Originally published: 12 September 2007. Updated: September 2023 (Original German version below)
Most of us have chosen our profession because of a passion for languages and communication. However, whenever I ask freelancer colleagues whether they also wanted to make a living on conference interpreting, most of them say they wanted to earn at least as much as if they were employed.
So: How can we be profitable and make a living as conference interpreters?
The perspective presented in this article is inspired by Mr. Andreas Schiemenz, an economist by training, who – for translators –developed an entrepreneurial, comprehensive approach which takes account of fixed costs, variable costs, productive time input and unproductive (“overhead”, non-billable) time input.
The figures and calculations in the following article are to be understood as models. Depending on the way you work, you might find some of the figures inappropriate or unrealistic. The reader is invited to use the calculations as examples and fill them in with their own numbers.
One aspect that has not been covered sufficiently in earlier publications is coverage for risk (sickness, disability and – yes – old age).
Since there is no obligation whatsoever in Germany for freelancers or self-employed people to pay into a public pension scheme, and there is hardly any independent advice or consulting on the issue for those who need to make up their own “pension schemes”, and since you do not feel like thinking about what happens when you are 64, it tends to be forgotten altogether or at least neglected. Since it makes up a big chunk of your expenses and since things get worse the later you start thinking about it, old age provision must be accounted for realistically in any business calculation.
Another neglected topic has been marketing and selling our services (and ourselves) to clients. It is a business necessity and – in the end – something that is immediately related to what we end up having in our own pockets to spend, in other words, our very standard of living.
Assumptions – the cost and time budget
In the cost and time budget we distinguish
• costs and input (time) related immediately to specific jobs (job-specific costs and job-specific input (time)
• costs and input that are not related to specific jobs (overhead or fixed costs and overhead input (time) that is non-billable).
We further assume that all job-specific costs – like travel expenses (mileage allowance for using our own car, taxi, train, air) and other travel expenses (for food, hotel etc.) which arise in connection with a specific job are reimbursed by the client (through a flat amount – per diem – or actual costs documented by receipts) so that this parameter equals 0.
Therefore, with our fee revenue we need to finance three items:
• job-specific or “productive” time input (time spent for work related directly to a specific job, i.e. preparation time, travel time, time spent at the job …)
• overhead time input (time spent on building and maintaining our professional resources, and on managing our business)
• fixed or “overhead” costs (i.e. operating costs which arise whether we have jobs or not)
Let us first turn to the two time input items of our budget.
Job-specific or “productive” time input
Apart from the time that we spend interpreting on site, this category includes the time required for the bidding and negotiating phase, obtaining information and preparation material from clients, managing/passing on this information (if applicable), RSI test calls, coordinating the team (if applicable), and the preparation and post-job processing of the material (prepare speeches and presentations, detailed subject research, production of glossaries or terminology etc.) plus a post-job business calculation.
We assume that 8 hours (or one work day) per paid conference day is required for job-specific time input. It might be less for a job where the subject is less difficult or familiar and where we only interpret between two languages (a bi-active booth is frequent on the German and some other private markets). However, if we have to prepare the subject in more than 2 languages and where the subject is unknown or difficult, where we need to coordinate a larger team or deal with a “difficult” client, we definitely need more time.
Overhead (non-billable) time input
This is the time we spend as entrepreneurs and managers of our own business as professional conference interpreters. Apart from all the tangible assets that we use as professional interpreters (PC, RSI equipment, office furniture etc.), we draw on highly intangible, immaterial assets to be successful and competitive with our product: our abilities and talent, our knowledge and expertise which have to be maintained, enhanced and kept up-to-date on a permanent basis.
As knowledge workers, our product consists in the ability to have the right knowledge available and ready to use at the right time and in the right place. That is why intensive knowledge management is extremely important:
• Keep general knowledge up to date in all our working languages and corresponding cultures
• Read the current press in all our working languages
• Read other literature/publications in all our working languages
• Update technical knowledge in areas of specialisation on a regular basis by reading technical magazines, industry publications – in all our working languages
• general terminology management
Furthermore, it is necessary to continuously improve our job-specific, professional knowledge and skills, to know the interpreters’ market and be known in it:
Continuous professional learning: obtain professional information, read and learn.
CPD
Network with colleagues, network with other professional fields, for example by being a member of an association, being active in an association or doing pro-bono work.
As Solopreneurs, we are usually our own accountants, secretaries and business managers:
Accounting, invoicing, tax returns
Apart from that we are our own marketing managers, advertising specialists and client relationship managers:
Social media, website, advertising, brochures, mailings, content
Client relations management, or CRM: call existing clients, visit and keep in touch with clients
Cold calls: define target client groups, develop a strategy, make calls or contact via social media, follow up
Overhead time input also includes time spent on unsuccessful bids or offers, often a black hole where a lot of work disappears without any remuneration:
Draw up an offer/quotation
Place and/or cancel options with colleagues
Negotiate on the phone or on site with the client.
All these activities are necessary and important for our solopreneur business, but they are non-billable, nobody pay us for them, except we ourselves. This time input needs to be considered and refinanced with our paid conference days. So, in fact we spend a lot of “unpaid” time on preparing and managing jobs, managing our business and keeping our resources up-to-date. For the purposes of our budget, we therefore need to ask the question of how many paid conference days we can actually do per year.
How much of our time / how many days do we have available to make money?
The fee revenue we can attain per year is limited by the number of days on which we can actually generate such revenue. Limiting factors are, among other things, our own mental and physical capacities (we need time to recover) and, sometimes, our families. You might deny that by saying that this applies for anybody who goes out to work, and that weekends and holidays are there to recover. However, there is an increasing trend in our market where we could (if we only could!) work many days without interruption during the busy season, while outside that season the market is in the doldrums. Therefore, mental and physical capacity and recovery phases are in fact an issue. We need to account for them just like for demand fluctuations and seasonality. However, the most significant limiting factor is the non-billable time input as described above!
