1. levy a minimum flat rate service charge for any translation, irrespective of length, except in the case of special rates for regular clients who pay a monthly or quarterly set amount,
2. work out cost on the basis of specific rates for all the different operations or tasks in the overall translation process (documentation, terminography, quality checks, layout, etc.) This highlights the different tasks involved and means they are clearly billed for what they represent in the overall translation process.
3. count as additional work, at market rates, any task undertaken over and above those related to the translation process proper (e.g. creating a glossary, correcting the source material, having another translator proof-read the translation, aligning texts and translations, setting up a translation memory, making laser print-outs),
4. apply discounts for redundancy or repetition while still charging a minimum amount for repeated segments.
This method can serve as a basic framework for quotes and then be adapted for use for those clients who setup a subscription scheme or by introducing any special rates which the translator may wish to apply to particular types of clients.
From the translator's point of view, the most rational approach would appear to be to work out the estimated cost of a translation on the basis of an hourly or daily rate applied to the total estimated time for a given job, including - if applicable - pre-translation and post-translation tasks. This implies, of course, that the translator is capable of forecasting how long the job will take, and not simply recording how long it has taken to complete. In other words, the translator has to be able to identify cost centres and work out average times for each type of task, which will then be invoiced separately, with each cost item including labour and use of various resources (equipment, software, documentation, etc.). This would include, for instance:
- a flat service charge for each translation job accepted,
- a handling charge for such as additional back-up copies, photocopying, digitizing, printing, etc.
- as the case may be, the cost of upgrading the source material,
- documentation costs,
- terminology costs - given that the terminology ultimately belongs to the work provider, who pays for it,
- time spent on interviewing information providers,
- translation costs, to which might be added the cost of creating or updating a translation memory,
- checking, proof-reading and/or revision costs,
- quality control and qualifying tests,
This kind of approach could be valuable in educating the work provider: breaking the process down into separate tasks clearly highlights its complexity and underlines the fact that each task has a definite cost within the overall total. Its main advantage is that it also most clearly identifies the intellectual property rights assigned to each operator according to the tasks performed and paid for. That being said, translators may prefer to conceal the details and charge a total amount for the service performed, on the basis of average times and costs for each item. Some translators even consider that they "work so fast that it would give an unfair advantage to the client if they didn't charge on aper-word basis".
2.3 Rates and remuneration
As regards salaried translators, salary scales are generally similar to those applied in skilled or highly-skilled non-manual jobs, but may vary considerably according to a number of factors, including:
- the employer's status - remuneration rates are generally higher in the public sector than with private employers,
- the size of the translation department: as a rule, the larger the department, the higher the rates,
- the employer's wages policy,
- regional location: in most countries, salaries can be significantly higher in the capital area and in and around major cities and industrial or service centres,
- the degree of responsibility (from top to bottom: project manager, reviser - especially at the post-editing stage - translator and terminologist, practically on an equal footing, and finally, proof-reader),
- special skills, particularly those related to sophisticated IT tools such as relatively rare software platforms, or complex computer-assisted translation tools,
- specialisms: multimedia translation and software localisation can command significantly higher rates,
- (marginally) professional competence.
Equally spectacular variations can be found in the rates applied by freelance
translators. The following factors may account for the variations:
- Translation rates may vary 'naturally' by a ratio of 10 to 1 according to the type of source material, the technical nature of the tasks involved, and the relationship between translators and their clients.
- Rates are usually higher when translators deal directly with their client than when they do sub-contracted work for a translation company or agency, simply because of the agency's commission. In fact, the translator may be paid 50% less when acting as a subcontractor to an agency than when dealing directly with the client.
- The rates applied by translation companies are generally much higher than those applied by freelancers, due to the significantly higher costs and overheads that the former have to bear.
- Rates and remunerations vary considerably from one country to the next. For instance, translation rates are higher in Germany than in France, in France than in the United Kingdom or in Spain, in Britain than in Ireland, in Ireland than in Italy, in Italy than in Argentina, and higher in Argentina than in Cambodia or in a number of other countries. This is why translation is a notoriously footloose activity: a significant percentage of translations from English into other European languages in the field of information technology used to be carried out by companies and agencies based in the Republic of Ireland. But the cost of living has risen in Ireland and so has the cost of translating. So the situation has shifted quite dramatically over the past couple of years and Hungary, Slovakia and now Bangalore have superseded Ireland. And the chances are they will in turn be superseded by some cheaper operator.
