 Hello everyone today. We have a new subject. I I Feel like every time I I do one of these videos the background is getting messier and messier I really need to put it in order. Anyway today. I want to talk to you about your rates and I want to talk to you about raising your rates and this is something that I've touched upon in the past and you know, I've mentioned that you should never try to get business by providing lower rates by trying to do that race to the bottom because it's always just the downward spiral and It never works. Well, and this is true. You shouldn't do it the various other ways and I've covered them in other videos but today I want to talk to you about, you know Raising rates because no matter what at some point is going to happen Whether you did do it and you know You charge too little at some point to get the business and so you want to bring it up or just because and this is more Likely you're just going ahead with business and over the years You've realized that you're pretty much worth more in the market But that you still have clients that you really like and you work well with you'd like to keep working with those clients and they're steady clients but you you know, you think I'm worth a bit more than this in in the market and I can probably earn more than this and And you know, you should be doing that because let's face it If you've been doing this for a number of years and your rates have stayed the same Chances are, you know that you're a much better translator than you were say three years ago two years ago, whatever it might be and so you can earn a bit more and Anyway, obviously this It can differ on a case-by-case basis and you kind of have to see how it works for you but here are the methods that I feel are best for for raising rates and you know that are pretty much standard practice and that you should follow for for raising your rates because mainly because a lot of people do it the wrong way and One of the worst mistakes you can do is not announce anything and just try to slip it there under the radar that your rates have gone up because nobody no client wants to You know hire you and then They're used to working with you at a certain rate and then all of a sudden they get an invoice And it's had a different rate for all these jobs and they're like what the hell's going on so there's certain ways to go about it and The best way to do it is to prepare for it ahead of time. So let's get into that a bit what you should do so in terms of preparation this should start ahead of time and Ideally what you have is you have a number of clients that you've been translating for them for at least a year And this is because no client wants to hire you and then you know They hire you at a certain rate for ongoing jobs and then like a month or two later suddenly you raise the rate They don't like that because then they're thinking well a month or two after this They're gonna raise their great again, and who knows what will happen and it just seems very volatile They want more stability. So ideally you've been having these You've been having a number of your clients at least for at least a year And and you know that's pretty much a good cutoff point You can see how you feel better not obviously it also depends on how often you've been doing jobs for them, right? If they just hired you once during that year or if they hire or they're hiring you every week It can mean something different. So it is a judgment call, but I like to think at least a year and You also and also obviously the work that you're providing for them has to be good It has to be good quality I would say you're providing good work of good quality and ahead of schedule You always want to send it ahead of schedule if you're planning to do this to raise your race and to show that you're professional you should be If your deadlines on a Friday provide the work, you know a day or two ahead of time This just shows because what it what it does for the client as well is It shows I mean it shows you're on top of everything and then they can kind of work with you If they want to tweak it or do something along those lines I'd say by ahead of schedule by the way Yeah, about a day, you know more than more than that. It's There's no, you know, you don't want to rush what you're doing just to get it done ahead of time Right, but if you provided a day or so ahead of schedule, you know, just show that you're come You provide it by the deadline comfortably So, you know just a bit before anyway as long as you're doing good work and you're providing it ahead of schedule then you should be in a good situation and You can approach your clients by the way if you've been working for a number of clients for a year and other clients for just two months You can try approaching those clients for a year first and just wait on approaching those clients that have only been clients for two months You don't have to do it all at the same time. They're different, you know, some people decide okay from so-and-so date I'm only going to be doing jobs for this price other people do it client by client. It really depends on you. I I So the way I do it is I make sure that whatever client I can't I'm in contact with I've been working with for at least a certain amount of Time so if at the same time I have a brand new client I'm not going to tell them about the price change and And so I will wait it can make my life more complicated that way because you know I have to keep track of who I'm working with at what rate and I also feel like well You know, I'm working with people at a different rate But that's during a transition time if you will then once, you know Everything's established with these clients where I already changed your rate then I can work on the next one and you know See how that goes But anyway, make a schedule and just prepare it ahead of time Make sure you've been working for a decent amount of time. You've been doing a good job and you've been doing things on Schedule or ahead of schedule Okay, this is the preparation ahead of time now We're getting on to when you actually change it first of all like I mentioned before let your clients know you have to let your clients know Email them and make your case to them. I mean by make your case It's more of an announcement. You just want to announce that it's happening you don't want to ask them obviously you want to announce it and So you can send an email saying something along the lines of I wish to inform you that from now on my rates will be so-and-so you know higher than your rates before and And then you know, you can just continue the email say you You know this you will we will expect the same professional work that I've always provided or even