The crucial question therefore runs: “how many paid conference days per year are feasible, how many of them make sense professionally – how many paid conference days should actually give us enough money to decently live on?”
There are various ways of substantiating that, on average, conference interpreters work 75-85 paid conference days a year. General freelancer or solopreneur literature proposes that the non-billable, overhead time input of a solopreneur amounts to about 30%
Here are the maths:
365 days – 104 weekend days – 29 holidays/bank holidays = 232 workdays
232 workdays available – 30% ”non-billable“ days (70 days) = 162 „productive days“
According to our assumption that per conference day we spend one day for job-specific work (mainly preparation), this results in a possible 81 paid conference days.
Earlier AIIC statistics also corroborate that, on average, freelance interpreters work 85-90 days; note that this figure includes freelancers working, among others, for the EU, so that this figure could be rather high. The VKD (Conference Interpreters Chapter of BDÜ, Germany) quotes similar figures.
Thus, if we were to account for the same number of days for job-specific work as for conference days (80/80), there are 72 days left for non-billable, professional/entrepreneurial time input. So, it seems as if a split into three (1/3 at conferences, 1/3 job-specific work (mainly preparation) plus 1/3 general, non-billable activities (knowledge management, administration, marketing, general learning) is both realistic and allows us to be professional in our job as interpreters and entrepreneurs.
Now that we know the number of paid conference days, we can take our daily fee and calculate our net fee revenue (daily fee x number of paid days).
However, for our budget we are missing one factor: the general, non-job-specific, fixed cost.
Cost to be financed by our fees – overhead/fixed costs
As professional interpreters there are two types of “general costs“ we must account for: fixed (operating) costs and provisions for risk (old age, sickness, disability).
Model calculation of fixed costs
Cost items
EUR
Office: rent, electricity, cleaning, furniture
3.000,00
Advertising: letterhead, business cards, website, christmas cards / gifts, Flyer, SEO
Literature: (digital) dictionaries, specialised literature
1.500,00
Coms: mobile, internet, phone, office material
3.000,00
CPD
1.500,00
Tax, legal advisor, data protection
1.500,00
Memberships in associations
1.000,00
Total costs
16.500,00
This is merely a model calculation, and it is mainly based on experience in Germany. What is more, conference interpreters tend to focus on different things, and spending also tends to depend on areas of specialisation.
From gross to net
In order to calculate net income, the following calculation starts from 3 possible/realistic annual fee revenue levels that result from the number of conference days per year multiplied by the daily rate (for your own calculation, always take amounts net of VAT)
Deductible portion of health and daily benefits insurance
2.800,00
2.800,00
2.800,00
Taxable income
23.180,00
30.180,00
43.180,00
Tax
3.335,00
5.291,00
9.930,00
Net
19.845,00
24.889,00
33.250,00
Non-tax-deductible portion of health insurance
2.600,00
2.600,00
2.600,00
Non-tax-deductible portion of pension contrib.
480,00
480,00
480,00
Other old-age savings, after tax
2.000,00
2.000,00
2.000,00
Annual net income available for spending
14.765,00
19.809,00
28.170,00
Monthly net income available for spending
1.230,42
1.650,75
2.347,50
Please note: according to the statistics provider Statista, the average monthly net household income in Germany in 2021 amounted to EUR 3,800. The average net wage in Germany in 2022 was EUR 2,250.
Provisions for risk seem to diminish our available household spending considerably. Int A is not very likely to actually invest EUR 10,000 for their pension.
Also, the calculation above does not account for any reserves for periods of low demand (entrepreneurial risk, loss of a major client, pandemic…). Freelancer/solopreneur literature recommends we should have put money aside for rainy days in the amount of an annual income.
The German tax and social security system also shows a significant difference in how it treats solopreneurs vs. employees: employers pay up to 50% of social security contributions – incl. healthcare – for their employees pre-tax. This means that employees have to spend much less on pension and risk contributions out of their net income than solopreneurs/freelancers.
Conclusions
So how can we achieve our aim of generating an income, i.e. a standard of living, which corresponds to our level of education and job experience now and when we are old while keeping occupational stress at tolerable levels, i.e. without compromising our health and our resources?
Cut costs?
Cost reduction is truly a buzzword nowadays. However, we should put this option in perspective. It might be possible to save costs (fixed costs) in the amount of EUR 1,000 (before tax). However, we can achieve the same effect by increasing our daily rate by only EUR 15 (Example: for 80 paid conference days a year we can increase our annual fee revenue by € 1,200 by increasing the daily rate by € 15). Does it not seem much easier to raise your daily rate by 2% instead of trying to reduce costs – probably spent on meaningful things – by 6%?
Try to work more days?
In order to increase our fee revenue, we could simply try to work more conference days than the assumed 75-85 days. We should, however, not forget that more conference days will necessarily be at the expense of either the job-specific time input (preparation), the overhead/non-billable time input (required for managing our business, CPD, marketing, admin – all necessary and meaningful for a businessl!) or at the expense of recovery periods.
Working more conference days therefore seems to be realistic only if we can save on preparation time without compromising the quality of our work, which is possible if we have regular jobs from the same client on the same subject, if some of our jobs are short (like the odd 1-hour press conference), or if we manage to acquire jobs lasting several days where the content or agenda is the same every day. These kinds of jobs are getting rarer. What is more, in times of RSI there is increasing pressure to bring down our minimum billing unit from 1 day to a half day or even hourly billing.
Translate?
Quite frequently we are told: “but you can also translate”. However, from our time budget, the time that we spend on non-billable activities is not simply available for translation. Because if we also do translations, the time that we need to spend on learning, knowledge management, marketing, administration etc. does not diminish. On the contrary, despite all synergies that may exist between interpreting and translating, additional (non-billable) time input is necessary for marketing and positioning ourselves in the translation market and for handling corresponding tools.
The same is true for other diversification options such as subtitling, content writing, professional speaking, teaching.
