5 tips for attracting higher paying clients
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- Jose Henrique Lamensdorf
- IMHO one same translator shouldn't have higher and lower paying clients. If translation were like any other profession, not compromised by an immense crowd of amateurs worldwide claiming to provide "the same" service for virtually any price prospects are willing to pay, every translator would have his/her own price for every kind of service they offer. The problem is that amateurs have turned the translation market upside down: they allow buyers to set the price, as they'll work for ANY consideration. A professional translator won't charge more than his/her price from a "higher paying client", s/he will merely turn down job offers stated as paying less than his price. Of course, a professional translator will have thoroughly studied the market for the services s/he offers, particularly in terms of language pair(s) and specialties, in order to offer a good value/cost ratio. This should lead to sustainable business relationships, however they are hard to find. Most translation agencies use reverse auctions to get the lowest cost possible and hence maximize their profit; quality never being a major concern for them, as long as end-clients refrain from rejecting low quality services delivered. The only point in this article I strongly disagree is "adding more languages" on a whim. This is clearly the mindset of an amateur translator. Indeed, several decades ago I decided to focus on ONE language pair, EN<>PT, and deliberately gave up on IT and FR, which I admittedly would have to study more in order to translate professionally. To my dismay, I see many people nowadays translating in my chosen pair with a much lesser command of them than I had of the languages I gave up on. And yet they are successful in garnering demand, because they do it for a much lower price, which corresponds to the value (quality) they deliver. So, adding a new language on a whim to one's offerings should actually result in catering to LOWER paying clients until the translator has accrued the experience required to provide professional level service in it. This supposedly takes years. After all it's not a matter of ATTRACTING clients, but KEEPING them afterwards by exceeding their expectations in terms of cost/benefit.
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- 30/08/2017
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