With all the negative financial news there have been a lot of discussions in translation blogs about whether or not translators should lower their rates. The idea being that if the flow of job offers into your inbox (due to the current downturn/ recession/ depression/ Armageddon depending on your news source) starts slowing down, one way to maybe encourage more job offers would be to charge less. The general blog post reads sort of like this: “I know someone who’s been asked to lower their rates. Well, I for one would never lower mine!”
Just for the record, I think translator rates should continue to go up, not down. The more experience you have, the more you should be earning. May we all live to be 90-year-old translators, working for a few hours each morning to keep the dementia at bay before settling down in the chaise lounge with an iced coffee to watch the great grandkids playing in the pool. And hopefully we’ll be earning a TON per word by then!
But I don’t want to talk about lowering rates or not lowering rates in this post. I want to talk about translators’ relationships with their rates. Why do we, the freelance translators of the world, have such low self-esteem when it comes to our rates?
To read what we’re saying in our blog posts and comments, you would think translators are hounded, pursued by angry torch-wielding mobs and slavering dogs trying to wear us down until we finally acquiesce and lower our rates. And in the back of our heads, there’s a Greek chorus repeatedly chanting “don’t you dare lower your rates.” Seriously, in our online conversations about rates we often sound like we’re on the verge of tears, with everyone out to get us. We need to suck it up!
Rate Myths
1. If you lower your rates you’ll never be able to raise them again!
Rubbish. It is not at all hard to raise your rates. You simply tell the client, “my old rate was XX. As of whatever date my new rate will be XX. I greatly value your business and hope we can continue our great working relationship in the future.”
The client can then do as they please. Some clients will continue to use you at a higher rate without blinking an eye (which makes you wonder why you weren’t charging them more all along). Some will only be able to afford a higher rate for certain jobs. And some will no longer be able to afford you. Chin up, my fellow translators, the client does not set your rates, you do. I have done this and it works. You just have to have enough clients that you can afford to lose a couple. Or pretend you were bluffing and say, “ha, ha, just kidding!”
2. Your rate must never vary!
Some translation jobs are much more challenging than others. Why do we, as translators, always feel like we have to have one fixed rate? Handwritten alchemy notes from the sixteenth century? 16¢/word. Corporate annual report? 16¢. Consumer comments? 16¢. 10,000 word patent by tomorrow morning? 16¢. Different source documents require different amounts of work. Translators should be empowered to say, “You know what? I know I usually do work for you at 16¢/word, but this document is much more involved. I can’t do this one for less than 19¢/word. Medieval handwriting is really quite time-consuming to decode and it takes years to develop the depth of knowledge in alchemy that I’ve amassed through years of concerted scholarly study…” There’s always room for the client to say, “I really want you to do this one, but I can’t pay a cent over 18¢.” Negotiation is possible.
3. It’s a race to the bottom!
There’s this fear among translators that if one translator lowers his rates, it will become a cataclysmic race to the bottom for all translators. We need to snap out of this! There will always be people who try offering translations at 4¢ per word. Why do we let this get to us? The only way this could potentially hurt your business is if that cheap person is as good or better than you as a translator. And, really, is that ever the case? Let’s look at an analogy: it will probably always be possible to find super cheap prostitutes. We all know what part of town to look in for that. Is that cutting into the business of all those other prostitutes who charge average or higher prices? Or of the high-end call girls? Nope.
Did I just compare translators to prostitutes? :-)
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5 comments:
Great insight, as always. Completely agree with #3. I talk about that frequently in my presentations. Competing on price turns us into commodities -- and there will always be someone who will do it much, much cheaper.
We are huge proponents of charging adequate and high rates for our professional services. We'd love if everyone adjusted their prices to professional -- and liveable -- levels, setting the industry standard.
Agreed on #2 -- our rates vary depending on language combination, subject matter, document format, and of course, turnaround.
I share some of your thoughts on #1. Ha, my dear MT, I say this in my presentation, too! That the sellers set the price, not the buyers. You must be reading my mind (or hacking into my laptop). True, you can always raise your prices ( we raise them every year on January 1, as do most businesses on the planet), but getting a substantial increase after you have started very low is tough. I used to be on the other side (the buying services side), so once you've gotten the service for X, it's difficult to try to get X plus 50%. However, nothing is impossible. It's all about the art of negotiating; which is something we all need to perfect. :) They should teach this in translation programs!
As John Jantsch, an expert on marketing for small businesses says, "There will always be someone willing to go out of business faster than you." Stand your ground and let someone else lower their rates.
MT, these are great points! My main objections to rate-lowering are: a) you look for low-paying work and then you find it...and then what happens when the higher-paying clients come back, as they inevitably do? b) if you lower your rates with an existing client, I think it's hard not to convey the impression that you really weren't worth what you were charging. But as I said in my own blog post on the topic, you have to eat, right? If your work volume is really suffering, you have to do something. It's easy for those of us who have a lot of experience/a stable of regular clients/spouses with salaried jobs/etc. to say "just sit tight!" but that's difficult for people in more precarious situations.
I work in euros for clients in France and Luxembourg and have consistently increased my rates since 1998 after starting in the profession in 1993. This year I'm trying to increase my rates from 0.24 to 0.29 $cts for direct clients and 0.19 for the middle-market agencies i work with.
If you specialise it's possible to work for top-level agencies in Europe for .40 $cts per word.
When I see translators in the U.S. with years of experience working for less than 0.15 cts a word I wonder why they bother.
Just to add, I don't mean to sound smug, especially after what Corinne has said. But if you can't earn $400 dollars/day which is the daily rate that IT consultants charge for example, why spend four years in college or more getting a university degree. Furthermore, the volume of "stuff" that needs translating has grown exponentially since I began in the profession and I don't see that ceasing in the future. As for CAT tools and automatic translation, if you look at the financial results of the companies in this field you'll see that their business is dwindling while our's continues to expand.
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