However, colleagues working with languages that are in less demand quite frequently do both. Time-budget-wise this means that, if the market does not provide sufficient conference days, the time that they thus do not spend at conferences or for preparation is available for translating. If, according to our assumptions, one conference day requires one day of job-specific input, we can say that the equivalent of one daily conference rate has to be generated by two productive translation days, i.e. half a daily interpreting rate per translation day. Quite a realistic figure, and in fact I have met a number of professional translators who work fast enough to generate much higher daily turnovers. Translating might be more profitable than interpreting after all.
Get paid for extra services?
Extra services that we render in the course of interpreting projects (i.e. consulting, RSI test calls, team management, travel time …) require a lot of time and, on the other hand, create tangible benefits for our clients (the services reduce the client’s effort, save the client time, deliver high quality output thanks to consulting, give the client absolute certainty that the interpreters will arrive at the conference on time if they arrive the day before).
The added value of such services is plausible to clients, and we should therefore not hesitate to invoice them in the form of fees for time spent on travelling or consulting. The degree to which we are successful in doing so depends on our negotiating skills.
The “day” as a billing unit was established when interpreting assignments had a different kind of structure. Unlike then, when interpreters very often travelled with delegations for several days or supported sessions that lasted a week or longer, today much of our work is technical and complex and requires reading and preparation input which sometimes takes more time than the actual meeting lasts. There are cases where it could be justified to bill extra for reading and prep time or think about new structures of how to bill for interpreting projects, especially for RSI or hybrid events that involve consulting, test meetings and added support on the part of interpreters.
Raise the daily rate?
The effect of an increase in the daily rate on our net income (standard of living) is quite impressive: the available income in example 2 is 30% higher than the net available income in example 1 while the fee revenue is only 14% higher.
This does not mean that we should increase our rates by 30% over night. It just shows how great the impact of fee-increases is, and it also illustrates what it means to accept a job for a higher (or lower) fee!
The great thing about fixed costs is that they are fixed. In other words: once you have earned enough to cover your costs – i.e. once you have achieved the break-even point – any amount that exceeds it has a disproportionate impact on your available income.
Conclusion:
Negotiation skills and a convincing way to pitch the added value and benefits of our services to clients are indispensable skills for us.
Better perfect your negotiating skills than try to save money penny-wise!
DIGRESSION:
How much should we save for our pension?
Retirement planning is a highly individual matter. Aspects such as age, marital status, children, whether you own a home, must be taken into account. Paying up a mortgage may be part of risk provisioning, assuming that rent-free living in old age reduces the need for purchasing power. However, don’t neglect the necessary maintenance expenses for your home, also in old age.
According to the preceding considerations, however, the amount of EUR 10,000 plus health insurance for a younger solopreneur might not be completely wrong. It should always be taken into account here that there is no natural increase in income with increasing seniority, as is the case with salaried employees or civil servants.
Example interest calculation:
With uninterrupted contributions of EUR 10,000 per year over a period of 35 years until retirement assuming an unchanged interest rate of 2%, one can arrive at a capital stock of EUR 500,000.
When planning the desired retirement provision or pension, inflation and loss of purchasing power must be taken into account.
The Author
Julia Böhm, freelance conference interpreter, consultant interpreter since 1996. Translator, subtitler, live captioner.
Author and speaker at events and seminars on entrepreneurial aspects of conference interpreting for AIIC, VKD, BDÜ, ASTTI since 2004.
Kosten und Aufwand der professionellen Berufsausübung: Wer wird Millionär?
Julia BÖHM.
Veröffentlicht: 12. September 2007. Letzte Aktualisierung: September 2023
Die meisten Konferenzdolmetscher wählen den Beruf aufgrund der Leidenschaft für Sprache und Kommunikation. Wenn man Kollegen jedoch fragt, ob sie mit einer freiberuflichen Tätigkeit als Konferenzdolmetscher ebenso viel verdienen möchten, wie angestellte oder verbeamtete Kollegen, erhält man oft die Antwort, dass man sich mindestens so viel oder mehr erwartet hat.
Wie können wir als Konferenzdolmetschende also so profitabel sein, dass wir ein angemessenes Einkommen erwirtschaften?
Die hier vorgestellten Überlegungen sind inspiriert von einem Verhandlungsseminar mit Andreas W. Schiemenz, der vor einigen Jahren ein Zeitaufwands- und Kostenkalkulationsmodell für Übersetzer entwickelt hatte und in einem Verhandlungsseminar für den BDÜ präsentierte.
Die im Folgenden aufgestellten Zahlen und Kalkulationen sind nur als Beispiel zu verstehen. Manche dieser Zahlen mögen dem einen oder anderen unrealistisch erscheinen. Lesende sind eingeladen, die Beispielkalkulationen mit eigenen Zahlen füllen.
Zentrale Punkte in den Überlegungen sind die Berücksichtigung einer angemessenen Alters- und Risikovorsorge in der Honorarkalkulation sowie Möglichkeiten der Rentabilitäts- und Einkommenssteigerung für soloselbständige Konferenzdolmetschende.
Annahmen
Dieser Artikel unterscheidet
auftragsabhängige Kosten und auftragsabhängigen Aufwand (Zeit) einerseits
auftragsunabhängige Kosten und auftragsunabhängigen Aufwand (Zeit) andererseits.
Dabei wird angenommen, dass alle auftragsabhängigen Kosten – wie Reisekosten (also Kilometergeld, Taxi, Bahnkosten) und Spesen (also Kosten für Essen usw.), die im Rahmen eines Auftrags unmittelbar anfallen, vom Kunden getragen werden (entweder als Per Diem oder gegen Belege).
Mit dem reinen erwirtschafteten Auftragshonorar sind deshalb drei Posten zu finanzieren:
auftragsabhängiger oder «produktiver» Zeitaufwand (Zeitaufwand, der direkt im Zusammenhang mit Aufträgen anfällt, u.a. Vorbereitung, evtl. Reisezeit, wenn nicht vergütet, Einsatzzeit)
auftragsunabhängiger Zeitaufwand (Zeitaufwand der professionellen Berufsausübung, auch als Unternehmer bzw. Unternehmerin)
auftragsunabhängige Kosten (z.B. Betriebskosten, die immer anfallen, ob wir Aufträge haben oder nicht)
Wenden wir uns zunächst den beiden Zeitaufwandsposten zu.
