A small number of freelance translators have the right amount of work to suit their lifestyle, while the rest hover between having too much work and not enough. Those in the ‘Help! I’ve got too much work’ bracket are usually older translators who still enjoy translating, but they don’t want to work full-time and they certainly don’t want to work under stressful conditions. And, the ‘too much work’ cry is also heard by translators who have young families or people who also work in another position.

So, around 99% of freelance translators are sitting between having too much work and too little work. A large majority of these translators would rather have too much work because it reduces the need to worry about money, and they can justify working long hours by taking a vacation at a later date where they don’t work at all. However, if you’re someone who would rather level out the workload over the whole year, you may want to ask yourself the following questions –

Is Money the Most Important Factor in Your Situation?

Perhaps money is less of a factor because you’re on the semi-retired end of the translation spectrum and you’ve chosen to only work for clients you really like, rather than working for clients who are high payers. It could well be the opposite situation if you have a young family, where money is paramount and ideally you’d be earning a full-time income, at the same time working around your family’s busy schedule.

What Is It That You Want, or Don’t Want, from Your Work Situation?

What are your priorities, and what is it that you don’t want to deal with? Our guess is that someone in this category would say that they need or want to earn a good income, they enjoy working on a professional level, but they need a certain amount of free time and they certainly don’t need the stress that goes with full-time employment and working in stressful and rush conditions.

Is Job Satisfaction a Major Concern for You?

Because it really does vary from person to person. Many semi-retired translation experts absolutely love working and they do so primarily, and sometimes exclusively because they enjoy the work. On the other hand, you may be a parent with a young family thinking to yourself ‘forget satisfaction – I’m only doing this because I need the money!’

Now You Need to Choose a Strategy That Will Work for You

Increase Your Rates

Of course, the quickest and easiest way of reducing your workload is to raise your charge-out rates.