more professional work All my translations are going to be reviewed and edited, you know by myself at and I'll make sure they're all top-notch quality I'll handle all the formatting for you. Whatever you feel comfortable adding on to there Do it and you know show everything you provide it might be everything you provided before but now you lay it out and you show them a bit more formally and And yeah, that's it and then see what and see what happens It was so basically you send that out and you just say it like fair complete like basically like This is what my rates are going to be from now on. I just wish to inform you or starting, you know next month You know if it's May now then starting June 1st starting July 1st, whatever, you know, you want to give them a week or two You know notice ahead of time, but you know say starting whatever date is going to be At this rate fine and Then that's it, you know at that point you wait and You need to realize a couple things first of all some clients may drop you like they might not want to deal with you No matter how much you deserve a new rate, they might not want to they might not be able to handle it They might not want to handle it. They might Want to shop around for another translator or something like that? You need to evaluate how this works for you. I recommend accepting this and accepting Whatever clients stick with you because these are ones who obviously do value you at that price And so they are presumably good clients to have and at that new price level you can try to search for other clients and You know at this this new profession more professional you let's say can find these new clients and And so then you can be at that rate and you kind of drop the people who pay you less and you get new clients that pay you more I recommend doing this However issues can happen What if none of your clients want to do business with you or something or you know We are main client maybe the one you care about the most doesn't want to do business with you or something like that Then how do you deal with that? There are certain ways to deal with it I so actually what happened to me was I got contacted by a translator said my rates are going up and this is what they're going to be and then I Can't remember about a month or two later. I got another email from the same translator said due to lack of activity My rates are going back down to what they were before and obviously I was happy to hear that on the other hand Now if he tries to raise his rates again, I might kind of want to wait it out and see if he you know Goes back down or something like that. I don't think I hired him during that time He had higher rates, but it's also because I didn't have any business for him during that time He wasn't one of my regular translators. I just use him every now and then and so so it can be risky But obviously it has been done So it's a judgment call once again for you if you raise your rates and they don't accept it or something like that You can always send an email. I wouldn't send an email say oh because you don't accept it I'll raise it back down just for you or anything like that. What I would say is like due to the market as a whole because at least there it sounds like you know Because otherwise they feel they have too much control over you let's say if they if you say oh because that's what you want Then I'll keep it down and they feel like okay This person obviously needs us and so we can control how the rates work No, you can say Due to overall market and due to the overall level ideally that doesn't happen And I do feel that if you stagger your new clients and new rates Then there's less chance of this happening because you can get an idea of which clients accepted before you approach all your clients with a With a rate hike anyway Yeah, that's that's pretty much it Once again, I think you should prepare for it ahead of time make the announcement Make it transparent and make it clear and then just kind of see what happens and adapt according to that based on that And also once again if you can stagger it with your clients, it might be better I understand that it kind of is more complicated depending on how many clients you have and how often you work for each of them So that's a judgment call once again, but see what works best for you However, I this is the method that I've seen used and that I have used in the past And I do think it's the best way and it works best for steady Pay raises. So, you know, basically keeping up with your level as it gets better and progresses If you've started at a really low rate just to get new clients and you're trying to raise it from there It usually doesn't work. They hired you just because you were really really cheap and so you want to raise your rate after that They'll just find someone new But ideally you've worked with clients who appreciate you and so if you have a new pay raise that you deserve Then they'll still want to work with you Yeah, and that's pretty much it. I hope you find this useful and I hope you're able to use it if and when you need to raise your rate at any point in time and There might be by the way, there might be some negotiation later like they might get back to you like Oh, can you do this? Can you do that? I've actually never had that happen to me Every single time that I've that I've done this I basically get no response and but I still get work from the clients and at least the regular clients and that's the way it goes So maybe I've just been lucky But it seems to me that they don't really try to negotiate much if they do try to negotiate I would negotiate as best you can just realize that if you do let them Pressure you into giving a lower rate again They'll know they have that control over you and so I kind of wouldn't really recommend it on the other hand You also don't want to lose a client. So it really is up to you and it depends on which client this is Once again, if you stagger it like I said before then you can start on some of the Maybe not so important clients and see how it works with them before you get to the main clients um, and uh, so once again if you can swing staggering it does work well, but uh, but yeah See what works best for you and let me know what works best for you because I'm curious to hear I know what has worked for me in terms of a translator and in terms of hiring translators But I'm sure there's other information out there that might be interesting. So Yeah, so feel free to let me know in the comments or uh, you know, if you have any other experience I'd love to hear about it. Otherwise, I will see you in the next video and uh, don't forget to subscribe if you haven't Please like this if you do and see you next time. Thanks. Bye