Slow season? Thread poster: Michael Marcoux
|
I know this seems to be a perennial topic, but man have things been slow for me in January and February in RU and NO>EN. I talked to a couple of friends that do SP>EN and FR>EN and they told me that they've been experiencing the same through these past 2 months - and that while their Januaries are usually slow their Februaries aren't, so for them, this is uncharacteristic. Anyone else having this experience? | | | | No such thing as slow | Feb 17, 2018 |
Slow month for translations means busy month for marketing, training, networking, business improvements etc etc etc. Keep fighting! I barely have time to do invoices, let alone do my taxes! Not so slow here. | | | Dan Lucas United Kingdom Local time: 20:25 Member (2014) Japanese to English Personally, I'm tired | Feb 17, 2018 |
DJHartmann wrote: I barely have time to do invoices, let alone do my taxes! Not so slow here. Same here, though February is always a busy month. Too many nights spent working into the early hours... This weekend I have almost nothing, only a couple of smallish $100 - $200 jobs to do, and it feels great not to be holed up in the office. Regards, Dan | |
|
|
Slow, no. Irregular, yes. | Feb 17, 2018 |
The workflow has been as irregular as ever and I have been working full-time for over 40 years. Work seems to come always in cycles: a period of too much work is always followed by a (hopefully brief) period of nothing to do. | | | Kay Denney France Local time: 21:25 French to English
jogging on as usual here, some days I'm busy, some days I can get on with other projects. Right now I have some dressmaking to get on with. | | | laure claesen France Local time: 21:25 Member (2005) English to French Same as you Michael | Feb 21, 2018 |
Yes, I am finding the same thing. January was just ok but Februray is terribly "quiet", actually, almost frozen even, like it's never been before --and I've been in business since 2003. Wise advice to try and do other things that I was not doing when I was snowed under though. I know work does come back, often all of a sudden but this time I am close to despair. Let me know, Michael, if business has picked up for you! | | | Kevin Fulton United States Local time: 15:25 German to English No explanation | Feb 21, 2018 |
I have an agency client that for the past 10 years has regularly sent me work – 25 jobs of various sizes so far this year. From time-to-time, however, I'll get nothing for a week or two, with the explanation that their own volume from their largest clients is down, and that their priority is to keep their in-house staff busy. Another large client, a publishing group, likewise sends work on a regular basis (14 jobs so far this year). Last year, I didn't hear anything for a month. During that ti... See more I have an agency client that for the past 10 years has regularly sent me work – 25 jobs of various sizes so far this year. From time-to-time, however, I'll get nothing for a week or two, with the explanation that their own volume from their largest clients is down, and that their priority is to keep their in-house staff busy. Another large client, a publishing group, likewise sends work on a regular basis (14 jobs so far this year). Last year, I didn't hear anything for a month. During that time, even inquiries from occasional clients were few in number. One solution may be to have a large customer base, but my own preference is to have a relatively limited number of regular clients with ongoing projects supplemented by others who provide work on a monthly or even occasional basis. Since retirement is on the horizon, I'm in a position to be picky. I've learned that apart from seasonal fluctuations (end of the year, summer holidays), it's difficult to predict any cyclical ebb and flow of work. I don't worry anymore, but that doesn't stop me from obsessively checking my e-mail during slow periods. ▲ Collapse | |
|
|
Yolande Hivart Austria Local time: 21:25 Member (2016) German to French Slower but not slow | Feb 22, 2018 |
Hi! I would say the workload had been slower but now slow. January is slower every year and I know i have either to take a holiday or save money. Last year was worse, I mostly lived through January thanks to direct clients and the courts. This year this had been irregular but with an autumn close to burnout symptoms i had to learn that there is a life beyond translating 7/7. This year was not as heavy as the autumn but i covered my expenses (at least when i will be paid). ... See more Hi! I would say the workload had been slower but now slow. January is slower every year and I know i have either to take a holiday or save money. Last year was worse, I mostly lived through January thanks to direct clients and the courts. This year this had been irregular but with an autumn close to burnout symptoms i had to learn that there is a life beyond translating 7/7. This year was not as heavy as the autumn but i covered my expenses (at least when i will be paid). Usually the work picks up after the spring holidays, in march at the latest and i do not worry much, knowing that i will be missing there times for reading books soon enough. Yolande ▲ Collapse | | | Clients in cahoots? | Feb 22, 2018 |
This must be some universal mechanism of fate in action, I guess. My clientele spans a rectangle East of Sydney all the way to Istanbul, and South of Reykjavik all the way to Buenos Aires. Sometimes, like last week, nobody needed me for a few days in a row. Then, all of a sudden, four orders came in within a three-hour span. Two local, two from the USA. A couple of hours later, I had to turn down two requests from the UK, as I wouldn't be able to meet thei... See more This must be some universal mechanism of fate in action, I guess. My clientele spans a rectangle East of Sydney all the way to Istanbul, and South of Reykjavik all the way to Buenos Aires. Sometimes, like last week, nobody needed me for a few days in a row. Then, all of a sudden, four orders came in within a three-hour span. Two local, two from the USA. A couple of hours later, I had to turn down two requests from the UK, as I wouldn't be able to meet their tight deadlines on account of the four other jobs. Though I'm 100% sure that none of these clients knows each other, from where I stand it looks as if they were all in cahoots, planning a joint attack on me. Now, as I've just delivered the third one, and the fourth is 3/4 done (it was the first to come in, but had the longest deadline), it's time to check on a domestic client who said he'd send me a bunch of documents to translate yesterday, but didn't. My analogy is to a roller coaster ride. An engine slowly takes you to the top, and then you go down at neck-breaking speed, sometimes slower. At times, you'll get to a standstill, from where you'll either go down again at high speed, or another engine will take you up. The translator's second most valuable tool is Time Management. (The first is - and will always be - common sense.) ▲ Collapse | | | Slow season? - Yes | Feb 22, 2018 |
For us, Its been very quiet for more than 6 months. The clients who gives us a job in a regular basis says that they doesn't have any job at present as their industry is also not too good at the moment! Hopefully it will pick from March. God Bless! | | | Post removed: This post was hidden by a moderator or staff member because it was not in line with site rule |
|
John Fossey Canada Local time: 15:25 Member (2008) French to English + ... Statistical variance and dependent events | Feb 22, 2018 |
José Henrique Lamensdorf wrote: This must be some universal mechanism of fate in action, I guess. If you have ever read The Goal, by Eliyahu Goldratt, I think you will find the answer in the theory of constraints. It's statistics. If you get an average of 1 order a day, you might go 10 days with no orders and the tenth have 10 orders - it's a question of the statistical variance. Then the dependent events side kicks in, because you can only work on one job at a time, so you can't accept all 10 orders - starting a new job is dependent on finishing the last. It's a good read on an otherwise somewhat complex subject. | | | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Slow season? CafeTran Espresso | You've never met a CAT tool this clever!
Translate faster & easier, using a sophisticated CAT tool built by a translator / developer.
Accept jobs from clients who use Trados, MemoQ, Wordfast & major CAT tools.
Download and start using CafeTran Espresso -- for free
Buy now! » |
| Wordfast Pro | Translation Memory Software for Any Platform
Exclusive discount for ProZ.com users!
Save over 13% when purchasing Wordfast Pro through ProZ.com. Wordfast is the world's #1 provider of platform-independent Translation Memory software. Consistently ranked the most user-friendly and highest value
Buy now! » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |