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Poll: How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2017? (please share!)
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
Jeremy Amos
Jeremy Amos  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 16:38
German to English
A bit of perspective Feb 3, 2017

C Warlow wrote:

I appear to be a rare pessimist on this thread, so apologies if I bring anyone super-optimistic down (to earth). I haven't been able to increase my rates for the last ten years: maybe they were high to start with (£0.075/source word) but inflation keeps on going and my assumptions were that my income would at least keep pace with that. Secondly, translation software is , in my view, driving down my income - fewer words in general to translate plus "post-editing" jobs that pay badly but require lots of time. I'm aware that I'm being undercut by other translators based elsewhere who charge much lower rates - but may not offer the same quality. I'm afraid that the translation profession is in a "race to the bottom" where we all lose income while having to work harder than before. Brexit introduces another layer of uncertainty.



As a fellow Brexit-sufferer, I'm optimistic for this year, but extremely pessemistic (if I stay in the UK) once it actually happens. (I'll probably either quit translating or move to the EU - thankfully I probably have this lifeline as my partner is French.)

But I do think your analysis of the wider translation industry is wrong. Translation has always been in a race to the bottom and the barbarians have always been at the gates. I haven't raised my prices much in the last few years, but I've improved my productivity and I've made sure that I keep the customers for whom those prices result in a decent return, I've jettisoned those for whom it doesn't (by raising my prices until it would) and I've constantly been on the lookout for new, better customers.
Once the global economy starts to pick up (if Trump doesn't derail it), things will pick up anyway, as those people scraping a living translating badly for want of anything better find something better.
 
kamano
kamano
Guinea
Local time: 15:38
English to French
+ ...
Innovation in translation Feb 3, 2017

I currently do the translation (English-French-English). Throughout the past 4 months, I managed a project of translating more than 700,000 words of critical and life- saving Medical and Health information from English to French.

After undergoing a two week training course on medical translation and receiving ongoing support Translators Without Borders (TWB).
I realized that there is a need of innovating the way of communicating which helps to have easy access to the inform... See more
I currently do the translation (English-French-English). Throughout the past 4 months, I managed a project of translating more than 700,000 words of critical and life- saving Medical and Health information from English to French.

After undergoing a two week training course on medical translation and receiving ongoing support Translators Without Borders (TWB).
I realized that there is a need of innovating the way of communicating which helps to have easy access to the information in the language the target communities understand.
It id the AUDIO translation in mother tongues.
I speak Maninka, Pular, Kissi, Sussu, Toma and Jula. ▲ Collapse
 
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Poll: How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2017? (please share!)






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