Top Language Lovers: Voting Phase

It's that time of year again: the voting phase of the Top Language Lovers 2013 has officially begun. We don't know who nominated us, but we do know that we were once again nominated for this competition, so we are very, very grateful. There's no money to be won -- only bragging rights and some fabulous charity donations in the name of the winners, which we earned in 2011. Great stuff indeed! While we would love to repeat our win from 2011, we realize that it's quite improbable. This year's nominees are all fantastic, and include blogs by many of our friends and colleagues. 

The official voting button. 

This blog was nominated in the Languages professionals category and if you so choose, you may vote for us here. The list is alphabetical, so you will have to scroll down to find "Translation Times." Of course, there are so many fantastic blogs out there, so it's hard to choose just one!

In addition, Judy was nominated in the Twitter category. Last year, she got eighth place in that category,  so it would be wonderful to be among an elite group of language tweeters/twitterers again. You can vote for @language_news here. Dagy was also nominated, and you can vote for her feed, @deutsch_profi here as well. You can only vote for one, unfortunately. 

Voting is from May 22nd until June 9th, and results will be announced on June 12th. Best of luck to all our wonderful fellow bloggers!

The 50% Success Rate

A few days ago, we saw some very insightful posts on Twitter about a translation-related presentation. The speaker mentioned (unfortunately, we did not write down his or her name) that if your clients are accepting all your price quotes, it might mean that your quotes are too low. We think the speaker put it in these terms: if your customers don't decline at least 25% of your price quotes, then your rates might be too low. We could not agree more and would like to shed some light on our own experiences when it comes to pricing. Please keep in mind that we work exclusively with direct clients, and we know that language service providers (LSPs) work quite differently. Update: we just heard from some fabulous colleagues that the quote we had seen actually came from the The Freelancery, which is always full of good advice (some is tongue-in-cheek).

Cute, huh? And yes, we paid for this image. 

It's a pretty well-known fact that we are not the cheapest provider around -- quite the contrary. We have worked hard to be in the lucky position to have many repeat customers, who make up at least 70% of our business. Our repeat customers feel very comfortable with our prices and the quality that they are getting, so they never haggle. Most of them don't even want a price quote, and we are happy to waive this formality for clients who have a stellar payment record, which includes all our repeat customers.

For new clients, we get about 50% of the business we bid on, and we are very happy with that. Let us elaborate: right off the bat, we know that there is a segment of the market that will never purchase services from us, because they are looking for the cheapest rate and we are not it. That's perfectly fine. We try to develop a good radar for who these people are and usually send them our rate sheet (which is also easily available online) to see if they agree with our rates before spending the 10 minutes it usually takes to make a formal price quote (we use TranslationOffice 3000 to do this). Many times, clients are surprised by our rates, and we thank them for their interest, recommend a colleague if possible, and move on. You know the story: many clients think that translation should be priced at the same rate of say, housecleaning services.  

Other customers initially feel comfortable with the rate, perhaps because a per-word rate is a bit of an abstract. However, once they see how many words need to be translated and they see the total of what it is going to cost, they back down and might say: "I thought it was going to cost $200 or so!" when we sent a quote for $2,000. Obviously, that's too far of a gap to start negotiating, so we wrap things up. 

Of course it is always disappointing when you don't get a project for which you have submitted a quote. We all like getting business, but we are quite content with our 50% success rate for new clients. On the other hand, it can be a hassle and quite time-consuming to draft complicated quotes (say, for multi-day interpreting assignments) only to have the client choose another provider. A few months ago, we spent more than three weeks going back and forth with a potential client ( a conference organizer who always had to confer with her client) about a large-scale interpreting assignment for several languages. We probably put at least 10 hours of work into this, only to have the client decide that "their international delegates would translate" -- yes, they meant "interpret." Of course, that was a bit disappointing, but that's the way business sometimes works. 

We realize that our rates are set at a professional (read: relatively high) standard, and we don't need to get all of the business we quote on to make a good living. Ideally, 100% of new clients would accept our quotes, but then we wouldn't get any sleep!

What about you, dear colleagues? Do you always get all the work that you bid on?

The First Three Months: Co-Working

The second floor.

Earlier this year, our dear friend and colleague Corinne McKay wrote about her experience at her new co-working space, and a few days after reading that post, Judy heard about a brand-new co-working space in downtown Las Vegas, which opened in February. Read on for her experience.

My desk for the day.

Both Dagy and I love working at home. It's nice and quiet, we have lovely pets, we have all our stuff, and it's a very short commute. I worked as an in-house translation department manager for years, and from my noisy (yet lovely) cubicle I occasionally yearned for peace and quiet. Now I have it, and while I do miss some of my awesome co-workers, I have a lot of contact with others during the day -- interpreting assignments, business and friend lunches, networking events, etc. Still, when I heard about the opening of Work In Progress, I had to check it out.

Zoe, the office dog.

