| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Translations and babies Thread poster: Claire Titchmarsh (X)
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Silvina Jover-Cirillo (X)
United States
Local time: 02:04
English to Spanish
+ ...
| Started my business while pregnant. My baby is now 4 months old. | Jul 28, 2005 |
Hi everybody!
I can't believe there's somebody out there (translators) going through similar situations!
My first child, a beautiful baby boy, 4 months old.
I've been in the translation business for a while but I decided to go full-time freelance and start a whole new chapter in my life when I was 3 months pregnant! Plus, I moved to a new city....well, what am I saying, to an entire new country (USA). I've been living here on and off and, while in South America, visitin... See more Hi everybody!
I can't believe there's somebody out there (translators) going through similar situations!
My first child, a beautiful baby boy, 4 months old.
I've been in the translation business for a while but I decided to go full-time freelance and start a whole new chapter in my life when I was 3 months pregnant! Plus, I moved to a new city....well, what am I saying, to an entire new country (USA). I've been living here on and off and, while in South America, visiting my folks, at the beginning of my pregnancy, my husband told me (he was in the US) that we were moving to Las Vegas and that I had to make a final decision regarding my location.
So, now, in a new place (we're out of Vegas already!) and with a 4 months old!
Is not as hard as I thought. But, I really think he's a wonderful baby. I mean, he started sleeping through the night at 2 months old!!! Of course, there are some days he gets really cranky but, luckily, I get a lot of help from my husband.
We don't have any family around, so we have to rely on each other. The freelancer world is a very flexible one, we have the option to say NO. But, there's always the surprise factor around the corner, we never know for sure how the next day is going to turn up.
Before accepting a job, I establish a "schedule" with my husband. So, he takes care of the Baby while I have to deal with my work. Luckily, he's job allows him to make his own schedule too.
But, sometimes is not that easy...there have been times when we were both really busy. So, what happens with the Baby? Well, you have to take it step by step and try to work around the baby's schedule.
We are thinking about hiring a nanny part-time so she can be with the Baby while we have to deal with our responsibilities. It's not easy! I haven't had the time that I would like to invest into my business. I think it's taking me more than I expected to settle down. I guess that something that would take me 6 months, will take me 1 year.
But, that was the choice that I made: having my office at home.
Patience and organization are the most important things, from my point of view, to be able to enjoy your family and, at the same time, get that time for yourself and pursue your dreams and passions.
Good luck!
Silvina ▲ Collapse
| | | | Yoanna 
United States
Local time: 00:04
English to Polish
+ ...
| Babysitting co-op worked for me! | Aug 10, 2005 |
Hi everybody,
I started working a while ago around my kids' schedules but when the business really started coming in, I decided to team up with a neighbor. I am lucky enough to have a neighbor, who wants to work part-time and who's kids are almost exactly the age of mine [3 and 1]. She will go to work twice a week and I took two other days, Fridays are free. Of course both our husbands work full-time. The one that doesn't go to work takes care of the 4 kids [they like each other, fo... See more Hi everybody,
I started working a while ago around my kids' schedules but when the business really started coming in, I decided to team up with a neighbor. I am lucky enough to have a neighbor, who wants to work part-time and who's kids are almost exactly the age of mine [3 and 1]. She will go to work twice a week and I took two other days, Fridays are free. Of course both our husbands work full-time. The one that doesn't go to work takes care of the 4 kids [they like each other, fortunately!] during the whole day. Of course, if I have a very urgent job, I might have to work nights too, weekends etc. but I still get some peace from this arrangement and try to shove most of my work into this space. And hey, it's free!
Hope I helped anyone?
Joanna ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Lose clients if you stop altogether? | Aug 11, 2005 |
My experiences are similar to many of you. But after my daughter was born 3 1/2 years ago I didn't work at all for 4 months. I told my clients I was on maternity leave. In the UK we receive maternity allowance if self-employed, I'm sure some other countries must have this too, although I'm sure many don't. I worked a little until between 4 and 6 months, then I used a childminder 3 days a week. Now she goes to pre-school. Plus I have always worked nights and still do...
Do you think ... See more My experiences are similar to many of you. But after my daughter was born 3 1/2 years ago I didn't work at all for 4 months. I told my clients I was on maternity leave. In the UK we receive maternity allowance if self-employed, I'm sure some other countries must have this too, although I'm sure many don't. I worked a little until between 4 and 6 months, then I used a childminder 3 days a week. Now she goes to pre-school. Plus I have always worked nights and still do...
Do you think taking 6 months or even longer off is unwise and might lose clients?
It worked ok-ish for me last time but then I only went freelance 6 months before having the baby so it was difficult to tell, I had to do a new marketing drive once I returned to work as I only managed to retain two or three clients.
I'm asking because I'm now expecting twins due around Christmas so I really don't see how I could possibly keep working while they are very small!! I will get maternity allowance for 6 months (it's not a lot but it's better than nothing and you're not supposed to work while you claim it). ▲ Collapse
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Local time: 07:04
Spanish to English
Lydia Smith wrote:
Do you think taking 6 months or even longer off is unwise and might lose clients?
You will no doubt lose clients. In this cut-throat business world of ours, he who cannot deliver when required to do so is dropped, often unceremoniously. This, at least, was my experience. I took 3 months off and then worked very much part-time for 2 years, and this was obviously just not good enough for the majority of my clients. I lost my major one June 2004 (after workload had slowly decreased) and my second main client virtually disappeared as well, another good client has never contacted me again either, to the extent that I was even thinking about a career change. Things only picked up once I had organised some serious childcare and the agencies began to realise that I was actually working again
However, the good news is that the agency I lost in June 2004 has come back (saying that they were trying out in-house people in the meantime with no luck), so I promptly charged them more money. My second main client has become my first, with lots of interesting projects (don't know what they did while they gave me no work -probably something similar) and new offers are coming in all the time.
In the end, I think it's a matter of choice. If you don't need the money, then enjoy your twins (many congratulations, by the way). As you know, it's a very precious time when they are young and it's a shame to waste it at the computer. On the other hand, children are hard work, twins obviously more so, and if you had some childcare organised, you might be able to do some work to keep some of your clients happy and give you a break from nappy changing!
So, yes, you will lose clients. But there are plenty more fish in the sea and you'll find others when you go back to being full-time. And no, I don't think it's unwise to take the time off. Life is for living, and your children are only young once!
[Edited at 2005-08-12 01:10]
[Edited at 2005-08-12 01:30]
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Translations and babies | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
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