| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: What to you see as the biggest threat to your business income? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
|
|---|
| Not necessarily machine translation | Jun 19, 2017 |
Personally, I have yet to believe that machine translation has a major effect on our freelance businesses, though I do recognize that a lot of people are using it for free. A couple of years ago a museologist approached me about translating a book she needed for her research. When I quoted my rate, she got sticker shock. I suspect she ended up using MT, and I see nothing wrong with that.
I see MT being used more for casual purposes and as an information tool--people learning about s... See more Personally, I have yet to believe that machine translation has a major effect on our freelance businesses, though I do recognize that a lot of people are using it for free. A couple of years ago a museologist approached me about translating a book she needed for her research. When I quoted my rate, she got sticker shock. I suspect she ended up using MT, and I see nothing wrong with that.
I see MT being used more for casual purposes and as an information tool--people learning about subjects on the Internet that they could not have accessed before. I use it myself to learn what my Facebook friends are saying in Norwegian, Arabic, and other languages I will never understand.
It is also being used by researchers accessing background literature for their studies--material they would not have attempted to translate in the past. When I wrote my thesis back in the 1980s, I would have been able to expand my research in important ways if f had been able to read Czech. Today I would have used MT. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mario Freitas 
Brazil
Local time: 00:43
Member (2014)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
| Finally an intelligent and useful post! | Jun 19, 2017 |
Congrats, Muriel!
I think several factors are already affecting our market.
1. Translators accepting low rates are certainly affecting the market, because the agencies are profitting from the opportunity to lower the rates based on that.
However, it's not really our market in most cases, as the translators who work for peanuts would probably not be accepted by our clients, due to low quality. But many people are desperate and accepting lower rates, due to the ba... See more Congrats, Muriel!
I think several factors are already affecting our market.
1. Translators accepting low rates are certainly affecting the market, because the agencies are profitting from the opportunity to lower the rates based on that.
However, it's not really our market in most cases, as the translators who work for peanuts would probably not be accepted by our clients, due to low quality. But many people are desperate and accepting lower rates, due to the bad period of the economy as a whole, and a shortage of jobs.
2. Changing client practices: The worst ones are the adoption of online/cloud platforms, which is becoming more common and are usually terrible as compared to our own CATs. They make us waste time and don't allow us to feed our own TMs.
But another horrible practice is the so-called post-editing, a total disaster in our market. I don't accept either clouds or post-editing, but I may be forced to do so soon if we don't fight together against these practices. And I'm not seeing this fight, unfortunately. People tend to accept the market trends without questioning them.
3. Machine translation: A threat only to the peanut and low-quality transltors. It may start affecting the good translators in about 50 years. Our grandchildren may have issues with that, not us.
[Edited at 2017-06-19 18:32 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Not exactly... | Jun 19, 2017 |
If I remember correctly in 2011 there was no adjustment of the remuneration and pensions of officials and other servants of the European Union and from 2012 all remunerations were frozen as part of the package for the Multiannual Financial Perspectives 2014-2020. A limited adjustment only took place in July 2016.
| | | | | Shareholder activism | Jun 19, 2017 |
Jessica Noyes wrote:
I am concerned about the way large perfect felines and the rest are buying out many of the boutique agencies that were once so pleasant to work with. I am very glad to help an outsourcer make a good living by doing the detail work that allows me just to translate; however, it makes my skin crawl to know that profits in the billions are being made by the individuals who own these mega-companies. Meanwhile, I have to arm-wrestle the PMs just to keep my rates as they are. Under the traditional capitalist system, these profits are supposed to be reinvested into the business, creating more jobs and wealth all around, but as far as I can tell, these people are simply salting away these funds in tax havens.
The big boys are all publicly quoted companies. Why don't all their disgruntled vendors simply buy some shares in them and take over their annual meeting?
And if that doesn't work out at least you get paid a bit more in the form of dividends.
P.S. I agree that their taking over the world is bad news. I've lost so many good customers to them over the years. But I've also seen plenty of disillusioned end-customers jumping back off.
| | |
|
|
|
Robert Forstag
United States
Local time: 23:43
Spanish to English
+ ...
| A combination, but one thing above all else | Jun 20, 2017 |
Machine translation, CAT tools, too many translators, debased quality standards: I see all of these as threats to anyone who would hope to earn a viable living as a freelance translator.