I feel in love the first time I went -- think big, open spaces in a minimalist design with lots of light, nice amenities and cool people. I joined the very first week. The space is occupied mostly by techies, and after working in e-commerce for years (where I managed the Spanish-language website), I actually needed a big dose of tech in my life. I really "get" programmers and other high tech folks and enjoy working and hanging out with them. I was pretty sure I was going to be the only translator and only person without a Mac in the space, and that's very certainly turned out to be true.

In general, I am a huge supporter of the revitalization of downtown Vegas, which needs a lot of help, but is getting there with the help and financial prowess of a small, but very powerful and dedicated group of people led by Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh (who might one day remember my name). I used to hang out in downtown Vegas years before any of the Downtown Project folks even registered Vegas on their mental map, and trust me, in the 90s, it wasn't cool. Nor safe. And it's still not safe in many places, but I digress. I had heard about another co-working space in the suburbs, where I live, but I feel very connected to downtown, so it wasn't a hard choice.

Ideas welcome.

Technically, I don't need an office. Our translation clients live all over the world, and all work is done electronically. If we meet, it's for lunches and dinners or for meetings at their offices. For my interpreting work, I also go to the clients' offices. However, I was just so drawn to being part of a downtown community and I really wanted to support Work In Progress (WIP), so I became one of its earliest members. In addition, I have to admit that I'd become somewhat complacent on my networking, and in January of this year, I made  a promise to make more of an effort to meet people outside my circle who do not yet know we exist and thus wouldn't think of us for a project. I am happy to report that WIP has been a great networking opportunity, and that I've met plenty of lovely people I wouldn't otherwise meet. And the set-up -- having to walk up to people to say hello -- really forces me out of my comfort zone, which is a great thing. My laptop sticker with my company name has also come in quite handy, as several folks have pointed it out and we've started a conversation that way.

The first floor, a bit dark for me.

Even though it's much easier to work from my well-appointed home office, I've made a commitment to drive to downtown every Friday and work from there, and I've had a ton of fun. I've met fantastic people full of great entrepreneurial ideas from all walks of life, and in just a few months, we've really started building a great community. WIP has done a great job at organizing all kinds of cool events, including a speaker series, mentor hours, happy hours and other events. I've been talking to the WIP folks to give a presentation to my fellow entrepreneurs about how to market to non-English speakers, so that should be fun. Even though I don't have a Mac and don't speak any programming languages, I feel that I belong.

Our new outdoor area.

In terms of cost, I chose the lowest level of membership at $50/month (a bargain!), which gives me access to the office's lower level, which is not nearly as cool as the upper level (and much darker, which I don't like). Thus, I pay $15 every time I go to upgrade to the second floor, which features a full kitchen with all kinds of free stuff. All this is a very good deal, as it's roughly equivalent to my monthly smartphone bill, yet this is significantly more useful. I consider this fee my monthly membership fee to get access to a fun and influential group of people whose company I am really enjoying. For $250/month, I could have permanent access to the second floor, and for $450/month, I would get a permanent desk, which I don't need. However, I might consider changing my membership at some point in the future. 

What about you, dear translation and interpreting colleagues? Have you thought about getting a co-working space or some other type of office? We'd love to hear from you.

Free SDL Webinar: May 9

Happy Friday, dear readers! We wanted to let you know about a free webinar that Judy will be presenting next week, courtesy of software giant SDL. There is no catch and nothing to buy -- simply sign up and attend. The topic will be "5 habits of highly successful translators: Customer service edition."

The webinar will begin at 5 p.m. BST, London time (GMT +1 hour) and will last an hour. That's 9 a.m. Pacific and 12 p.m. Eastern here in the U.S. The presentation will last roughly 45 minutes and Judy will take questions at the end. We will be using WebEx technology for this -- very easy and user-friendly, so if this is your first webinar, you will find it very simply to use. 

Please use this link to register and feel free to tell your friends!

Here is a short summary of the webinar's content:

Running a successful freelance translation business requires many skills, but we also must have good habits, especially when it comes to interacting with our customers and making them happy. After all, without clients, we don’t have a business. This webinar will be presented by Judy Jenner and will focus on 5 habits of highly successful translators and will specifically address customer interaction skills and habits.  You will learn:

• That it’s fine to work in your Snoopy pajamas as long as your online presence, communication and interaction are professional
• Why an e-mail message with a price does not constitute a price quote
• Why you should honor odd-sounding customer requests

Taking Clients to Lunch

Today we get to write about two of our favorite things: lunch and clients. This post is based on an idea by our colleague Anabella Tidona, a court-certified interpreter in California.

We've often written about the fact that it's a good idea and a nice business gesture to take current or potential clients to lunch to take the relationship to the next level, even if you don't get any immediate projects out of this small investment  It's amazing how different a business relationship with someone can be once you've shared a comfortable meal. Please read on for our tips about the art of the business lunch. While we are far from experts on specific etiquette, we do believe that we've learned a thing or two after hundreds of business lunches in four countries.

Lovely outdoor lunch in Austria. Photo by Judy.

