 Hello everyone today We're going to talk about things you should not be accepting from your client or from a prospective client or for whoever wants to hire you to do business with you and These are some things that I've come across that I've seen myself and that really kind of Annoy me in the way people think they can treat translators or freelancers in general Along those lines that sort of divided it first. I'm gonna have the stuff that you should not be accepting from them and next I'm gonna have the stuff that Just get on my nerves, but it might just be me kind of being nitpicky about it But let's start with the stuff that I think you shouldn't accept From clients at this point or at any point in the future number one The first thing you shouldn't accept from clients is when they ask you Please do this job for cheap as more work will be coming in the future or there is a possibility for more work in the future There's a possibility to have a long-term relationship However, they word it something like that basically what they're asking for you is you haven't a rate of X They want you to offer them X minus something because they're saying there's gonna be a lot more work with that came from in some Hypothetical future at some point. Maybe you know as long as we're happy with whatever whatever that's Yeah, it's complete crap if look if they're happy with you and you're happy with them Then absolutely you can negotiate a future job or whatever and you can see that ahead of time But in the meantime you pay my rate I do a good job for you and then we're happy and that's how business works Okay, you don't convince me to do a lower rate because of the possibility No, in fact if you reserve me now for jobs in the future, then we can negotiate a rate for all the stuff in the future But you're not guaranteeing anything you're just saying there's a possibility of something in the future Which doesn't mean anything will season see this is how annoyed I get which doesn't mean anything So, you know skip it if any perspective client tells you give me a lower rate because there's a possibility of Something in the future Ignore that give them your standard rate because that is your rate and you know There is no lower rate because there's more stuff in the future and I'll get into this a bit more in fact here Let me get into it now where people say Oh, yeah, the other argument that they give you is that sorry I have to check my notes because I Get matted in so I had to yeah keep track of all of them. Otherwise I start rambling a bit too much the other thing they say is We have a huge volume of work. So lower your rate again. Your rate is X They want X minus something because they give you a large volume of work They're thinking behind this is that oh, you know the more work there is the easier because you're probably using some cat Tool in fact many times they'll do and I've mentioned this before they do this whole study of fuzzy matches Perfect matches and they pay you less for all of that Anyway, these are kind of two different sides of the same coin First of all if you don't use a cat tool, then there is no advantage, you know It's not like it's you have it's easier if you have a longer job than a shorter job What is true is that you're least guaranteed a job, you know for longer than then just a short job you know if you have a job of like to translate 20 words and And then you have to search for your next client in your next client Yeah, it's true if they give you something long at least you're guaranteed a client for the next You know few days or however long the job takes and so that's true on the other hand It's still a lot of work and you should get paid for the amount of work you do So you shouldn't be lowering your rate just because volume means lower rate You know you can do you can make a judgment call saying well Otherwise, I'm not sure if I can get another job. So yeah, I'll accept a bit lower because at least I'm guaranteed a job That's up to you, but also remember this could affect you in the future because that means from then that point on They're only gonna hire you at that rate, but The fact the mere fact that there's volume and that they think that means you should have a lower rate Doesn't make sense and you shouldn't accept it just on itself so and that that ties into the other thing where they you know because The first point I mentioned where they say oh, we're giving you this small job now But there'll be a whole lot more in the future. So give us a good break. Yeah, that annoys me. Anyway onto the next one Let's see. I already did you work down more possible in the future. Oh another one. That's Maybe I should have it. No, I'll include this here and stuff. You shouldn't accept. At least I don't accept it I know I did before but and the issue is with urgent jobs Now this is especially clients you have not worked with before if you know them already and you feel comfortable with them Fine you make your own judgment call But if their clients you have not worked with before and they have an urgent job that really needs to be done right away I would avoid those quite frankly because Every time that I've had them there's been some problem with them if it's a problem If you know either it's a problem with the files They send me and and they have to keep resending me or I send back the translation and