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Is it risky to turn down jobs?
Thread poster: Whitney Maslak
Wilsonn Perez Reyes
Wilsonn Perez Reyes  Identity Verified
El Salvador
Local time: 03:38
Member (2007)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Life in First-World countries Jun 13, 2015

Whitney Maslak wrote:

I've been freelancing on a part-time basis for about a year now. In the past few weeks, I've been getting more job requests than ever before, which is so exciting. However, I do have to turn some down here and there..


You are just getting established and are already inundated by job offers.

I am starting to like the idea of living in a First-World country.


 
Angie Garbarino
Angie Garbarino  Identity Verified
Local time: 10:38
Member (2003)
French to Italian
+ ...
And Jun 13, 2015

Tom in London wrote:

Always turn down a job if the payment offered is less than what you think is reasonable.


If the payment terms are longer than what you think reasonable.


 
Balasubramaniam L.
Balasubramaniam L.  Identity Verified
India
Local time: 15:08
Member (2006)
English to Hindi
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SITE LOCALIZER
The right balance Jun 13, 2015

The trick is to strike the right balance between your rates and your capacity. If you find yourself in a position where you are overwhelmed by work and are having to refuse a large number of job offers, that is a clear indication that you are charging too low a rate and your market and skill set can support a higher rate. You should therefore first think of raising your rates.

While refusing jobs, take a tactful approach. Don't refuse the same client too frequently, especially if he
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The trick is to strike the right balance between your rates and your capacity. If you find yourself in a position where you are overwhelmed by work and are having to refuse a large number of job offers, that is a clear indication that you are charging too low a rate and your market and skill set can support a higher rate. You should therefore first think of raising your rates.

While refusing jobs, take a tactful approach. Don't refuse the same client too frequently, especially if he pays well and on time and has interesting projects.

You could also do a sorting and rating of your client and rank them on a scale of most comfortable to least comfortable working with. Refuse more jobs of the clients in the bottom of the list.

Eventually you should have a portfolio of 15 to 20 well-paying clients. You should keep shuffling, weeding and adding to this list so that you always have the right number of well-heeled clients in your portfolio to keep you in work for your full capacity and needs.
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Whitney Maslak
Whitney Maslak
United States
Local time: 03:38
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
I'm not sure what you mean Jun 13, 2015

Wilsonn Perez Reyes wrote:

You are just getting established and are already inundated by job offers.

I am starting to like the idea of living in a First-World country.


I'm not sure if that's sarcasm, but I don't see how living in a first world country has to do with anything. Anyway, I've been working hard for the last year seeking out clients and submitting applications to various agencies, so I feel like my work is starting to pay off.


 
Whitney Maslak
Whitney Maslak
United States
Local time: 03:38
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
That makes sense Jun 13, 2015

Balasubramaniam L. wrote:

The trick is to strike the right balance between your rates and your capacity. If you find yourself in a position where you are overwhelmed by work and are having to refuse a large number of job offers, that is a clear indication that you are charging too low a rate and your market and skill set can support a higher rate. You should therefore first think of raising your rates.

While refusing jobs, take a tactful approach. Don't refuse the same client too frequently, especially if he pays well and on time and has interesting projects.

You could also do a sorting and rating of your client and rank them on a scale of most comfortable to least comfortable working with. Refuse more jobs of the clients in the bottom of the list.

Eventually you should have a portfolio of 15 to 20 well-paying clients. You should keep shuffling, weeding and adding to this list so that you always have the right number of well-heeled clients in your portfolio to keep you in work for your full capacity and needs.


Thanks, Balasubramaniam. It makes sense to raise your rates when you're getting a large amount of job offers. Of course, there are an infinite number agencies who pay shamefully low rates, so I will be sure to weed those out. I also like the idea of ranking the different clients. That way I would make sure to keep accepting more jobs from the better-paying, more reliable clients.


 
Andrej Fric
Andrej Fric  Identity Verified
Slovenia
Local time: 10:38
Member (2011)
German to Slovenian
+ ...
Turn down jobs politelly and explain why. Jun 13, 2015

That's what I always do. I tell the client, if I'm not confident with the subject, or am I too busy or if I can't agree with any of the commercial conditions.

Good clients understand and are often willing to negotiate prices and deadlines. However, the quality must always be top. Don't take the job, if you don't have time or knowledge to do it the best you can. Better turning down than ruin your name (hard to build, easy to destroy).


 
Angela Malik
Angela Malik  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
German to English
+ ...
Speaking from a "client's" point of view... Jun 13, 2015

I can promise you that any client worth keeping will not only accept that you've declined a job due to lack of availability or not feeling comfortable with the text, they will think MORE HIGHLY of you.

