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Marketing Yourself Like Chocolate
Every season, you will find a new holiday-relevant type of chocolate bar available for sale. In February, the bite-sized chocolate pieces are molded into the shape of a heart and covered in red and pink foil. By March, the chocolate pieces are in the shape of shamrocks and wear green foil. For Easter, those chocolate pieces are dressed up in pastel foil and shaped like tiny Easter eggs. This pattern continues through Halloween until the end of the year when you find little Christmas tree-shaped…
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Smart ways to work breaks into your work day
Now that you're working for yourself, you can theoretically take breaks whenever you want. So why aren't you? I know, I know. You're too busy. You don't have the time. You might miss out on the next project because you didn't check your email. There's too much email to take a break. There's not enough email and you need to drum up some business. But the bottom line is you need to take breaks sometime during the day or you'll wear yourself out or make…
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Book some free time into your schedule
Ever feel like you never get a chance to do what you love in your free time? Ever feel like there is no free time? You’re not alone. It’s way too easy to fall into this trap. And each time you do manage to carve out a little bit of extra time here and there, you find it getting consumed with extra work, extra chores, extra errands, extra busyness. If this pattern sounds familiar, try booking some free time into your schedule. Treat it like…
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Dear Jenae -- How do you maintain balance in your private life when swamped with work?
How do you balance your private life and household duties with work? There are up and down seasons, what do you do when there is a surge in incoming work that you don't want to turn down? Would you cut off your social life, exercise, sleep or anything else (like admin tasks to be postponed later)? Where do you need to develop and improve? How balanced do you feel in terms is private life and work? Thank You very much in advance. These are my…
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Dear Jenae -- What inexpensive and easy customer relationship management tool do you recommend?
"CRM tools - can you recommend any that are easy to use and not too expensive? I am looking for something to help me with marketing to new clients and scheduling for chasing up new leads etc." - Becky Hi Becky, Thanks for your question – it’s a great one. There are a lot of great tools out there but my favorite is Pipedrive (linked below). It’s only $12.50 (USD) a month and is cloud-based, which is really helpful. There are a ton of features…
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Will new California law change your freelance translation work? Maybe.
If you work as a freelance translator or interpreter in the state of California, chances are good that you are familiar with the recently-passed Assembly Bill No. 5 (AB5) regarding independent contractors. And if you don’t work in the state of California, this law’s passage could still have implications for you in the future. Other similar legislative efforts have been seen in other locations across the United States. Press coverage related to the bill often mentions the “gig economy,” presenting those who work for ride-sharing…
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Dear Jenae -- How do you remain professional in a disagreement with your client and when do I skip signing that NDA?
Q: How do you remain professional in a disagreement with your client and when do I skip signing that NDA? Hi Jenae, I'm very grateful for this opportunity to ask you about our profession. I'd like to have your advice or opinion on a couple of questions. The first one is about customer service. As entrepreneurs, I think we should deliver the best customer service possible, both with direct clients and providers (agencies and publishing companies). How would you manage this? What devices would you use…
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Learn the potential perils – and possibilities – of business diversification
Is it time to diversify your business? You may be considering expanding what services you offer, but making that change is a serious commitment. Let Jenae Spry, founder of Success by Rx, share her experience with you in the following interview. Melissa Kamenjarin, Success by Rx Copywriter: Tell us about expanding the services, besides translation, that you offer. What services exactly do you offer? What have the pros and cons been? Jenae Spry, founder of Success by Rx: I have been fortunate that I have…
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Help! I was asked to discount my rate and I need the work. What do I do?
Q: Could you please give some advice on how to deal with the pressure to lower rates? This is an issue that I have been faced with just recently. An agency with whom I was working regularly for almost 4 years asked me out of the blue to lower my standard rates by almost 25%. I declined the proposition. Instead, I offered the possibility of a volume discount if a project exceeds a certain number of words. As a result, the agency has cut me out…
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Breakup emails that land clients
Want an unconventional way to bring in clients? Try saying goodbye ... and watch some of your potential clients turn into actual clients. If you have been talking to a client who suddenly stopped replying, you don’t really know what happened. There’s no resolution one way or the other. Did the prospective client find a different person to hire? Did they get busy and never reply? Do they still need your services but maybe just not at this time? You have no idea. If you…
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Time for a vacation!