• Ask. Occasionally colleagues ask us about the best way to go about this, and it can be very simple. E-mail or call and say: "I'd love to show my appreciation for your business and take you to lunch next week. I just went to this fabulous ______ place near your office. Would you be available next week? If that's not convenient for you, how about XYZ?" Alternatively, if the person is not your client yet, you could say: "It was nice meeting you at XYZ. Since the weather is so great this week, may I treat you to an al fresco lunch at ______, which is very close to your office?" If you have a specific business purpose, just state it. Don't be shy: it's a business lunch, not a date, and the purpose of business is, well, to do business. If you don't have a specific business purpose, it's perfectly fine, and you don't have to explicitly say that you'd eventually like to do business with this person. It goes without saying. And don't worry about people declining the lunch: most people LOVE a free lunch, so this is a very attractive proposition. It's not like you are asking someone to a boring three-hour meeting on Friday afternoon.
• Pick a restaurant. Ask your lunch partner if he/she has any preferences. Perhaps she's a vegetarian, so you should probably not take her to a steak house. Or perhaps he's on Atkins and you happen to know this, so do some research into restaurants with Atkins-friendly options. Pick a restaurant that's convenient for the client, even if you have to drive to the other side of town (or walk, or bike, or take the bus, depending on your city). Ideally, go to a restaurant (at least mid-range in terms of prices) at which you have eaten before so you know it's good and so you can make recommendations. Choose a place that does a lot of business lunches. 
• Get there early. You should be waiting for your (potential) client, not the other way around. Get here 5-10 minutes early.
• To drink or not to drink? This is a tricky one. If it were a job interview in the US (and pretty much anywhere), we'd say no, stick to water and soft drinks. But it isn't a job interview, and perhaps your lunch partner wants a glass of Chardonnay or a martini. Our suggestion: let the client decide and then follow suit. 
• Order wisely. No one likes arugula stuck to their teeth or a sandwich that falls apart when you bite into it. Choose something that you can easily eat without making too much of a mess. You should be able to gracefully handle your lunch and the conversation at the same time. We traditionally choose a light pasta or fish dish that we can eat with a fork.
• Table manners. We hope you listened to your mother, but if you didn't, review some basic table etiquette (you can always watch some YouTube videos if you are a bit fuzzy on the details). Napkins go on your lap. Most fancy restaurants, which we frequent and love (yes, we are very guilty of spending too much in restaurants) will bring you black cloth napkin if you are wearing black pants or a skirt. This goes without saying, but don't talk with your mouth full, don't lick the knife, use the bread plate that's on your left, pass the entire bread basket if asked, don't slurp, be nice to the wait staff, etc. 

  

  One of our favorites: Vintner Grill, Vegas. Photo by Judy.

• Making conversation. If this is your first longer face-to-face conversation, it could be a bit of a challenge to get things going, but most Americans are very proficient at small talk and you should be able to chat easily after a few minutes. This is a bit more difficult in other countries, such as Austria and Germany, at least in our experience. Come prepared with some non-controversial topics to chat about, such as local sports, a recent event, something interesting that happened at the client's company, or an anecdote about your week. Judy recently broke the ice by telling a potential client about the lost mastiff puppy (9 months old, 120 pounds) who turned up at her house last week and immediately proceeded to slobber all over keyboard. Most people love a puppy story. You don't need to start the conversation with: "So, let me tell you about my business " Actually, we think that's a bit of a turn-off. Let the conversation develop organically,and perhaps you won't even get to talk about your services during that first meeting, which would be OK, too. Don't force it. However, you will find that most business professionals have very good manners and will, at some point, ask about your business, so have something intelligent to say about it.
• Ask questions. Most people feel very comfortable talking about themselves, so you can come prepared with some questions that aren't too personal, but still interesting. The point of this exercise is to find things that you might have in common. You could ask your lunch partner where he/she is from, about her/his alma mater, etc. 
• You need to pay. You should make it abundantly clear that this is your treat. No splitting the bill and under no circumstances should you allow the other person to pay. This is where your business credit card comes in handy. In the US, we love to use this handy trick: pretend to make a very quick trip to the bathroom, but in reality slip your credit card to the waiter so he/she can run it before the bill even reaches your table. This is an old Jenner trick that we frequently use on each other, as we are constantly trying to take the bill away from the other person. We wouldn't use cash, because you don't want your lunch partner to see exactly how much it cost. If you are in Europe and the restaurant doesn't accept credit cards, handle the money discreetly and don't count out bills. Learn how to add 20% gratuity in your head so you don't fumble. 
• Keep an eye on the time. If your client told you she needs to leave by 1:30, be courteous and keep an eye on the time for her so she's not late for her next appointment.
• Dessert. If your client wants dessert and/or coffee, you should probably join him or her, even if it's just a few bites. No one likes to eat alone and feel guilty about eating dessert. You can go to the gym later.
• Have fun. Don't forget to enjoy yourself! Ultimately, clients do business with people they like, and this is your opportunity to spend time with a (potential) client in a casual atmosphere, and you might just discover that you really like your client. 

This list of tips is not  meant to be exhaustive by any stretch of the imagination, and of course, there are always many ways to master a particular situation. Would you like to add to this list or do you have any additional ideas to share? Do you do things differently? We'd really like to hear from you, dear readers!