| Pages in topic: [1 2] > | Charging a minimum fee, is it worth the effort? Thread poster: Bruno Depascale
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Bruno Depascale 
Italy
Local time: 20:51
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
Hi everybody, since I started my career in 2009, I have been offering my clients a discount on small jobs, applying a minimum fee that is half my hourly rate.
However, I have noticed that in many cases these small jobs disrupt my productivity during the day, and in many cases end up taking more than half an hour, because I have to read long instructions, download the files from the agency's server, open them in trados, perform researches (due to lack of context) and so on...
I am th... See more Hi everybody, since I started my career in 2009, I have been offering my clients a discount on small jobs, applying a minimum fee that is half my hourly rate.
However, I have noticed that in many cases these small jobs disrupt my productivity during the day, and in many cases end up taking more than half an hour, because I have to read long instructions, download the files from the agency's server, open them in trados, perform researches (due to lack of context) and so on...
I am thinking to switch to a flat hourly rate, but I am not sure if this would be a wise move from a business perspective. So my question is, how do you handle it? Do you charge a minimum fee or a hourly rate?
Thank you!
Bruno ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Small tasks - Time consuming | Jun 22, 2022 |
Hi Bruno,
I apply a minimum rate for small tasks. I agree, these are often time consuming.
Considering the future e-invoice starting from July 1st I think I will concentrate on significant tasks, it is nonsense to issue a double invoice for small amounts (the one for AdE and the PDF for foreign customers).
Best,
Alessandra Chiappini
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 20:51
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | regular clients | Jun 22, 2022 |
Alessandra Chiappini wrote:
Hi Bruno,
I apply a minimum rate for small tasks. I agree, these are often time consuming.
Considering the future e-invoice starting from July 1st I think I will concentrate on significant tasks, it is nonsense to issue a double invoice for small amounts (the one for AdE and the PDF for foreign customers).
Best,
Alessandra Chiappini
Hi Alessandra,
thank you for your input!
Yes, it would be pointless to issue a minimum fee invoice if you perform only that little job for a client. However, what about regular clients that send you many small jobs together with larger ones? Would it be wise to refuse the small jobs, or to charge a hourly rate instead?
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I have different policies with different clients.
One of my best clients ever used to send a lot of small jobs, and some larger ones. He needed everything in Trados, to coordinate 20+ languages for products sold across the EU, even down to one-liners.
We set up a routine for them, with a template for Trados. The agreement was that I charged a minimum of half an hour for 100 words or below, and then went over to the word rate. I invoiced the agency monthly - and there could be... See more I have different policies with different clients.
One of my best clients ever used to send a lot of small jobs, and some larger ones. He needed everything in Trados, to coordinate 20+ languages for products sold across the EU, even down to one-liners.
We set up a routine for them, with a template for Trados. The agreement was that I charged a minimum of half an hour for 100 words or below, and then went over to the word rate. I invoiced the agency monthly - and there could be four or five minimum charges per month, plus larger jobs, anything from 500 words to 10 000 or more. That client always paid my bank charges too.
If regular clients send one-liners than can be answered directly in an e-mail, I usually do them for free, although one big company sends a lot, and the agency pays translators 50 Danish Kroner per time (EUR 6.72 or about USD 7.0 ).
Again, I invoice the agency monthly, normally for several larger jobs as well.
When tiny jobs come ´out of the blue´ I usually charge for an hour - because it takes at least an hour to register and invoice them. If there are a lot of new instructions and context, Trados settings etc. then I definitely charge for the actual time it takes, or turn down the job if the client will not pay.
I NEVER give a discount on tiny jobs - I agree they interrupt other work, even though I tend to specialise in small jobs. (After 5,000 words I have had enough, and after 10,000 I get really bored!)
Besides, these snippets often take far more time proportionally than a similar sentence in a big job!
You still have to look at the context, and often find a neat idiom or correct terminology and collocations. They are precisely the kind of thing that machine translation cannot do, because these days, the client will have tried it. 
Give these little things your full attention and charge for them. You will still barely cover your expenses, but consider them as a kind of marketing. If clients have to pay realistically, they will value them!
At the same time, draw attention subtly, if you can, to your skills and be really pleasant and accommodating: get yourself noticed, so the client will come back with something more profitable.
Handled properly, I think small jobs are worth the effort, but not always in hard cash! ▲ Collapse
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Like Christine I tend to consider small jobs as a kind of marketing when they come from a new client. It also offers a way of "taking the temperature" and checking how the client behaves. I do a lot of small jobs for two of my regular customers (both food labels) and we have agreed on a flat fee (equal to half an hour).
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One hour minimum charge, applied rigidly
It helps train customers
Sometimes generates some extra pocket money
What's not to like?
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 20:51
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | 100 words or below | Jun 22, 2022 |
Christine Andersen wrote:
I have different policies with different clients.
The agreement was that I charged a minimum of half an hour for 100 words or below, and then went over to the word rate.
Hi Christine, thank you for your reply! I think that charging a minimum of half an hour for 100 words or below would be a perfect solution for those clients that are not willing to pay a full hour. I must however still think of a way to gently introduce this change without losing any clients...
| | | | Bruno Depascale
Italy
Local time: 20:51
Member (2009)
English to Italian
+ ...
TOPIC STARTER | ideal compensation | Jun 22, 2022 |
Ice Scream wrote:
One hour minimum charge, applied rigidly
It helps train customers
Sometimes generates some extra pocket money
What's not to like?
