I got into Chinese translation business purely by accident. Ten years ago while I was a freelance contribute writer for several Chinese newspaper I was also working as a graphic artist for a multi-lingual ad firm where specializing in Asian marketing in San Francisco. My ad firm on occasion received rush translation jobs that were as urgent as supposed to be done by yesterday. Due to the jobs were too rush, we often had trouble getting a right translator (who must be quick and accurate and doesn't charge us a fortune.) to work on those projects. Therefore, my supervisor started to ask all staffs who know Chinese in the office to work together finishing the job. I happened to be the "quick and neat" one for the jobs so I became more and more in charged of Chinese translation and editing in the office. As well as continue taking those "most freelancers' unwanted offers" after I quit my office job to work as a freelancer at home.

My translation projects are vary. From a few characters of name translation for tattoo to birth certificate, personal love letters/poetry (yes, I do this and I am very professional. All client's names and works are confidential.), press releases, entire website contents to legal documents and medical reports. I accepted almost any subjects that came to me for turning into Chinese. I don't turn away my customers as long as I have enough time to finish their project on time and the compensation is not too ridiculous. No job is too small for me. In fact, the compensation for Chinese translation in general is higher than Chinese writings in this country. I was lucky enough to develop this side business early because I have never thought of Chinese translation can become part of my major freelance income during the past years.

I found my translation business gets growing in comparing with graphic design, after the price of computers get affordable for almost every household in the U.S. Graphic and desktop publishing gradually turned into in-house operations for many people who have access to computer and to familiar with certain graphic software. Anyone now can be a "graphic designer" and DIY his own business cards and many other kinds of publications with affordable costs of materials and supplies. Professional graphic designers consequently lost many projects as many people in general being more computer literacy than ever. I then had to learn how to write HTML and design web pages to enhance my services. After Internet bubble has burst, the web design business eventually following the boom and causing numerous web designers / developers lost jobs or business again. Long ago graphic and web design are used to be expensive services now become cheap and overwhelm because of the professionals and the amaturs are intermingled that mess up the whole job market.

My service becomes unique due to I not only provide design for both graphic and web site but also specially dealing with a foreign language. Thank God the recent online translating tools for Chinese is not yet mature so a human translator like myself can still get jobs to do. Customer who has translation need often came out with the project that also needs to have some graphic design or layout coming together. I then have a chance to work for the entire project for providing a one-stop services with a competitive rate. In addition, my knowledge of design and HTML also help me get the job that need to work with client's web designer who doesn't understand Chinese. I get more chances being hired because of this extra service that I can provide.

It is difficult to set a fair price for translation work. I used to get really high pay by freelancing for ad agencies, especially for the super rush orders that required to be done within an hour or two. My highest pay is up to $200 per hour for a rush project. (Of course, this was not an everyday assignment.) For some special cases I am also flexible to work under clients' budget and their best offer. There is a shortcoming when freelance for ad firms. Your high paid work becomes the company's property so mostly you are not allowed to put your work on your website as a sample. The advertising company also prefer you not to place their clients' name on your resume, however, you may put together a portfolio binder and show the hard copy of your work to your new clients in a private matter. Or, email work samples in attachment files. Many ad firms do not wish to see their independent contractors getting access to contact their clients and stealing their accounts; or seeing their clients discover the designer who originally works on their project and directly turning into the designer then terminated the account with the ad firm.

After having children and stop writing for so many years I've also gradually lost my freelance connections with my former ad firms. I now develop my new cliental through out Internet ad posting. My service rates need to be competitive due to there are many native Chinese speakers taking the jobs. Their costs can be really low that makes me wonder how the quality of their work will be. Although I tent to develop my clients who seek "not cheap but right" type of quality work, still in this tough economy the cost seemed to be the priority for most people who need such services. Even though I have a policy that not to give a price quote until seeing the project sample, some customers who do not have the job in hand were getting frustrated and never got back to me later.