it's done Well, but then they have issues because you know, they miss any time there's something urgent It means they have some issue along that supply chain either the person you're dealing with or their client or their boss or something like that and Which is making everything urgent, you know that Presentation that needs to be translated, you know, it wasn't just thought up yesterday the meeting or the you know The whatever it is that you're translating for the big for the big Get together or you know, whatever whatever it is that you're translating for the annual report Like it's not something that was just dreamed up yesterday. People have been preparing this forever, but Because something along the supply chain, you know, someone didn't do their job, right? Or you know, that has no idea what they're doing. Anyway, because of some mess up there Suddenly everything got urgent and it's gonna come back to bite you whether it be that they sent you the wrong file or they sent you the correct file, but they wanted different stuff done or with a payment and In fact, I'm having an issue now with a payment because of anyway something correlated with that It's been going on for a while but anyway and or something along the lines will get messed up if it's an urgent job, that should be a big big rig flag and So just remember that urgent is not a good sign You know, it's a judgment call as with anything at the end of the day But I would kind of stay away from those from the urgent jobs Oh This is a great one that I like when it's time to get paid and you probably get this with the urgent jobs as well That's what happened to me. They'll say, oh, we can't pay you now because our client hasn't paid us yet You should never have to accept this ever. Okay, you your contract is with Whoever hired you and that's it. You did the job for the person who hired you you expect to get paid The fact is if they have another end client if you're working for a translation agency Whoever it is and they have an end client. They're getting paid more per word than you are, right? But that's because they assume the risk anytime I hire and a translator for my agency I pay them after their job No matter if my client has paid me or not that has nothing to do with me paying the translator for their job Okay, that that's not on them I'm the one who decided to work with the end client who isn't paying me and so I have to deal with that That has nothing to do with them. You cannot accept that from any of your clients You cannot accept the fact That they say oh, I haven't gotten paid yet So please wait and please be patient because as soon as we get paid will pay you no no no no no They pay you because they owe you and that's it. They're paying with someone else It's too bad, but that's it and so what I've had is I've had someone keep insisting that this is the case I said my contract is with you has nothing to do with them So I need to get paid for me. They're like, oh no has everything to do with them because I'm like, okay If my contract has something to do with them, I'm contacting them directly I'm letting them know that I made the translation not you because I come to find out the person Who had hired me she'd and I've talked about this a couple years ago in a in a video But she had you know told the client that she was translating it But instead she hired it out to me into another person, which was a complete mess. Anyway, you know, I was like I'm gonna contact them directly. She's like, no that goes against every code. You can't do that I'm like you're going against every code here. Okay, anyway, they need to pay you for your job If you've done your job you get paid. That's it. Nothing to do with the end client or whoever else it might be That's it. Okay, calm down Let's see what else there is In terms of things you shouldn't accept for your client to have one more. It's the ambiguous projects. These are The problem with ambiguous projects is they'll they might give you something that needs to be translated But they haven't sent you the final documents They haven't finalized the timeline yet or they haven't done something you don't want surprises once you accept the job That's the main thing do not accept the job until you've seen the thing to be translated and you have it in writing what the precise deadline is and And what you're getting paid for it, you know Because the problem with this is if you do not want to have to accept the job and Then later not be able to do it because no matter how much it's that client's fault for not telling you ahead of time They're gonna blame you, you know, there's there's no way, you know Because suddenly they got screwed they suddenly thought they had hired a translator out and suddenly don't they haven't they you know They suddenly they're they're without a translation or they have to go find another translator And they have to do the work again from scratch And of course they're gonna blame you even if it's completely their job They're gonna blame you so and the way to avoid this is to make sure that you know the job 100% before you say yes So don't accept a job on spec, you know, make sure you've seen the file the exact file to be translated You have it right there You know, don't don't say, you know, don't let them tell you Oh, we'll send you a page and tell us if that's okay, then it'll be like, you