Yes that would be the ideal! But how would regular clients react? Wouldn't it be too bold a move?
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| Do it step by step, starting with the biggest pain in the ... who brings least money | Jun 22, 2022 |
Bruno Depascale wrote: Ice Scream wrote:
One hour minimum charge, applied rigidly
Yes that would be the ideal! But how would regular clients react? Wouldn't it be too bold a move?
Don't scare away all your clients with this bold move Try it with the least attractive client first.
| | | | Adieu
Ukrainian to English
+ ...
Works fine.
I've collected it on as few as 11 words (lol) and collect it on 200-400 word translation and revision jobs pretty much daily. Sometimes 10+ such tiny minimums per day.
By my estimation, it is approximately equivalent to doubling my per-word rate without a minimum.
[Edited at 2022-06-22 17:44 GMT]
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Bruno Depascale wrote: Ice Scream wrote:
One hour minimum charge, applied rigidly
It helps train customers
Sometimes generates some extra pocket money
What's not to like? Yes that would be the ideal! But how would regular clients react? Wouldn't it be too bold a move?
Personally, I charge - reluctantly - only half of my hourly rate (I would prefer one hour) as a minimum, if I ask for payment at all. To say the truth, most if not all of my mini jobs take 10 minutes to be done, and the rest is administrative work, if ever. And I get anyway only very few of them, so I'll keep quiet for the moment.
Mostly because it seems quite difficult, for obscure reasons, to get a decent minimum, i.e. one hour, from agencies, even if they pay normally good rates. Direct customers instead don't expect otherwise because it's normal in their business and in their daily life and they are conscious that anyway they would have to pay a much higher minimum if they charged an agency.
| | | | Michael Newton
United States
Local time: 14:51
Japanese to English
+ ...
| Minimum fee? | Jun 23, 2022 |
Bottom feeding agencies who have read my proz page swarm around me like flies. "Can you do one page?" "What about 100 words?". "If you do this small job, we will give you large jobs in the future". Yeah, right. My replies are sometimes rather undiplomatic but never coarse. Recently, having been offered a $15 job with an entire page of detailed specifications, my reply was just "HA-HA-HA-HA". I don't mind offending them because I know if I did the micro job, I would never hear from them again. It... See more Bottom feeding agencies who have read my proz page swarm around me like flies. "Can you do one page?" "What about 100 words?". "If you do this small job, we will give you large jobs in the future". Yeah, right. My replies are sometimes rather undiplomatic but never coarse. Recently, having been offered a $15 job with an entire page of detailed specifications, my reply was just "HA-HA-HA-HA". I don't mind offending them because I know if I did the micro job, I would never hear from them again. It all depends on the agency and my mood. Usually $50 or sometimes if I think they are a nuisance, I tell them: "Four page minimum ($100). Surely you can afford four pages, can't you". I can imagine them slinking away. An agency in London has regularly offered me $20, $30 and $40 jobs. Thus far I have deleted their e-mails. This is the agency that constantly asks me to provide quotes and turnaround time for documents but never gives me any business. I have now blocked their e-mails. Not forgetting the agency in Argentina that was outraged that I would not provide medical translation from Japanese for $0.02/word. No, no one cries for you, Argentina. If it is a regular client that gives me a loads of business (e.g., a law firm), they get whatever they want, even insofar as walking on hot coals. Someone once said, "the art of taste is refusal". Paraphrasing this, "the art of clientele is refusal". ▲ Collapse
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| Charging a minimum fee | Jun 23, 2022 |
I’ve always had a special consideration for loyal translation companies, charging a minimum of just over half my hourly rate. Then, some of these companies stopped sending me the normal (larger) translations and only fed me with sporadic, very small jobs (but still to be done with a CAT tool, existing TM and so on, plus other specifications), at which point I began to suspect that my minimum rate was lower than the minimum rate charged by the translators who took my place in the regular transl... See more I’ve always had a special consideration for loyal translation companies, charging a minimum of just over half my hourly rate. Then, some of these companies stopped sending me the normal (larger) translations and only fed me with sporadic, very small jobs (but still to be done with a CAT tool, existing TM and so on, plus other specifications), at which point I began to suspect that my minimum rate was lower than the minimum rate charged by the translators who took my place in the regular translation work. I have since raised my minimum rate to the full hourly rate for these companies. Some (just a few) accepted the increased minimum fee, maybe because it was still advantageous for them. The others have disappeared. For the former, it did not help to propose a reduced translation rate in the hope of taking back my position as their main translator, evidently because their new translator is still cheaper.
To new translation companies who contact me out of the blue for very small translations I apply the full minimum rate (1 hour), specifying that in the case of continued collaboration I would be willing to revise it downwards. So far very few of them have accepted, but fortunately I can do without such companies.
It's different for direct customers, as they are used to often exorbitant translation companies’ minimum rates. And for these customers I am willing to be more generous, because when the work becomes regular they don’t try to negotiate downwards just to save some peanuts, as agencies do. ("Can you please help me?", which often means "Will you do it for free?")
[Edited at 2022-06-23 10:34 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 19:51
Member (2008)
Italian to English
I charge a minimum fee for small jobs. This puts most people off - so I don't have to do the jobs. That way, I don't waste time.
The only exception is small jobs for regular clients.
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who don't understand minimum fees don't understand business. Stay away.
| | | | | Pages in topic: [1 2] > | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Charging a minimum fee, is it worth the effort? | Trados Business Manager Lite | Create customer quotes and invoices from within Trados Studio
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