Musings from an overworked translator

Spreading the love June 24, 2008

Inspired by the Masked Translator’s post, When your client goes bankrupt, I want to stress the importance of “spreading the love.” By that I mean the importance of not relying on one or two customers for all of your work. I know I’ve said this before, but it bears repeating. If one of those customers goes bankrupt or the project manager you work with leaves to strike out on their own or go work for another company, you might find yourself in dire straits.

When I was first establishing myself on the U.S. market after relocating to the U.S. in 2001, one of my colleagues gave me the best advice when she told me you need 7 clients to be successful. I realize the wisdom of those words and strive to cultivate a large client base. I didn’t realize how many clients I actually had until I entered them all into my Translation Office 3000 database. It has reached the point where I am trying to cull some of my clients who are difficult to work with or have unacceptable payment terms, but more on that another day.

Not every client is going to contact you as their first point of contact, but that isn’t necessary to build a thriving translation business. I can confidently say that I am the “A translator” for two of my clients. When they contact me (at least once a week, if not some weeks every day) I do everything I can to make sure I have capacity for their work. One of them tends to send a small job every day or every couple days, but those small jobs add up when I issue my invoice to them at the end of the month (I only issue monthly bills for three clients – everyone else gets billed when the job is delivered). I also have numerous clients for whom I am their B or C translator, but that is okay too. Having several clients who contact you with job requests (perhaps not every day, but at least several times a month) ensures that you will be kept busy throughout the month.

This also translates into a steady inflow of payments, so there is no major ebb and flow in the bank account (except for maybe right after my quarterly tax payment when the clients have also had to pay their quarterly taxes and are a little slow in issuing payments). I must be extremely lucky, because I have never had a client go bankrupt while owing me money. However, I also don’t tie myself up with one client’s job for an entire month, ensuring no other money will be coming in. If you spread the love, you’ll find things go relatively smoothly most of the time (but be sure to tuck aside some money as a cushion to cover the dry spells – and never, never tap into your quarterly tax payment fund).

Wikipedia: How to Get Clients to Pay Invoices Promptly June 19, 2008

My iGoogle page has once again provided an interesting tidbit. Today’s “How To of The Day” is “How to Get Clients to Pay Invoices Promptly.” As someone who has $1000 in overdue invoices and almost $2000 due within the next week, I was very curious to see what they had to say.

Their tips include:

1. Make your payment policies clear at the time your services
   are retained.
2. Accept all forms of payment and encourage credit card
   payment.
3. Get a deposit in advance.
4. Always let the customer pay when they offer.
5. Make arrangements for payment before you deliver the final
   product.
6. Follow up every day until you receive your money.
7. Apply your payment policies to every single customer.
8. Contact the credit agencies.

I have only quoted the highlights. I highly suggest clicking on the above link and reading the whole article.

I agree with most of the points, but unfortunately in our business some of the points don’t apply. First of all, I don’t know many translators who are willing to accept credit cards (I know there are a few who rely on PayPal and/or Moneybookers, but I personally can’t justify the fee). Getting a deposit in advance or payment before delivery is all well and good if the client is a direct client, but I don’t know many (if any) translation agencies that are willing to accept either of those practices. I also disagree with following up every day until you get paid. I generally wait a week or two before I send out a reminder. Once the invoice is over 30 days late I will write an e-mail every week or every couple days. If it were ever to get more than 45 days late I think I would then start writing them every day and being a total pain.

Luckily I haven’t had to worry about this much. I do my due diligence before accepting work from a new client (I subscribe to Payment Practices and Zahlungspraxis [a German-language payment practices list] and ask for referrals from several of their translators if the agency isn’t listed on one of those lists) and generally only work with clients with whom I have a good relationship. In the rare cases that an invoice has been almost 30 days overdue it is usually because the project manager or accounting has misplaced or lost the invoice – or at least claims they have and assure me that it will be processed as soon as possible.

The bullet item I would probably add would be: “9. Submit invoices either with the job or immediately after you have submitted the job.” I’ve found most agencies take 30 to 45 days to pay an invoice (and I refuse to work with agencies that have payment terms of 60 days or even 60 days EOM [end of month]). Why wait an additional 15, 20 or 30 days because it took you that long to send them the invoice in the first place?

Do you have any tips you have found to be helpful for being paid promptly by your clients? I definitely want to hear them!