If you’re not interested in completing a translation project due to the rate offered, or for deadline issues, don’t refuse it without making a counter-offer.

Always Counter-Offer

If you’re not interested in completing a translation project due to the rate offered, or for deadline issues, don’t refuse it without making a counter-offer. If the potential client says they’re prepared to pay X cents per word, however, your rate is higher, tell the client you’d really like to work on the project at your base rate of Y cents per word. If you know that the client has not purchased translations in the past you might suggest that when they’re looking for someone who’s prepared to work at the lower rate they should know that professional translators don’t usually work at that rate and that they should be concerned about the quality of the translation. On the other hand, if the problem is a deadline issue, then you might say that, even though the project sounds very interesting, as a professional translator you limit yourself to no more than three thousand words per day in order to produce high-quality work. That being the case, if they could allow you an extra day or two to translate their document, you’d be more than happy to assist.

Rush Deadlines and Unrealistic Deadlines

Of course, there’s a big difference between a rush deadline and an unrealistic deadline, and you need to take this into account when weighing your decision on whether to accept a project or not. In the translation industry, and particularly with specializations, we know that rush deadlines have become the norm, whether we like it or not. But there’s a huge difference between squeezing in ten thousand words in three days and ten thousand words in two days. And we do mean squeezing because in order to do ten thousand words in three days you need to be very familiar with the subject concerned; there can’t be any complex formatting required, and the documents should be in either a legible PDF format or a read/write format. However trying to complete this work in two days would be almost impossible, and both accuracy and quality would go out the window.

Going the Extra Mile for Your Regulars

The other point to remember is that translators need to understand the difference between going that extra mile for their regular customers and being used or exploited by infrequent or new customers who are desperate to have a document translated. Translators will have different personal opinions on how far they are prepared to go for their regular customers, but they would probably all agree that their regular well-paying clients deserve special attention due to the fact that, because of these clients, you get to enjoy a wonderful quality of life, you work on interesting projects, you work on your own schedule, and you’re earning a nice healthy income. So if your regular client suddenly needs a few words translated, you might do this for them without any charge to them; or perhaps when they ask you to do a few hours work on what would normally be your day off you’ll charge your regular rate instead of your premium rate. But your non-regular clients should not enjoy this special treatment. When you know that your business, and therefore your lifestyle, depends on your loyal customers returning to you for their translation work, most translators are happy to provide these little extra services.