Auftragsabhängiger Aufwand (Zeit)
Unter diese Kategorie fällt nicht nur die Einsatzzeit selbst, sondern auch die Angebotsphase, Verhandlungen mit dem Kunden, Reiseplanung und -buchung, die Beschaffung von Material vom Kunden, eventuell die Weiterleitung an Kollegen, Team-Koordinierungsaufgaben, die inhaltliche Vor- und Nachbereitung (Bearbeitung erhaltener Unterlagen, weitergehende Recherche, Erstellung von Glossaren usw.) sowie die Nachbereitung und Nachkalkulation.
Im Schnitt lässt sich für den auftragsabhängigen Zeitaufwand ein zusätzlicher 8-Stundentag pro bezahlten Auftragstag ansetzen. Bei bekannter Thematik bzw. wenn nur zwischen der A-Sprache und einer weiteren Sprache zu dolmetschen ist, mag es weniger sein, doch Faktoren wie eine zusätzliche Konferenzsprache, eine dichte Tagesordnung mit verkürzten Pausen oder ein besonders schwieriges Thema erhöhen den Aufwand beträchtlich.
Auftragsunabhängiger Aufwand (Zeit)
Hier geht es um den Aufwand, den wir betreiben, um unseren Beruf professionell auszuüben – auch in unserer Rolle als selbständige Unternehmer. Das Betriebskapital zur Erbringung dieser Leistung besteht, neben Sachanlagen (PC, Büroeinrichtung etc.), im Wesentlichen aus einer höchst immateriellen Anlage, nämlich uns selbst mit unserem Wissen und unseren Fähigkeiten. Um mit unserem Produkt wettbewerbsfähig zu bleiben, müssen wir uns stets auf dem aktuellen Stand halten bzw. unser Wissen und unsere Fähigkeiten ausbauen:
Für uns als Wissensarbeitende besteht unser Produkt darin, zum richtigen Zeitpunkt am richtigen Ort das richtige Wissen parat zu haben und nutzbar zu machen. Unverzichtbar ist daher ein intensives Wissensmanagement:
Pflege der Allgemeinbildung in allen unseren Arbeitssprachen/Kulturen
Lesen der aktuellen Presse in allen Arbeitssprachen
Lesen sonstiger Publikationen/Literatur – in allen Arbeitssprachen
Lesen von Fachmagazinen, Branchenpublikationen – in allen Arbeitssprachen
Terminologiemanagement
Es gehört ebenfalls dazu, sich berufsspezifisch fortzubilden, das Branchenwissen zu entwickeln und in der Branche bekannt zu sein:
Professionalisierung: berufsspezifische Informationen beschaffen und lesen
Fortbildungsteilnahme
Networking mit Kollegen oder auch mit anderen Berufsfeldern, z.B. Verbandsmitgliedschaft, Verbandsarbeit, ehrenamtliche Tätigkeit
Als Soloselbständige erledigen wir meist unsere Verwaltung selbst:
Buchhaltung, Steuererklärung
Ebenfalls sind wir unsere eigenen Marketing-Manager, Werbefachleute und Customer-Relationship-Manager:
Social Media und Website pflegen, Content erstellen und veröffentlichen
Kundenpflege: mit bestehenden Kunden telefonieren, Kunden besuchen, Kontakte pflegen
Kaltakquise: Zielgruppen ermitteln, Strategie entwickeln, kontaktieren, ggf. auch Akquise über Social Media
Unter den auftragsunabhängigen Aufwand fallen zudem erfolglose Angebotsphasen, die häufig mit erheblichem Zeitaufwand ohne Gegenleistung verbunden sind: Schreiben des Angebots, Optionierung von Kollegen, telefonische Verhandlungen.
All dies sind notwendige und wichtige Tätigkeiten in der Soloselbständigkeit, für die uns niemand (direkt) bezahlt. Der erhebliche Zeitaufwand dafür ist in einer seriösen Kalkulation zu berücksichtigen, denn er muss durch bezahlte Arbeitstage mitfinanziert werden.
Es drängt sich daher die Frage auf, wie viele bezahlte Auftragstage wir demnach eigentlich bewältigen können.
Wie viel Zeit steht uns zum „Geldverdienen” überhaupt zur Verfügung?
Die Höhe des jährlichen Honorarumsatzes ist beschränkt durch die Anzahl der Tage, an denen wir diesen Umsatz überhaupt erwirtschaften können. Als einschränkende Faktoren sind grundsätzlich die eigene persönliche geistige und körperliche Leistungsfähigkeit (Erholungsphasen sind unabdingbar) und eventuell familiäre Verpflichtungen zu berücksichtigen. Man mag einwenden, dass das auf alle Berufstätigen zutrifft und dafür ja Wochenenden, Feierabend und Urlaub da sind. Als Soloselbständige sind wir aber abhängig vom Markt und seiner Saisonalität: in manchen Monaten könnte man „durcharbeiten”, während in anderen Monaten Flaute herrscht. Zu berücksichtigen sind also die endlichen persönlichen Ressourcen, Nachfragefluktuation und Saisonalität -vor allem aber der oben beschriebene erhebliche auftragsunabhängige Zeitaufwand!
Die entscheidenden Fragen lauten also: „Wie viele bezahlte Konferenztage im Jahr scheinen im Schnitt machbar bzw. sinnvoll? Und: Von wie vielen sollte man eigentlich angemessen leben können?