You’ve got a pile of work – and more keeps coming in. It’s great that all your clients want your help, but you’ve been feeling burnt out and overwhelmed lately. You don’t want to turn down work. After all, don’t you have to get what you can while it’s available? But you haven’t taken a real day to yourself in ages. Work creeps into your family time and your weekends. You just want a day where your phone isn’t constantly ringing or your email notifications…
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Competitor or Colleague?
If you’re like most translators, you spend a lot of time alone. You need to be alone to concentrate, but then there’s the other isolating factor of the business. It’s generally freelance and done at home. So when you want to take a break and get some social interaction, you find yourself drawn to other translators. But while it can be nice to socialize with other translators, you may find yourself wondering, “Am I socializing with my competition?” Yes. And no. As in other industries,…
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Accomplish More with the Micro-Progress Phenomenon
Have you ever checked something off your to-do list and then felt inspired to continue tackling items on the list? This phenomenon is known as micro-progress. The feeling of making progress – no matter how small – can help encourage to you become even more productive. Now imagine how productive you would be if your to-do list included lots of small tasks that you could easily check off. Rather than listing several large and challenging tasks on your to-do list, try breaking them down into…
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Maybe You Don’t Need That Degree and Certification
What if you don’t need a fancy degree and certification to be an excellent translator or interpreter? It strikes those of us in the language professionals community as shocking – even heretical. It goes against what we’ve been taught. Without a degree or certification, you’re no different from any other bilingual person, right? But maybe that’s not always the case. Our very own Jenae Spry of Success by Rx believes that such credentials are only one aspect to consider when evaluating a translation and interpretation…
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How to Bring in Clients with Effective Blog Posts: An Interview with Marco Díaz
When it comes to blogging, we hear the same things all the time. “You really should be writing blogs.” “You know blogs are a proven way to boost your SEO ranking.” “The best blogs provide meaningful info to your clients.” It’s great to think about in the abstract, but how do you get started? And how do you know that what you are writing about will even attract clients? Well, for starters, write about what you know (the advice every fledgling writer gets). And then…
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All-Consuming Projects: Four Strategies to Avoid Them and How to Succeed When They Take Over
What’s the opposite of the dreaded work slow-down that all freelancers fear? The All-Consuming Project. In capital letters. Because it takes over your life somehow. When you’re trying to finish an all-consuming project, you spend all your time working on it, but there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything done. So you find yourself turning down all other projects because this one is taking so long. You cancel plans with friends. You work during a holiday. You don’t leave the house for…
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Turning to the phone when email falls short – and how to make email more effective
As translators, we’re comfortable with written words, but that doesn’t mean that we have to rely exclusively on email to communicate with clients. A phone call can sometimes be a more efficient use of our time. How do you know if it’s time to pick up the phone? It might be time if you find yourself in an email exchange that feels like it’s going to be more than a couple of back-and-forth replies. Or if you notice that the emails you’re receiving tend to…
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Why You Need a Style Guide (and a Sample One to Get You Started!)
What’s a style guide? Style guides, in the most general terms, govern the written content that a brand produces. These documents give guidelines for how written materials should be written, edited and translated. Style guides give recommendations on tone, style, voice, grammar, punctuation and other writing conventions. A strong brand with a cohesive voice will have a style guide to ensure the company materials are consistent from piece to piece. For translators, they define how you will handle all the little (and big) details that…
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Use These Three Techniques to Make Email More Efficient
Email is the double-edged sword of the business world. It allows communication with anyone at any time. That’s also the problem. We can send and receive emails 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. And it’s even harder in our industry. With the increasing globalization of business, especially within the translation and interpretation sector, there are no longer fixed “business hours.” Even if a person only operates on a 9-to-5 schedule, their 9-to-5 happens at a different time from someone else’s 9-to-5 halfway across…
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The Power of Networking via Social Media
I’ve been to various translator get-togethers over the past few years, some organized by translator associations, some via social media. The surprising thing is that many translators out there are rather scared of social media, especially Facebook. When I start expounding about the fantastic advantages that can be found there for translators (and interpreters, of course), they get this strange look on their face. But what about privacy, they ask? I don’t want everyone to see what I am doing, they cry fearfully. My response?…
