Help setting up with little money as a freelance translator!

[jenduck]

As the thread title says really!

I am a SAHM with a 13-month old DS. I am qualified as a translator (have an MA in Technical & Specialised Translation) from French/German/Spanish into English. I have a website all set up & am basically ready to go! I just need to find some clients...

Can anyobdy help me to do this please? I am on a tight budget, so any cheap/free ideas particularly appreciated! I seem to remember a thread a while back advising somebody of cheap/free ways to advertise, but I can't find it!

Thanks!

Would also love to chat to any other freelance translators, it is always great to chat to likeminded people

Hi jenduck. I am a freelance translator as well, in French and Spanish into English. What I suggest you do is register with a site like Translators Cafe or ProZ, and then start networking with other translators. There are meets every so often- it's a good way to get out of the house (isolation is the main problem in this job I find, along with dodgy clients) and bounce ideas off each other.

The two websites will list you in a bank of translators. If you upgrade on one or the other or both you will be able to send your CV off to agencies that meet your criteria, by email, and if you are ugpraded you will appear at the top of the searches clients do.

I am slightly perturbed about the SAHM thing though. IMO you will struggle to meet a deadline while keeping a toddler entertained. It's easy to underestimate how much time and concentration you will need to deploy. I have 4 children (3 at school) and I could not do what I do (full time freelance) without my wonderful au pair to look after the baby while I work.

Must go- am finishing a document as we speak. Back later.

I don't translate but work from home. My DC's are at nursery, I really struggle when they are here.

Five- I really struggle when my 16, 14 and 12 yr old are at home (snow days a couple of weeks ago were a pain...) let alone nursery aged ones...

Basically, OP, what I'm trying to say it that you have to treat freelance work as a proper job. The advantages are that you get to choose your own schedule to a certain extent, take time off if your DC need it (illness, school plays etc), say no to work if you don't feel like accepting it (always say "I'm sorry but I am busy with another project" btw -NEVER say you're having a picnic in the garden with the DC), in short behave as professionally as you would if you worked in an office belonging to someone else. You will need to carve out time to yourself though. The clients will demand that you work to a deadline and you must respect that. The clients will mostly be businesses who have no interest whatsoever in the fact that your LO was us half the night teething.

Thanks for all the responses already! And I was nervous about posting...

I hear what you are saying about the SAHM thing. I managed last year to do a couple of one-off pieces of unpaid work & found DS to be no trouble, although I appreciate that things may have changed since! But he is a very contented child who naps 3 hours per day & is happy to potter most of the rest of the time. My mum is also semi-retired so could offer 1-3 days per week childcare & would be willing to do so. I also have nearby, capable grandparents & sister I could call on if my mum were not free, so I think I could cope with the childcare element of things.

Duchesse - I registered with the sites you mentioned many years ago, but never heard of any meet-ups. I can see they would be beneficial! Do you have the free membership or a paid one? Also, what are your areas of translation? I am keen to know as I rarely meet any other translators, except for people from uni (and most of those have actually gone into different professions!)

Thanks again to all for responses!

Yes Jen I have paid membership of TC. I have got a fair amount of work through them. One of the best ways I found was to scan the jobs board and apply for things you like the look of. Even if they don't take you for that job, the agencies keep your details on file and get back to you the next time they need someone like you (ie with your specialisms). tbh though I get most of my best work through networking. My sister works as an interpreter in Paris and passes me any translation jobs she's offered as she hates doing translation. If you network, people tend to bear you in mind if they're ever called to do something they can't do (because they're ""busy with another project"" for the day for example) and they pass your details on to the client.

btw, if you can get your mum to look after the baby as and when you need it, that sounds ideal.

Thank you Duchesse, some useful tips there! I will have a look at those websites again tonight

Anybody else got any marketing/advertising ideas for me please?[shameless pleading emoticon]

Hello sorry to barge in, I've posted enquiries before about freelance translating work. I don't have a translation qualification but hope to do the dip trans when my kids are a bit older.
Good luck with setting up. I'd love to be in a position to do that but will have to hang in there as a mod langs teacher for a while (which I like some iof the time)

Hello Duchesse how's your baby? I remember you from a thread in late August. I had a baby boy on 31. I hope its all going well. Times going in too quickly for me.

Hi, I'm a freelance translator too, although I'm on maternity leave at the moment. Since DS1 was born (just turned 3) I've worked 1 day a week and through naps, evenings, presuming on the kindness of his godmother etc. Definitely recommend ProZ - I have paid membership there which is well worth it IMO. I also got quite a bit of work through Aquarius.net when I was starting up. I've also got a few jobs from the list of translators held by the local uni. Not the highest paid - usually just letters or certificates but every little helps, right?! I've found that once you get into the mind of agencies/clients and they know what you do well, they come back to you with similar jobs. At the moment I'm working on keeping them remembering me for when I get back to work in the summer - sent out Christmas e-mails and so on.

Hope that helps, sorry it's a bit waffly.

Hi, Do you have a qualification in translation Keren? Would I be wasting time looking for freelance work with just a degree in French/Italian do you think?

Thank you all for posting! Chrysanthamum, good luck with the setting up . Keren, I will try my local uni, that's something I hadn't thought of, did you go in or just send an email or something else?

Am very excited as got a translation query today, so fingers crossed for that!

Thanks again!

Chrysanthamum - I have an MA in Literary Translation, but I really don't know how necessary it is.

jenduck - I went into the language school at the uni as I'd heard they had a list, but I used to work there so it wasn't just going in on spec. Might be worth phoning or emailing to see if they have anything like that.

Sorry to double post, even with a day in between - I forgot to say that IME if you're relying on a child to nap so as to meet a deadline, then that's the day that they'll absolutely refuse to sleep! As well to have a Plan B!

This blog Thoughts on Translation sometimes has some useful tips, although from a US perspective.

Hi jenduck, I've only just seen this thread - how's the marketing going? I'm also a freelance translator and have 3 DC (all now at school/nursery). I've been freelancing on and off since my oldest was a few months old but decided to make a serious go of it a couple of years ago. My marketing consisted of sending out an e-mail and CV to lots of translation agencies (obv. not as well paid as direct clients, but easier to find iyswim). As a result of that, I now work for four or five agencies, with two of them providing work on a fairly regular basis. It probably wouldn't be enough if I was freelancing f/t and I still have days or even weeks with very little work, but that makes up for the times when I'm snowed under and have to work evenings and weekends!