January is the best month to plan new strategies, implement radical changes, or enforce our resolutions. I don’t remember where, but I encountered this question: Is 2013 going to be the best year in your life? It was a title of a self-help article, aiming to motivate us to change our destructive habits and behaviours in the new year. Interestingly enough, a number of steps that are supposed to fix our lives could also work in our business. Is it possible to make 2013 the best year in translation?
There are some steps that we can make that will obviously help us: have clear objectives, know your goal, or develop skills. The article I read recommended three steps that I think are the most productive, though.
One: Identify what you didn’t like about 2012.
Celebrating our successes, exams passed, new clients acquired, or helpful colleagues found is important. But it seems to me that it’s equally important to realise what made 2012 worse than it could be. My personal dislike list is as follows:
1. I didn’t like low rates. I had a number of offers I had to turn down because of insulting rates. We all know that.
2. I didn’t like long payment terms either. For me, NET45 is really the maximum I can stretch to. I had to reject a few offers because they thought NET60 was fine. No, it wasn’t.
3. I didn’t like the way I was treated by my clients. From ‘dear linguist’ emails, through not bothering to confirm the receipt, to very forgetful accountants… I’d do without all that.
Of course, there are other points I didn’t like too much in my professional life, but the rest of them was purely “my fault” (if I agreed to work long hours or do a rush job, there’s only me to blame).
Two: Find the reason for the things you didn’t like about 2012.
The second step that the article recommended in relation to things that bothered us in the previous year was to find their cause. It occurred to me that the sole reason for all the things I didn’t like in 2012 was that the industry is no longer in our hands. I know it’s nothing ground-breaking, but when you think of it… We, translators, do the translation. It’s not our clients, not the agencies, not CAT-tools, but translators. So how did we end up handling the steering wheel of the industry over to people who don’t even translate?
Three: Have a plan how to fix it.
Again, it’s not rocket science or a Nobel-winning invention, but if we manage to give the power back to translators, maybe we could fix the things we don’t like about the industry? If we want 2013 to be the best year in translation, why don’t we just make it so?
If you feel like making 2013 The Year of Translators, grab the badge!
I’m going to proclaim 2013 The Year of Translators. It motivates me and gives me more confidence to enforce my strategies and ideas for 2013. It gives me enough power to justify thinking big, to keep up with my rates, to never give in to ridiculous payment terms. And maybe, just maybe, if you think the same, and we make our friends think the same, we’ll get the power back?
I’m already thrilled with the idea of making 2013 The Year of Translators. I have plenty of ideas. The first one is here (psst… really worth having a look if you’d like to improve your business).
What’s the homework for today? Think of a list of things you can do to make 2013 The Year of Translators and post it in the comments below. We can all share and exchange ideas! I’ll post my plan in Lesson 51 next week.
Marta Stelmaszak
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14 Comments
Thanks for the badge, Marta! I made it my Twitter background.
On my list: Read translation journals. My physicist boyfriend keeps up with the academic and research side of his field, so why shouldn’t I? Translation is a profession. I want to keep up with what’s going on in academia.
I like the site Translation Journal (http://translationjournal.net/journal/), and although I don’t follow it myself, I’d recommend that literary translators check out K1N (http://k1nlitra.ca/).
Thanks for the motivational post!
You’re welcome, Sadie! The Translation Journal really is recommendable.
Hi Marta! Happy 2013! Thank you for a thought-provoking post. Needless to say, I didn’t like the exact same things about 2012 as you and I am just as determined to do away with them. So yes, saying good-bye to some very forgetful payers, and enforcing my cooperation terms is also among my goals for the next year.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed! Let’s make 2013 better
Best wishes for 2013, Marta!
Well, I agree with almost everything you say in this posting. Except for one thing: it indeed seems a bit of rocket science how we, translators, could manage to give the power back to the translators. For one thing, “we” are all but a homogeneous group, on the contrary. All I can see for the moment is being consequent in sticking to one’s own cooperation terms, as you and Olga already pointed out. In other words, nothing new. To refuse to be financially abused. And, of course, always deliver the best quality and service. And spend about 25% of our time in effective marketing.
Marta, I LOVE the idea of making 2013 The Year of Translators and taking back our power! Here’s one of my ideas: to give at least one upbeat public talk about what translators do. Since so few people actually understand what we do, it’s not surprising that they undervalue our work and try to bargain us down, confusing the “translator” with “my bilingual cousin” (“Hey, could you do us a favor and come translate between us?” Grrrrr….) No one else is going to educate the public for us, we have to do it ourselves. No stern lecture, but an upbeat celebration of what we do. Could you imagine if every single translator and interpreter gave just one little public talk each in 2013?? We could all do it in the name of The Year of the Translator. In my country (the U.S.), the ATA provides materials for any member who wants to give a classroom presentation. There’s also lots of great material that could be cited from the new book “Found in Translation” about how translation influences everybody’s daily lives. So that’s my idea. Thanks for creating the badge, I’ll spread the word!
Catherine, sounds great! What a wonderful idea. As soon as get some more time (i.e. next week), I’ll look into opportunities around me. There are many events where a short presentation on translation would definitely fit. I’ll be in touch!
I like this idea very much. In fact, I started doing it when I was working at a bureau of translation, but things turned quite badly. However, I think it’s great to have such massive screw up, I think it was refreshing since I’m starting with a new translator ( I’m a novice) so I still have a lot to learn especially things that I still have difficulty with. That part, “Have a plan how to fix it”, I’m working on that and I’m really excited to see how I’ll fair in the months to come. Thanks a lot for sharing such wonderful articles with us.
Good luck, Mehdi!
Dear Marta,
I recently came across your website and I have to say I find your blogging fascinating. I’ve been in business for about a year now, and I’m eager to learn as much as I can from my peers. Thank you for the monumental effort that you make to write such interesting columns weekly -that aside making a living, that is. It’s quite obvious to me you love what you do, I can “feel” it as I read your refreshing style.
Cheers from Mexico.
Dear Carlos,
Thank you very much for your kind comment. I’m trying to do my best to share what I’ve learned so far.
See you soon online,
Marta
Hi Marta,
I’ve just found out your blog and I think it’s really interesting, you have all my support for the issues you point out in this article. Personally I don’t like to receive the “dear linguist” type of email, I prefer to have a personal relationship with clients.
Greetings from Italy!
Interesting post, Martha. I agree with all you said about how translator as a profession is not in our control again. But, frankly speaking, for a novice like me in an Internet-based translation market, it can’t be helped.
This is my experience from the past year. An agency contacted me and I didn’t have any idea how they could know about me as a translator. That said, I was only recently (beginning October last year) focusing on online market. I did not know the exact rate so when they asked me about it I charged an amount that I thought appropriate.
After 6 months, and growing experience, including a paid membership in ProZ.com, I know now that my rate IS too humble for my quality. But, I have signed the NDA and the agency has been consistently giving job. While the fees are not life changing (at least, they are 5 times higher than my rate for offline translation), they keep me thriving.
I think the agency takes a considerable amount from my work, but I am not yet prepared to revoke my rate. At least, until I find another agency or a direct client that respects the works of a translator. Thus for 2013, I think I shall learn more about online translation market and keep a reasonable rate, which should be complemented with better and better quality.
I am reading your posts before and after this
Good stuff. I’m not saying we should boycott all agencies - some of them are really needed and do a good job. And I do agree that we should work our rates up. If you haven’t had a chance yet, have a look at this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Ky3Yh-UNo I made for #WantWordsTV.