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Setting Attainable Goals to Achieve Work-Life Balance
The freedom of freelancing may be what attracted you to freelance work from the beginning. But are you so busy getting each project done and thinking about the next task at hand that you haven’t stood back to reevaluate your situation in a while? Does something need to change in your work-life balance? Is there less balance than you imagined? Ask yourself the following questions: What do you want out of your personal life and professional life ... today? in the next month? in the…
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Batching Tasks to Increase Efficiency
We’ve all been there – an email comes in and you think to yourself, “I’ll just answer this real quick.” The next thing you know, you’re reviewing PDFs of invoices from last month because you needed to reference something in that email reply. One thing leads to another and suddenly it’s 4:30 in the afternoon and you haven’t gotten to any of your work that day. What’s even more unfair is you’ve been working on your business all day long but don’t have any work…
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How to Bring in Clients with Inbound Marketing
Inbound marketing can be your secret weapon for gaining new clients. But first, let’s define the term and see how it differs from outbound marketing. Inbound vs. Outbound Marketing In the chart below, I highlight the big differences between the two approaches.Outbound marketing is a more traditional marketing technique where you send “out” your message about your business to try to appeal to prospective customers. A few examples of outbound marketing are advertisements on YouTube or TV, brochures, cold calling and conventions. This marketing…
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Dos and Don’ts of Cold and Warm Emailing
You’ve likely heard the terms cold emails and warm emails. They can help you attract new clients and build your reputation within your niche in the translation industry. But what are they? And how do you put them to use? Cold emails are emails to people with whom you have had no prior contact. These may be owners of companies that are in your specialization or project managers for agencies for which you have never worked. The goal is to make connections and familiarize people…
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Meet Melissa Kamenjarin, Success by Rx’s New Copywriter
As the new copywriter for Success by Rx, I’m excited to introduce myself to you. My name is Melissa Kamenjarin, and I am a Spanish/English translator, writer, editor and proofreader specializing in educational materials, health insurance, non-profits, and published fiction and non-fiction books, blogs and websites. Some of my clients include educational materials publishers, published authors, fellow translators and interpreters, a leading health insurance company, and local and international non-profit organizations benefiting children and victims of human rights violations. I serve as the Secretary on…
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Don’t Limit Your Resolutions to Once a Year
Happy New Year from Success by Rx! This is the time of year when many people take stock of their lives and make resolutions to change certain things. Some people end up with a huge list of New Year’s resolutions every year and get quickly overwhelmed by the daunting task of tackling them all at once. While it’s a good idea to consider how your life has been going and how you’d like to change it, waiting till the start of a new year isn’t…
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Looking for an affordable worldwide phone? It’s here.
If you're a translator or interpreter who travels frequently, I might have some good news for you! I recently returned from a trip to Hong Kong and Thailand, which was my first time anywhere in Asia and while I’d been to Europe several times, just a couple of months away from my trip, I realized that I had no idea how I would continue to keep my business running while I was there since I hadn’t planned to spend lots of time in the hotel…
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3 Instant Productivity Boosters
Systems are important and so are processes but both take time to develop so if you're looking for a way to boost your productivity instantly, check out these tools. You might have one or two, but I'd be willing to bet you don't have the last and most important productivity booster in this list! 1. Extra Monitor If you’re still crouched over your tiny laptop screen typing out translations, you might as well be chiseling them into stone too. No, I’m not being dramatic…ok, maybe a…
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Dear translator/linguist/resource...It’s not personal – it’s just business
We’ve all gotten those impersonal e-mails from agencies and companies starting with “dear translator,” “linguist,” the dreaded “resource” or some other generalized category. I know many translators who immediately delete these without reading them, others who jump on them trying to be the first to respond and still others who are either silently offended or…not-so-silently offended. My opinion of this has varied over the years but one question has lingered for me…why are we, as translators, so incredibly offended by these types of things that…
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8 Reasons Why I "Work from Home" in an Office