Three major sources can supply information about going rates in a given geographical area or for a given type of translation:
- The tariff indicators which professional associations regularly publish and update on the basis of information volunteered or supplied by their members. When they exist, these rapidly become standard benchmarks for the profession. The Italian Association of Translators and Interpreters (AITI) publish actual going rates. In France, the Societe Franfaise des Traducteurs provides 'tariff ranges based on actual rates, as supplied by our members'. To know about professional associations in any given country, get to the International Federation of Translators site at www.fit-ift.org/en/news-en.php and find the links to the target member association (members are grouped by continent). Note, however, that publication of rates is not allowed in the U.S. since it amounts to 'price fixing' and that publishing rates is not necessarily a good idea since this can give work providers a basis for comparisons and indicate where the bottom line is.
- Subscribers to dedicated mailing lists and forums (and portals) used by the translation profession - which generally provide data from a large variety of countries, as subscribers may be based anywhere in the world. For access, ask your navigator to return information for queries such as 'translators' + 'mailing lists': there are plenty of sites and portals.
- Freelance translators' or translation companies' Web sites. Query should be translation + price and can then be refined by country or language or type. This may prove a disheartening experience as all navigators will inevitably return answers with sometimes unbelievably low rates from some countries.
Note: Anyone wishing to use mailing lists as a source of information on going translation rates should abide by a few simple rules:
- Once you have subscribed to the list, start by searching the archives: the information you are looking for is necessarily in there because all such lists devote a lot of room to the rates issue.
- Avoid sparking off yet another discussion on the subject by sending a question to the entire forum: identify one of the most authoritative 'voices' on the list and send that person a private e-mail.
As to how much money translators make, no one but the translators themselves (and possibly internal revenue officers) know. In fact, there are huge variations depending on the country, the market, the specialisms, and the time spent translating - obviously, unless their tariffs differ widely, someone working part- time will normally earn less than someone working full time. As a rule, specialised translators can charge higher rates than generalist translators and 'localisers' or 'media translators' earn more than translators. But those who can command the highest wages or rates are the 'niche' translators - especially in such fields as finance, advertising, marketing, and the cosmetics industry.
Just to illustrate the discrepancies, we will mention a survey conducted in the mid-90s by a well-known French magazine, which listed 'translators' among those professionals earning more than € 150,000 a year at a time when, in the same country, an overwhelming majority of translators were grossing under € 20,000 a year. After all, making € 150,000 a year only implies translating 450,000 words (1,500 pages) at € 0.33 per word - which is not at all an insane proposition for top-of-the-range specialists.
Once the basic rate has been determined, additional problems will need to be addressed:
- What rate should apply to segments which have already been translated? To what extent should they be charged for a second time, and at what rate?
The rate for importing pre-translated fully matching segments is usually at least 50% of the standard rate and, in the case of 'fuzzy' or part matches, it is up to the translator to try and negotiate the best possible rate, generally thought to be at least 80% of the standard rate.
- How should 'non-text' items be dealt with? Should they be counted separately at a set rate? If so, what rate should be applied, etc.?
- What are the sound justifications for rebates: volume? Frequency of contracts? Contributions by the work provider? Availability of translation memories and/or terminology?
- What are the sound justifications for charging extra: urgency and emergency? Language? Directionality of translation? Complexity? Special requirements in terms of hardware, skills, software, checks, testing, etc.?
3. Earning more
Like anyone else, translators may wish to increase their earnings. There are basically four ways for them to achieve this:
a) specialise, preferably in one or more 'niche' sectors of the market, and
b) increase their productivity;
c) be choosy about clients;
d) apply regular rate increases.
3.1 Specialising or moving into a niche market
As we have already mentioned, a translator's potential income is directly related to the number of competent translators available to do the job. If the translator's skills and competences (in terms of domain, type of medium, skills level, tools and technologies or working languages) are rare, they will inevitably command higher rates. Free market logic rules in the tough world of supply and demand, with a degree of balance provided by regular clients who keep supplying work to their 'usual' translator(s) irrespective of fluctuating market forces, simply because they do give top priority to the trust factor.
