Guest Posts

The 80/20 rule (or Pareto principle, named after Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto) states that in many situations roughly 80% of the effects are determined by 20% of the causes, or 80% of results are achieved in 20% of the overall time (This, of course, is a rule of thumb, and the 20% and 80% figures are an approximation).

Continue reading

Our new book, The Ultimate Guide To Becoming A Successful Freelance Translator, is a fast-paced and informative guide to the translation industry and how you can find your place within it. It covers a wide range of topics to help brand-new translators, experienced veterans and even those who are thinking of going into translation but haven’t yet taken the first step. In this article, we’d like to highlight some of our favourite chapters from the book to give you a brief introduction to its content and style. Continue reading

Let’s face it: how many times have you said “yes” to a project only to get overwhelmed because the client is asking for an unreasonable deadline? Don’t fret, because there is a way to stop spending sleepless nights and beat the clock. Here’s what you can do to get out of the rabbit hole and never miss a deadline again. Continue reading

A few months ago I was honored to become a moderator of an FB group “Successful Freelance Translators” (SFT) launched by Simon Akhrameev. If you are a freelance translator or you intend to become the one, and you are still not in this group, I would encourage you to become a member. You will get lots of useful information and tips on how to build your personal brand, start and promote your services. And it is the SFT group’s activity that inspired me to write this post about comment marketing. Continue reading

Knowing how to sell your services to clients and, even more importantly, how to keep those customers, are vital to the success of any freelance language professional.

I had a short stint (about a year) as a translation project manager when I was transitioning from in-house work to full-time freelancing, waiting for business to pick up.

I managed over 100 projects, enough to have plenty of tips to share with fellow freelance translators… and a long list of horror stories.

While this advice is solely based on my personal experience, I’m sure it will apply to many project managers you are currently working (or hoping to work) with. Continue reading