| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Getting used to busy/totally empty workload periods Thread poster: Anabel Martínez
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Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:57
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Ella B wrote: Thank you for your advice and thoughts. The perspective of not having any work for a whole month scares me a lot (:D to put it nicely), especially since I'm used to working both at the office and at home. In any other case, Adam's idea would be great, but I'm afraid it does not apply to my situation. Or, who knows, I'll look into it, anyway.  One thing is for sure: provided I keep my current clients, I still need to find more clients to compensate for my job. Otherwise I will find myself worrying about all that spare time and no money.
I know exactly what you mean ! or perhaps 
[Edited at 2011-02-08 14:12 GMT]
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 08:57
Member (2007)
English
+ ...
| Feast or famine | Feb 8, 2011 |
Since nobody else has mentioned the term, I thought I'd add it to the thread.
For lots of tips on dealing with it in the best possible way, try Googling "feast or famine" plus freelance and you'll see that this is THE term that every freelancer needs to keep on the tip of the tongue - we need to constantly remind ourselves that this is 100% normal.
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Sheila Wilson wrote:
For lots of tips on dealing with it in the best possible way, try Googling "feast or famine" plus freelance and you'll see that this is THE term that every freelancer needs to keep on the tip of the tongue - we need to constantly remind ourselves that this is 100% normal.
Yes, it is normal, but in a way our fear is good protection for our income, since we always prefer to grab jobs coming our way instead of letting them go when we are exhausted after a long or hard previous job, feel unwell, or have a ton of private things in our to-do list. In the end, we take the jobs and put rest, health, and private stuff on hold.
Yes, overworking is not good for you, but worrying is even worse.
| | | | Luca Tutino
Italy
Member (2002)
English to Italian
+ ...
| It is not just paranoia | Feb 8, 2011 |
I have been working in the business for 23 years, about 12 as a freelance, and I now totally depend from my translation jobs. This is what I can say from my experience:
I have been quite successful and booked solid for many years, but recently I have seen my income reduced almost in half year over year for 2 consecutive years (third year in the series was about 35% compared to the first). This was probably due to a combination of general economy, demographic dynamics within my trans... See more I have been working in the business for 23 years, about 12 as a freelance, and I now totally depend from my translation jobs. This is what I can say from my experience:
I have been quite successful and booked solid for many years, but recently I have seen my income reduced almost in half year over year for 2 consecutive years (third year in the series was about 35% compared to the first). This was probably due to a combination of general economy, demographic dynamics within my translation specialties, fatigue/concentration issues and distracting events. Better economy and appropriate personal reaction managed to revert the course again.
So I think we should never take anything for granted: it is important to keep our eyes opened, get worried and react when necessary. On the other side it is also advisable to have one or more other projects, including if possible at least one with some prospect of medium or long term profitability.
It is also true what has been said about rates. Here it is not a question of adding or cutting some percentage, but rather to try and make sure that your proposed rate is the right one with the utmost precision (up to the third decimal position in a per word rate).
[Edited at 2011-02-08 23:00 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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Cathy Flick
United States
Local time: 02:57
Member (2003)
Russian to English
+ ...
| Save your money for slow periods | Apr 25, 2011 |
The general advice for the self-employed is to have enough savings to be able to pay all your normal expenses for at least 6 months (1 year would be better). Just keep setting money aside as best you can, the more of such a "slow period fund" you have (even if only a few weeks worth), the more comfortable you will feel with slow periods.
Also stay in Spain! Or any other country with a sensible approach to health care costs. A problem in the USA is that such savings could vanish in a... See more The general advice for the self-employed is to have enough savings to be able to pay all your normal expenses for at least 6 months (1 year would be better). Just keep setting money aside as best you can, the more of such a "slow period fund" you have (even if only a few weeks worth), the more comfortable you will feel with slow periods.
