| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > |
| User | Thread poster: Helena Grahn Is this a recession? |
|---|
Åsa Campbell 
Australia
Local time: 05:37
  Member
English to Swedish
|
I have not had a quiet moment since mid last year, not even over the Christmas period, perhaps it depends on the language combination?
Asa
| | | |
Dave Bindon
Greece
Local time: 23:07
Member (2010)
Greek to English
|
I don't think so. Or, to be more precise, I don't think a short-term reduction in new projects can be interpreted as a sign of a recession in the translation industry.
Few (if any) freelance translators can expect a constant, uninterrupted flow of work. I wouldn't even want it: having plenty of time off is one of the things I like about being a freelancer. Probability theory shows that the random days off we get are much more likely to come in groups than to be evenly spread out week by week. Having a quiet month doesn't show a recession any more than a snowstorm indicates an impending ice age.
As for lowering rates... I'm on the side of all those who've said no. I'm not against lowering my rates occasionally for existing clients, but it's certainly not a marketing strategy I'll employ to attract new customers. Low rates send out the wrong signal about quality and attract the wrong sort of client. Also, lowering your rates means that you need to work more hours to maintain your income, which increases the chances that you'll be too busy to accept the jobs which would have paid well.
If I remember correctly, somebody suggested that clients will just look for cheaper translations from India if my rates aren't low. Hmmm. I'm not sure they'd have much luck in finding native British English speakers in Mumbai who can translate Greek! I'm not going to worry about the possibility.
As for the suggestion that the dire state of the national - in my case, Greek - economy should have an effect on my rates, I really cannot agree. Greek companies tend to go to Greek agencies for their translations, and those agencies pay very low rates which I've never accepted. My clients are non-Greek and unaffected by this country's economy.
Even the global recession will have little impact on my work. People still get ill and need their medical records translated. People still have court cases. The government continues to pass new legislation. People - perhaps more so than before - continue to move abroad for work or studies. Very little of what I do could be considered 'non-essential' and, therefore, it's not really going to be hit by cut-backs.
Anyway, that's my two drachmas worth.
|  |  |
| | | |
Michele Fauble
United States
Local time: 14:07
Member (2006)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
|
The relevant question is not whether we are in a recession, but rather whether we are in a deflationary situation. In a deflationary situation it would make more sense to lower rates, but in a recession less so.
| | | |
Helena Grahn
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
Member (2006)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | | Originally this forum had to do with lack of translation projects and... | Jan 17 |
all of a sudden most of the answers have to do with rates... hence, yes, I did mean recession.
Michele Fauble wrote:
The relevant question is not whether we are in a recession, but rather whether we are in a deflationary situation. In a deflationary situation it would make more sense to lower rates, but in a recession less so.
|
|
| | | |
Jeff Whittaker
United States
Local time: 16:07
Member (2002)
Spanish to English
+ ...
|
I have been completely booked for the past two months and have had to turn away a lot of work. An agency even offered me .18 per word if I would take a project, but I still had to refuse because I had other commitments. Other than the reduced cost of housing, I have seen no evidence of a recession here.
| | | |
Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
Member (2009)
French to English
+ ...
| | Culpability or not of Kudoz | Jan 18 |
Gad Kohenov wrote:
We answer Kudoz questions by amateur translators, who use our answers to enhance their work and get more work from the satisfied clients.
|
|
This surely happens, but I wonder if it's such a big factor in the grand scheme of things. Kudoz is a valuable way of "sounding the opinion" and possibly getting confirmation/a second opinion from colleagues on the results of one's research. But if a client requires quality and expertise, the incompetent translator who is relying on Kudoz to mask that incompetence will surely come unstuck at some point.
If a given client's quality requirements are minimal enough to allow a serial Kudoz abuser to "get away with it", then it seems to me that the underlying factor is simply a low quality expectation in the first place-- I don't think you can necessarily blame Kudoz for that evil.
| | | |
Neil Coffey
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
Member (2009)
French to English
+ ...
| | Difficult time to judge? | Jan 18 |
I've just latched on to this thread and skimmed through previous posts so apologies if this has been said previously, but I wonder if just after Christmas is the best time to make a judgement about trends in workload.
This period tends to have the feature of being a little bit "chaotic", with a mixture of clients:
(a) going on holiday and therefore not requiring translation
(b) going on holiday and thus urgently needing translation done before they go away
(c) having run out of budget at the end of the year/quarter
(d) urgently needing to spend the end of year/quarter budget otherwise the money will be re-allocated
(e) having a backlog of documents to go through after the holiday before they can finalise them for translation, hence fewer translation requests in January
(f) having a backlog of documents to send for translation after they came back off holiday, hence a sudden spike in translation need in January
...
Or put another way, it's not always obvious how to spot a pattern at this time of year IMO.
[Edited at 2012-01-18 04:55 GMT]
| | |
| | | |
Charlie Bavington
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
French to English
| | What IS the time frame in question...? :) | Jan 18 |
All that is true, although one might expect the positives and negatives from the list to balance out, on average.
Thing is, in the first post, the OP mentions both the "start of the year" as giving cause for concern, in which case like you, I'd attribute that to a post-Xmas/NY lull coinciding in all clients for once, or has it been "for 2 months", in which case it could potentially be more fundamental.