In 2008, I left my one and only true professional office job to pursue my freelance business full time, and I swore to myself that I would NEVER EVER work in an office again. I was now free…I was free to work in my house, cafés, hotel rooms in distant lands, the beach or a park if I wanted. I would never again have fluorescent lights beating down on me while I was chained to a desk (ok, maybe there were no actual chains…but you…
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3 Reasons Why Introverts Are Better at Sales
The other day I was talking to a friend of mine who owns an internet marketing company and manages their sales team. He mused that he and most of his entire sales team were all introverts. As an extrovert fascinated by psychology, I’ve actually read quite a bit about introverts but it wasn’t until that moment that it clicked. If you’re an introvert, you’re actually better suited to be successful at sales than extroverts are. Don’t believe me? I get it…most people picture that stereotypical…
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17 Last-Minute Tax-Saving Tips for Freelance Translators & Interpreters
It’s almost tax day and if you hate numbers or organization is not your strong suit, you’re probably not looking forward to it. Here are some last-minute things you can think about to get the most out of your deductions! Niche research: books, magazines, and any other materials you use to research for your job…and for us that’s usually quite a bit! Just remember, watching Grey’s Anatomy probably won’t make Netflix deductible. PayPal fees: If you use PayPal for business, don’t forget to include the…
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High-Speed Quality Control
When it comes to translation, a simple mistyped number can mean the difference between a patient taking 50 mg vs. the correct 5 mg dose. In other words, it is literally life and death in some cases so there’s just no room for quality problems. In other specializations, patents might not be valid or wars might start so quality can never be compromised. Unfortunately, being pressed for time is becoming the norm, so how can we make sure quality doesn’t suffer as a result? Here…
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Scope Creep: Dealing with Small...and Not-So-Small Changes
Ever been in this situation? I started a proofreading job only to realize the translation is a disaster. I agreed to translate a file based on a sample, but the rest of the sample includes tons of unexpected formatting. I took an interpretation assignment that was supposed to be escort but once I got there I found out it is a conference! If you’ve been in the industry a while, you’ve definitely had this happen and if you haven’t, you will. But, what’s the difference…
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The One Crucial Thing You’re Forgetting When Handling Mistakes
We are all people, and mistakes happen. Sometimes we, as translators or interpreters, are the ones at fault. Perhaps we didn’t catch a typo or mixed up a deadline. Or perhaps there was a miscommunication between you and your client that produced what your client perceives to be a mistake on your part. It happens to the best of us but the worst thing you can do is become defensive or try to prove you're actually right when it's clear you're not. Corrective and Preventive…
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Dealing with Low-ballers
Rates are a very controversial issue in our industry and the issue of low-ballers is even more controversial. In fact, it’s kind of a hard concept to pinpoint. One freelancer might be regularly (and happily) working for a rate that another considers low-balling. Or, you might be too fast to burn a potential bridge over an e-mail asking for a low rate. Whether this is something that makes your blood boil or not, there’s one thing that we all need to understand: price negotiation is…
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How to Unleash the Entrepreneur Within
As freelancers, we are translators and/or interpreters first, and many of us fall into being a business owner for no other reason than the fact that our industry is generally set up in favor of hiring freelancers to do work on a contract basis instead of hiring full-time employees. In other words, instead of having the idea that we want to be an entrepreneur and business owner, and then figuring out what business to run, many of us instead feel forced into it without much…
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Need More Work? It's Not Them, It's You…
and That's the Best News You've Heard All Day
If you don’t have work, the most likely reason is not them, it’s you. Before you start raging at me through your computer, keep reading. That’s actually good news…no…it’s GREAT news. Think about it. If the reason you don’t have work is because of the state of the economy or the translation industry, then there’s not much you can do about it, right? All you can do is sit around and wait for whatever reason you’ve decided is the culprit to go away or improve.…
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Streamlining & Automation: the Key to Translation Speed
Translating faster isn't about rushing. It's about saving time on everything else. As translators we perform so many time-consuming tasks without realizing it that it is all too easy to wonder where your day went. Here are some tricks I use to help automate what I can so I can spend my time translating. 1) Typing replies to each job request/e-mail Use voice recognition software and create templates so you can say a keyword like “booked day” and generate an entire e-mail. If you find…
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Are You Missing Out Due to Fear of Missing Out?