Also stay in Spain! Or any other country with a sensible approach to health care costs. A problem in the USA is that such savings could vanish in an instant with one even minor medical emergency, with or without insurance. (Which is why we all depend so much on credit cards...) An ambulance ride costs USD700 to USD1000, just a few minutes in an emergency room can easily cost several thousand dollars or even more. Hospitals push for unnecessary and expensive tests (especially for those arriving by ambulance...) to try to cover their ordinary operating expenses from the insurance companies (yes, our system supports the health care system entirely from the pockets of the sick and injured!). Then the insurance companies pick and choose what they will actually pay for and there is really no way to effectively get them to do otherwise.
In case you think this is just speculation: I discovered this for myself when some kind but naive soul decided to call an ambulance for me when I just needed an antibiotic for an undiagnosed urinary tract infection (thought I just had the flu) and had a fever spike, I'm still paying several hundred dollars per month on the debt incurred back in 2007 and it will be another 3 years before the debt is cleared. At the time, I had medical insurance that was supposed to pay 100% above the deductible ($2500 at the time). The insurance company unilaterally decided that much of the bill was "medically unnecessary" or "priced too high for the region" but I still had to pay it. (I was stuck in the hospital for 3 days and at the mercy of the staff, was afraid to just leave in case it would affect my insurance.) I wasted at least 80 hours trying to get them to reverse their decision. Within a couple of months, they pushed me into a $5000 deductible and relentlessly kept raising the insurance premiums until finally by January 2010, they wanted 53% of my income (I cancelled, I'm uninsured until either Medicare or legislative reforms start). I figured I would be financial toast with or without insurance if I ever had to see a doctor or a hospital again ... Well, really I actually would have been fine financially in 2007 if I had cancelled insurance years before and saved the same amount of money going to the insurance company vultures. But that involves a huge risk, considering high medical costs in the US for everything. A simple heart attack left the sister of a friend 80 thousand dollars in debt even though she thought she was properly insured. Half of bankruptcies in the US mainly involve medical costs, and half the credit card debt is also for medical expenses (most of the rest of our credit card debt is due to emergencies and prolonged periods of unemployment which also tend to go along with illness or injury).
The good news for me is that finally I'm beginning to be able to put aside money in savings to keep me going in slow times - IF I avoid the medical people entirely and my seriously underemployed brother doesn't have any medical emergencies. Medical insurance premiums, which kept going up 30% to 35% every year (they try to push people out of the pool this way especially in their fifties), my brother's financial needs, and then the one financially disastrous brief encounter with the hospital made it impossible to save up enough. I had been only a part-time translator for ten years and had accumulated a large debt for business reasons, which had been paid off just before my medical adventure in 2007. So I didn't have a chance to get more than a month ahead at that point - which would have been enough if nobody had dragged me to a hospital and let me just go to a regular doctor who actually knew what he was doing. The hospital mismanaged my case so badly, resulting in very slow recovery and then a very bad relapse, that they caused me to be unemployed for 3 months and underemployed for another 2 months rather than just the 3 weeks I would have lost if I had been allowed to go to the "real" doctor who properly treated the relapse. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Charles Ek
United States
Local time: 02:57
Member (2009)
Norwegian to English
+ ...
| It's a business, not an occupation | May 4, 2011 |
It's essential to treat what you do as a business, not an occupation. That means that there are no "totally empty workload periods." When you don't have a project in hand, spend your working hours on marketing and managing your business.
MARKETING YOUR SERVICES HAS TO BE DONE ALL THE TIME, TO ENSURE A STEADY FLOW OF BUSINESS. Your favorite project manager might quit, be fired or move away. Your favorite direct client might go out of business. The EU members might decide they need m... See more It's essential to treat what you do as a business, not an occupation. That means that there are no "totally empty workload periods." When you don't have a project in hand, spend your working hours on marketing and managing your business.
MARKETING YOUR SERVICES HAS TO BE DONE ALL THE TIME, TO ENSURE A STEADY FLOW OF BUSINESS. Your favorite project manager might quit, be fired or move away. Your favorite direct client might go out of business. The EU members might decide they need much fewer patent translations. In other words, "stuff" happens, and you need to be ready to roll with the punches. You'll know that your marketing is working when you have constant new business and you can steadily raise rates. And then you'll need to do some more marketing -- it never stops!
