Aaah, clients. Without them, I wouldn’t be a very successful freelancer. Some of them, though, they’re not a good fit for me. Over the years, I’ve parted ways with customers, and some have parted ways with me. Sometimes, we just faded away, sometimes our needs changed, and sometimes—much more rarely but still—there was a direct… Weiterlesen Letting a client go

Introducing Rosa, our new(ish) dog Last year, we welcomed a young dog called Rosa into our home. We’ve been getting to know each other and are slowly learning how to live together. What that boils down to is creating trust, learning to speak the dog language and reinforcing desirable behavior. In the beginning, all we did… Weiterlesen Business Lessons We Learn from Our Pets

It’s nice to be nice, right? I strongly believe in treating people kindly and not saying anything that I wouldn’t want someone else to tell me—especially if I never asked for their opinion. We don’t always see eye to eye and life is much more pleasant if we simply acknowledge that and move on. So,… Weiterlesen Why Getting Called Out Can Be a Good Thing

Experts know everything, right? I often see translators online asking whether they should let clients know about questions or issues that arise with a translation. They fear that asking questions might make them look unprofessional. When we hire experts, we want them to take charge. It’s their job to confidently guide us through the process.… Weiterlesen Our Questions Empower Clients

Every now and then, someone new will contact me out of the blue and be interested in working with me. I usually head right over to their website to see who I am dealing with. I’ll read the original German copy, look at the English translation, shudder, and then spend some time composing a very… Weiterlesen Treading Lightly with Your Clients

Can I supersize that? A lot has been written about different service and sales approaches and how they affect customers. Of course, I’m interested in selling my services without being pushy, without underselling myself and also without being rejected. That’s why I like to keep a close eye on how other people handle their sales… Weiterlesen Different Approaches to Selling Your Services

Time for a change Why do some people resist change even if they aren’t happy with the status quo? I’m not even talking about major life changes, just small-scale tweaks here and there to make life a little easier. Change can be scary and it might involve heavy lifting. That’s a given. But if implementing… Weiterlesen Why Stubbornly Cling to Old Ways?

Which criteria do clients go by? The age-old question: Why do some clients settle for a mediocre translation just to save some money? Or maybe that’s wrong question. How about: Why do clients keep buying mediocre translations when there are so many excellent translators waiting to work their magic? Last year, I was called by… Weiterlesen When Clients Choose by Price

As I announced in my New Year’s post, I gave a presentation for my local business network this week. Our networking group meets up every two weeks for breakfast, businessy chit chat and the occasional presentation. I am the one and only translator there. We kick off each meeting with a round of introductions and… Weiterlesen Going Public about Translation

Every now and then clients do something that gives me a welcome little jolt, preventing me from getting too set in my ways. Is there such a thing as routine client correspondence? Clients who send me several smaller jobs usually get a monthly invoice instead of several individual invoices. January is coming to an end,… Weiterlesen What We Can Learn from Clients