| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: What percent of your working hours are spent translating (vs. marketing, billing, hardware, etc.)? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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Irene N
United States
Local time: 22:47
English to Russian
+ ...
Erik Hansson wrote:
100 % must be somebody who only translates, and never does any marketing stuff and also refrains from writing invoices.
Erik
Only translates or interprets:-)
Explanations:
1. Never work with direct clients, work for and via 4 agencies only (mostly 3 of them now) and we know each other for 8-15 years - no marketing required. "Side" jobs come through references only, so I simply say yes or no.
2. I also consider proofreading and research to be a part of "translation" so I included these in my ~100%.
3. Forms of invoices in QuickPro with all the prerequisites and client names and job types etc. have been taken care of 6 years ago. Specifics take minutes (sometimes only seconds:-)). I launch the SW in the background:-).
4. I pay for my tax return preparation. Yes, even with QuickPro - QuickPro file before reconcilliation and the rest in a shoe box go to my CPA - the amout of money paid to him is far less than the would-be cost of my time lost in accounting. Checked and verified!
5. For my prime simo assignment I have a computer on my desk as our work setting is quite unusual and is more of an isolated office for 2 than a plain booth. As you can guess, I fix their invoices during my paid breaks:-) - they require different format but my laptop is also next to me for my own records. See, I even have to duplicate invoices for one client and still manage.
No TM repair etc.. - no CAT tools.
Resume: I truly believe that I'm gaining and not losing by giving agencies their margin. I'm fully protected from all the dirty work and marketing trouble. All my time and all my life are mine after I close the file or my mouth:-).
Finally, ~100% would be closer to 97, than to 100. 3 percent means that if you work 480 minutes, you spend ~14 min for an invoice a day, and if you send 1 invoice a week, it gives you 70 min a week for "paperwork" - extrapolate it over a whole year - it's too much, really.
It would be interesting to do a comparative study about time vs. money when doing everything yourself. In my case, I know for sure that having a cleaning lady is much, much, much cheaper than refusing 1-2 days of work:-)
Sincerely,
Irene
[Edited at 2006-06-07 17:00]
[Edited at 2006-06-07 17:03]
| | | | | You rock, Irene! | Jun 7, 2006 |
I figured that anyone who is close to 100% must do all his/her work through an agency. Good for you! When I work through an agency (about 30% of my jobload) I'm delighted to have their competent office staff handling the client and the paperwork.
And I'm with you all the way on the CPA and the cleaning lady. In a perfectly efficient world, we would all do only what we're best at. Some really scary futuristic fiction has been written about that kind of a world, and I don't want it; b... See more I figured that anyone who is close to 100% must do all his/her work through an agency. Good for you! When I work through an agency (about 30% of my jobload) I'm delighted to have their competent office staff handling the client and the paperwork.
And I'm with you all the way on the CPA and the cleaning lady. In a perfectly efficient world, we would all do only what we're best at. Some really scary futuristic fiction has been written about that kind of a world, and I don't want it; but you've taken a couple of very sensible, practical steps. Bravo. ▲ Collapse
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Erik Hansson wrote:
However, anybody voting for more or less 100 % must be somebody who only translates, and never does any marketing stuff and also refrains from writing invoices. Or have I misunderstood something? Can be also applicable to in-house translators. Although I, as an in-house, am not close to 100% at all, rather about 80%. But some are.
[Edited at 2006-06-07 19:30]
| | | | Imad Almaghary (X)
Local time: 06:47
English to Arabic
+ ...
| knowing more than three or four languages | Jun 7, 2006 |
Good morning
I voted for 90 percent because I dream of translation and take it as a challange.
I am wondering whether those who work on four of five languages are real translators or not
and
whether those who work for one hour a day are real translators or not because they lack sufficient practice which improves the quality of the translation work.
Yours
Mr. Imad
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