Poll: In the last three years, my language services-related income has Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "In the last three years, my language services-related income has".
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| | | | | Increased a little | Aug 23, 2023 |
My income stayed more or less the same during the pandemic years: business was very slow for a while, but then picked up quite fast. What I have been noticing since is that the usual ups and downs have been more frequent. I had a lousy July and I’m having the busiest August ever. I can’t even try to understand…
| | | | Nikolay Novitskiy 
Russian Federation
Local time: 18:54
Member (2018)
English to Russian
| Increased... a bit | Aug 23, 2023 |
Well, the war has spoiled my game. But... new clients from Asia and India replaced those who left. So I even managed to raise my earnings - for a price of working more and resting less.
[Edited at 2023-08-23 13:34 GMT]
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 15:54
French to English
Artists musicians museums galleries and agencies specialising in art are my main clients, so I had next to no work during the pandemic. Things picked up even better than before in 2022, making it the best year ever. This year I'm taking things more slowly and weeding out the clients who I'm not really interested in working with.
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Laurits Palo
Denmark
Local time: 15:54
Member (2022)
English to Danish
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Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida wrote:
My income stayed more or less the same during the pandemic years: business was very slow for a while, but then picked up quite fast. What I have been noticing since is that the usual ups and downs have been more frequent. I had a lousy July and I’m having the busiest August ever. I can’t even try to understand…
While I have not participated in the poll due to the fact that I have been in the business for less than three years, it is always interesting to see responses from experienced translators. For me, July was actually second best so far this year, and August could very well turn out to be second worst.
It would be nice with some kind of system that automatically sends work one's way once you are available, because chances are that at any time of the year there is someone somewhere in need of exactly your language pair. But I suppose I can always do more marketing...
| | | | | Slightly increased | Aug 23, 2023 |
compared to my 10-year average, but it's a random increase, perhaps also because I tend to take less time off (of course, Covid didn't help in that respect).
There will be a random decrease this year, as there have been a few quiet months (Jan, Feb, July) earning 60% of my standard capacity.
Philippe
| | | | | Automatic systems | Aug 24, 2023 |
Laurits Palo wrote:
It would be nice with some kind of system that automatically sends work one's way once you are available...
In a sense, there is such a system. Not automatic and not easy, but it serves its purpose. Not easy, because it means becoming the translator of choice for your client. If you are, you can say "I can only take on the most sensitive/important jobs for the next few weeks/months" if you're expecting to be busier than usual, or "I'm afraid I won't be able to take on anything until the end of the year" if you're going to be full up. If they really do appreciate you, they'll be back when you tell them you're free.
It naturally depends on the type of client and language combination (an agency, whose job it is to find translators, might find someone as good as you and more dependable, but a direct client doing regular press releases (or exhibitions or newsletters), let's say, might have difficulty finding someone who's better than you. They'll have no choice but to give the job to their second-best translator, or even have it done internally, while you're not there. It'll take time to prove your mettle, but it can be done. Two or three clients like this and you'll never be without work.
Whether or not you get there, it's certainly something to aim for.
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