It took me very long to come out a fair price list that would generally calculate the cost for most of my translation jobs, a much accurate price that would make my customers want to give me the job without worrying any surprising charges coming up during the progress of the work. Some clients really have a budget issue so they are dying to know how much are the projects going to cost them. So I finally design a price list that charges either by words or by hours, in addition to by project to fit all sizes of assignments. Anyone could figure out an approximate cost to begin. I try not to win my bid though out an under estimated quote then change the price later. I think any profession should avoid the mistake of giving an under estimated quote to clients because it only makes you look unprofessional. If I ever under estimated a project then I would either eat the rest of my contract; or gently explain to my customer and allow them to cancel the service, if the compensation is too low and too time consuming to achieve.

I also open to customer's best offer if the job is interesting; or I truly have emergency need for money the time. I stated to my customers that my rate won't be the cheapest in town but I would do my best to work under their budget if the project has a value to enrich my portfolio. I can't help to tell a story about one translation offer that I got last year before Christmas. I've received an email offering me $400 to translate a 100+ pages manuscript from English to Chinese within two and a half days turn-around with professional quality. The original script contains around 1000 or more English words per pages. Due to the script will be viewed by native Chinese so the translator is also required to have excellent writing skills to be responsible of editing and proofreading the entire project. I was shock to see one came out such a ridiculous offer and instead of replying the person a sentence of "Are you out of your mind?", I gently sent an email telling this person that the offer is just fair enough to hire a Chinese typesetter to type out the entire project with such a tight deadline, according to my understanding of this Chinese translation market. I tried to educate the customer that the offer is too low to make the project possibly to be done. In the meantime I was hoping the person will readjust the offer and maybe I can still take the job, perhaps still being underpaid but at least not ended up receiving less than $2 per hour as lower than any illegal immigrants' wages in this country.

The customer eventually replied me "I was hoping to find someone who didn't mind the extra cash. With the deadline coming up, it really would only be considered a weekend gig, and with the holidays approaching sometimes every little bit counts." 

Although at the end I did not take the job, I got really inspired by this holiday offer. It teaches me so much about pricing and all other things, include the fact that it is now a buyer's market for all type of jobs during this not so good economy in the U.S. We Chinese have an idiom: "The brave one dies brace; The timid one dies starve." (撐死膽大的；餓死膽小的). It is clear that this customer is the one who "rather dies in brace". As a service provider I finally realize that we all having a threshold that makes us to move and to work. It is just the matter of how much would quickly trigger you and we all having a bottom price. The other truth is that if you don't want to do the job then somebody in this world will do it. Having your threshold adjustable can make you a better survival in this society. I've read an article long time ago about an interesting research of people's threshold in different races and backgrounds. And there is an assumption made by the researcher that if one paying you to kill somebody then how much will you do it. The research shows that in some South America countries there are young kids would kill someone for $5 US dollars. Therefore, I'm not surprised seeing Latinos in the U.S. taking all kinds of jobs that most American don't want. These legal or illegal immigrants are not intentionally taking over American's job positions, they just have a lower threshold than most of others so they eventually got the jobs. I assumed if there were many of Latinos know Chinese in this country then they would probably be the strongest competitors to most native Chinese in the translation industry.

Although it is important not to make myself getting underpaid for this time consuming business, I somehow do have to adjust my threshold without much choices. I recently accepted a translation offer by giving 35% off my regular charges due to my mother-in-law past away and I need emergency funds before and after taking care of her funeral. I sort of knowing my customer's threshold at this moment so I quickly got my job and kept myself busy. It is also important to have a good working attitude toward all your projects even if you are not getting paid as good as you expect. I often found a way to balance the situation so I can still be happily working on the project from the beginning to the end. Perhaps think of how professional I am and be very proud of myself; or maybe my customers will finally find my passion and efforts through out my work and offer me more work in the future. I truly believe in "Deal is deal.". Once you agree to get underpaid that does not constitute you being rough on this project or having an excuse to miss your deadline. No matter how much I'll get paid I have to provide my work with a commitment of my best shot. That is how I define myself as a "professional". Moreover, I myself am really strictly meeting client's deadline so if there is something that I don't think I can be done on time I would just not take the job, period. Doing a great job isn't just enough; if your work is excellent but never being done on time will ruin your entire credit and reputation. 

