Poll: What is your minimum fee?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Dec 7, 2018

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "What is your minimum fee?".

This poll was originally submitted by Ricki Farn. View the poll results »



 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Minimum means minimum Dec 7, 2018

"No, I will not accept half my minimum fee. I don't care if it's only eight words. Do you not understand the word minimum?!"

Mine is one hour.


Maja_K
Christine Andersen
Cristina Munari
Jennifer Forbes
Angie Garbarino
 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 06:41
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Other Dec 7, 2018

USD 60.00.

Maja_K
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 14:41
Spanish to English
+ ...
None Dec 7, 2018

Unless you count the odd freeby.

 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 13:41
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
One hour Dec 7, 2018

My minimum translation fee is equivalent to one hour’s work. I only apply my minimum charge to one-off jobs from new clients. If a client regularly wants lots of little jobs done then I switch to monthly invoicing and I’ll add up everything at the end of the month. With some of these customers I have negotiated a special fee (for instance, I charge a fixed rate per job to a very regular client regardless of the number of words, as it never exceeds 20 words and most times consists only of 10/... See more
My minimum translation fee is equivalent to one hour’s work. I only apply my minimum charge to one-off jobs from new clients. If a client regularly wants lots of little jobs done then I switch to monthly invoicing and I’ll add up everything at the end of the month. With some of these customers I have negotiated a special fee (for instance, I charge a fixed rate per job to a very regular client regardless of the number of words, as it never exceeds 20 words and most times consists only of 10/15 words). For long-standing clients I tend to include the small job into the next invoice or even not to charge it at all.Collapse


Liena Vijupe
Gabriella Vento
 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:41
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Eight words plus admin, research, invoicing, setting up Trados... Dec 7, 2018

Chris S wrote:

"No, I will not accept half my minimum fee. I don't care if it's only eight words. Do you not understand the word minimum?!"

Mine is one hour.


Agreed. I had a client who regularly sent small jobs like that. They could be slogans, they could be mandatory safety phrases that had to be found as much as translated…

Most of them had to be set up in Trados, so that they came up in the TM for future use, and my client sat and coordinated them across 20+ EU languages and probably several others.

There was at least an hour's work in those, but of course my client knew how much work was involved, and paid without a quibble. He also sent jobs I could actually earn money on, too.
All good things come to an end, and I don't work on that project any more, but it was good while it lasted.

To those who don't have a minimum charge, WHY NOT?


Cristina Munari
 
Yetta Jensen Bogarde
Yetta Jensen Bogarde  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:41
Member (2012)
English to Danish
+ ...
Other Dec 7, 2018

My minimum fee is EUR 25 / USD 25 and applies whenever a job takes less than one hour.
My clients don't mind and I actually have quite a few of those during one month.

On the other hand, if someone asks me to translate just a couple of words - say up to 10w (with good, regular clients even a little more) - I don't charge anything.

This has worked out beautifully for years and I wouldn't want to change it.


Maria Silvestri
Angie Garbarino
 
Platon Danilov
Platon Danilov  Identity Verified
Ukraine
Local time: 15:41
English to Russian
+ ...
It depends on the project Dec 7, 2018

If it is an ongoing project and they send you +/- eight to eighty-eight words only, but every day, while invoicing is monthly, I wouldn't mind it. Otherwise, it's $10 min.

 
Angie Garbarino
Angie Garbarino  Identity Verified
Local time: 14:41
Member (2003)
French to Italian
+ ...
1 hour, Dec 7, 2018

25 euros, 30 usd

 
Michael Harris
Michael Harris  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 14:41
Member (2006)
German to English
None Dec 7, 2018

generally. I only have one customer who sends my loads of smaller text segments who, after a while, I applied a minimum fee, but other than that 95% of the work I get is well above a minimum fee.

 
Christine Andersen
Christine Andersen  Identity Verified
Denmark
Local time: 14:41
Member (2003)
Danish to English
+ ...
Of course, I do real 'one-liners' for free Dec 7, 2018

I do not charge at all for genuine one-liners, where not much effort is involved.

One client had a little informative and often humorous remark of the month on their e-mails, which I translated for free - and sometimes used myself!

That kind of thing can be enormously effective as marketing, which is a reason for not always charging a minimum fee.


Kitty Brussaard
Nadia Silva Castro
 
Mario Freitas
Mario Freitas  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 10:41
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
No minimum fee Dec 7, 2018

My regular clients usually state a minimum fee for small jobs, so I don't have to state it.
Other clients send me jobs regularly, so I invoice the total words in the month, and small jobs are added, so no mimimum fee here either.
Some clients don't like the idea of minimum fees, and we must consider that, too.


 


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Poll: What is your minimum fee?






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