Die These, dass man als Freelancerin unter Berücksichtigung aller Einflussfaktoren im Schnitt 75-85 bezahlte Konferenztage arbeiten kann, lässt sich durch informelle Umfragen unter Kolleg/-innen, frühere AIIC-Statistiken und die einschlägige Existenzgründer- und Freelancer-Literatur untermauern. Im Allgemeinen wird davon ausgegangen, dass bei Soloselbständigen rund 30% der eingesetzten Arbeitszeit für «unproduktive» bzw. auftragsunabhängige Tätigkeiten eingesetzt wird.
Daraus ergibt sich folgende Rechnung:
365 Tage – 104 Tage Wochenende – 29 Tage Urlaub und Feiertage = 232 Arbeitstage
Entsprechend unserer Annahme, dass pro Einsatztag 1 Tag für auftragsabhängigen Aufwand (im Wesentlichen Vorbereitung) anfällt, ergeben sich 81 mögliche bezahlte Einsatztage.
Laut früheren AIIC-Statistiken, die leider derzeit nicht aktualisiert werden, absolvieren freiberufliche AIIC-Mitglieder 85-90 Tage, wobei die Statistik z.B. auch die für die EU tätigen Freelancer enthält, womit diese Zahl eher hoch gegriffen wäre. Die VKD-Statistik nennt ähnliche Zahlen.
Setzt man die gleiche Anzahl Tage für auftragsabhängige Tätigkeiten an, wie man im Einsatz verbringt (z.B. 80/80), verbleiben 72 Tage für auftragsunabhängige Tätigkeiten. Ausgewogen scheint also eine Verteilung der 232 jährlich verfügbaren Arbeitstage zu grob je einem Drittel auf Einsatztage, auftragsabhängige Tätigkeiten (hauptsächlich Vorbereitung) und auftragsunabhängige Tätigkeiten (Wissensmanagement, Fortbildung, Verwaltung, Marketing, Akquise etc.).
Nachdem sich aus den bezahlten Einsatztagen pro Jahr und dem dabei erzielten Netto-Tageshonorar nun der Jahreshonorarumsatz errechnen lässt (weitere Überlegungen hierzu folgen), sind der nächste bedeutsame Posten die auftragsunabhängigen Kosten.
Kosten, die unser Tageshonorar finanzieren muss: auftragsunabhängige Kosten
Als Kosten der professionellen Berufsausübung fallen einerseits fixe Betriebskosten und andererseits Kosten für die Risikoabsicherung des Unternehmers (Altersvorsorge, Krankenversicherung, Berufsunfähigkeit) an.
BETRIEBSKOSTEN-Beispielrechnung (jährlich)
Diese Rechnung dient nur als Beispiel dienen, da die Schwerpunkte oft unterschiedlich gelegt werden.
Vom Brutto zum Netto
Zur Errechnung des Nettoeinkommens werden im Folgenden beispielhaft drei mögliche/realistische jährliche Honorarumsätze angesetzt, die sich aus der Multiplikation aus der Anzahl der Einsatztage und dem erzielten Tageshonorar ergeben (sowohl beim Honorar als auch bei den Kosten sind Beträge ohne Umsatzsteuer heranzuziehen).
Vom Brutto zum Netto
Dolm A
Dolm B
Dolm C
Honorarumsatz (eigen)
50.000,00
57.000,00
70.000,00
Kosten (auftragsunabhängig)
16.500,00
16.500,00
16.500,00
Bruttogewinn
33.500,00
40.500,00
53.500,00
Rürup-Rente (22: 94 % der Beiträge (v. EUR 8.000) vor Steuer absetzbar)
7.520,00
7.520,00
7.520,00
Priv KV+Pflege, BU – Freibetrag
2.800,00
2.800,00
2.800,00
zu versteuerndes Einkommen
23.180,00
30.180,00
43.180,00
Steuern, Soli, Kirche (Grundtab. 22)
3.335,00
5.291,00
9.930,00
Netto
19.845,00
24.889,00
33.250,00
Rest KV und BU aus dem Netto
2.600,00
2.600,00
2.600,00
Rest Rürup aus dem Netto
480,00
480,00
480,00
Weitere 2000 EUR f. AV aus Netto (entspr. “Riestern”) oder Rücklage
2.000,00
2.000,00
2.000,00
verfügbares Jahresnetto
14.765,00
19.809,00
28.170,00
verfügbares Monatsnetto
1.230,42
1.650,75
2.347,50
Zur Orientierung: Laut Statista betrug 2021 das durchschnittliche Nettoeinkommen eines privaten Haushalts in Deutschland rund 3.800 EUR. Der durchschnittliche Nettoverdienst im Jahr 2022 lag bei EUR 2.250.
Die Alters-/Risikovorsorge schmälert das verfügbare Einkommen erheblich. Realistisch betrachtet wird Dolm A kaum die Möglichkeit haben, tatsächlich zusätzlich zur Krankenversicherung noch EUR 10.000,- in Vorsorge zu investieren.
Auch bleiben in der obigen Kalkulation Rücklagen für Nachfragetiefs (unternehmerisches Risiko – z.B. Verlust eines Großkunden oder Pandemie etc.) unberücksichtigt. Dabei wäre es sinnvoll, stets flüssige Rücklagen in Hohe eines Jahresgehalts zu haben.
Hier zeigen sich auch deutlich Unterschiede in der steuerlichen und sozialversicherungsbezogenen Behandlung von Soloselbständigen vs. Angestellten. Da bei Angestellten der Arbeitgeber von der Sozialversicherung vor Steuern teilweise 50% übernimmt, muss ein Angestellter erheblich weniger private Vorsorge aus seinem Nettoeinkommen bestreiten. Die Rürup-Rente stellt zwar eine während der aktiven Tätigkeit steuerlich vorteilhafte, sichere Absicherung dar, jedoch unterliegt die Rentenauszahlung dann im Alter der Steuer.
Schlussfolgerungen
Wie erreichen wir also unser Ziel: ein unserer Ausbildung und Erfahrung entsprechendes Einkommen und ein finanziell sorgenfreies Berufsleben und Alter bei tolerierbarer beruflicher Belastung?