Use what time is left after that to improve your language skills and to acquire new skills -- subtitling, desktop publishing, whatever you decide will add to demand for your services as a translator.
And if an entire month ever went by without new business, I'd be thinking long and hard about why that happened. It's not because the business is not out there.
[Edited at 2011-05-04 23:38 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | But that's what I love | Aug 4, 2011 |
I finally beat my own record. Up until the moment I have never been working in 3 parallel projects at the same time that I couldn't complete in the next day. At the moment, I am in 3 projects at the same time and I know it will be like that for at least the next 10 days.
I am working more than 12 hours a day (not that I have much else to do), having a coffee, hanging a bit with my girlfriend and sleeping. I am a bit stressed and my mind feels overloaded, my desk is full of papers an... See more I finally beat my own record. Up until the moment I have never been working in 3 parallel projects at the same time that I couldn't complete in the next day. At the moment, I am in 3 projects at the same time and I know it will be like that for at least the next 10 days.
I am working more than 12 hours a day (not that I have much else to do), having a coffee, hanging a bit with my girlfriend and sleeping. I am a bit stressed and my mind feels overloaded, my desk is full of papers and post-its telling me what to do and controlling progress percents and proofreading notes. I have everything controlled in my head and in my papers and everything is going well and smoothly.
For the first time I had to reject a 4th project and tell a new agency to "wait a few days, I just can't accept any more jobs". I am not a "no" person and I felt really bad for saying my first "no" as a translator - in fact, it was more of a "not at the moment" than a round "no".
But I do enjoy waking up in the morning, checking my email on my netbook still in the bed and see that I have professional-related emails, I would say that is one of the my best feelings as a translator. It's like I start the whole new day with a smile.
Other times I spend days opening and refreshing my Thunderbird software and pass 3-5 days without work mails, and feel that I could actually be doing "anything". Despite those periods being good to "refresh myself" and cool down from the stress of the previous days, I would not say I am becoming a "workaholic", I tell people I found what I really love to do and I am enjoying it and having the time of my life doing what I love. When I am empty, as Charles said, I am working on my marketing, trying to increase my presence, learn new things, explore new subjects (last time I bought a book on Finances and tried to study a bit) and finding new projects (or thinking about my vacations abroad).
But that is what I really love about being a freelance translator. There are full periods, there are empty periods; if any of those becomes extremely long, it may become frustrating. But so far I got used to everything, and am still enjoying it.
As I said, I am with two computers in my desk, I see more papers than the wood itself of the desk, my mind is completely loaded, I am not able to maintain a logical conversation with my girlfriend, I am working in all 3 projects at the same time, I am probably drinking my 9th coffee today (not very healthy, but I am fine with working in the bathroom), I haven't felt very hungry for the last days and don't feel like cooking anything special; but I am working with a smile and I would say there are no words that describe how much I am enjoying myself.
[Edited at 2011-08-04 03:27 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Summertime blues | Aug 4, 2011 |
I'm feeling reassured reading other people's accounts, as August in France (in my sector of translating, but surely in many others) is agonizingly slow as well. It's not just you - the whole southern half of Europe is napping. Many companies are either working in slow motion or not at all, so it's no wonder we're twiddling our thumbs.
Personally I am learning to adapt to having down-time in the summer after years of juggling a tourist board and freelance translation on the side, no... See more I'm feeling reassured reading other people's accounts, as August in France (in my sector of translating, but surely in many others) is agonizingly slow as well. It's not just you - the whole southern half of Europe is napping. Many companies are either working in slow motion or not at all, so it's no wonder we're twiddling our thumbs.
