| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: Do you intend to sell your freelance business when you retire? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| There is nothing to sell | Aug 28, 2015 |
Mario Chavez wrote:
I'm afraid there's some confusion inside the question. What is exactly that is considered assets that can be sold or liquidated upon retirement?
My clients send work to ME, whether I do it directly or ask someone else for help, it is my name on the delivery, and I am responsible for it. If I am not here to do the jobs for them, I am sure they will find someone else.
And as Mario said, what assests could be sold? My computers, printers, etc?. I would like to keep those after I retire, even if it is only to browse the internet for pleasure or to keep in touch with friends and relatives on Facebook, etc.!
[Edited at 2015-08-28 17:13 GMT]
| | | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule | | Perhaps there is a way... | Aug 28, 2015 |
I must admit to not having thought about this too much. I may become more selective in what work I take on, but I wasn't really planning a great retirement event.
However, I do have a limited company which I run, if, and it is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, I were able to bring a new interested party into the business before I reach the retirement age (although I haven't really got one in my mind), I could see the potential to "sell" the business to that person.
... See more I must admit to not having thought about this too much. I may become more selective in what work I take on, but I wasn't really planning a great retirement event.
However, I do have a limited company which I run, if, and it is a bit of a stretch of the imagination, I were able to bring a new interested party into the business before I reach the retirement age (although I haven't really got one in my mind), I could see the potential to "sell" the business to that person.
In effect, handing over the clients and customers I have built up over the years to a new person.
Obviously this would need the clients to play ball, but I think it could be done in theory.
Over here in Germany, many firms of lawyers still have their founder on their letterhead/door plate. The person is listed as being retired, but the firm still goes on. Knowing lawyers, I doubt that this was done without some form of remuneration.
Otherwise, there are the physical assets of the firm, as already pointed out. I do not think that goodwill is really a marketable asset in the majority of the translator firms I know, including mine, though. Unless you were able to hand over your customer base as I suggest above.
Anyhow, just my tuppence worth. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Chavez (X) 
Local time: 17:39
English to Spanish
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| My brain is my asset…and it's not for sale | Aug 29, 2015 |
Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez-Carrington wrote: Mario Chavez wrote:
I'm afraid there's some confusion inside the question. What is exactly that is considered assets that can be sold or liquidated upon retirement?
My clients send work to ME, whether I do it directly or ask someone else for help, it is my name on the delivery, and I am responsible for it. If I am not here to do the jobs for them, I am sure they will find someone else. And as Mario said, what assests could be sold? My computers, printers, etc?. I would like to keep those after I retire, even if it is only to browse the internet for pleasure or to keep in touch with friends and relatives on Facebook, etc.! [Edited at 2015-08-28 17:13 GMT]
After reading what José Arnoldo wrote, I got to think: isn't this question, about selling a freelance business, part of a bigger trend? The fashionable trend of calling yourself an entrepreneur. This otherwise fancy French word has been co-opted by mostly American professionals of every extraction enamored with Silicon Valley and its lingo: they call themselves mompreneurs, solopreneurs and other 'preneurs' (permission to vomit). They talk up the latest marketing gimmicks and the bubbliest theories about 'branding' and other horse manure sampling.
Men and women have been working on what we would now call crafts, trades, professions, etc. since time immemorial…or since they became part of civilization. There have been masters and apprentices, the latter sometimes surpassing their mentors after becoming the recipients of trade wisdom. Take winemaking or saddlemaking, or the manufacturing of condiments, oils, recipes for countless meals and many other conveniences. Can you imagine a master shoemaker in medieval Italy calling himself an “entrepreneur” or a “small business owner”?
The problem I see with this lazy mentality is an overemphasis on business skills, which more often than not are closer to hustling, overpromising, exaggerating one's qualifications or capabilities, all in order to get a new client.
On this side of the Atlantic (I'm in Ohio), even our association of translators and interpreters have fallen prey to this silly exercise: too much talk about how to market your services, perfect your elevator pitch and dress for success at conferences and clients' events rather than focusing on the strengths and skills that make us translators in the first place.
[Edited at 2015-08-29 02:12 GMT]
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Mario Freitas
Brazil
Local time: 18:39
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
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Jose Arnoldo Rodriguez-Carrington wrote: Mario Chavez wrote:
I'm afraid there's some confusion inside the question. What is exactly that is considered assets that can be sold or liquidated upon retirement?
And as Mario said, what assests could be sold? [Edited at 2015-08-28 17:13 GMT]
I believe this question considers the very rare translators who actually have a business, a goodwill (very small), and not most of us freelancers. But there would still not be a lot to sell if you do have a formal business. The greatest assets you have will go to the grave with you, and the "equity" left behind won't be really worth enough to be considered a business to your family.
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