Anyone working in translation for the last 10 years will tell you: translation is big business, a practice at the beating heart of a robust and growing language industry. If you need more proof, just take a look at all the standards—a veritable alphabet soup of detailed process dos and don’ts—that have cropped up since […]

If the last statistics you ever came across involved the Poisson distribution at school, you may well be forgiven for running a mile from keeping any kind of statistics in your professional life. I studied A’level Maths with Statistics along with my languages (very little choice in the dark days if you didn’t want to […]

We read about the benefits of using the cloud for work—using cloud applications and storage, for example. What we don’t see are warnings of the risks. You have to look for these specifically; the information doesn’t come to you as do the claimed benefits. This morning I got yet another e-mail from my web hosting service, […]

Pricing is a controversial and complex subject, and one that all linguists need to think about very seriously. In order to make a good living in the profession that we love, it is essential to figure out how to price our services. It is not about the price someone tells you to charge, but rather … […]

“Proz is dead.” I bet you’ve heard that one before. This is what people say in 2015. This is what they’ve said in 2010. And I bet that this is what they will be saying in 2020. Many translators have somewhat of a love-hate relationship with Proz. With hate probably playing the key role.   […]

Breaking up isn’t hard when your “partner” is a cheapskate I received an e-mail last week from a long-standing and once quite important agency client. It began brightly. The company was undergoing a process of change with a view to growing and becoming a world leader in translation.   http://www.sjbtranslations.com  

If you are a freelance translator, putting yourself in a position to do high quality work on an ongoing basis requires that you approach the job from an effective commercial standpoint. While the question “What rates should I charge?” is one that ultimately only you can answer, as a professional in the industry…   http://wiki.proz.com […]

Towards the end of September I blogged about my ideal purchase order and asked readers for your opinion. I was worried that the form might ask clients to fill in too much information. And most of your comments reinforced that view. You agreed that many would baulk at the idea of providing so many details, … […]

Tout d’abord, c’est quoi un CRM ? En anglais CRM signifie « Customer Relationship Management ». Il s’agit d’un logiciel qui vous permet de gérer vos contacts, projets, devis, factures, et autres informations liées à votre activité professionnelle. J’ai adopté un CRM en 2009 après des années de galère avec Outlook. Et j’ai tout de […]

Article sur l’importance de faire appel à des traducteurs professionnels. Quelques chiffres intéressants sont également indiqués à la fin de l’article (basés sur le “Rapport de l’enquête sur les conditions de travail et tarifs des langagiers en 2012”).                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   http://affaires.lapresse.ca  

“Trust but verify”, proverbe de prédilection de Ronald Reagan pendant la guerre froide, s’applique tout particulièrement au monde de l’entreprise. Lorsque vous travaillez avec un client pour la première fois, il convient de déterminer à l’avance les modalités de votre relation. Le mieux est de le faire par écrit afin d’établir clairement les responsabilités de […]

CONFIDENTIALITY HAS ALWAYS BEEN A LEGAL MINEFIELD FOR BOTH FREELANCERS AND FOR OUR CLIENTS. Our clients (both corporate and non-corporate) continually attempt to impose Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDAs) on us but are they really worth the paper they are written on? Should we obey their instructions to destroy any confidential material at the end of translation […]

Quelques remarques de marketing et de droit autour de la question de la fixation de tarifs de traduction différents selon les clients. Les agences de traduction peuvent souvent être tentées de pratiquer, pour leurs services linguistiques, des tarifs différents en fonction des différentes caractéristiques de leurs clients.   Translation & Interpretation Agency

My thoughts about translation rates, working for peanuts and learning to embrace your fears and demons. Me. Seriously, blame me. I’m that asshole who is responsible for low translation rates. I’m sorry guys, but I can’t help it. It’s been a very bad habit for a very long time. A habit that I’ve developed over […]

For some, the answer is obvious. For others, it’s not that easy. I personally For some, the answer is obvious. For others, it’s not that easy. I personally think that it is a case-by-case decision, depending not only on you, but also on the client and on the specific project. Let’s try to analyse this […]

Puisque certaines professions imposent d’être assuré pour les exercer (soignants, métiers du bâtiment, etc.), de nombreux traducteurs s’interrogent sur leurs propres obligations au moment de créer leur entreprise. Et bien sachez-le, vous n’êtes tenu de souscrire à aucun contrat d’assurance, mais pas besoin ne veut pas dire pas de besoin…     http://www.trematranslations.com

Vendor selection and management in the translation industry. As a Project Manager you will be coordinating multiple projects – each project will have a minimum of two outside vendors (translator and editor) with the possibility of many more. Your vendors will usually work off-site as independent freelance vendors who have agreed to work with your […]

Disposer de ses propres conditions générales peut être un excellent moyen de présenter ses services à des clients potentiels tout en s’assurant que le projet se déroule de la manière souhaitée. Si les accords, conditions générales et contrats freelances vous donnent des maux de tête, poursuivez votre lecture pour apprendre comment rédiger des conditions générales […]

Stop me if this sounds familiar: I really needed work, so I decided to take whatever came through the door. I decided that applying to mega-agencies/advertising on Fiverr/racing to the bottom on translation job boards was the fastest way to get full-time freelance work. But now I’m stuck; I have to translate 10-12 hours a […]

Dicen que lo bueno se hace esperar y este principio se aplica muy bien a la traducción. Coincidirán conmigo en que, muy a menudo, los clientes necesitan el trabajo «para ayer». Otras veces, piden adelantar la fecha de entrega acordada por razones especiales. Independientemente de los factores que hagan que un pedido de traducción tenga […]

It’s the most common question I hear when talking with translators and interpreters: How much should I charge? The question comes from everywhere in the industry, from the recent graduate just starting out in a career in translation and interpreting to the seasoned professional who needs to renegotiate his or her rates with a client. […]

When I introduce students to Translation Project Management, I usually display an illustration showing the main steps involved in a translation project. Regardless of the project length and the person in charge – the translation project manager, the translator or any other project participant –, it will include most of these steps, even if the […]

(Brochure) The Project management profession is being continuously developed with the help of both academic institutions and professional bodies. A good number of universities offer graduate degrees in project management. I would like to share our experiences and a number of tips gathered from working with more than 200 translation companies and hundreds of translators […]

Create Calm in Your Career Many of us experience stress in life, whether this is in the short term from one-off projects, or long-term stress from a high-pressure career. Not only can this be profoundly unpleasant, it can seriously affect our health and our work. However, it is possible to manage stress, if you use […]

Like many simple questions, this is one with no easy answer. For one thing, it’ll depend whether it’s a complex technical report, a novel, or just an email in another language. The answer to “how much does translation cost” also depends on how accurate it needs to be.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           […]

Quotation prepared by a translation agency for a translation project consisting of one document to be translated into one language. Description Translation agency: based in Brussels, Belgium Client company: based in Dublin, Ireland Product: Mch29TR2 Files to be localised: documents in Adobe Indesign® format Source language: English Target language: German …   Solution and explanations […]