Personally I am learning to adapt to having down-time in the summer after years of juggling a tourist board and freelance translation on the side, not to mention running a holiday accommodation. August used to be my time for sixty-hour work weeks. Now that I am a full-time freelancer, it's a strange feeling to have weeks off at a time - I had two silent weeks in the beginning of July, and this week is proving slow, too - but it's true that it has been coming to me, as I've accumulated an incalculable number of overtime hours in recent months. I've taken time to plug my latest work into my CV, contact various agencies and do a bit of writing. I think next year I'll be booking a nice long holiday right around this time, like everybody else.
If you can get out from under the guilty complex - and have enough savings or current invoices to reassure you until the autumn - don't hesitate to change pace. Do a bit of marketing, network, and then enjoy yourself! You'll be back at work before you know it, so take time to go to the beach or pool, read a stack of books, enjoy your friends and family and long barbecues into the night. You'll feel refreshed when it's time to haul yourself back in front of the computer.
As our colleague in America stated, life in (southern) Europe could be worse! ▲ Collapse
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Richard Foulkes (X)
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:57
German to English
+ ...
| Set an income target | Aug 4, 2011 |
Others have touched on it...
Decide how much you want to earn at the start of the year. Keep track of your income in relation to target. If you're behind target, you may want to do some more marketing. If you're ahead of target, no need to worry about a couple of quiet days. And you know when you can afford to stop working.
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:57
Member (2008)
Italian to English
| I'm in standby mode | Aug 4, 2011 |
Richard Foulkes wrote: Others have touched on it... Decide how much you want to earn at the start of the year. Keep track of your income in relation to target. If you're behind target, you may want to do some more marketing. If you're ahead of target, no need to worry about a couple of quiet days. And you know when you can afford to stop working .
Yes, in fact I've just turned down a not-very-interesting job because I'm on target for my income and for the moment, can afford to pick and choose.
The bothersome part is that I have to keep checking my email all the time anyway, just in case an interesting job offer turns up and I suddenly move out of "holiday mode" into "work mode".
[Edited at 2011-08-04 10:07 GMT]
| | | | Allison Wright (X)
Portugal
Local time: 08:57
| Happiness indeed | Aug 4, 2011 |
Ricardo Gouveia wrote:
As I said, I am with two computers in my desk, I see more papers than the wood itself of the desk, my mind is completely loaded, I am not able to maintain a logical conversation with my girlfriend, I am working in all 3 projects at the same time, I am probably drinking my 9th coffee today (not very healthy, but I am fine with working in the bathroom), I haven't felt very hungry for the last days and don't feel like cooking anything special; but I am working with a smile and I would say there are no words that describe how much I am enjoying myself.
[Edited at 2011-08-04 03:27 GMT]
I am a one computer and one project at a time gal, but I can identify with everything you say in this paragraph! I also notice your sleep pattern seems to have gone awry - edited at 03:32?
Here is something I found, which may be true in your case, and others:
'A felicidade às vezes é uma bênção, mas geralmente é uma conquista.'
[Sometimes happiness is a blessing, but usually it is a victory won. (my translation attempt)
Paulo Coelho
Saudações
| | | | | I'm a night worker :) | Aug 4, 2011 |
Allison Wright wrote: I am a one computer and one project at a time gal, but I can identify with everything you say in this paragraph! I also notice your sleep pattern seems to have gone awry - edited at 03:32? Here is something I found, which may be true in your case, and others: 'A felicidade às vezes é uma bênção, mas geralmente é uma conquista.' [Sometimes happiness is a blessing, but usually it is a victory won. (my translation attempt) Paulo Coelho Saudações
Thank you,
My sleep pattern is only influenced when I am in classes (and therefore cannot go to bed that late), I usually find myself more productive in the night and started being a "night worker". For example, Yesterday I worked from 3pm to 4am, with a few breaks.
I really do like reading Paulo Coelho, despite his books seeming awfully repetitive (something I personally like to call the Dan Brown syndrome), there are many right things and great quotes, which proves the author has an unvaluable life experience. I would say it is a conquest, otherwise I would still be dwelling around trying to find something else I would like to do for a living.
Thank you once again.
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