Managing Your Freelance Client Portfolio
This post is a reblog, originally published in the Slator Tool Box. It is reprinted here with permission of the author.
一个偶尔联系的机构给我发了一封电子邮件,附带了四个图像文件. Taken with a phone, the pictures show separate pages of a medical patient record. No attempt has been made to redact personal data, and the text is blurry. 你能不能准备一份字数统计和报价,然后尽快翻译好?
The sloppiness of the inquiry bothers me. 如果病人知道这些医疗记录被如此粗心地通过电子邮件转发给陌生人,他们会怎么说? I politely declined the project, citing lack of time, but the request landed the company on my annual review list.
Freelancers sometimes mistakenly believe that they must hold on to every 但建立一个高效的客户群是一个持续的过程.
Early in your freelance career, there is nothing more exciting than adding new clients to your portfolio, 但几年后,当你发现自己的经验和专业的价值时,情况就变了. Suddenly, 那些一直给你提供入门级工作的客户占用了你的带宽.
这两个阶段之间的区别与心态有关:作为初学者,你几乎没有选择, 你不必被动地接受职业生涯中出现的每一个项目.
Key Criteria for a Healthy Client Base
这里有一些客户基础的特点,可以让你的自由职业事业长期发展:
- Number of accounts. Ideally, 你需要两到五个主要客户(你的A名单),他们在特定领域提供稳定数量的工作, along with a few less frequent accounts (your B List).
随着时间的推移,不要犹豫,改变这些账户的组合,以帮助你设定新的目标,提高你的利率. If you can, strive to diversify your accounts. For example, 来自不同国家的客户或以其他货币付款的客户为您的投资组合增加了宝贵的经济保障.
- Payment practices. 你的A和B名单上的客户愿意支付你的利率,并提供不需要你做出过度牺牲的付款条件(如PayPal转账费用)。.
这些客户端为布局或文本修改等任务提供公平的补偿. In addition, you can count on their payment by the agreed due date. 由此产生的收入保障允许更好的规划和财务预测.
- Concern for quality. Ideally, your clients (mostly) send you interesting, challenging work that is commensurate with your experience. 他们会定期提供合格的反馈来帮助你提高,并且有兴趣与你建立长期的工作关系.
This concern for quality is evident, for example, in their efforts to share terminology and answer your questions. Their quality expectations not only make your work more consistent, but also challenge you to keep learning.
- Respect. 与客户员工的交流,无论多么简短,都会让你感到被尊重,并成为团队的一员. A and B List clients are mindful of your time (and time zone!) and set reasonable deadlines.
这些客户同样尊重自己的终端客户,愿意倾听你的意见和问题.
在翻译过程中成为客户有价值的合作伙伴可以减少你的压力水平,让你更好地利用你的休息时间.
实现满足这些标准的客户投资组合不是运气或卓越技能的问题. 相反,你需要持续的努力来识别和留住你真正想为之工作的客户.
To make room at the top, i.e., for more challenging work that provides learning opportunities, for better pay, or for improved work-life balance, something has to give.
然而,在你自由职业的头几年,放弃来之不易的客户是没有意义的, 重组你的投资组合是在你的事业后期避免倦怠和低估你的技能的基本策略. That’s where your C List, if you have it, comes in.
My Best Tips for Saying Good-Bye to a Client
Above all, 请记住,语言翻译行业相对较小且人脉广泛. Letting go of a business connection must therefore be a deliberate process. Except in cases of unacceptable ethical breach, 不要因为愤怒而终止与客户的关系,把自己的声誉置于危险之中.
我更喜欢的方法是保留一份客户年度评估名单,这些客户可能更适合其他人. 我会在第三季度早期评估业务发展情况,以评估客户关系的质量,并寻找新的机会.
If I decide to let go of any clients on my review list, 我给他们写了一封礼貌的便条,让他们知道我从新年开始将不再有新的任务. That gives them three months to make internal arrangements. 我也向他们保证,我对合作没有任何抱怨,我的决定是由于对新的工作领域或直接客户的关注.
这个概念让我有机会专注于我的a List客户账户,并与那些像我一样关心语言翻译细节和质量的人一起完成我的大部分工作.
如果你一直在告诉自己,你已经达到了“薪酬等级的顶端”,或者你的自由职业主要是重复性的初级工资任务, it may be time to implement your own strategies for portfolio management.
About the Author
Dorothee Racette, CT has been a full-time freelance GER < > EN translator for over 25 years. She served as ATA President from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, she established her own coaching business, Take Back My Day, 帮助个人和组织解决与工作流程和时间管理相关的问题. 作为一名永利登录网址的生产力教练(CPC),她现在的工作主要是翻译和指导. Her book Complete What You Started (2020) provides a blueprint for carrying big projects across the finish line. You can read her blog at takebackmyday.com/blog.
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