Specialisation means higher earnings if only because the translator can then tackle jobs of increased complexity and technicality which, in turn, increases social recognition on the one hand, and reduces competition on the other - both factors which, together, justify higher consideration and more money.
Specialisation varies very much according to each translator's personal circumstances: every translator specialises sooner or later. Once a certain type of translation (in terms of domain, type of material, category of beneficiaries or users, tools or techniques used) comes to represent around 50% or more of total workload, it makes sense to specialise along those lines.
Once the translator has begun to earn a reasonable and steady income from translation, the surest way to increase turnover is by concentrating on a select portfolio of 'profitable' clients and/or on a more profitable market segment. This would also apply, on a different scale and in different ways, to translation companies. All that remains to be done then is to step up the 'hunt' for contracts in the chosen specialised skills or areas.
Note: It is usually advisable to develop specialised skills rather than to specialise in one specific area. It is also good practise to select two or three technical areas, rather than just one highly specialised field, just in case the market in that particular area suddenly collapses. This happened, for instance, in the telecommunications industry after 2001, which confirmed that a number of different specialisms are always better than just one.
In the case of salaried translators, pay rises are linked to promotion, which in turn is related to skills and specialisation. This usually means taking on new responsibilities, i.e. becoming project manager, reviser, product manager or translation manager.
3.2 Increasing productivity
Greater specialisation inevitably leads to increased productivity. By specialising, the translator gains a better knowledge of the specialised fields or subject areas, and this naturally leads to gains in both speed and quality of translation.
3.2.1 'Normal' productivity
For the work provider or the employer, productivity should by definition be 'as high as possible'. The salaried translator will consider that productivity should be: "reasonable; but quality is what counts". From the freelance translator's point of view, productivity has to be: "high enough to ensure the survival of the business unit" (the translator himself or herself) or "high enough to guarantee a reasonable income", which can, of course, mean different things to different people.
From a purely economic point of view, the productivity of an 'in-house' translator must be such that his translations cost no more than 'outsourced' translations, once all other costs (overheads and running costs) have been taken into account. Calculating translator productivity is in fact rather straightforward, whether it be for a salaried translator (left-hand column), or for a freelance translator (right-hand column).
Salaried translator
1. Work out the total cost of the salaried translator on the following basis:
cost = annual salary + employer contributions + proof-reading and revision costs + prorated share of overheads and taxes relating to the translation activity (i.e. the salaries and overheads relating to the financial, commercial and secretarial staff, plus various costs relating to external services, etc.) + depreciation + miscellaneous items, including paid-out dividends.
2. Divide this figure by the average rate charged per translation unit (page, word or other) to find out how many units the translator needs to produce per year to cover costs.
3. Divide the number obtained by the number of days or hours that an employee is legally entitled to work, in order to find how many units the translator should handle on average per day, or per hour.
Freelance translator
1. Determine an acceptable annual income (i.e. profits).
2. Add to this figure all the mandatory contributions, professional charges, taxes, subscriptions, depreciation costs, consumables, etc. related to the job, to determine an annual turnover target.
3. Divide total turnover by the average rate charged per translation unit (page, word or other) to find out how many units need to be translated every year.
4. Divide this figure by the number of days or hours of work that the translator is willing to put in, in order to obtain the average volume the translator needs to translate per day or per hour.
|
The figures will vary considerably according to cost levels, types of source material, investment levels and depreciation. Some translators can break even at 1,200 words per day, while others may struggle to make ends meet on 4,000 words per day.
The translator (or employer) can then calculate the average real cost of translation by dividing the total costs registered over a given period of time (3, 6 or 12 months for instance) by the volume of translation produced over the same period. If the result is higher than the rates charged, then either the latter should be adjusted upwards, or productivity needs to be increased (or, in the case of the freelancer, longer hours must be put in...).
3.2.2 Increased productivity
The translator can improve productivity in a number of ways:
- by improving skills and competences,
- by building on experience,
- by improving translation management procedures,
- by specialising and focusing on 'pure translation', or, conversely, by giving up 'pure translation' altogether,
- by reducing volume and scope,
- by working faster,
- by 'going automatic'.
