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Direct clients
Thread poster: S_G_C
S_G_C
S_G_C
Romania
Local time: 14:43
English to Romanian
TOPIC STARTER
Not possible Feb 7, 2022

Tom in London wrote:


That doesn't mean you won't ever hear from them. Sometimes clients I'd completely forgotten about contact me out of the blue, years later.

[Edited at 2022-02-06 22:21 GMT]


I can't afford to wait that long. It sounds like "postpone your basic needs until some potential client remembers you exist."
Hell, with how things are going over here, I can't even make plans for a week. Something always comes up that ruins them. As I am living with a partner, I can't even file for temporary social support. And I really like this profession, I especially like translations that help me learn new stuff, help me grow as an individual.
 
Nikki Scott-Despaigne
Nikki Scott-Despaigne  Identity Verified
Local time: 13:43
French to English
Direct clients are not agencies Feb 7, 2022

Define your specialist areas and then contact potential clients working in areas where your knowledge and experience match.
In order to find direct clients, you need to target companies (and institutions) that work in areas where you have specialist knowledge. Very large companies may have in-house translators. Large companies also sometimes prefer agencies when they need a document to be translated into more than one language. It may be more efficient for them to just have one person at a... See more
Define your specialist areas and then contact potential clients working in areas where your knowledge and experience match.
In order to find direct clients, you need to target companies (and institutions) that work in areas where you have specialist knowledge. Very large companies may have in-house translators. Large companies also sometimes prefer agencies when they need a document to be translated into more than one language. It may be more efficient for them to just have one person at an agency to deal with rather than dealing with a number of different translators. However, if a company's needs are almost exclusively in your language pair, then you probably have a better chance of success. Likewise, you will note that agencies specialise too. Again, target those where your skill set will be a good selling point. ▲ Collapse


Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Target the right clients Feb 7, 2022

Nikki Scott-Despaigne wrote:
if a company's needs are almost exclusively in your language pair, then you probably have a better chance of success.


Exactly. Look for medium-sized companies in the US/UK that do a lot of business specifically with Romania and so have a regular need for translations but not to the extent they need to use an agency.

And then make yourself indispensible.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
 
Kay Denney
Kay Denney  Identity Verified
France
Local time: 13:43
French to English
. Feb 8, 2022

Tom in London wrote:
That doesn't mean you won't ever hear from them. Sometimes clients I'd completely forgotten about contact me out of the blue, years later.

[Edited at 2022-02-06 22:21 GMT]

Yes. I reached out to all my LinkedIn contacts when I started freelancing, and started getting work from agencies the same day I sent my first message out. The direct clients were slower. Some got back to me within a year, one messaged me a whole four and a half years later.

Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Rachel Waddington
 
Rachel Waddington
Rachel Waddington  Identity Verified
United Kingdom
Local time: 12:43
Dutch to English
+ ...
Big companies Feb 8, 2022

Big companies do sometimes have a translation department and work with freelancers. Working with those companies feels a lot like working with an agency in some ways in that they may have their own expectations regarding CAT tools and will have translation memories and termbases.

Baran Keki
Adieu
 
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