You’ve probably heard of FOMO before but if you haven’t, it stands for “fear of missing out” and this disease runs rampant in our age of instant gratification and technology. You probably have it to some degree even if you don’t think you do. I know what you’re thinking, “but if I don’t check my e-mail every .02 seconds, I might miss a job!” You’ve probably also heard more experienced translators talk about how they only check their e-mail something like once a year and…
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Impressive Time Management: The Time Diet
Do you often feel like your business is running you instead of the other way around? Do you wonder why you constantly feel like there aren't enough hours in the day? This is your chance to figure out where your time is going once and for all, and start taking control of your business and your time. Let's get started! First things first Have you ever been on a diet or created a budget? What’s the first thing a nutritionist or financial planner is going…
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Never Update Your Client's TM…and Other CAT Tool Tricks
CAT (computer-assisted translation) tools are now a staple in the translation industry. If you’re not using one, I would argue that you are choosing not to take advantage of one of the best productivity tools available, regardless of the type of translation you do. Even if you have been using a CAT tool for some time, you may not be taking full advantage for your bottom line. If you regularly work for agencies, it’s safe to say the agency is benefiting quite a bit from…
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The Interpreter Phenomenon
If you’re a translator who has never interpreted before, you may be rolling your eyes already. But I encourage you to read a little further. If you are an interpreter or have interpreted before, you may already know where I’m going with this. First, let me say that what follows is just my experience and is in no way scientific. However, it is logical. Let me explain. What I refer to as “the interpreter phenomenon” is my theory that interpreting and/or sight translation contribute to…
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Unlocking the Secrets of Dictation Software
Dragon is a software that allows you to dictate your translation while it does the heavy lifting, i.e., typing. In my opinion, if you aren’t utilizing dictation software of some kind, you’re really missing out. I’ve heard from a few people recently that said they had tried it and not liked it, but the more I probed, the more I realized that they just didn’t know how to get the most out of it to actually see productivity results. First, let’s talk about the benefits:…
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5 Winning Strategies for Getting Work
Whether you are looking for more work or just different work, the following 5 strategies are great ways to diversify your client base or take the plunge into becoming a full-time freelance translation business owner. 1) Cast a wide net Especially if you’re brand new to the job, it’s important to cast a wide net and contact a LOT of potential clients. When I was just starting out, I would peruse job boards like Proz.com and the ATA database and contact any company that looked like they…
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56th ATA Conference: Should I Go?
In the past week alone, three of my freelancer clients have asked me this question since the rates go up again on October 16. Let me start by giving you every translator’s favorite answer…it depends. Come on, you knew that was coming! Don’t worry, here’s a breakdown of my thoughts on who should go, when it’s useful, and when it isn’t. Career stage: Newbie You just graduated school or you have a couple of years under your belt and the world is your oyster…or something. Do…
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How Much Am I Worth?
This might sound like a really complex question and, in some ways, it is. On the other hand, it can be boiled down to one really simple statement: You're worth whatever someone will pay you. If you believe you're worth $0.40/word, that's awesome. I hope you are. If no one will pay you $0.40/word, guess what? You're not. When I started out in my career, I personally think I was charging a bit much for my level of experience...probably the opposite of what most people…
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Check out the Success by Rx Newsletter!
This is an easy way to follow updates on my blog posts, upcoming training sessions I’m giving, and receive tips and tricks for helping you increase your productivity, quality and success all in one place. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP Here are a few upcoming topics I’ll be covering: Tips & tricks (newsletter only) How to tell your clients “no” by saying “yes.” How to handle making mistakes. Upcoming blog posts Are you overconfident? If you said “no,” I bet I can prove you wrong!…
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Technology: Embrace It or Get Left Behind
There's a lot of resistance to machines in the translation industry and some of that resistance is for valid reasons. Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools were introduced to improve both quality and productivity. Translation agencies then began capitalizing on that by asking translators for discounts. Being asked for a discount doesn't feel good. It might even feel like someone is telling you that you're no longer as valuable as you once were. As a result, a lot of translators loathe CAT tools and technology in general.…
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OCR Tools: Coping with PDF Files
As a medical translator, I work with a LOT of PDF files. I probably use my OCR tool up to 10 times per day and I’m fairly certain that at this point, I couldn’t work without it. However, it took some time before I figured out exactly how to get the most out of it and I’m certain that I haven’t even scratched the surface. In case you are not familiar with OCR, it stands for “Optical Character Recognition” and is basically used to turn…
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Dragon NaturallySpeaking: Twice the Product, Half the Effort
Dragon Naturally Speaking is gaining ground in the translation industry. I attended a session on Dragon given by Tom Fennell and Andrew Levine at the last ATA conference in October, which really made me realize how much I am under-utilizing the program. Then in December, Mario Chávez reviewed Dragon in the ATA Chronicle from the perspective of medical translation and handling PDF documents. After recently editing a few documents obviously done with dictation software, I started pondering how this tool fits into a translator’s workflow…
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Automation: The Key to Translation Speed
Translating faster isn’t about rushing. It’s about saving time on everything else. As translators we perform so many time-consuming tasks without realizing it that it is all too easy to wonder where your day went. Here are some tricks I use to help automate what I can so I can spend my time translating. Time-consuming Task Automated Task Typing replies to each job request/e-mail Use voice recognition software and create templates so you can say a keyword like “booked day” and generate an entire e-mail.…
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