What to Charge: Calculating Your Rates

What to Charge: Calculating Your Rates The most common dilemma facing freelance translators is the question of how to price their services. Using the word count as a basis is only one of the factors to be considered; your language combination, the subject and type of document, when the assignment is required along with whether it comes to you through an agency or directly from the client, all play a role in how the assignment will be completed. The message behind all of these factors is to be as flexible as possible without causing a loss to your income. There is a wide variance in rates depending on the country and the company that you are working with and having a base rate as a starting point will give you the ability to adjust your rates accordingly when you need to negotiate rates for different types of projects. If you have a monthly income goal of $2,750 you must calculate a base rate that is reasonable but sufficient to meet your needs. For example, using a word count rate of $.11 per word would result in this equation: 1. 2500 words per day x $.11 per word=$275.00 2. $275.00 x 5 days per week = $1,375.00 3. $1,375 x 4 weeks per month = $5,500.00 Using this as your basis, you must acquire 25,000 words of translation work in order to meet your monthly expenses. With a base rate of $.11 per word, you can then calculate how much margin you have to negotiate for various projects. The American Translators Association conducted a “Translation and Interpreting Compensation” survey that you can request if you would like more information regarding income standards for the translation and interpreting professions. Regardless of the rate, as a freelance translator, there are times when you find yourself without an abundance of assignments. The fact that being a freelancer is unpredictable makes it all the more important to organize your activities carefully and complete your projects on schedule professionally. The competition in freelance translation is quite intense and while the Internet is a boon to this profession in many ways, it also can make it difficult to compete; if your word rate is $.11 and there is another translator willing to do the work at $.05, there is little room for negotiation based on price. All rights belong to ostom, Use of this post is allowed provided this link is present at the end of the article http://getdirectclient.blogspot.com