About an year ago, I happened to have a chance to work with a group of Chinese artists who need help getting their resumes and bios translating into English. I found a native American who have learned Chinese for more than 20 years and recommended his services to one of the artists. This translator's rate is fair and reasonable, however, he was not on time as he has promised. In fact, he has being paid up front in full but was far behind schedule for almost two months without a proper explanation. I got really upset about the fact so I warned all other artists not to hire him or else it's on your own risk. This translator doesn't know that his careless of a $75 job was in result of losing thirty potential customers lately. 

Yes, you do have a threshold to be motivated, but being unprofessional when your compensation doesn't fulfill your threshold is never wise, so does take the job that you might not be done well. From time to time I got someone asking me if I do translation from Chinese to English. I have been very honest telling my customers that I am much better doing English to Chinese than other way around. Just because translating from Chinese to English will take me more time to do so I wouldn't be able to provide a competitive rate. Plus, I won't be able to take any rush order nor guarantee the work being done in a tight deadline. I have thought of working with a native English writer to develop a Chinese to English translating service but the overhead is big so I've never win myself a bid. Although it is exciting to see an opportunity knocks, that doesn't mean you get to screw up yourself by chance. I don't like to bullshit about myself in order to get a job, even though I've work for advertising industry for years and have professionally trained to well packaging all type of BS to promote all type of businesses, I personally still like the down to earth way of promoting my own business. Yes, I know how to BS for you but I don't BS, instead, I SB - SHOW the BEST of myself in work. I understand that in order to SB it truly requires my customer's fully trust and willingness of giving me the chances. It's not an easy approach but I believe that there are still people out there would appreciate my working style and be happy to hire me for my sincerity.

I am getting more new potential clients' email asking me to talk a little bit about myself, other than just sending them my resume and writing samples with a price quote. I found that most of these clients were seriously having a need to have something done but they don't really know the language. Therefore, all my Chinese writing samples become useless in this case. Imagine you are applying a writing job that your customer is not going to read (nor don't have ability to read) any of your work to determine if you are qualified. I supposed under no references nor recommendations, the clients are actually taking a risk of finding themselves a decent worker to make their jobs right. Therefore, there must be a way for them to verify my qualification. I surprisingly see this translation business is not just a skillful position but also has many people oriented skills involved. Clients who are welling to order my service not only for the right price or for my skillful experience but the "part of me" that they know and interest them to get them accepting me for doing the job.

So, what part of myself should I tell my potential clients? I supposed not about my dramatic family tragedy that I've planned to write about for so many years. How about my good old days of writing Chinese in America for living? Maybe. However, this indeed has nothing to do with my translation experience, perhaps not directly related but sure tells my clients about my professional level in Chinese writings; Maybe a picture of me with a friendly smile helps? Maybe. I don't know. I am not entering a Mrs. Friendly Asian Mom Pageant at this point. Some local clients have requested to meet me to discuss about the job. They believe that they can know me better by talking face to face for an hour in their office or in a coffee shop. It is totally fine with me. But I would also be interested in making a bid to the city of the East Coast and telecommuting the project. Beside giving a competitive price and guarantee of a professional service, how do I make a client know me better to hire me? I always thought a resume with a long list of skills and experiences will do but it seemed not apply to a foreign language translator in this country.

I am searching my answer by asking myself questions. Maybe publishing this hub can be a solution. I don't know. Maybe it is your turn to tell me, my dearest future clients, if you dare to trust me then just hire me, will you?

01.26.2009

Visit my translation service website at: http://web.mac.com/jin8feng/Site_6/Home.html