Kosten sparen?
Man kann vielleicht jährlich EUR 1.000,- (brutto) an Betriebsausgaben sparen, doch derselbe Effekt ergibt sich durch Erhöhung des durchschnittlichen Tageshonorars um nur EUR 15 ! (Beispiel: Bei 80 bezahlten Tagen im Jahr ergibt sich eine Umsatzsteigerung von EUR 1.200,- durch eine durchschnittliche Tageshonorarerhöhung um nur EUR 15). Es erscheint doch leichter, das Tageshonorar um rund 2% zu steigern, als 6% an eventuell sinnvollen Ausgaben zu sparen.
Mehr Tage absolvieren?
Zur Steigerung des Honorarumsatzes könnten wir natürlich grundsätzlich mehr als die angenommenen 75-85 Einsatztage anstreben. Hier sollten wir jedoch berücksichtigen, dass mehr Einsatztage notwendigerweise auf Kosten des auftragsabhängigen Zeitaufwands (Vorbereitung), des auftragsunabhängigen Zeitaufwands (zur Erhaltung der Wettbewerbsfähigkeit unseres Produkts, also unseres Wissens und unserer Fähigkeiten sowie für unternehmerische Aufgaben) bzw. der notwendigen Ruhe- und Erholungsphasen gehen. Sehr viel mehr Tage sind daher nur dann realistisch, wenn sinnvoll Vorbereitungszeit eingespart werden kann, also bei Wiederholaufträgen oder Kurzaufträgen, bzw. bei mehrtägigen Einsätzen mit identischem Tagesprogramm oder Inhalt. Solche Einsätze werden jedoch zunehmend rarer. Noch dazu steigt der Druck vom Markt, die Abrechnungseinheit «Tag» auf halbe Tage oder gar Stunden zu verkürzen.
Nebenher übersetzen?
Häufig kommt der Einwand: „Man kann ja auch noch übersetzen”. Hier ist jedoch zu beachten, dass zum Übersetzen die Zeit, die man mit auftragsunabhängigen Arbeiten für das Dolmetschen verbringt, nicht zur Verfügung steht. Durch zusätzliches Übersetzen verringert sich ja nicht der Zeitbedarf für Professionalisierung, Akquise, Fortbildung, Wissensmanagement usw. Im Gegenteil, es ist sogar, trotz aller Synergie, zusätzlicher Aufwand nötig, um sich auch für das professionelle Übersetzen „fit” zu halten bzw. am Übersetzungsmarkt professionell präsent zu bleiben.
Das gilt in ähnlichem Maße für andere Diversifizierungsmöglichkeiten, z.B. Untertitelung, Content Writing, Lehre etc.
Kollegen mit weniger stark nachgefragten Arbeitssprachen sind allerdings aufs Übersetzen angewiesen. Wenn nicht ausreichend Dolmetschtage anfallen, steht die Zeit, die man sonst im Einsatz oder bei der Vorbereitung verbringen würde, fürs Übersetzen zur Verfügung. Wenn ein Vorbereitungstag und ein Einsatztag zur Erwirtschaftung eines Dolmetschtageshonorars angesetzt werden, kann entsprechend gelten, dass pro Übersetzungstag ein halbes Dolmetsch-Tageshonorar erzielt werden müsste, was realistisch erscheint.
Zusatzleistungen in Rechnung stellen?
Zusatzleistungen, die wir für unseren Kunden erbringen (Beratung, Testsitzungen oder Referentenchecks bei RSI, Teamorganisation, Anreisezeit), bedeuten häufig einen erheblichen Zeitaufwand, andererseits aber auch einen fassbaren Nutzen für den Auftraggeber (geringerer Aufwand, Zeitersparnis, Qualität der zusammengestellten Leistung dank Beratung, absolute Sicherstellung der Anwesenheit der Dolmetscher durch Anreise am Vortag). Der Wert dieser Leistungen ist für den Kunden plausibel, sie können daher durchaus als Anreise- bzw. Beratungs- oder Organisationshonorar veranschlagt und in Rechnung gestellt werden. Oft ist auch dies Verhandlungssache.
Der Tag als Abrechnungseinheit stammt aus einer früheren Zeit in unserer Branch, als Dolmetscheinsätze oft aus der Begleitung von Delegationen oder der Unterstützung über Sitzungswochen hinweg bestanden. Heute dreht sich unsere Arbeit oft um technische und komplexe Inhalte und relativ kurze – ein – oder zweitägige – Konferenzen oder Meetings erfordern eine längere Vorbereitungs- und Einarbeitungszeit als die Veranstaltung selbst dauert. Da könnte es gerechtfertigt sein, Vorbereitungszeit separat in Rechnung zu stellen oder gar über ganz neue Abrechnungsstrukturen im Rahmen von Dolmetschprojekten nachzudenken, insbesondere im Kontext von RSI und Hybrid, wo oft zusätzliche Leistungen wie Beratung, Testmeetings, Proben, Referentenchecks usw. zu absolvieren sind.
Tageshonorar steigern?
Der Effekt einer Honorarsteigerung auf das Nettoeinkommen ist ganz beträchtlich. Das Nettoeinkommen aus Beispiel 2 ist um gut 30% höher als das Nettoeinkommen aus Beispiel 1 und das bei nur 14%iger Steigerung des Honorars.
Selbstverständlich soll das nicht bedeuten, dass wir nun das Tageshonorar auf einen Schlag um 30% erhöhen sollen! Das Beispiel verdeutlicht aber, wie erheblich die Auswirkung einer Honorarerhöhung ist, bzw. was es bedeuten kann, einen Auftrag für ein höheres (oder aber niedrigeres) Honorar anzunehmen.
Wenn man einmal die Fixkosten gegenfinanziert und den Break-Even-Point erreicht hat, hat alles, was darüber hinausgeht, einen überproportionalen Einfluss auf das verfügbare Einkommen.
