| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Snowed under and turning clients down - what do you do? Thread poster: laure claesen
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| I don't know, but... | Sep 19, 2012 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
previous message
I think that agency felt that you were their employee, and were clearly wrong about it. I think they probably understood the actual situation when you turned them down.
...their admin departments and processes were certainly too rigid for such an unsollicited rate increase! Apart from the fact that they didn't accept it, I had nothing against working with them, and I didn't feel they were abusing their role as a customer: I turned down jobs as usual, they were accommodating with any demands or claims I could have, and I was paid EUR0.084/source word from 2004 until 2006, which I thought was appropriate at the time.
The thing is that with such "good" clients (according to my own standards then), you tend to get trapped into the sheer amount of work they have, and their orders spread, spawn and multiply into your schedule with your own consent. Had they grown to 50% or more of my earnings, I'd have become a de facto employee and would have had all the more trouble rebalancing my act.
Aside from that, your availability for other clients decreases, and you extend your working days without surcharge to try and accommodate their jobs and show good will. You go into overdrive for a while, and then you take action or you die/divorce/get locked up.
Parting with them also showed that neither translator nor agency are irreplaceable, because we carried on minding our own respective businesses without damage from day 1 after my rate increase became effective.
Keeps us (and them) humble.
Philippe
| | | | kchansen
Local time: 15:32
English to Danish
| Supply & Demand | Sep 19, 2012 |
It's a matter of supply and demand. If you are really snowed under, it shows that your clients value your service and that you are in great demand. Since there is only one of you, and a day only has 24 hours, some of which must be spent eating, sleeping and spending time with your family and friends, you are and will remain in limited supply. Those clients who believe you are worth the higher prices will stick around and those who don't ... well, their loss.
If you can raise your pr... See more It's a matter of supply and demand. If you are really snowed under, it shows that your clients value your service and that you are in great demand. Since there is only one of you, and a day only has 24 hours, some of which must be spent eating, sleeping and spending time with your family and friends, you are and will remain in limited supply. Those clients who believe you are worth the higher prices will stick around and those who don't ... well, their loss.
If you can raise your prices and still remain occupied, then you have understood the market better than any clients who say that you can't raise your prices. ▲ Collapse
| | | | laure claesen 
France
Local time: 15:32
Member (2005)
English to French
TOPIC STARTER | Goat and cabbage as the French say... | Sep 19, 2012 |
Well. Twenty four hours have elapsed since I did this post and I find all your answers really amazing and useful. I will certainly consider tackling the problem on the rate side. Your views in this respect are incredibly smart and wise.
However, I want to pay special tribute to Philippe for reminding me of the problem of health and how critical it is to preserve it.
Indeed, in the last ten years spent before my computer screen, I have developed a recurrent eye disease (... See more Well. Twenty four hours have elapsed since I did this post and I find all your answers really amazing and useful. I will certainly consider tackling the problem on the rate side. Your views in this respect are incredibly smart and wise.
However, I want to pay special tribute to Philippe for reminding me of the problem of health and how critical it is to preserve it.
Indeed, in the last ten years spent before my computer screen, I have developed a recurrent eye disease (although no doctor will admit that it is related to working all day on a screen, I am sure now that it is), which has seriously impacted my work at times, since I carried on even though I could not see with one eye. It did make me loose some customers too.
Plus I lack exercise and I do not sleep very well. Sometimes I am wondering daily how I will manage until retirement (another 12 years or so to go).
So I can see that I have reached this critical point described by Philippe, and that it's time to make a bold move.
Just as I am writing to you, I got the OK for (yet another) job and the story was like this:
I was reading your suggestions on the Forum when I got the offer. I sent a CV showing my "old" rate but asked for .2+. The PM reverted pointing out the discrepancy. I wrote back saying that her email stated how technical the job at hand was and that although there was indeed a contradiction in terms, I would want to maintain the higher rate. I sent the email thinking that I would not hear from them again. But they did.
So it really works, doesn't it. Even though I am regularly pestered by requests to actually lower my prices - a reason why I am always nervous to ask for more.
Thank you all for your precious advice. Thanks to this forum, this old goat (me) will still be there in another decade, and that there will still be cabbage for supper.
) ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Comments are allowed...:) | Sep 20, 2012 |
Tomás Cano Binder, CT wrote:
aburiaz wrote:
Please correct me if I am wrong but I think you meant 'colleague' and not 'college'.
Sorry, but I think this comment was unnecessary. I reckon we all understood colleague alright. 
