The "Direct Clients - High Rates" Myth Exposed
Matt Stanton
Financial Translator/Interpreter | AI/MT Post-Editor | (Japanese-to-English)
You only have to have been a freelance translator for 30 seconds before you come across what I call the "direct clients - high rates" freelance-translation success model (below, "DCHR").
With your first foray online after that initial spark of interest in pursuing translation as a side job or a full-blown career, you're going to see it.
It's been (and still is) the subject of probably hundreds of articles and blog posts as well as countless discussion threads and comments.
It's also standard fodder for translation conference presentations, seminars. etc.
And more than one book has been written about it.
Those freelancers who claim to have completed the transition to DCHR are feted as demigods by the translation community - supposed models of the kind of success we should all be striving for.
It's hardly surprising.
On the surface, DCHR seems like a sound model.
The basic rationale is this: If you can skip the middlemen (agencies, LSPs, or whatever you want to call them) and work directly for the end-clients, you'll keep the middlemen's cut, thereby increasing your income for the same work.
The logic is so seductive that few in our profession even question it.
We've been exposed to it for so long and from such an early stage in our translation careers that we just accept it as a truth.
And because of this, all the writing and discussion of the topic is focused on how to achieve the holy grail of DCHR.
There's no talk of whether it's even the right target (at least I haven't seen any).
Well, it isn't the right target.
It's the wrong one.
It doesn't work.
The translation sector, like every other industry, is based on a supply chain.
In the parlance of business, this is often referred to as the value chain.
This is because each player in the chain adds value.
The money each link in the chain makes reflects the value that they add.
If they weren't adding value, they couldn't exist - at least not for any sustained period of time.
So the conclusion must be drawn that translation agencies are adding value.
But what is this value, exactly?
It comes in many forms, and I've discussed this topic at length in previous articles, but if I were to boil it down to one thing, it would be this:
They bring customers and suppliers together.
This is a really important point to understand, because what it means is that if you want to bypass the agencies, you're going to have to bring yourself (the supplier) to the customers (or bring them to you - it doesn't really matter which way you look at it).
And this is by no means easy.
If it were, the average income of a freelance translator in the U.S. wouldn't be around $50,000 per year - or less than the median household income.
You might argue that this widespread professional poverty exists because most people have decided to settle for agency work, but given the pervasiveness of the DCHR dream, I find this difficult to believe, and my own research, albeit informal, indicates that most freelancers are putting in at least some effort to attain DCHR status. Just scroll through your LinkedIn feed and see if you can find a translator who isn't banging on (at least some of the time) about the importance of marketing if you don't believe me!
It also doesn't fit with the fact that I easily make over six figures translating almost exclusively for agents for just two or three hours a day.
The problem with pursuing DCHR is that all the personal branding, website development, SEO, marketing, and sales activities suck hours out of your days that you could be spending translating (earning money in the moment) or studying (developing your speed and attractiveness to earn more money in the future).
The only way you could get those hours back is if you outsourced branding, website development, SEO, marketing, and sales activities to someone else - at a price, of course.
But wait a minute, when you're working through agencies, that's exactly what you're doing, anyway!
You get it?
That cut the agency gets is just their marketing fee.
It's just your customer acquisition expense.
Making sense?
Note that I'm not telling you this to "talk up" the agencies because I run one myself (I don't - I can't stand routine business admin!).
Nor am I telling you this because I own shares in an agency (I don't - because the sector is so competitive, agencies don't generate excess profits, so their profits basically just reflect the value they add).
I'm telling you this so that you can pull the wool off your eyes and see reality for what it is - and then apply this knowledge to attain genuine success for yourself going forward.
For more ideas on achieving success as a freelance translator, be sure to check out my popular Amazon/Kindle ebook: 88 WAYS TO BE SUCCESSFUL AS A FREELANCE TRANSLATOR.
Best of luck on your journey.
Matt
Past President at Michigan Translators/Interpreters Network
5 年There are parallels in other industries.? I had a friend who was doing well as a commercial photographer until we reached the age (not that old) when all our art school buddies who were the art directors who sent all the work had been promoted out of those positions, and the next wave of graduates was sending all the work to their friends.? This is when it's time to get a rep. One guy trained the sax player from his band to rep him, and he became ever more prosperous by paying this newly trained rep to hose jobs into his studio.? (The rep got rich because he also started repping illustrators, a music composer, etc. He was a one-stop shop.) However, our other pal from school saw his photography business crash because he tried to rep himself, and the more time he spent repping himself, the less time he had left to do the actual work. I knew a freelance computer programmer who went bust the same way, but with him it was worse, because he liked selling so much better than programming that he'd negotiate the contracts and never do the work, because he was busy negotiating more contracts. One way or another, you're going to have to pay someone to get you work, and it might as well be someone else, so that you'll actually have time to DO the work.
PR strategy and support. Local. Cross-cultural.
5 年I was a freelancer in another discipline for about 12 years working only for direct clients, before I became a full-time translator in 2014. I also worked for a creative agency for nearly 3 years before becoming a full-time freelance translator. So I had some understanding of this value chain going in, which helped me to better and more quickly understand myth and opportunity in this business, not completely, but I had a leg up. So in my second full calendar year as a translator, I rolled past six figures for the year sometime in October, working mostly for two agencies. I've spent the time since then trying to improve my skill and speed, and I now have a couple direct clients, and a few agencies. I'm not sure where this industry will go, and I'm ready to react as necessary. But I would love it for agencies to keep providing the value they provide, and for me to find the ones who will benefit most from the value that I provide, so that I can keep growing while spending my days at the word face.
Going Dutch? Contact me!
5 年we don't always agree 100%, but you do have a point once more - - it's often not the translators who seek out Direct Clients - it's the Direct Clients who seek out the translators. And although some translators may have special connections with certain direct clients and receive more money (either because they are super specialized, or no agency can add value), most of the time it's the direct client? who knows exactly what they need in a translator and cuts out the agency - leaving the translator with exactly the same (or maybe a few cents extra)...
Czech me out! I am Bohemian and Slovak too.
5 年Dear Matt, with all due respect, you surely know the old saying: People who can, do, those who can't, teach it. I would add: or write about it, especially when you "subtly" try to sell your book. I hope you wrote somewhere in it that translators do not get what they deserve, but only what they are able to negotiate. I am in translation/interpreting business as freelancer in US since 1991, and most of my best paid jobs were either direct clients, or small companies. I had best results with a simple question during price negotiations. I simply asked: Is this the best you can do? The person, who started to talk first after this, drew a short stick.?