Fazit:
Geschicktes Verhandeln und eine überzeugende Darstellung des Nutzens und Wertes unserer Leistung gegenüber dem Kunden sind Fähigkeiten, die wir exzellent beherrschen müssen.
Lieber gut verhandeln als am falschen Ende sparen!
EXKURS
Wie viel soll man jährlich in die Altersvorsorge investieren?
Die Altersvorsorge der Unternehmerin ist eine hochgradig individuelle Angelegenheit. Zu berücksichtigen sind Aspekte wie Alter, Familienstand, Kinder, aktueller oder zu erwartender Grundbesitz (Haus). Eventuell können auch Zinsen und Tilgungen für privates Wohneigentum als Teil der Risikovorsorge angesehen werden, wenn man annimmt, dass mietfreies Wohnen im Alter den Bedarf an Kaufkraft senkt. Dem gegenüber stehen aber notwendige Erhaltungsaufwendungen für das Haus, auch im Alter.
Entsprechend den vorausgegangenen Überlegungen dürfte aber der Betrag von EUR 10.000,- zzgl. Krankenversicherung für einen familienlosen Alleinunternehmer jüngeren bis mittleren Alters nicht ganz falsch angesetzt sein. Immer zu beachten ist hier, dass bei uns nicht – wie etwa bei Angestellten oder Beamten – eine natürliche Einkommenssteigerung mit wachsendem Dienstalter gegeben ist.
Beispiel Zinsrechnung:
Bei einer Einzahlungszeit von 35 Jahren bis Rentenbeginn kann man bei einer Rendite von 2% mit EUR 10.000 jährlich einen Kapitalstock von EUR 500.000 ansparen (Achtung: keinerlei Einzahlungspausen in den 35 Jahren!).
Lourdes de Rioja, a video blogger and conference interpreter well known for her interviews and photographs, recently interviewed me.
She asked me to talk about something that would be important for you, so I chose “speaking client.”
Here is the link to her blog, with the full video. The transcript is below.
Did you know that we all have to add a new language to our language combination? And it has to be an active one. We all have to start to learn to speak “Client.”
Let me explain.
One of the biggest problems that everybody tells me about, wherever I go, is that our clients just don’t understand us. They ask us to work under untenable conditions, they don’t give us background materials, and sometimes they even ask us to work from languages that we don’t have!
Well, I want to make a couple of points here.
First of all, of course they don’t understand you! You’re a highly specialized, highly trained professional, who solves highly specific problems. Why would they understand you? Do you understand what your accountant does? Do you understand what your lawyer, or your mechanic, or your plumber do? Of course you don’t. If you did, you’d do it yourself. But they are highly trained as well. So that’s the first point.
The second point is that you need to think about how you prepare for a technical job. You study, you make glossaries, you make lists of terms and their meanings so that you understand what’s going on in the industry. You even learn some jargon, so you can speak their language natively.
Well, that is your job. That’s what we’re paid for. Your lawyer, your accountant, your client, is not paid to study us. They’re not paid to learn our language, to learn our jargon, and to understand what’s going on. They just aren’t. So of course they aren’t going to understand you.
They don’t know the difference between an interpreter, a translator, a spoken translator, a linguist… They don’t know what simultaneous interpreting is, consecutive interpreting, sight translation – “and wait a minute, you just told me you were an interpreter. Why are you sight translating? I don’t get it.”
So what you need to do is learn to speak “Client.”
The first step is to audit all of your communications: take a look at your website, your social media presence, your email signature, your CV. Look at all of those and see where you fall into jargon.
Are you telling people that you have an A, B and C language? Why? They won’t understand. What you need to do is say, for example in my case, “I work from French and Russian into English, and from English into Russian. That way they know very clearly what your languages are, and the directions.
If they ask you what services you provide, and what you can do to help them, turn it around. Don’t just say, “Oh well, I do simultaneous, consecutive, whispering, on-site, remote, whatever…” They don’t know what any of this is.
Turn it around and ask them questions, such as, “Would you prefer to save time, or money? If you prefer to save time, I can set up a team and the equipment, and we will interpret at the same time as your speaker. If you prefer to save money, then I can also set up the team, but there won’t be any extra equipment, and we will speak after the speaker is finished, which means it will take twice as long.”
See how clear that is, and how well your client will understand it? So take a look at all of your communications, and make sure that you are speaking “Client.”
On top of that, make sure to target your client. Because obviously, nothing I just said holds if you’re writing to another interpreter, or to an agency.
But, if you are working with a client who has never used interpreting, who may have used interpreting but is still confused (which is fairly often), then make sure to use this new language of yours, “Client,” and then they can visualize what you want to sell them.
And once they have it in their mind, and they can see it happening, then they can buy it.
CVs (or résumés in the US) are a wonderful tool. But whenever I hold a webinar or workshop that even touches on CVs, you can bet there will be plenty of questions.
I find that, when written well, CVs not only help you to show your value to future clients. They are also fantastic at keeping your assignments organized. For example, they could help you keep records to become a member of a professional association.
But once you become a member of that association, do you often think that you don’t need a CV?
One of the things that always puzzled me before I became an AIIC member was how few members had CVs ready to send out. “I’m in the book,” seemed to be the standard response. When I requested one from AIIC members, it took them ages to write something up.
Even though many people trumpet the death of the CV, I still find myself sending out several a year. You can send CVs both in response to direct requests and in prospecting for new clients.
The Fundamentals
Let’s start with what you should include:
👉 Your name
👉 Your language combination
👉 Your contact details
👉 Your skills
👉 Your relevant experience
👉 The technology you own, use, or have experience with
👉 Your relevant education or specialized training and publications
👉 Your specialties or “Areas of Greatest Experience”
👉 Optional: your professional photograph
👉 Extra: watermark
These elements are pretty much what you will find in anyone’s CV, interpreters or not. If this is what everyone includes, why is it so difficult to write a good CV?
CV Myths
Myth 1: CVs are tools for beginners.
Seasoned professionals think that their experience speaks for itself. They are on the roster of vetted interpreters of their association, and that should be enough.