But most of all it is, as Jessica and others have said, the big agencies and not just because they often buy out their smaller competitors, but because they really set the standard for what is acceptable, and thus exercise pressure on smaller companies to adopt some of their own practices that so m... See more Machine translation, CAT tools, too many translators, debased quality standards: I see all of these as threats to anyone who would hope to earn a viable living as a freelance translator.
But most of all it is, as Jessica and others have said, the big agencies and not just because they often buy out their smaller competitors, but because they really set the standard for what is acceptable, and thus exercise pressure on smaller companies to adopt some of their own practices that so many of us find odious.
In this regard, I tend to think that agencies are the problem. Period. Not big agencies, not small agencies, but agencies. Period. Translators who rely solely on agency work to make a living are in trouble unless they are among the relatively lucky few who can confidently expect a regular flow of work involving reasonable deadlines and good rates, and/or work in combinations for which there is high demand and relatively scarce supply. Most others will likely often find themselves working for lower rates than they are comfortable with, doing work they don't especially like, accepting rush work that requires long nights and sacrificed weekends because those are the only jobs that pay decently, and dealing with intense anxiety over long periods of down time. The other alternative for agency-dependent translators is to accept very low rates to ensure their steady flow of work, thus effectively transforming themselves into the equivalent of sweatshop drudges required to meet a certain daily quota of piecework before they are allowed to stop and enjoy the rest of the few waking hours they might have at their disposal.
Not a pretty picture, I know. Certainly not a vision of the translation industry that this site and the manufacturers of the big CAT tools would officially endorse. But there it is.
And the situation doesn't look to get better any time soon.
[Edited at 2017-06-20 00:48 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | |
The risk I won't be able to work for some reason.
| | | | Sami Khamou
Local time: 23:43
Member (2002)
English to Arabic
+ ...
| Biggist to my business is instability in the Middle-East | Jul 1, 2017 |
In addition to all threats mentioned by my colleagues above, there are other specific threats to translation business depending on orders created by development projects in the Middle-East. Orders I used to receive for English/Arabic translation have disappeared also because of instability in the Middle-East. On-going wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are factors for the disappearance of development projects in those countries. Now, we have the rift between Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Bahrain and... See more In addition to all threats mentioned by my colleagues above, there are other specific threats to translation business depending on orders created by development projects in the Middle-East. Orders I used to receive for English/Arabic translation have disappeared also because of instability in the Middle-East. On-going wars in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen are factors for the disappearance of development projects in those countries. Now, we have the rift between Saudi Arabia, Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt on one side and Qatar on the other side which adds to the problem. Fluctuations in the oil prices is another adverse factor. Resources are mostly spent on weapons of war rather than job creating development projects. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Félicien Sirois
United States
Local time: 22:43
Member
Italian to English
+ ...
| Agencies getting too big for their britches | Jul 1, 2017 |
What has affected me most in recent years are once-stable, awesome clients suddenly deciding that they need to get bigger. They begin opening foreign offices (the number one company ruiner IMO), or start instituting onerous paperwork requirements (often solely for the sake of fulfilling some nebulous "ISO certification" requirement), or simply start cutting rates or streamlining workflow in a way that compromises quality for the sake of better yearly returns.
Or all three of the abo... See more What has affected me most in recent years are once-stable, awesome clients suddenly deciding that they need to get bigger. They begin opening foreign offices (the number one company ruiner IMO), or start instituting onerous paperwork requirements (often solely for the sake of fulfilling some nebulous "ISO certification" requirement), or simply start cutting rates or streamlining workflow in a way that compromises quality for the sake of better yearly returns.
Or all three of the above. The trifecta of trouble.
In two cases now I've had clients go from being suppliers of 60-75% of my income, to my having to leave them entirely because their new policies are no longer congruent with my professional standards.