* Increasing and improving existing skills will increase the translator's speed, because less time will have to be spent on each stage of the translation process. Productivity gains are obvious in pre-translation when the translator knows the subject-matter, the terminology, and the phraseology. They are also considerable in the post-transfer phase as less checking and revision is required.
To improve skills and competences, the translator should:
- specialise in order to restrict the range of subject areas or translation types;
- constantly keep abreast with developments in the client's products, processes and concepts.
* Building on experience may be done in four different ways:
- by consolidating a portfolio of regular clients, because familiarity with the subject area, the type of translation, the terminology and phraseology, the tools and technologies, and the type of service the client expects all help to increase speed and efficiency.
- by concentrating on a single domain, or on related areas - so that whatever the translator learns and acquires is put to multiple uses.
- by consolidating and archiving all the translation resources and especially the terminology accumulated over time.
- by implementing and exploiting translation memories in order to make systematic reuse of previously translated material.
* Improving translation management becomes reality the moment translation memories come into play. But translation management can also be enhanced by strictly monitoring the workflow (process) and identifying bottlenecks along the critical path of translation. Significant gains can be achieved in particular by systematically comparing estimated times and real times in order to identify the cause of any discrepancies and solve the problems.
* Whenever possible, the translator should specialise and concentrate on 'pure' translation, even if it means paying someone else to carry out other tasks such as terminology management, proof reading, revision, taking dictation, etc.
* Conversely, including such other tasks in the services the translator charges for can also help increase profitability. Maximum profitability may be gained through specialising in anything but 'pure translation', which is tantamount to changing jobs.
* Reducing the volume and purposes of the end-product is another way of achieving greater efficiency in providing translation services. In an economic model of translation, this entails choosing the type, mode or degree of 'finishing' that will be most cost-effective for a given translation in meeting the client's and/or end-user's needs. This may mean:
- not translating anything which is not essential for the purpose in hand or loses significance in the shift in cultures and/or functions;
- not striving to achieve the highest degree of stylistic perfection if this is not an essential requirement for the client;
- not necessarily doing a written translation when a recorded oral translation maybe adequate for the purpose.
* Reducing the time required to do the job is one of the most effective ways of increasing productivity. To speed up translation, one may:
- use translation memory systems;
- require that source material always be provided in digital format;
- require that source material always be quality certified;
- type-over the translation (i.e. type the translation directly into the source text, which is then replaced by the translation);
- whenever possible, dictate the translation, using a digital voice recorder downloading into the computer or using voice recognition technology.
* Automation may be an option for companies and/or individual translators who:
- translate large volumes for clients who only want a 'rough idea' of what is in the source document - though in this case, the clients themselves soon find out how to use online translation systems
or
- are prepared to carry out extensive post-editing and re-writing of the translated text.
However, given the significant investment in terms of time and effort required to supply the automatic translation system with the necessary resources and to fine- tune the system, this is not really an option for the freelance translator - for whom dictated translation is usually a safer bet.
3.3 Selecting the 'best' clients and increasing their numbers
Translators wanting to increase their income will naturally tend to select the most reliable or regular and most profitable clients. For freelance translators, this means, in particular, building up their own client portfolio rather than relying on agencies or translation brokerage companies to supply work.
On the face of it, this would seem perfectly logical, given that agencies or brokers will inevitably rake off their own commission before paying the translator
for the job. In fact, the agency or the broker may well turn out to be the 'ideal' client if the translator has neither the means nor the time, nor the inclination, to go out and look for contracts, and if the agency or brokerage company:
- provides the translator with a real service in return for their commission, by:
- guaranteeing regular contracts,
- providing resources and help of various kinds,
- providing administrative, accounting and management advice and help,
- assuming liability for non-payment or litigation,
- doing final quality checks.
- provides a real service to the work provider by:
- managing the translation projects, the translators and other service providers,
- reducing the time spent finalising translation contracts,
- finding and selecting the translators,
- dispatching the work,
- assuring quality.
Things may be very different if the agency or brokerage company simply 'fleeces' the translators, or if the translators believe this to be the case.
