All posts by Aleyna Voice and Translation

Unknown's avatar

About Aleyna Voice and Translation

Small family business focusing on translation and voice over.

“Price Taker” Is Not Your Role

Uncategorized, , , ,

tulips-175605_1280The problem of most freelance translators, who are not satisfied with their rates, is that they are more likely “price takers” than “price makers”. When we try to find the reason for dumping prices on the translation market, first of all we should think about our own rate policy.

In her article Marcela Jenney gives seven recommendations by Benson P. Shapiro on how to learn to “make” your own price. Check them out, and I am sure that you’ll decide to implement at least some of them into your business practice.

“Making the price” of your translation services (as opposed to “taking the market price”)

Stop Freelancing If You Are Not Happy With It Anymore

Uncategorized, , ,

photo-1429032021766-c6a53949594f

I have been freelance for 9 years already, and for now I love it. But it may happen that in future my attitude will change. As long as I enjoy what I do, I am not going to change my life drastically. But in case my work brings me more stress than enjoyment and satisfaction, in case I lose my “joie de vivre”, I will definitely start thinking about changing my way.

The post I’d like to share with you is a very interesting story of a freelancer who stopped his freelance career, cut his income in half, opened his agency, and became happier than ever.

Why I cut my income in half and stopped freelancing

7 Reasons to Love Being Freelance

Uncategorized, , , ,

children-593313_1920Last month brought many positive things to my life. While June was extremely busy and became a  champion among all 75 months of our business existence, July was quite slow and left enough time for summer rest and family weekends. Nevertheless it brought enough projects for building-up sound month earnings. This is great to feel that you can be confident about your finance even during slow periods.

Now — when I am torn between closing all projects and packing bags for tomorrow flight to the sea — a good idea has occurred to me. I decided to write a post before going to vacations. It is not about any mistakes that taught me something and it is not about some tricks or wisdom which could help in our profession. I want to say a few words about happiness of being freelance. Yes, so easy! I realized that I am really happy and I want to put this happiness into words and to discuss it with you. Continue reading 7 Reasons to Love Being Freelance →

Fear and Loathing in the Translator’s World

Uncategorized, ,

Ub-q1jDvLAo

We had two packages of bilingual files, 75 pages each, five glossaries, half gig of PDF guidelines, a whole galaxy of multi-colored references… Also, the eleventh trados, a memoq, a list of approved terms, a whole set of fuzzy matches, and a weekly deadline. Not that we needed all that for a good translation, but once you get locked into a serious project, the tendency is to push it as far as you can. The only thing that really worried me was fuzzy matches. There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of checking fuzzy matches, and I knew we’d get into that rotten stuff pretty soon.