Poll: What percentage of your income comes from direct clients? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What percentage of your income comes from direct clients?".
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I have 1 very regular direct client (a regional organization for whom I have been translating twice a year a lot of documents and reports for the plenary meetings since 1989). Then there are 3 or 4 who come back from time to time (the not so regulars) and the one-offs. The not so regulars usually have huge projects...
[Edited at 2022-08-26 08:54 GMT]
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Piddling little ones are to be avoided like the plague, but regular professional ones are just the best, albeit hard to come by.
| | | | neilmac
Spain
Local time: 12:10
Spanish to English
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Almost all my clients are direct and not agencies. I'm so glad, because when I look at the hoops that colleagues working with agency have to jump through nowadays, I don't think I'd have the stomach for it.
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Robert Forstag 
United States
Local time: 06:10
Spanish to English
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| Piddly jobs: When credentials matter far more than time | Aug 26, 2022 |
Ice Scream wrote:
Piddling little ones are to be avoided like the plague {...}.
I could not agree more. It really is hard for me to see the point of translating a birth certificate or diploma - even for what might be considered a "good" fee - given that it will most likely be a one-off job in which the time involved in the email correspondence is likely to far exceed that required to complete the translation itself (and that is if the exchange of emails even results in my getting the piddly job - which often it does not!)
I note that the context of my reply assumes unsolicited offers from direct clients involving short translations of official documents requiring a translator with formal certification of some kind (although I certainly appreciate that there are other kinds of piddly jobs).
In considering such offers, in seems to make sense to do the following:
1.
Eschew all guilt feelings, and confidently take the view that your primary value to the prospective client is your formal certification (as opposed to your ability to complete the translation itself).
2.
In your initial reply, indicate your minimum fee - and set that minimum at a price that amply compensates you for the job's piddly, one-off, and generally annoying nature, again bearing in mind that the main value you are proffering in such a negotiation is your formal certification (and not your translation skill).
3.
Require full payment in advance, in return for your promise to deliver the translation within one or two days of receiving payment.
4.
Proceed to ask clarifying questions (e.g., are hard copies/notarization needed?) only if the prospective client responds to the notification of your minimum fee with continued interest.
The above might seem a bit harsh to some, but I think such guidelines important in order to avoid sinking into a black hole of uncompensated wasted time over a piddly job that might never materialize.
[Edited at 2022-08-26 16:31 GMT]
| | | | | Popping the popcorn... | Aug 26, 2022 |
...waiting for the "I'd sooner die than work for another agency" camp to face off against the "Nice work if you can get it, bub" camp.
| | | | Kay Denney
France
Local time: 12:10
French to English
I have no idea. It varies, because agencies tend to be fairly regular whereas direct clients pop up now and then.
Taking a quick look at my log, I see 0% came from direct clients in July, nearly 90% in June, just over 50% in May, about 40% in April, about 20% in March and February, and 30% in January. January being an unusually big month because I billed an agency job that took up most of December. Without that job, it would have been 90% in January.
So basically, as I... See more I have no idea. It varies, because agencies tend to be fairly regular whereas direct clients pop up now and then.
Taking a quick look at my log, I see 0% came from direct clients in July, nearly 90% in June, just over 50% in May, about 40% in April, about 20% in March and February, and 30% in January. January being an unusually big month because I billed an agency job that took up most of December. Without that job, it would have been 90% in January.
So basically, as I said before I looked, it varies. ▲ Collapse
| | | | IrinaN
United States
Local time: 05:10
English to Russian
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After I close my computer or my mouth, my life belongs to me a 100% until the next assignment found and negotiated for me by those to whom I pay their well-deserved margin. I don't spend a single unpaid second on any searches, problems or solutions. Oh well, I lie... some unavoidable emails/phone calls and invoicing eat up a few minutes:-)
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I assume that international agencies count at "direct clients."
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IrinaN wrote:
After I close my computer or my mouth, my life belongs to me a 100% until the next assignment found and negotiated for me by those to whom I pay their well-deserved margin. I don't spend a single unpaid second on any searches, problems or solutions.
Same here.
| | | | | I don't think so... | Aug 29, 2022 |
Muriel Vasconcellos wrote:
I assume that international agencies count at "direct clients."
I work with many of them but I said zero direct clients.
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