It's really been sad to watch, but it's also forced me to open up my eyes and branch out and diversify. ▲ Collapse
| | |
|
|
|
bkytransl
Bulgaria
Local time: 06:43
French to German
+ ...
| Several points, some are maybe not known to anybody here | Jul 2, 2017 |
First of all, I had enough and moved to the south of Bulgaria from Germany because it wasn't possible to survive the high costs with the always lowering income over the years - my best decision ever.
My reasons which I experience:
1. Rates since years are only lowering, never rising, but prices do, this alone is in fact lowering the income. Some posted here that translators who work for too low prices are a risk of lowering the income, let me say something, when you wor... See more First of all, I had enough and moved to the south of Bulgaria from Germany because it wasn't possible to survive the high costs with the always lowering income over the years - my best decision ever.
My reasons which I experience:
1. Rates since years are only lowering, never rising, but prices do, this alone is in fact lowering the income. Some posted here that translators who work for too low prices are a risk of lowering the income, let me say something, when you work for agencies, they determine the prices, and you as a freelancer have nothing to say. The highest which I receive is 0.10 USD per word, most are only paying 0.06 to 0.08 USD per word. This is the reality, and for this you can't even propose to get more, they will give it to the masses of others who are already standing in the queue, and I am speaking about high tech patent translations, which I do for almost 100%.
2. Increasing use of Machine Translation which requires postediting. This means, for postediting I receive only the half of what I receive for pure translation, but in my case, I am at least as fast with pure translation as the 800 words per hour they assume for postediting, this means from the moment a translation is replaced by postediting, I earn around 70% less per word.
3. Agencies abusing translators as free of charge layouters and 2nd-time reviewers! One of my agency customer have a very strange collection of habits which all decrease my income by stealing my time: - I have to do the layout of the text documents so that they fit in their template, - even worse, they expect from me also to do the layout of the drawings which I receive in pdf or want me to make a list with the terms, while I am saying I am not a layouter, I am translator and I am neither paid for this nor I am educated for this (they simply don't get it that it would be less work even for them to provide a clean Word drawing with the English terms inside from the onset, - and now comes the unique step, the cream on top: After review they send the reviewed text back to the translator and the translator is "allowed" to look into all the remarks and corrections the reviewer made, and has also to adapt all the text when the reviewer has only read the title and maybe the claims for free, not even a coin, this is thrown into no matter when some days after the translation and you have to squeeze it in like a normal translation even if you have no time at all! Did anyone have experience with such practice?
4. Delayed payment and excessive bank transfer processing fees: One of my agency customers has 45 days of payment delay, this is bad enough to wait for, but in at least 50% of the cases the just give themselves another 4 or 6, sometimes 8 weeks, which made me to set up a detailed list of all invoices sent with data and everything. When I ask there is coming often the remark that there are "internal billing problems, and I should contact the respective project manager". More than once this forced me to lend money from friends because I could not sleep any more in fear from what to pay the next bill the next day!
Bank transfer fees from the US to Europe, they always deduct 20 USD for that from any of my invoices, when they send only the transfer for 1 invoice, the deduct 20 USD and when they send a bunch at once, it is also 20 USD one time. They don't get it that in Europe to receive a check is much more disadvantageous than to transfer the money by bank.
Had I stayed in Germany, I would be bankrupt by now, here at least I can live very well from what I am earning. It is like increasing the income by 3 or 4 times.
[Bearbeitet am 2017-07-02 16:07 GMT] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Pages in topic: < [1 2] | To report site rules violations or get help, contact a site moderator: You can also contact site staff by submitting a support request » Poll: What to you see as the biggest threat to your business income? | Trados Studio 2022 Freelance | The leading translation software used by over 270,000 translators.
Designed with your feedback in mind, Trados Studio 2022 delivers an unrivalled, powerful desktop
and cloud solution, empowering you to work in the most efficient and cost-effective way.
More info » |
| | Protemos translation business management system | Create your account in minutes, and start working! 3-month trial for agencies, and free for freelancers!
The system lets you keep client/vendor database, with contacts and rates, manage projects and assign jobs to vendors, issue invoices, track payments, store and manage project files, generate business reports on turnover profit per client/manager etc.
More info » |
|
| | | | X Sign in to your ProZ.com account... | | | | | |
Login to reply/comment 
