best way to find clients? Thread poster: Juliana Brown
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Juliana Brown 
Israel
Local time: 22:40
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
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Without asking anyone to give away their secrets, I would like to ask how some of you find your clients? In the past I have worked through word of mouth, leaving business cards (once during a hearing when I noticed the poor quality of a written translations I approached the lawyer and gave him my card), etc.
How do you contact the people who then become regular sources of work (besides here of course...)?
Juliana
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| I like Translation Agencies | Mar 24, 2007 |
Working for known translation agencies is a safe way of having continued jobs, and secure payments.
I use ProZ Blue Board to choose my clientele based on their BB rate. The best reference you may have is that from our own colleagues.
You may not find their email address on ProZ, but they all have a website from where you can find it, or surf on sections as "Recruitment", "Career", "Jobs" and alike.
Best luck,
Tadzio.
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Mulyadi Subali
Indonesia
Local time: 09:40
Member
English to Indonesian
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| send out resumes | Mar 24, 2007 |
on my spare time, i send out resumes to agencies that have good reviews. you can browse the bb for this. find ones good payment practice, of course.
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| Yellow pages | Mar 24, 2007 |
Juliana Starkman wrote:
Without asking anyone to give away their secrets, I would like to ask how some of you find your clients? In the past I have worked through word of mouth, leaving business cards (once during a hearing when I noticed the poor quality of a written translations I approached the lawyer and gave him my card), etc.
How do you contact the people who then become regular sources of work (besides here of course...)?
Juliana
Hullo Juliana,
When I started freelancing (many years ago) I was living in London. I scoured the Yellow Pages for translation agencies (of which there were hundreds) and sent out my CV and a covering letter to those I thought looked good (central address, Co. Ltd., etc.). Then I followed up with a phone call about two weeks later. About 10% replied, of whom about 10% sent me work - and some of those are still my trusted clients. I started freelancing during the summer when, possibly, many other translators may have been away on holiday, which may have given me that window of opportunity.
Nowadays things are much more focused on the Internet. As well as searching the Blue Board for good agencies, I guess you could Google for translation agencies + country, city, etc., select names with good websites and then check them on Blue Board and other translators' websites.
Leaving business cards sounds a good idea too, and again, follow up with a phone call or email, perhaps?
Good luck!
Jenny.
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absciarretta
United States
Local time: 03:40
Member (2008)
English to Norwegian
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| Good website | Mar 24, 2007 |
What I am currently working on is getting a good website set up and then I am considering adverising on other sites.
It will take some time but I am sure it will be well worth it.
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Juliana Brown
Israel
Local time: 22:40
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | Gracias a todos | Mar 24, 2007 |
Thanks all for the advice. I am also playing with the idea of a website. All I need is time!
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Luiza Modesto
Brazil
Local time: 23:40
Portuguese to English
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| Getting clients | Mar 24, 2007 |
Hi Juliana. When I decided to become a full time translator, the first thing I did was to choose what area I would like to work in. I chose medical because I love medicine and it’s probably the easiest area in EN-PT translations. Next I visited the website of roughly 15 universities in Brazil and took down the name of the professors and their e-mails. Most professors in Brazil also do research and write papers, and they want to have their papers published in international journals. I gathered ... See more Hi Juliana. When I decided to become a full time translator, the first thing I did was to choose what area I would like to work in. I chose medical because I love medicine and it’s probably the easiest area in EN-PT translations. Next I visited the website of roughly 15 universities in Brazil and took down the name of the professors and their e-mails. Most professors in Brazil also do research and write papers, and they want to have their papers published in international journals. I gathered about 2000 e-mails and sent them a short e-mail offering my translation services. I got about 100 replies and these people became my clients. They were happy with my translation and they referred me to their peers. This was two years ago. Now I am usually overloaded with work to the point that I have to turn down a lot of stuff.
Wish you luck. ▲ Collapse
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Juliana Brown
Israel
Local time: 22:40
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER
Luiza, I LOVED your answer. I can't believe I didn't think about it, especially since I used to teach languages and literature at university! Thanks so much.
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Hi Juliana,
I don't know whether you have this in your country, however you can try BNI. It's a huge network of entrepreneurs, and I started out establishing my clients through this.
Hope it helps.
cheers,
[Edited at 2007-03-27 09:56]
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Navy Huang
China
Local time: 10:40
English to Chinese
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| Interesting & Useful | Mar 28, 2007 |
Luiza Modesto wrote:
Hi Juliana. When I decided to become a full time translator, the first thing I did was to choose what area I would like to work in. I chose medical because I love medicine and it’s probably the easiest area in EN-PT translations. Next I visited the website of roughly 15 universities in Brazil and took down the name of the professors and their e-mails. Most professors in Brazil also do research and write papers, and they want to have their papers published in international journals. I gathered about 2000 e-mails and sent them a short e-mail offering my translation services. I got about 100 replies and these people became my clients. They were happy with my translation and they referred me to their peers. This was two years ago. Now I am usually overloaded with work to the point that I have to turn down a lot of stuff.
Wish you luck.
This idea is really interesting and also very useful for me. I might try some time later, .
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| Definitely an avenue to explore | Jun 2, 2007 |
Juliana Starkman wrote:
Thanks all for the advice. I am also playing with the idea of a website. All I need is time!
Juliana, if I were you I'd definitely set up a website. If you make the most of it and design it properly, you won't have to worry about finding clients: clients will find YOU. For some reason Google has decided to snub my site in the last few months, but it was on the first or second page for keywords such as "French translator" and "English to French translation" for a couple of years, and I had a regular flow of enquiries from prospective clients. The clients I've gained from my website now make up 2/3 of my income.
Good luck!
Céline
www.nakedtranslations.com
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Kootvela (X)
Local time: 05:40
Lithuanian to English
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Birgitte Sciarretta wrote:
What I am currently working on is getting a good website set up and then I am considering adverising on other sites.
It will take some time but I am sure it will be well worth it.
That is very good. I advise you to ask for a website link exchange with websites of similar content, then it is more chances a link to your website will be in the first pages of the search engine results.
Ele
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Ricardo Pereira
Portugal
Local time: 03:40
Member (2006)
English to Portuguese
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Juliana Starkman wrote:
Thanks all for the advice. I am also playing with the idea of a website. All I need is time!
You should definitely get your own website. Believe it or not, it gives us an extra dose of reliability among the clients and the new possible clients.
I am building my own (it isn't finished yet) and I am hoping that it boosts up my clients number. Although one never should overlook the good "publicity" of the website, it must be seen! The answer is "putting" it in the most visited web directories, like google or yahoo.
Good luck!
Cheers, Ricardo.
www.rmpereira.com
[Edited at 2007-08-29 11:05]
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