Poll: How long did it take you to establish your business on a solid basis? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How long did it take you to establish your business on a solid basis?".
This poll was originally submitted by Leinung. View the poll results »
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Unfortunately, no "solid base" is forever.
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I would say it took about 2 years. The silly thing is that after becoming a full Proz-member it took less than 6 months and the clients I got through Proz are my favourite clients. If I would start over again I would have become a full Proz-member as soon as I felt confident with Trados and I could have gotten my solid base much earlier...
/Maria
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Mary Worby 
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:41
German to English
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I started out doing a 'proper job' on a fairly casual basis and accepting freelance work on the side. If work came in, I'd take time off work. It took just three months before I quit the day job to focus on freelance work and by a few months later my income was consistent enough that my then boyfriend gave up his day job too to set up his own business, making me the main bread-winner for a while.
Thirteen years later and both business are still going strong.
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Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 14:41
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
The range established for this poll is too low. Maximum only 2 years? It took me 15 years to become established to the point I could consider my business "solid" and quit my "day job". Since then I have been going well for 24 years for a total of 39.
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Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 22:41
English to French
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| Generation gap? | Aug 5, 2010 |
I'm with Henry: took me 5 years to get settled (and keep only a part time teaching schedule) and another 5 years before I was confident to earn enough to pay all bills and put an end to my teaching career.
I started before the age of computers - I imagine things are quicker now...
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Mary Worby
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:41
German to English
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Interlangue wrote:
I'm with Henry: took me 5 years to get settled (and keep only a part time teaching schedule) and another 5 years before I was confident to earn enough to pay all bills and put an end to my teaching career.
I started before the age of computers - I imagine things are quicker now...
I started out at about the same time as the Internet did. I had my first mobile phone in the same month as my first job.
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m_temmer
Local time: 14:41
English to Dutch
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I started freelancing full time right away in 2005 and I was pretty busy all the time right from the start with hardly any days that I didn't have at least a small assignment, but it takes time to build a relationship with regular customers. After 2 years, I could really count on several customers keeping me busy all the time. I indeed think that it has become easier to get established now than it was let's say 15 years ago.
[Edited at 2010-08-05 20:27 GMT]
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years to get a solid client base that I could count on, but it never stops of course. Some have fallen by the wayside...but i'd say that it took about 2 years to get to the point where I could say 'established'.
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| Less than 6 months | Aug 6, 2010 |
BUT it doesn't really count. My previous employer set me up with a steady stream of work, and soon I was adding other clients. That was 18 years ago; today the proportion of volume from my previous employer is smaller, but it's still a steady stream.
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Chun Un
Macau
Member (2007)
English to Chinese
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| Still got a 'day job' | Aug 6, 2010 |
Henry Hinds wrote:
The range established for this poll is too low. Maximum only 2 years? It took me 15 years to become established to the point I could consider my business "solid" and quit my "day job". Since then I have been going well for 24 years for a total of 39.
I am still not in a position to quit my 'day job' being the sole breadwinner of the family. I wonder at what point people just quit and go freelancing. It's not an easy decision to make when you have a family dependent on you. So I suppose I am yet to be 'established'.
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