Translating matters

I recently celebrated one year as a freelance translator (hurrah!). During the first six months or so, I worked almost exclusively with agency customers (for whom I completed an application process). Recently, I have also been working with some direct customers (who I mainly found through contacts and recommendations). My work flow has gradually become very healthy (by mid-February, I already had orders taking me through to the end of March). I even find myself regularly having to turn down work with my agency customers due to a lack of availability. However, I decided that as my company is maturing, so should my online presence. There are two main reasons for this: 1. To have a more professional image, 2. To attract more customers searching for the services I provide, by being more visible on the web. With this in mind, I recently took the following steps: In addition to this blog, I already have a (very basic) website, which I plan to develop over the...

Firstly I’d like to wish my fellow translators a belated happy new year, and apologise for my absence from the blogosphere these past few months - the end of 2015 was very busy for me, with plenty of work coming in after the summer period.  As this blog is dedicated to sharing my experiences as a (relative) new-comer to the world of freelancing, here are some of the things I have been up to over the past few months and the lessons I have learnt. Hopefully these lessons may be of use to other translators who are new to freelancing. Continuing Professional Development When you work for yourself, it is easy to get comfortable when the jobs start coming in and you are invoicing a decent amount every month. However, in my opinion, it is important to keep learning and add new strings to your bow! Personally, I find that sitting at a desk all day translating can sometimes be a little solitary, so I decided to invest in my company (and myself) by attending training organised b...