know 500 more pages like that one. No, you don't know that and so you need to see all the 500 pages You need to know the exact deadline and you need to know where you're getting paid Okay, because then later, you know, at least everything's there and it's in black and white because you have it in writing You need in writing even just an email or something. It's fine Preferably you can get either a payment order, but I don't I don't care too much about payment orders What I do care is that it's somewhere there in writing as long as it's on an email Then I know I can go back and you know show that that is has been done so yeah, make sure there's no ambiguity and That you know exactly what you're doing So once you accept a job you don't have to change later because you you never want to do that You never want to accept a job and then come back later and say you can't do it or something along those lines So those are the things you should not accept from clients now I'm gonna get briefly because I'm it's already 10 minutes of video here And just stuff that annoys me about you know when clients contact you first of all is when they contact you with an email That says dear linguist. Okay, because every time especially someone I've been doing business with before I'm like, you know, I know you're farming this out to many different people or something But especially if we've done business before I mean, you know, I don't know, you know, I have the decency to just Send me an email, you know, you can copy and paste it to people But every time I need an email, you won't be using it. Anyway that annoys me and again, you know If I already have my relationship with this client and then there's going to be a dear linguist that they've also obviously CC'd a bunch of people then obviously, you know, they have a bunch of translators that It's all the same to them who they hire and it's not like they value the fact that I'm trying to do good work for them It just is a pet peeve of mine. That's why I didn't say it in a thing You should totally avoid but it's a thing that annoys me. So that's why I'm leaving it there another thing that really annoys me is when they asked for a best rate and Maybe I should have included this and stuff. You shouldn't you shouldn't ever accept I didn't because a lot of people just right nowadays just right We need your best rate and they don't even think about it. They just write it and put it in What annoys me is that it implies that you have a standard rate once again x and they want your x minus something Because your standard rate is Padded up, you know, they assume that you artificially raise your standard rate and they're like no no We want your real rate your best rate. No, and you know, that's not that's not how I work I I you know, I have a rate and that's it, you know, I know I don't have a best rate for people who are in the know And so I know a lot of people they don't put that much thought into it when they write best rate But it still annoys me. So yeah, that just annoys me when they write best rate and the last one that kind of annoys me is when they Write something like we're offering you a job Again, this might just be me. It just sounds patronizing to me when they say Well, you're sitting there and you're unemployed and you don't have anything to do so we're offering you this job Because now you can suddenly start making some money. You pour an employed slob Again, this really just comes across It's conveyed in the email in the in the way they email you and but I've had enough of them That kind of give me that sense that it just annoys me again. This might just be me And again, it also might just be because I do have regular clients So I'm not in that situation. Maybe if I were more in that situation then I'd I relate a bit more But I don't so it just annoys me. So there you go. I by the way, even if you're in this situation You are a freelance translation professional and you need to see yourself as such Don't see yourself as some person sitting there waiting to get money how scrounging around unemployed in front of their computer Wasting time or something. No, no, you're a professional and you should be treated as a professional And as once you make the commitment to be a freelance translator That's the case and that's it And and I try to emphasize this also my course and stuff like that where you know Say treat it like a real job and make it very professional because you are it's only going to be as professional as you treat it This you know People are only going to take your job as seriously as you take it So take it seriously and I think that's what annoys me about those patronizing type emails. Um, anyway Hopefully hopefully you don't come across stuff like this too often But hopefully when you do come across it you can sort of see the red flags and hopefully avoid some You know really bad headaches down the line Uh by avoiding some of this stuff, you know, where they ask you for yeah the cheap work now and the The ambiguous stuff or the urgent stuff that then just starts going to hell in a hand basket and all that stuff Anyway, hopefully you can find this video useful in your future endeavors And uh, don't forget to like and don't forget to subscribe if you want more videos like this in the future And that's pretty much it. I'll talk to you in the next video. Thanks. Bye