results by country, and then visiting every likely client's web site (and sign up, if there is that option) or sending them a personalised e-mail. Thumb-sucking statistics show that 1-2 out of 10 clients that you approach, will respond, and 1-2 out of 10 clients who respond, will give you a job. And then it's just a case of trying to impress the client so much that he keeps on sending you work.

I also suggest that you make your profile page as complete as possible, because if a client happens to visit your profile page, you don't want him to leave simply because he was looking for something that he could not find (e.g. sample translations).

(Sorry, I just saw that you've been a translator for 5 years, but my response was crafted as if you were just beginning.)


[Edited at 2020-11-22 14:17 GMT]


Dan Lucas
Jean Dimitriadis
Jorge Payan
Israel Cortes
Samara Serralheiro
 
Mélanie Wisbey (X)
Mélanie Wisbey (X)
France
Local time: 00:35
French to English
+ ...
@Juan Nov 22, 2020

Hi Juan

I'm also getting acquainted with the job so I don't have the expertise to be able to advise but I was just being nosy and when reading your bio I noticed a couple of errors (wrong use of a preposition and missing hyphen), and generally average fluency in English.
You might want to look at it again since you translate into English?
I hope this helps 😊

Thanks for posting though because I will take away some advice from Samuel!

Good luck
... See more
Hi Juan

I'm also getting acquainted with the job so I don't have the expertise to be able to advise but I was just being nosy and when reading your bio I noticed a couple of errors (wrong use of a preposition and missing hyphen), and generally average fluency in English.
You might want to look at it again since you translate into English?
I hope this helps 😊

Thanks for posting though because I will take away some advice from Samuel!

Good luck in your endeavours.

Mélanie
Collapse


Israel Cortes
 
IrinaN
IrinaN
United States
Local time: 18:35
English to Russian
+ ...
Did you do any site research? Nov 22, 2020

Juan,

You found yourself in a welcoming and supportive community but...

Top Proz contributors, best of the best, very busy, very successful, very experienced and very generous people have already spent a lot of personal time and effort and wrote volumes, advising new members, including the answers to all your questions and much more. How about making a counter effort to find and read it first?


Kay Denney
Elena Kharlamova
 
Rachel Fell
Rachel Fell  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:35
French to English
+ ...
? Nov 22, 2020

4 USD per hour - really?

Israel Cortes
 
Israel Cortes
Israel Cortes
Mexico
Local time: 17:35
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Thank you Nov 22, 2020

Samuel Murray wrote:

Juan Perez wrote:
I just finished my account here with expectations of finding some translation/subtitling jobs. I know they won't land on my lap just for making an account here, so I would like to know some tips to improve my chances.


The first thing you need to do is to regard yourself as a business (or a full-time self-employed person who wants to win clients, who are often also businesses). This does mean, unfortunately, that today was last time that you used the word "gig" (-: No client wants to think of himself as a gig. If you want to win jobs, you have to make clients happy.

Secondly, you have to start contacting translation agencies and offer them your services. You do that visiting the Blue Board, filtering the results by country, and then visiting every likely client's web site (and sign up, if there is that option) or sending them a personalised e-mail. Thumb-sucking statistics show that 1-2 out of 10 clients that you approach, will respond, and 1-2 out of 10 clients who respond, will give you a job. And then it's just a case of trying to impress the client so much that he keeps on sending you work.

I also suggest that you make your profile page as complete as possible, because if a client happens to visit your profile page, you don't want him to leave simply because he was looking for something that he could not find (e.g. sample translations).

(Sorry, I just saw that you've been a translator for 5 years, but my response was crafted as if you were just beginning.)


[Edited at 2020-11-22 14:17 GMT]


Thank you those were such good tips! Honestly even though I've been translating for 5 years those jobs were usually casual, like translating jobs I happened to get myself into via friends or my workplace itself (Like translating the Hotel's advertisements/assets/signs to be in English as an extra help) this is my first time establishing myself as an online translator so I honestly don't know where to begin, but your tips were great insight!


 
Israel Cortes
Israel Cortes
Mexico
Local time: 17:35
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Yeah Nov 22, 2020

Rachel Fell wrote:

4 USD per hour - really?


I actually didn't know how much to charge since I've always charged per word, any suggestion?


 
Israel Cortes
Israel Cortes
Mexico
Local time: 17:35
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Good luck to you as well Nov 22, 2020

Mélanie Wisbey wrote:


Thanks for posting though because I will take away some advice from Samuel!

Good luck in your endeavours.

Mélanie


Thank you for your observations, and also I'm glad my post served you as well haha those were really good tips by Samuel!

Best regards to you as well


Elena Kharlamova
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 23:35
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
Converting per-word rates to per-hour ones is at least in part a matter of arithmetic Nov 23, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:

Rachel Fell wrote:

4 USD per hour - really?


I actually didn't know how much to charge since I've always charged per word, any suggestion?

