Are you a freelance translator looking to take your career to the next level? Adechina Odjo recently interviewed Corinne McKay, a seasoned translator and author of “How to Succeed as a Freelance Translator“.
In this blog interview, Corinne shares her insights, advice, and tips on what it takes to build a thriving translation business.
From client acquisition to marketing strategies and everything in between, this is a must-read for anyone looking to thrive in the translation industry.
Enjoy!
Hello Corinne, so great to have you. What can you tell us about yourself?
Thanks for inviting me, Adechina! I am a French<>English conference and legal interpreter and French-to-English translator based in Boulder, Colorado, in the Rocky Mountains of the US.
I’ve been a full-time freelancer since 2002, and I started out with a Bachelor’s degree in French and a Master’s degree in French literature. From 2002-2018, I was exclusively a French-to-English translator.
I was always interested in interpreting and I did a tiny amount of what we would now call community interpreting. But at that time remote interpreting didn’t exist, and I have a daughter who is the same age as my freelance business, so it was simply too complicated to balance in-person interpreting with having a small child at home.
In 2018, I had a “now or never” moment with interpreting and decided to dive in.
In 2019 I passed the Colorado State court interpreter certification exam, and in 2020-2021 I did a Master of Conference interpreting at Glendon College in Toronto. Throughout my career, I’ve done a lot of writing and teaching about business skills for freelancers, and these days I do almost exactly one-third conference and legal interpreting, one-third translation, and one-third teaching, writing, and consulting.
What are the business skills every freelance translator needs?
Running your own business requires a lot of business skills, but I think the three main ones are:
- finding clients,
- retaining clients, and
- managing money.
If you can’t do those three things, you’re going to have a lot of struggles as a freelancer!
How important is specialization to the success of a freelance translator?
As a translator, you do really need a specialization unless you translate in a very small language where there is less of a need to specialize.
Many people think that specialization will narrow your work options, but in fact, it’s the opposite: specializing helps you attract better-quality, higher-paying clients who want someone who really knows their subject matter.
Note: Check this guide on how to become an audiovisual translator.
What are the most effective marketing strategies for freelance translators?
If you’re looking for agency clients, it’s mostly a matter of filling out their online application forms and then following up, following up, following up (by e-mail, LinkedIn, phone, trying to meet at conferences) however you can until they give you some work.
With direct clients on the other hand, I would recommend attending their industry conferences to try to meet them in person, or contacting them via e-mail or LinkedIn with a specific pitch, indicating that you’ve done your research and you think that they have a need for your services.
And don’t forget to nudge dormant clients: getting back in touch with clients who seemed happy with your work but haven’t contacted you in a while is the world’s most boring and most effective marketing technique!
How do you keep your existing clients?
The most important thing is to deliver good work. You can’t make up for sub-par translation or interpreting skills just by being a nice person. Focus on that first!
Then, it’s important to be polite, professional, responsive, and easy to work with. Try to answer all e-mails as soon as you can, definitely within one hour if the request is time-sensitive; try to answer “are you available?” e-mails immediately. And try not to insist on being right about everything: when you make a mistake, admit it, apologize, do what you can to fix it, and move on.
I also find that clients appreciate a personal touch: send them a handwritten holiday card, tell them that you appreciate their business, that kind of thing.
What would you say has been your best experience as a freelance translator to date?
I’ve translated six non-fiction books and I’d say that those are my favorite projects overall. One of them was eventually short-listed for a pretty prominent outdoor adventure book award and it was the only translation nominated that year, so I was excited about that!
This year I had the chance to interpret on-air interviews for a current events podcast about a major French history event, and that was also a lot of fun.
What is the most striking thing about being a freelance translator?
I think the most striking thing to me is how many freelancers expect too great a return from too little marketing effort. During my first year as a freelancer, I applied to over 400 translation companies and it still took about a year and a half until I had full-time work. I hear from lots of freelancers who think they’re going to send out maybe 10 applications and be swamped with work (no!).
What do you do when things don’t go as planned?
When things don’t go as planned, I try to first not be too hard on myself. No one does everything right all the time, and we are all giving our best.
And then, I take a look at what the bad situation might be indicating about my own processes and priorities: am I rushing through things because I’m taking on too much work? Am I not getting enough sleep or exercise? Am I working for a client whose work I don’t really enjoy? What needs to change in order for this to not happen again?
Would you still like to be a freelance translator in the next 10 years?
I’m 51 and at the moment, my plan is to keep doing what I’m doing for around another 20 years. I know that we all feel the pressures in our profession that are real:
- the impact of AI,
- tight deadlines,
- downward price pressure from some clients, etc.
The example I always give is: my own daughter is now in university, and if she wanted to become a translator or interpreter (sadly she seems set on engineering!), I would encourage that.
I do think it’s important to evolve as the world changes. It always makes me sad when I hear experienced freelancers talk about how great it was to be a translator in 1995. Maybe, but it’s not 1995 anymore!
And evolving doesn’t mean lowering your rates and taking on crazy volumes of work. Last year I actually worked a bit less than I typically do, and made the same amount of money. It’s possible!
What would you like to tell translation aficionados out there who have you as a role model?
I’m kind of a yoga addict and yoga teachers often talk about “balancing effort and ease.” I’d say the same to other freelancers.
In one sense, I think you just need to work really, really hard. It always amazes me how many freelancers are working on whatever happens to land in the inbox, doing no active marketing or professional development, while simultaneously complaining that everyone else gets all the interesting, high-paying work. You can’t do that!
And, if you are constantly feeling like you’re never enough (you’re not working enough, you’re not trying hard enough, you’re not doing enough marketing, your translations aren’t good enough), you’re going to be miserable too. You have to find, or at least work toward, that balance of having very high standards for yourself while accepting that you’re one person trying to do a very challenging thing!
