| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Pricing your services: best practices Thread poster: Elena P.
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Zea_Mays 
Italy
Local time: 16:10
Member (2009)
English to German
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Evgeny Sidorenko wrote:
not to mention the fact that you will NEVER know how many PAID hours/words per day you will be able to get in any given period for whatever rate you consider acceptable, which virtually destroys the entire basis of your 'calculator'.
With this basic and well-known calculation, you'll get to know what you NEED to earn. This is the GOAL you need to work towards.
In the beginning you may need different types or work, not just translation in order to make a living.
But if after a longer period of time you're not able to earn this amount with translation, as said, you'll have to look for something else, at least for (still) additional income. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to survive. Simply that.
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My pricing policy has always been to screw as much out of all my clients as I think I can get away with.
I suspect I have underestimated how much this is for most of my direct clients, as none have ever objected to my prices.
Agencies are trickier, but if they say they can't pay what you've quoted, haggle. Simple.
I wouldn't touch the other main approaches to pricing (value-based and cost-plus).
| | | | | Drifting away from the question | Nov 24, 2023 |
Zea_Mays wrote: Evgeny Sidorenko wrote:
not to mention the fact that you will NEVER know how many PAID hours/words per day you will be able to get in any given period for whatever rate you consider acceptable, which virtually destroys the entire basis of your 'calculator'.
With this basic and well-known calculation, you'll get to know what you NEED to earn. This is the GOAL you need to work towards. In the beginning you may need different types or work, not just translation in order to make a living. But if after a longer period of time you're not able to earn this amount with translation, as said, you'll have to look for something else, at least for (still) additional income. Otherwise you wouldn't be able to survive. Simply that.
Everybody has at least a vague idea how much they would need or like to earn, without any 'calculators'. Making a living is a totally different thing from translation pricing, which is the topic here, not setting personal financial targets. No 'projected' sum of money (like 'desired profit', etc.) can be used as a basis for calculating the actual rates that you will be able to get a sustainable amount of work for. Too many variables in that equation. In fact, the rates to some extent have been already calculated for you by other factors (competition, economic situation, MT influence, luck, etc.)
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Christopher Schröder wrote:
My pricing policy has always been to screw as much out of all my clients as I think I can get away with.
...I would say this on a public forum... 
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Roman Karabaev
Russian Federation
Local time: 18:10
English to Russian
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Elena P. wrote:
Hello everyone!
I'm fairly new to working as a freelancer and was hoping I could get some help understanding how to price translation services. I offer English/ Russian/ Ukrainian translation and interpreting but cannot seem to find reliable information on what people charge per word/ hour.
I would greatly appreciate any help with this!
Thank you in advance!
Hmm, your profile says you're not new to working as a freelancer.
Anyway, here are the numbers that summarize my experience of negotiating and/or working with translation agencies.
I'm talking about EN-RU pair, although I doubt that the situation with EN-UKR is any better.
Sometimes agencies do publish their budgets when they post jobs here on proz. I'm considering these numbers as well.
So, here we go (these are the rates for translation):
Agencies from China: USD 0.04-0.06/source word.
Agencies from India: USD 0.015-0.04/source word.
Agencies from USA/Canada/Western Europe/UK: up to USD 0.08/source word.
This is the reason I have no Clients from India and very few Clients from China.
Russian agencies won't be able to pay you. Besides, in most cases they want you to work for peanuts.
Russian direct clients won't be able to pay you either.
In general, EN-RU pair is in deep crisis (i.e. dead). Some cases of survival bias do exist, of course.
And of course I know that the rates may vary depending on your fields of expertise, your luck and what not.
There is one thing I'm dead sure of: the community rates or the calculator rates have nothing to do with IRL rates.
Considering your time zone (and thus your potential location), you might be able to find some onsite interpreting jobs. Maybe this could be a sort of a life-line for you. I'm very, very skeptical about starting a freelancer career in these language pairs in the current situation.
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