These types of comments always make me curious about the person behind them. Aburiaz: great profile, top-notch translator and former moderator - your rates, however, are unfortunately embarrissingly low, which, in my view, not only undermines your professionalism as a translator by Western standards, but also contributes to downward price pressure on translation rates.
We should all be allowed to make comments here, right?
[Edited at 2012-09-20 20:56 GMT]
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Adam Warren
France
Local time: 15:32
Member (2005)
French to English
| Never leave your client entirely empty-handed | Sep 20, 2012 |
Thank you, dear colleagues, I have learnt a lot from all your contributions.
I should like to emphasise the psychological, relational element: it doesn't do to turn a good client away without offering a decent alternative: as stated by earlier contributors, you can refer the client to a colleague or, if the subject area or skill is way outside your range, to a suitable line of enquiry.
Thus, for clients seeking conference interpreters, especially in recondite language p... See more Thank you, dear colleagues, I have learnt a lot from all your contributions.
I should like to emphasise the psychological, relational element: it doesn't do to turn a good client away without offering a decent alternative: as stated by earlier contributors, you can refer the client to a colleague or, if the subject area or skill is way outside your range, to a suitable line of enquiry.
Thus, for clients seeking conference interpreters, especially in recondite language pairs or subjects, I have sent a link to AIIC (http://aiic.net/) or AIIC-France (http://www.aiic.fr/).
Where I can't suggest a colleague known to me personally, I recommend the websites of the following, with which I am or have been connected:
SFT: http://www.sft.fr
the ITI: www.iti.org.uk/
and, obviously, the wide-ranging facilities of ProZ.com!
In order to maintain goodwill, it is wise to help a client in finding what he wants, even if there is no gain to one in doing so. I think this is called "going the extra mile", and is a hallmark of the professional.
I hope this helps.
With kind regards,
Adam Warren (IanDhu - 41189)
[Edited at 2012-09-20 19:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Adam Warren
France
Local time: 15:32
Member (2005)
French to English
| Increasing rates and retaining economic independence | Sep 20, 2012 |
Philippe Etienne wrote:
With such ... clients ..., you tend to get trapped into the sheer amount of work they have .... Had (their orders) grown to 50% or more of my earnings, I'd have become a de facto employee and would have had all the more trouble rebalancing my act.
If already a third, say, of your output is for a single client, you want to start monitoring the economic risk. And besides, as an example, the French regulatory authorities take the line that if you work predominantly for a single client, then you are no longer negotiating at arm's length, and in some cases, they view the client as your effective employer, and require it to pay your social-security charges on that footing.
If work keeps flooding in uncontrollably, as it were, then obviously, the fee level needs examining, as colleagues have said earlier. Clients are never happy about fee increases, so perhaps it is a good idea to give them a reasonable notice period. But one must be firm. Some clients pester you with rate and volume proposals that attempt to whittle your increase to nothing or even seek to undercut your previous rates. Faced with such specious blandishments, the temptation is great to use "taxidermal terminology". Rather, some firm but poised wording is needed, to the effect that these are maturely-considered, economically-rational rates, and that you wish to maintain them for the foreseeable future, i.e. veiled wording for "not negotiable". The matter is crucial, but the manner helps. Sometimes, it is necessary to clothe the iron toe in the velvet boot
Hope this helps.
With kind regards,
Adam Warren (IanDhu - 41189).
| | | | | Take a month off :) | Sep 20, 2012 |
You can use it anyway, can't you?
I just did that thing after years without a holiday, with business increasing until I had to do something serious about it, as saying no/recommending colleagues didn't seem to help. Instead of raising my rates (the hassle, and I am fine with my rates) I opted for that month, warned the clients some 4-6 weeks in advance and then went. They left me completely alone. *Breathe* ... And since I've been back, my workload finally seems humane.
[Bear... See more You can use it anyway, can't you?
I just did that thing after years without a holiday, with business increasing until I had to do something serious about it, as saying no/recommending colleagues didn't seem to help. Instead of raising my rates (the hassle, and I am fine with my rates) I opted for that month, warned the clients some 4-6 weeks in advance and then went. They left me completely alone. *Breathe* ... And since I've been back, my workload finally seems humane.
[Bearbeitet am 2012-09-20 19:18 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Giles Watson
Italy
Local time: 15:32
Italian to English
In memoriam | Les mots sages du Jean Noir | Sep 20, 2012 |
IanDhu wrote:
In order to maintain goodwill, it is wise to help a client in finding what he wants, even if there is no gain to one in doing so.
Adam Warren (IanDhu - 41189)
There are two kinds of people in business: those who create problems and those who solve them.
In the long run, it's better to have a reputation as a problem solver
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