Session 1: Launching your career

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This session will be dedicated to helping you feel confident about the fundamental aspects you actually need to get started as a freelance translator and how to get your business off the ground. We’ll work together to strategically plan how your first six months might look and help you set ambitious but achievable targets for your business. We’ll provide insight into how to launch your business on the side of another job or commitment if this is something which applies to you and guide you on how to spend your time most effectively if you are working full-time on your translation career from the start. We’ll also cover the opportunities that moving into translation from a different career may offer you. We’ll guide you through challenging aspects of running a freelance business like getting into the right mindset to achieve success, being your own boss and managing your time.

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Session 2: Getting your foot in the door and marketing your services

 

Now you’ve planned your business and you know where you’re heading, we’ll talk about how to build your translation experience and expertise without working for free. We’ll support you in crafting a persuasive professional profile and offer you advice on pitching your services to clients, as well as running through practical elements like creating a CV that actually appeals to agency clients, choosing which services you are going to offer, using social media to appeal to agency clients and strategically deciding whether to invest time in social media, as well as getting a business website up and running. We’ll help you get noticed by translation agencies and other potential clients whilst keeping your costs low at this early stage in your career. We’ll also provide guidance on different types of clients you may wish to work with as your career progresses.

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Session 3: Specialisms and positioning

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We’ll guide you when it comes to the pros and cons of working as a specialist or generalist in this early period of your career and help you navigate the minefield of deciding on a specialism. Once you’ve chosen a specialism, we’ll support you in defining the steps you need to take to gain experience and improve your subject matter expertise, as well as understanding why you may wish to choose a specialism. We’ll help you understand how you can make yourself stand out and gain good clients in a crowded market and consider your longer-term options for building your business, as well as consider the pros and cons of different working models, such as forming a cooperative with colleagues. We’ll also help you create a strategic plan to build on and develop your professional skills in the future.

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Session 4: Managing money

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Managing money and deciding what to charge can be some of the most challenging aspects of starting out and there are so many pitfalls for translators who are new to freelancing, including clients who refuse to pay and the race to the bottom with rates. We’ll provide you with advice on avoiding sharks, managing payments and disputes, credit control, as well as banking and accounting, tax and researching financial aid. We’ll cover working with overseas clients and handling payments in other currencies. We’ll help you work out how much you need to earn and how much you need to charge your clients, as well as understand how and when you can increase your rates and how to negotiate this effectively.

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Session 5:  Core business skills for translation - now and for the future

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Before you start this course, you will have already honed your translation skills and we’ll help you add the core business skills you need to succeed as a freelance translator. We’ll help you handle the job process to complete a translation project to a professional standard, including preparing quotes, following up with clients, delivering jobs and invoices. We’ll also cover dealing with queries and complaints. We’ll help you create a plan for applying to agencies and getting work from them, as well as identifying untrustworthy agencies and spotting red flags. Once an agency has added you to their books, you’ll need to build a good relationship with them so we will help you navigate that, as well as understand how to end a working relationship with an agency. We’ll guide you on networking with the translation community online, through memberships, conferences and networks as well as getting outside the translation bubble and in front of clients. We’ll also discuss further investments you will want to make in your business like CPD, software, training, equipment and resources.