How many words do you average in an hour? You can just calculate from that how much you're earning in an hour. If you don't know, start keeping statistics now. Get yourself a neat Excel spreadsheet to calculate all sorts of things automatically: total words per client and per subject; words per month and per hour; rate per hour or per word (whichever you didn't quote in)... All those things will help when quoting in the future.

Although you really ought to start with the per-hour rate and calculate your per-word rate from that. Rate per hour is really the basis behind all our charging -- our time is what the clients are buying, not words. So how much do you value your time? There are two tools on the site to help you arrive at a figure: community rates (an average of what we, your peers, say we charge) and the rates calculator (what you personally need to earn from a healthy business).


Jorge Payan
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Elena Kharlamova
 
Rachel Fell
Rachel Fell  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:35
French to English
+ ...
Well, Nov 23, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:

I actually didn't know how much to charge since I've always charged per word, any suggestion?

I thought perhaps you'd forgotten to put a zero after the 4! I mean, is 4 USD an hour a liveable rate where you live?


 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 00:35
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Juan Nov 23, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:
I actually didn't know how much to charge since I've always charged per word, any suggestion?


Your hourly rate should be the middle ground between two things:

1. Suppose you had enough work to work 5 hours a day, 4 days a week, how much do you want to earn per week before taxes? Take that amount and divide by 20. So, if you ideally want to earn the same as the average salary as a teacher in Mexico (USD 1400 according to SalaryExplorer.com), then you need to charge ((1400)/4/20) = USD 18 per hour.

2. No client will accept an hourly rate that is much higher than the "market rate", and market rate depends on the location of the client. So sometimes, if you have little work, or if you don't mind working for a lower rate for a specific project, you have to work for less than you would ideally want to work for.


Israel Cortes
Elena Kharlamova
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 23:35
Member (2008)
Italian to English
, Nov 23, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:

Hello everyone, I just finished my account here with expectations of finding some translation/subtitling jobs, I know they won't land on my lap just for making an account here so I would like to know some tips to improve my chances.


Following on from Samuel:

"Gig" is OK in an informal setting such as these forums, and even the sloppy English might be tolerated; but boy, those commas that should be full stops! I suggest you repunctuate and rewrite your post as follows:

"Hello everyone. I've just finished my account here, and I have expectations of finding some translation/subtitling jobs. I know they won't land in my lap just by creating an account here, so I would like to ask for some tips to improve my chances."



[Edited at 2020-11-23 15:58 GMT]


Israel Cortes
Elena Kharlamova
 
Israel Cortes
Israel Cortes
Mexico
Local time: 17:35
English to Spanish
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Prepare to be shocked Nov 23, 2020

[quote]Rachel Fell wrote:

Juan Perez wrote:

I mean, is 4 USD an hour a liveable rate where you live?


It really is though, to put you in perspective, 4 USD per hour is 19,319 MXN a month. Here in Mexico you have to earn from 10,000 to 13,000 a month to live a decent life, which is a mere 2 to 2.3 USD an hour! And, on top of that, most employers just pay 6,000 to 8,000 MXN a month, so any kind of job that's above 10,000 MXN is considered a "great opportunity".

So in my mind I was charging 2 times what's considered decent and 3 times the average here in Mexico. I also researched before setting my hourly rates but suggestions were very inconsistent, that's why I decided to make an assumption based on average hourly rates from where I live and make a Forum post to recieve more feedback.

[Editado a las 2020-11-23 17:23 GMT]


Elena Kharlamova
 
Sheila Wilson
Sheila Wilson  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 23:35
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
One thing Nov 24, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:
most employers just pay 6,000 to 8,000 MXN a month, so any kind of job that's above 10,000 MXN is considered a "great opportunity".

You don't have an employer and you aren't an employee. You're a self-employed person with clients. I don't know how things work in Mexico, but you should be quoting gross rates. From that, unlike an employee, you probably have to pay out for healthcare, pensions, maternity/paternity cover, sickness cover, training costs, hardware and software, books, consumables, subscriptions to places like ProZ.com, professional insurance, and so on. You also probably work from home so it's your electricity you're using. You may also have to pay an accountant to manage all that. You really can't compare your rate to an employee's pay scale.


Rachel Waddington
Barbara Carrara
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Israel Cortes
Jorge Payan
Elena Kharlamova
 
Samuel Murray
Samuel Murray  Identity Verified
Netherlands
Local time: 00:35
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
+ ...
@Juan Nov 24, 2020

Juan Perez wrote:
It really is though, to put you in perspective, 4 USD per hour is 19,319 MXN a month.


Yes, but your hourly rate when quoting a client should be the amount that you want to be paid for every hour that you actually work, and not for every hour that you could potentially work. A client will only pay you for the hours that you spend on his job. This is why my suggested calculation was based on 20 hours per week. You're going to spend a lot of unpaid hours doing things like research, learning, marketing, invoicing, networking, etc.


Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Sheila Wilson
Jorge Payan
Elena Kharlamova
 
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Just getting started, any tips for a new member to get some gigs?







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