I used to be a project manager, and it is actually a sign of a very good translator when they decline work because they feel unable to do it justice, either because they aren't comfortable with the material or they don't have time to do it well.

And most clients will eve
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I can promise you that any client worth keeping will not only accept that you've declined a job due to lack of availability or not feeling comfortable with the text, they will think MORE HIGHLY of you.

I used to be a project manager, and it is actually a sign of a very good translator when they decline work because they feel unable to do it justice, either because they aren't comfortable with the material or they don't have time to do it well.

And most clients will even understand if you decline because the price is too low, although in that instance, especially if you have done other work for them at that rate in the past, it helps if you have a polite, professional reason behind it (e.g. "I'm sorry, but the complexity of this project or the difficult nature of the text will require more time and skill to complete. I can definitely do it for you, but it will only be feasible for me for this [new, higher, more fair, whatever] price. I hope you understand.")

You look better, more professional, more quality-focused, etc. when you decline jobs because it tells the client that you know your own limitations and respect those limits BEFORE it affects their jobs!
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Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT
Tomás Cano Binder, BA, CT  Identity Verified
Spain
Local time: 10:38
Member (2005)
English to Spanish
+ ...
Two-tiered portfolio management Jun 13, 2015

In my opinion, you should have a group of selected customers (basically those who pay more and are more agreeable in the way they treat you) whose jobs you always accept, even if it means stretching at many moments during the year. These would be your strategic customers. They should feel that you sincerely care about them, but none of them should mean more than 20% of your total income. If you have one big customer, do your best to diversify and take more work from other good customers so that ... See more
In my opinion, you should have a group of selected customers (basically those who pay more and are more agreeable in the way they treat you) whose jobs you always accept, even if it means stretching at many moments during the year. These would be your strategic customers. They should feel that you sincerely care about them, but none of them should mean more than 20% of your total income. If you have one big customer, do your best to diversify and take more work from other good customers so that your risk is well distributed among five or six customers at the very least.

Since there are moments in which your strategic customers combined do not give you enough work to fill your desired workload, you should try to serve other customers as much as possible, even with occasional stretching. These would be secondary customers, and you should keep a close eye on their potencial and evolution. Maybe one of your strategic customers loses a big account, has financial problems, or changes their policy and they are no longer interesting. In this situation, you might want to replace them with one or two of your secondary customers, who then become strategic.

In any case, do not accept all work that comes around: accept only work that you can master within the time available and with your knowledge and research abilities, and try to reserve time for yourself so that you do not get burnt and end up hating the profession in the long run.
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Whitney Maslak
Whitney Maslak
United States
Local time: 03:38
German to English
TOPIC STARTER
I never thought of it that way Jun 13, 2015

Angela Rimmer wrote:

I can promise you that any client worth keeping will not only accept that you've declined a job due to lack of availability or not feeling comfortable with the text, they will think MORE HIGHLY of you.



That's good to know that the worthwhile clients will understand! I do feel better now about the situation. It's not like I've been turning down jobs left and right, but the past couple weeks was the first time I actually had a few jobs I couldn't take on, mostly because I knew I wouldn't be able to deliver a good translation by the deadline. There was also another job that was small enough I could have completed it, but it was a very poor quality PDF scan, and those are my least favorite types of files to translate. So I considered myself fortunate enough to have enough work to not feel obligated to accept that one.


 
José Henrique Lamensdorf
José Henrique Lamensdorf  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 06:38
English to Portuguese
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In memoriam
Then think of it this way... Jun 13, 2015

Whitney Maslak wrote:

I never thought of it that way

Angela Rimmer wrote:

I can promise you that any client worth keeping will not only accept that you've declined a job due to lack of availability or not feeling comfortable with the text, they will think MORE HIGHLY of you.



That's good to know that the worthwhile clients will understand! I do feel better now about the situation. It's not like I've been turning down jobs left and right, but the past couple weeks was the first time I actually had a few jobs I couldn't take on, mostly because I knew I wouldn't be able to deliver a good translation by the deadline. There was also another job that was small enough I could have completed it, but it was a very poor quality PDF scan, and those are my least favorite types of files to translate. So I considered myself fortunate enough to have enough work to not feel obligated to accept that one.


Develop a few specialty translation areas, things that will be difficult for the client to find a better option than you. And believe me, "General" may be included among them. Over time, you'll discover that there are areas of human knowledge where you shouldn't translate; you'd have to learn just too much about it on every job you accepted.

