Greater than 2 minutes, my friend!
Surviving Your First Year as a Freelance Translator
Freelancing isn’t for everyone: it takes a special type of person to be able to assume all the different roles that a freelancing professional needs to fulfil and a special kind of character to be able to live without the certainty of a steady income in a market that has its ups and downs.
I have been translating for five years, but I was not a full-time freelancer. At first, I kept my teaching job, then I worked as an in-house translator, and then I landed an ongoing project that lasted 2 years. This is what I learnt in my first year as a true, full-time freelance translator:
- Freelancing is much more than just looking for clients and completing projects. You are your own marketer, accountant, community manager, IT support, personal assistant… Some of these tasks can be delegated, but they will still require a good portion of your time to supervise and coordinate. Don’t leave heavy tasks for later. Try to be up to date with everything as these things tend to pile up quickly.
- Networking is great, and not only for your business. Getting in touch with colleagues is a fantastic way to expand your business and complement the social part of your life. I met colleagues that have outsourced work to me, and I reciprocated. I also joined many interesting communities of translators that help me socialize and keep up to date with the industry. The Open Mic is one of them!
- Take advantage of your downtime. Some months, you will work non-stop for days on end. Others, you will have lots of free time. Use that time to learn a new skill, to master a new CAT tool or to network. The growth of online education has been a blessing for me this year. I have spent most of my downtime improving myself and my business.
- Scammers are everywhere. Forewarned is forearmed. Use all the tools available to check suspicious clients or projects before you accept a job. There are many websites that can help you with this, but don’t be hesitant to ask if you find no information. Information is the best tool we have to change and improve our industry!
- There will be times when you will want to leave it and just get a regular job. They could be triggered by bad costumers driving you nuts, scammers not paying you for your hard work or by the pressure of uncertainty. Hang in there! Freelancing is also very rewarding and, once you get the hang of it, you will be able to organize your life much better than at the very beginning.
Freelancing has its pros and cons, but I wouldn’t change it for anything. The key is to be open-minded, willing to learn and resilient. The possibilities it offers are endless and unique.
There are still many things that I’m figuring out since going freelance, but I can say that my first year was awesome and I enjoyed every minute of it.
What have you learnt in your years as a freelancer? Any tips that you’d like to share?
Audra De Falco 
Pieter Beens 
Sherif Abuzid 
Thank you so much for sharing, Vanesa! High-five!
Freelancing is about persistence and determination. Nothing happens overnight, you can easily spend a decade in freelancing and still be newbie in many aspects. What I’ve learnt is that I have to listen to my gut, never listen to nay-sayers or people who like to complain how bad everything is.
Our profession is fantastic, our industry is booming and it’s easily one of the best places to be in right now.
My only advice is: read like crazy! Read about marketing, business, sales, customer service, web-design and even human psychology if you want to succeed as a business-owner.
Also try thinking of yourself as an entrepreneur rather than freelancer.
Freelancing has a bit of negative connotation to it, imho. Entrepreneurship on the other hand – doesn’t. It empowers people, helping them achieve more and find inner strength.
Oh, and hang out with other entrepreneurs from other industries. It will help you get a different perspective on your own business.
Just my 2 cent 🙂
Thanks again for publishing it on The Open Mic. You rock, my friend!
Thank you for your comment, Dmitry! You’re right, we should consider ourselves entrepreneurs. Thanks for the advice and the opportunity to publish in this platform. This was my first little blog-writing adventure! 🙂
You’re welcome, Vanesa! I didn’t realize that was your first post! In that case double, no, triple high-five! It must be an amazing feeling to write your first article and I’m super happy that of all places you chose The Open Mic, that’s really awesome!
Here’s to many more articles! 🙂
You’re doing a great job so far, keep going!
Great post! Thanks for sharing your experience.
Thank you for this very interesting post Vanesa! I’m in my first year as a full-time freelance translator and this helps and gives motivation. We are multi-tasks linguists AND entrepreneurs, isn’t it wonderful? 🙂 Keep writing!
It is amazing!
Thanks for your comment, Charlotte! 🙂
Great post Vanesa! you brought back memories of my first year as a freelancer 🙂 It was a difficult yet amazing time. I never knew I could manage to do so many things all by myself. I never regretted choosing freelancing as my lifestyle.
Wish you all the best.
Thanks for your comment, Fatima! 😀
Congrats on your first article on The Open Mic, Vanesa! Hope to read more from you soon 🙂
It’s amazing how many things you can learn in your first year alone. It’s the beauty of this job: you never stop learning. I’ve been a freelance translator for almost 2 years now and I know I have a long way to go, but as long as we stay motivated, nothing can stop us! Good luck with your business 🙂
I could not agree more Vanesa. Freelancing is a learning journey and it is a rewarding experience for those who are self-learners. It was very useful to read this article as a new freelancer. Thnkas
Hi Vanessa,
Thanks for your text, you gave some good advice there!
I think the path you took into the translation business was a great solid ground. Starting out part-time and/or in-house gives you skills, and a good overview of the whole work.
And, as Dmitry said, people can me freelancers for years and still feel like beginners in many aspects.
We should just keep going, and showing ourselves to the world.
The networking is very important for freelancers because the work in itself can be very lonely. So, yes, meet up with other people, for your own sanity sake!
🙂
It’s true, Vanessa. And the addition of Dmitry about the reading is a great advice, as well.