The right way of approaching potential clients is to use the general contact information provided on their website.

Don’t Directly Contact Translation Agency Owners

This one is a no-no! You should certainly use your translator’s association directory to locate local agencies and learn as much as you can about them, but don’t follow through by calling the owners direct. Certainly, client websites and association directories are great resources for translators looking for work, but you don’t make a good first impression when you waste someone’s time. The right way of approaching potential clients is to use the general contact information provided on their website. In fact, cold-calling potential clients should be avoided in almost every situation.

Ask for Specific Instructions with Your First Few Translation Projects

We certainly hope you haven’t misrepresented your experience when applying for your first translation projects! Because your clients will understand that you’re just starting out in your freelance translation career, they probably won’t object to a little hand-holding. This means you can ask as many questions as you need to, such as: What should I do if something is illegible? What does ‘reproducing the format exactly’ mean? What should I do with abbreviations that I don’t understand? What should I do with handwritten text? This is your perfect opportunity to ask questions, so make the most of it and gather as much information as possible.

Be Careful How You Set Your Translation Rates

Many translators just starting out in the business are tempted to set their rates much lower than the going rate for their languages. Yes, offering attractive rates can be one way of getting your business off the ground; however, when you offer low rates for your translation work you will be attracting bottom-feeding clients: by this we mean that there will always be clients out there who are looking for high-quality work for the lowest cost. In our opinion, the best way to attract clients is to use other ways of appealing to them. This might mean being available on holidays when no-one else is working, or even offering weekend or night work without a rush charge.

Set Reasonable Expectations for the Growth and Success of Your Business

This could possibly be the best tip we can give new freelance translators. Many translators starting out in their career become so discouraged and disheartened because they’ve sent out 30 applications in the last week/month, and still have no work. Translators who’ve been successful in the industry will confirm that it takes a lot more effort than this to establish a freelance translation business: you might have to contact anywhere up to 500 prospective clients during the first year in business! And still it could take up to 2 years to replace the income you were previously earning. In general, we believe it takes a minimum of one year to get your freelance business to the point where you’re translating more than you’re looking for work.

However, once you’ve reached this point, we sincerely hope you’ll be running a freelance translation business that becomes a regular job – a job where you control your income and your schedule.