How do you find regular translation clients? Thread poster: Ekaterina Petelina
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Good afternoon! I am asking the community for help. I am a Russian translator for Business with a BA in Linguistics and 7 years of in-house experience. Working on small projects have so far provided me with experience, good reviews and a portfolio. However, I just realized now that it was not suitable for me (they tend to be a low-paid hassle), and I need to find one or two clients for regular translation assignments on a remote basis and sign a services contract with them. These will most likel... See more Good afternoon! I am asking the community for help. I am a Russian translator for Business with a BA in Linguistics and 7 years of in-house experience. Working on small projects have so far provided me with experience, good reviews and a portfolio. However, I just realized now that it was not suitable for me (they tend to be a low-paid hassle), and I need to find one or two clients for regular translation assignments on a remote basis and sign a services contract with them. These will most likely be medium and large companies. What is the best way to approach them, present my services and which marketing channels should be used? My freelance customers come from word of mouth recommendations, freelance websites and industry expos. Your advice would be highly appreciated. ▲ Collapse
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I rarely look for clients, but they find me! I haven’t marketed actively my services for a long time. I did engage in active marketing when I started my translation career some 40 years ago, but in the meanwhile I’ve managed to build a good base of loyal and regular clients. Some of my current clients have come from my website, through Proz.com directory, by word of mouth and through recommendations of other translators.
| | | | Stepan Konev 
Russian Federation
Local time: 12:48
English to Russian
Apply for all jobs that mention you working languages.
Even if you do not meet the employer's requirements at the moment, go to their website and add your information there. For example, this job: https://www.proz.com/translation-jobs/1822954. I can't apply because I don't have "A DEGREE OBTAINED FROM THE US", which they require as a must, but I am going to apply on their website* so ... See more Apply for all jobs that mention you working languages.
Even if you do not meet the employer's requirements at the moment, go to their website and add your information there. For example, this job: https://www.proz.com/translation-jobs/1822954. I can't apply because I don't have "A DEGREE OBTAINED FROM THE US", which they require as a must, but I am going to apply on their website* so that they have my contacts, just in case. One of my #1 priority client found me through their website database. I applied for their job here on proz, to no avail. However, half a year later, they contacted me like "We are contacting you because you registered your information for a freelance position in our database..."
Another example: https://www.proz.com/translation-jobs/1822877. This job is closed already. But you still can find information about them using their skype contact shown in the post (Talk me on skype(ID): ECO-language which is actually ECO language international translation Ltd.), and then find them on proz.com by googling the keywords ("ECO language" in quotes) and searching for their skype photo among google images. Once done, you will never want to contact them again because they don't pay.
I mean you should use every possible lead to find a way to contact interesting companies and weed out non-payers. At least, this is what I do.
Ekaterina Petelina wrote:
good reviews and a portfolio For the proz profile, add them as a file along with your CV. As far as I remember, you can choose a second language to add a second CV file (and add your portfolio instead of CV) even if you are not a paid member. I chose English Middle for my portfolio pdf file.
Good luck!
*UPD: Their "Join us" link doesn't work. Ok, then just forget them and move forward.
[Edited at 2021-08-01 19:06 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Trust, a must in 2022 to have returning customers | Feb 4, 2022 |
In my experience, trust is a key factor. When a customer know they can rely on you (quality, consistency, reactivity etc.) things change. The hard part is to get such a relation going.
As I was browsing around the ProZ forums, and I couldn’t find very fresh information on how to get customers to trust your translation services (your “brand”) especially in the current context (lots of scams, spam etc.).
For those interested, that’ll be the exact topic for the keynote at the 20... See more In my experience, trust is a key factor. When a customer know they can rely on you (quality, consistency, reactivity etc.) things change. The hard part is to get such a relation going.
As I was browsing around the ProZ forums, and I couldn’t find very fresh information on how to get customers to trust your translation services (your “brand”) especially in the current context (lots of scams, spam etc.).
For those interested, that’ll be the exact topic for the keynote at the 2022 Wordfast Forward Conference (in May in Montenegro). It will be given by Carlo Van Tichelen. Here’s the link to book (still Early Bird): https://www.eventbrite.com/e/wordfast-forward-2022-registration-234299675637?aff=pl
If you are a student, PM me you may be able to get 100 EUR off 😉
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Extra info:
WFF 22 program
https://www.wordfast.com/conference/2022/program
About Carlo Van Tichelen
https://www.wordfast.com/conference/2022/speakers ▲ Collapse
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Inga Petkelyte
Portugal
Local time: 10:48
Lithuanian to Portuguese
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| Regular - the keyword | Feb 8, 2022 |
Regular clients will be those that need your translations on a regular basis. Besides of the translation agencies, think of entities that might be dealing with texts in your language combinations and ... send, remind, update, etc etc etc. Lots of fieldwork is to be done, unless you are a lucky one by nature
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