By Paul Rizo-Brewington
As a freelance translator, getting new clients is essential for your business to grow. Freelancers don’t work for a company so how well their business does is solely up to them and how well they acquire and retain clients. Fortunately, and this is very common; translation companies often work with freelance translators to get a job done. In this case, the translation company is a client as well. As mentioned before, there are two aspects in getting clients which are attracting new ones and retention. For this I think it can be split into two categories. In one category would be regular everyday people that need some translation help with say a document, and then companies.
Companies are much more difficult to attract than an average person. This is because companies have standards and like to see some sort of education that can show your abilities. However, you don’t need to go to school to study a language or major in translation studies and spend money. If you are self-taught and competent enough in your abilities, a company will give you a chance. If the company likes your work and their client is satisfied usually they will keep you in mind for potential later projects but as a freelancer it’s better to be proactive and keep in constant contact with the company.
After a while of building report the company will start reaching out to you as a freelancer which is a huge benefit. If a company trusts your work, they will help attract clients for you which saves time and energy on your part. As mentioned before, the attracting a company is the most difficult aspect because for their own employees they hold them to a certain standard so they usually do the same for freelancers. They expect some diploma or certification that can speak for your aptitude and usually some knowledge of Computer Assisted Translation technology. However, none of those things are absolutely necessary. Then once the company feels secure in using you to translate for their own clients, many recommendations and more clients will come your way.
The second kind of client is your average person. Now, the needs of said people can vary greatly. For example, there may be a legal issue between spouses of different nationalities. Each of them get a lawyer in their native tongue and create a document for the other to sign. However, they may be able to communicate in one language, but not know enough of the other for something that needs full comprehension like legal matters. So, the document needs translation and they call up a freelance translator or a company. If you do a good job and the person’s lawyer can fully understand the translated document, the person may come back to you especially knowing how long legal issues take. You remain cordial and professional and you have a client for months and years to come.
Then there is the client who may have a grandmother from another country and doesn’t speak her language. She left him a card before her passing and he wants to read it. This situation is a one-time occurrence most likely but the person is still a client. As a translator, your specialty may be medicine and law so someone may not look to you for something like that. But if you’re welcoming enough and seem open to doing something as simple as a letter or more menial things, you attract a bigger client base because you aren’t specializing yourself out of it. Now most importantly and especially with clients that aren’t companies, professionalism is a key factor. Someone could be paying you to translate a single sentence; that doesn’t mean you respond to them with the translation in the email. You still deliver the product like you would to anyone else in a professional manner.
Lastly is the recurring client. Say this person is a caterer so they do several types of events for people from all walks of life. Well, usually for a line of work like that, there may be a menu or napkins or other things that have something written on them. It would be nice if the company could supply it to their clients in their mother tongue instead of say English presumably. It creates a greater sense of care and comfortability on the client’s part. However, the company needs a translator for this so they find you. You do a good job and are professional so they keep you in mind for the next time they have a client of a different background than what they’re accustomed. This can apply for lawyers, medical professionals and other types of jobs. Globalization is occurring at an ever increasing rate and not everyone speaks the same language. Freelance translators have the upper hand as middle men to make for a smooth transaction between cultures. However, there is also a lot of competition in the field so it’s best to be as attractive to potential clients as possible, do concise and easy to read work and build a report for future endeavors they may need. With those things accomplished, anyone can thrive in the world of translation.