The client wants to know what you CAN do. It took me 40 years in this trade to build my lists of "specialties" and "areas self-declared as off-limits". I state them clearly on my web site. However there is absolutely no reason why I shouldn't have started assembling this "charter" many years earlier.

I found among my professionally-met friends two thoroughly reliable specialist translators for each of my off-limits group. I mean, two for med/bio and two for fin/acct. Haven't found one for sports yet. They work in my language pair, of course. I keep in touch with them, and will divert any such request to them immediately, expecting no thanks.

I'll be glad if I can facilitate my clients' needs being met by my specialist friends. I know for sure these folks will do a great job in their specialties. When that client needs my specialties instead, my score with them will be high already.

Again, the client wants to know what you CAN do. If you can't meet their deadline, tell them when you can get it done.

I make it crystal clear to them that I never deliver late. If I am not accepting their tight deadline, it's because I'm keeping a previous commitment to someone else. My proposed delivery date/time involves the very same level of commitment, so they can feel reassured that I won't deliver their job later than I promised either.

Some clients respect professionalism, and will pay whatever it costs to have it. They are worth every effort to keep. Others just want low rates, nothing else, so it's fair that you should care about them as little as they do about you.


 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
English to German
Had to reject lots lately Jun 14, 2015

In the last 2 weeks I had to reject quite a number of large projects from agencies that I would like to build a regular working relationship with.

Unfortunately, I was working on two other non urgent jobs and couldn't have kept their rather tight deadlines, or it was too technical for me, or the CAT tool was not compatible. I tried to negotiate, made it clear that I did my best to accommodate them, but the most important thing to me is that I want to deliver the best job I can - we
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In the last 2 weeks I had to reject quite a number of large projects from agencies that I would like to build a regular working relationship with.

Unfortunately, I was working on two other non urgent jobs and couldn't have kept their rather tight deadlines, or it was too technical for me, or the CAT tool was not compatible. I tried to negotiate, made it clear that I did my best to accommodate them, but the most important thing to me is that I want to deliver the best job I can - well within the deadline (which means stressfree).

Last week I had more capacity, but no offers... I hope they will come back...

[Edited at 2015-06-14 09:48 GMT]
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Angela Malik
Angela Malik  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
German to English
+ ...
I think they will come back Jun 15, 2015

Gabriele Demuth wrote:

In the last 2 weeks I had to reject quite a number of large projects from agencies that I would like to build a regular working relationship with.

...

Last week I had more capacity, but no offers... I hope they will come back...


I think they will. Unless you decline a lot of jobs in a row over a longer period of time -- then the client just assumes that you are always busy and you end up being a last resort where they don't waste their time asking you unless they're struggling to place the job elsewhere.

I have even turned down first jobs with brand new clients, and they have come back; it's not as risky to decline jobs as it feels at the time.


 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Slack Jun 15, 2015

It's always good to have a little bit of slack in your schedule so that if an important client asks you to do something you can always fit it in. Late last Friday one of my important clients asked me to do a small job, which I was able to fit on over the weekend without too much trouble. It's not advisable to have so much work that you have to turn down jobs from your important clients. Others, yes, perhaps.

 
Gabriele Demuth
Gabriele Demuth  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
English to German
Slack Jun 15, 2015

Yes, I did have a some slack, I could have fitted in projects of about 1000 words per day - but if an agency calculates their deadlines assuming that translators will do 2500 words per day, then... I also have clients that send work weekly on a particular day, which is firmly booked into my schedule.

 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 09:38
Member (2008)
Italian to English
This morning Jun 15, 2015

I had to say "no" to one of my best clients this morning. At 0830 (when I was still bleary-eyed and not at my peak) one of the PMs sent me a PDF (not even a Word file!) of two magazine articles dealing with subjects out of my field and using vocabulary I would have had to research (carefully!). They wanted the translation back by 0915. That gave me 45 minutes for the whole thing including the inevitable delays in sending/receiving emails.

Despite the fact that I try never to say "no
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I had to say "no" to one of my best clients this morning. At 0830 (when I was still bleary-eyed and not at my peak) one of the PMs sent me a PDF (not even a Word file!) of two magazine articles dealing with subjects out of my field and using vocabulary I would have had to research (carefully!). They wanted the translation back by 0915. That gave me 45 minutes for the whole thing including the inevitable delays in sending/receiving emails.

Despite the fact that I try never to say "no" to this agency, and even though the PM was offering me a 15% increase on my rate, in this case I had to turn down the job.

So re the headline of this thread: yes, it's risky saying "no" but it would have been even riskier to take the job and make a mess of it. I just hope my goodwill with this particular agency is strong enough not to have a negative effect on my position.

[Edited at 2015-06-15 09:37 GMT]
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