(Personally, December is my most consistent month, showing the least variation in earnings over the years than any other month, and always healthy without breaking any records; January is always slightly below December, but varies more.)
Whether even 2 months is really indicative of a "recession" or just one of those short-term things, is hard to say. It seems to me that the tone of the thread has been to focus on the word "recession", interpret that broadly in line with the economists' definitions (e.g. a given number of quarters of the nonsensically named "negative growth") and then ramble on (myself included) about how best to respond to same.
Even if the OP is just having a NY lull, and even if some people are doing very well thanks all the same (these threads always have a few people swimming against the tide, a bit like I do on the threads when people whine about perfectly reasonable agency contract clauses!), the discussion can be useful. You never know......
| | |
| | | |
Helena Grahn
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
Member (2006)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | | It is picking up now again | Jan 18 |
Tks all anyway!
| | | |
Olly Pekelharing
Netherlands
Local time: 22:07
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
| | Déjà vu (not the CAT) | Jan 18 |
Helena Grahn wrote:
It is picking up now again |
|
Just when you start to wonder if things are slowing down, within the space of three minutes a 20000 word-plus job with a nice long deadline and three smaller short-term assignments land in your inbox and its: 'Crisis, what crisis?'.
Olly
| | | |
Lisa Simpson, MCIL
United Kingdom
Local time: 21:07
Member (2010)
Portuguese to English
+ ...
| | And you wish you'd made good use of the quiet periods | Jan 18 |
Olly Pekelharing wrote:
Helena Grahn wrote:
It is picking up now again |
|
Just when you start to wonder if things are slowing down, within the space of three minutes a 20000 word-plus job with a nice long deadline and three smaller short-term assignments land in your inbox and its: 'Crisis, what crisis?'.
Olly
|
|
and cleared the decks of that mountain of admin staring you in the face. Lulls can be a blessing in disguise.
| | | |
Olly Pekelharing
Netherlands
Local time: 22:07
Member (2009)
Dutch to English
| | Admin, what admin? | Jan 18 |
...tho there is that website I've been planning to do something about...
| | | |
chris durban
Local time: 22:07
French to English
|
I stumbled upon this thread once the battle was over, but find it interesting reading.
A few points:
- How many list members who are unhappy with prices do regular, active marketing of their services? (and not only to intermediaries) Just wondering.
- How many participants in this discussion are members of professional associations in their respective countries? Prices published by such associations are generally far higher than what you find on Proz (but I assume you are already aware of that (?))
- Some participants have profiles here on Proz (maybe elsewhere too) that are, in my experience, far far too broad. A topic you've worked on once or twice in is not a "specialty" and listing it can be a negative for clients looking for real specialists.
- How many people are taking continuing education courses to improve their specialist knowledge and writing skills? Those are both make-or-break factors in a (professional) translator's career, regardless of language combination.
- Helena, I work in the corporate sector and noticed that a number of non-strategic projects were put on ice towards the end of 2011 -- presumably as corp com depts worried about their budgets, what with the financial crisis. Lowering prices would be a serious strategic miscalculation, though (IMO). You have to sock away enough money when times are flush to be able to get through the lulls (which you'll put to work on non-production activities). NB: things have bounced back since the beginning of the year.
- Corinne McKay's blog had an insightful discussion of pricing here:
http://thoughtsontranslation.com/2011/11/03/ata-conference-topic-low-payers/
I've mentioned it before, but I think it bears (re)reading for anybody who hasn't seen it yet.
Chris
| | |
| | | |
Vladimír Hoffman
Slovakia
Local time: 22:07
Member (2009)
English to Slovak
+ ...
| | Okay, it's all nice | Jan 18 |
Keep your rates, explain to your clients why you can not work for peanuts and do continuos marketing. Be patient and your effort will be (hopefully) rewarded.
It's all nice and maybe (or rather probably) true, but just now I was contacted by an old client (an agency owned and managed by a single person) with offer of about 40000 words...for a price 10% lower than it used to be. I tried to explain to her, that the price is too low due difficulty of the translation, but she replied that at higher price for a translator she would have to reject entire job because her own profit would be too low and at higher price for the end-client she would not be capable to compete with other small agencies. I know her for years and believe that she was honest in this matter.
So, what to do? Even the lower price is within my price range (although at the lowest level) and scope is beautiful. Payment deadline is quite long (60-75 days), but it is fine with me as she always was a reliable client. Only matter that really bothers me is that the price was reduced compared to previous projects that I made for her in the past.
Just such steady pressure on prices is the reason why I feel there is a recession.
[Edited at 2012-01-18 20:15 GMT]
| | |
| | | |
iqcservices
Belgium
Local time: 22:07
Member (2008)
French to Dutch
+ ...
| | If this isn't a recession, I don't know what it is | Feb 22 |
Indeed, if this isn't a recession, I don't know what it is.
As strongly as started 2011, as hesitant and weakly 2012 is starting (if one still can say it is "starting", since by now, the month February is almost over). Yes, a month ago, I raised my minimum rates and of course, in these harsh times, this could play a role (language combinations: English, French, German into Dutch, Flemish). But I know for sure that my rates are still very reasonable. Which brings me back to the original question.
| | | |
| Pages in topic: < [1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8] > |
The translation workplace 
Translation news