Full credit for inspiring this post goes to Mitch Joel at Twist Image and his blog, Six Pixels of Separation.
In yesterday’s post, Nobody Knows What You’re Talking About, Mitch argues that we know what we do so well that we have a hard time explaining it clearly to others.
And “others” aren’t just clients and prospects.
“Others” = everyone you come across since, as we all know, referrals are the single best way to land new business.
Can you type this in [foreign language] for me?
Folks, if you can’t explain what you do well,
how can you market your expert skills and bill what they are worth?
To prove his point, he used a video Google had uploaded to YouTube where they conducted 50 street interviews in New York City asking people “What is a browser?”.
Easy question, right? Such a ubiquitous tool in our lives, everyone knows what it is, ya’think? Surprise:
As I browse through various translation industry fora and blogs, I notice many posts that recommend increasing one’s rates with ringing in the New Year to adjust for inflation.
Don’t get me wrong, I am strongly in favor of independent professionals charging professional rates commensurate with the level and quality of service rendered to clients.
The New Year “cost of living adjustment” rate increase reflex is perplexing for several reasons:
1. It’s predictable and, as Simon Turner underscored in his presentation at the SFT’s Journée mondiale de la traduction in December 2009, it is counter-intuitive from a marketing standpoint. Building client loyalty is even more important than getting a rate increase from January 1. It’s a smarter move to announce a rate increase, but tell your clients that ,*for them*, it will only be applicable say from June 1. He has a few other tactics up his sleeve that make this (small) discount pay off even more. Continue Reading…
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago at 12:01 pm. Add a comment
24 hours on Twitter, and I sense an existing dilemma is going to get worse.
Independent professionals don’t have gobs of free time. Many already struggle with work/life balance issues; one of my colleagues, a French to English medical translator, often Skypes me grumbling “Gawd, it’s WDWEWDWE again!” – meaning her husband is hovering over her desk asking when and what is for dinner while she’s on a deadline. Mine occasionally quips I’m married to my computer more than to him. Continue Reading…
Posted 3 months, 4 weeks ago at 5:44 pm. Add a comment
