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This video provides advice and a number of tips on how to establish yourself as
a freelancer on the translation market.
It is not going to be a guide to success in five steps that you might find
anywhere else and I cannot tell you how to establish a multinational translation
company because I have not achieved that. I rather want to share my own personal
experience. I started a couple of years ago with very little formal education,
with no business contacts, no prospective customers. I was a newcomer
to the country - of course I had no investors either. Today I translate
and interpret not only for the UK government but also for international
companies
such as Mercedes Benz, Volvo,and so on.
It is not about me boasting about how good I am. I just want to show you
that even if you have nothing now and don't know how to start, in a couple
of years
you can be translating for multinational companies, make enough income for living
and still have time for your family and friends.
Of course I cannot cover everything in detail but this is what i'm going to
talk about.
First - what do you need to start as a freelancer in terms of skills, education
and specialisation. Second, what jobs are available on the market - what you can
get, which fields of expertise are sought after, what the quality and technical
requirements are and what is the difference between working for agencies
and direct clients.
How to advertise yourself and seek and keep clients.
This is a huge topic that cannot be covered in a couple of minutes but I am
giving a couple of tips on self-promotion and customer
relationships.
How to organize workflow. Again, everybody's work is different but I
can share a couple of practical tips on using CAT tools and order tracking.
Chapter 5 is for those who have already got over the first steps. Perhaps
you are dealing with overseas clients, may have problems with unpaid invoices,
or just wonder how to get rid of fraudsters and other tricky clients that are just
wasting your time. And the last chapter - what to do next.
How to expand and improve your services and how to get the most of the
language and translation skills you have already acquired.