3.4 Updating tariffs regularly
Increased turnover does not necessarily mean what is actually the bottom line for the translator: higher earnings. And everyone must bear in mind that productivity gains are usually made at the expense of something else, that the cost of living moves up and that externalised services have to be paid for. This means tariffs should be updated regularly and, at the same time, the cost of certain items in the overall service rendered has to be reduced. Clients will always complain about price hikes. But it is better to let the discontented go and look for new clients than to try to postpone a long overdue price rise.
Things are different altogether for salaried translators, as they have no say in updating the company's tariffs. At best, all they can hope for is a pay rise.
4. Avoiding management errors
One of the main problems for anyone starting out in the business is avoiding basic (but ever so costly) management errors. Translators starting out on their own or setting up their own business want to capitalise on their knowledge and know- how. But few translators have the training or experience required to face what can in some countries be a management nightmare.
Even though translators may not need to be a cross between a chartered accountant and a CFO, they should be knowledgeable about balance sheets, taxes and contributions, budget planning and depreciation rules. As translators are, by definition, constantly acquiring new knowledge and exploring new fields, it is not usually too difficult for them to learn financial management skills. Of course, if all budding translators came onto the market already familiar with basic management principles, they would probably find things easier and many would avoid having to throw in the sponge after a few months or years. Any future freelance translator should acquire (or should be taught) basic financial management and accounting skills. This was in fact the advice given to their future colleagues by 65% of practising translators in a Europe-wide survey carried out in September and October 1998 and repeated in 2004. The interesting point is that such advice was always volunteered spontaneously by respondents: the questionnaire did not include financial management in the list of skills surveyed.
Granted that this is easier said than done, young translators should also heed the following advice from more seasoned translators about the precautions they should take and the mistakes they should avoid making in their early years, i.e.:
- Always build in a safety margin when planning work schedules.
- Always keep some time on hand for urgent work form regular clients.
- Always come to a clear agreement with the work provider on conditions of payment (including payment due dates).
- Specify that instalments will be due for large-scale contracts and indicate dates.
- Ask for an advance payment on large contracts - just like any other skilled professional.
- In the case of very large volume translations for the same work provider, ask for instalments on a pro rata basis according to state of completion.
- Keep a prospective table of taxes and contributions due and set aside the corresponding pro rata on each payment received.
- Never hesitate to undertake the appropriate legal action against those who deliberately refuse payment: they can at least be prevented from causing further damage to other translators. Besides, going to court actually works!
- Make sure that each client is a profit centre. Do not try to balance out loss- making contracts against profitable jobs: you will inevitably end up with more of the former
- Avoid at all costs getting (heavily) dependent on a single (or massively dominant) work provider: a client who accounts for 50% or more of your turnover can disappear overnight, leaving you high and dry... A 33% ceiling
is a safe bet, but some translators even think it unwise to rely on one client for more than a quarter of your turnover.
5. Optimizing time management
All translators' lives are dominated by time management preoccupations and deadlines (time-to-market pressures).
When it comes to supply, salaried translators are better off as they are normally supplied with work on a regular basis whereas things are more difficult for freelancers: regular work is sometimes hard to come by and translators must not risk losing a good client by turning down a contract. And deadlines are usually far too short (generally because work providers seem to be in the habit of'forgetting' to include the translation in their schedule) or the contract price is too low (which means that the translator cannot afford to 'waste' time on the job and certainly not on fine-tuned quality control).
Even when both the author of the source document and the work provider are more aware of the time factor and willing to plan for sufficient translation time, the translation seldom starts on schedule: the material is usually just 'not (quite) ready' when it was supposed to. For the translator, this can mean having to be prepared to work fifteen or sixteen hours a day for days on end to meet the deadline on a major contract, and then facing several nail-biting days, or even weeks, with little or no work. To alleviate this, it may be a good idea to have an ongoing book translation in the background to fill in the gaps and also 'take a breather' from the cutting edge technical translation contracts.
Of course, experienced translators can try to persuade their regular clients to schedule their translation needs over several months, but everyone knows that even the sketchiest schedule soon gets out of sync when, as is often the case, one of the following imponderables happens:
Дата добавления: 2015-09-29; просмотров: 21 | Нарушение авторских прав
| <== предыдущая лекция | | | следующая лекция ==> |