Comments on: Get thee a minimum price and use it http://translationmusings.com/2009/07/10/get-thee-a-minimum-price-and-use-it/ featuring musings about my life and the translation industry Fri, 25 May 2012 16:32:51 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Riccardo http://translationmusings.com/2009/07/10/get-thee-a-minimum-price-and-use-it/#comment-2031 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 22:10:02 +0000 http://translationmusings.com/?p=1779#comment-2031 In fact, it costs less to do 5 (or even 50) words for free, than charging for them by the word, if one does not use a minimum charge:
5 words you just translate for free, type them in an e-mail, and forget about it. Total time spent, 1 minute.
If you have to also account for them, you may very well have to spend 15 minutes for 5 words (record project, translate, invoice, etc.).

Hence, the importance of minimum charge rates.

And nobody ever balks at them (if a prospect balks at the idea of paying a minimum charge – you don’t want them as customers)

]]> By: MT http://translationmusings.com/2009/07/10/get-thee-a-minimum-price-and-use-it/#comment-2030 Fri, 10 Jul 2009 18:47:05 +0000 http://translationmusings.com/?p=1779#comment-2030 This is a shocking story. I totally agree that translators should have a minimum job price (most people charge between $25 and $45). Like you said, five words is something you might just do for free, too.

Freelancers often forget that there is a *cost* to processing billing (general overhead), in terms of your time and resource consumption, let alone health insurance costs and self-employment tax, and processing a $3 invoice probably doesn’t even cover all the overhead that the invoice incurs…

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