But clients in many fields often ask for and receive CVs for all sorts of jobs. You need to fit yourself into their world in a way that they understand. And CVs not only give an idea of your experience, but also show your attention to detail and presentation.
Myth 2: Regular old CVs are passé, and you should have a graphic CV.
No one needs anything super trendy, with icons that confuse people. A good old-fashioned CV that is well-formatted will serve you just fine!
You can find all sorts of CV-builders or resume-builders online. Your professional association may have one, which allows you to brand yourself with their logo as well. Online tools help in that you don’t have to worry about formatting, and you will still have a nicelooking CV.
(download an example of my own AIIC-branded CV from my directory page, here)
Myth 3: You should fit in everything you have ever done! After all, potential clients need a full picture…
Your CV is part of your personal brand. To simplify my post on branding, a brand is a curated view of what you can do.
If you fill the page with writing and have hardly any white space for the words to stand out, you had better use a larger font. Who knows who will be looking at your CV in the future – and how old their eyes are?
As to curating what you can do … keep reading this article!
Your Biggest Mistake
The biggest mistake you can make is that you send the same CV to everyone – hoping they will see your value. But how will a potential client see the value you can bring if you don’t tailor your CV to that client?
Are you sending it to another interpreter or translator? An agency? A direct client? Answers to these questions will tell you how to showcase your information.
Are you sending it to law firms? Construction businesses? Universities? This tells you what experience would be relevant to include.
Example: Showcase Your Languages
Let me give you some examples of different ways to show your language combination, using my own.
If you send your CV to an interpreter from the International Association of Conference Interpreters (AIIC), to international organizations, or to agencies in Europe, you would use the A, B, C classification.
👉 For example, my own combination would be A: English, B: Russian, and C: French.
If you send your CV to an interpreter or agency not familiar with AIIC, you could still use some jargon.
👉 For example: Native: English, Active: Russian, Passive: French.
If you send it to clients who are not interpreters or translators, you should avoid jargon at all costs. You could use arrows, or the words “from” and “into.” Be as clear as possible, and spell out all language abbreviations.
👉 Russian/French > English, English > Russian.
👉 I work from Russian and French into English, and from English into Russian.
Example: Showcase Your Skills
You should also change your approach in explaining your skills.
If you write to a colleague or an agency that works with interpreters, do use the jargon: simultaneous interpreting, consecutive interpreting, whisper interpreting, etc.
But if you write to people who have little experience with interpreters, explain your skills instead.
For example:
👉 “Interpret with no specialized equipment, speaking after the speaker has finished speaking.”
👉 “Interpret with specialized equipment, in real time, in a team of two or more.”
Example: Relevant Information
Intermediaries have their own requirements that differ from what direct clients need.
If you send a CV to an intermediary, you should include a section on the technology that you own, use, or have experience with.
👉 RSI platforms want to know your upload and download speeds.
👉 They will want to know what headsets and microphones you own.
👉 Agencies will want to know what platforms you have worked or trained on.
Example: Relevant Experience
The single most important part of your CV is your experience. And this is where you will truly show you are thinking of your client.
What I have done throughout my career is keep a list of all my jobs in a simple spreadsheet. I have filled in a table with:
👉 dates
👉 topic
👉 meeting name, and
👉 meeting location.
You could add any other tags you want, such as:
👉 Client name
👉 Type of client (direct, agency, colleague, international organization, etc.)
👉 Simple Client Relationship Management information
👉 Payment terms vs when they actually paid
👉 Any rating system to show how much you liked working with that client
👉 If you organized the meeting, extra costs and income from that meeting
👉 Etc. etc. etc.
If your data is in a table, you can then sort it by any column. For your CV, you would sort by topic, and create groups of similar jobs, or what I call experience modules. You can then swap these modules in and out of your CV, depending on your target audience.
Remember not to give away confidential details! On my own CV, I use the format: <Name of Meeting>, <City/Organization of Meeting>, <Year>. This gives little away, but is detailed enough to show that I actually have this experience.
When you need to send a CV to a law firm, swap in the module with your legal experience. If you need to send a CV to a particular company, then swap in the module showcasing your relevant experience.
My entire CV is 7 pages long (and growing) – but people almost never see all 7 pages.
My first page is a traditional CV with all the information in my opening list above, and a bird’s eye view of my experience.
After that comes my “Work Experience Appendix.”
For the appendix, all my experience is grouped into modules: Aerospace, Business, Development, Nuclear (civil and military)… The last pages list my training experience.
Modular CVs save a lot of time. You could write your entire CV on one page, with a dedicated space for the relevant module. Then swap in the modules as you need them.
Watermarks?
Agencies and others may ask for your CV, to keep it on file or to use to win a bid on a job. But we have all seen examples where they use it to get the job, and then hire someone else, without your qualifications.
So, if you do send a CV, at the very least use the PDF format.
It would also be good to include a watermark – a phrase that shows up behind your CV. For example, the wording could be: “This résumé is for information only and is not for job tenders.” This is the wording in the watermark for the AIIC résumé builder, and what you see in the background of my own CV (again, here).
Of course, anyone with tech knowledge can still strip out and use your information. But at least you will have made it more difficult for them.
Adding Value or Noise?
It’s always a good question to ask yourself before sending anything to your prospects. Are you adding value to their work? Or are you simply noise that they can ignore?
If you tailor your CV to the client’s areas of expertise, and show them only relevant information, then you will keep their attention for longer.
However, if you send the same CV to everyone, there is no story for them to latch onto. They will see all these areas you could help, but nothing jumps out at them to say, “This is the person we need!”
Tailoring your CV helps them see a story;
👉 We have this problem.
👉 This person has dealt with this problem in the past.
👉 Let’s use this person to solve our problem.
Not only does it give potential clients a reason to hire you. It also gives them a reason to consider you an expert, and not simply an interchangeable dictionary on legs that shouldn’t cost a lot.
And we all want to be considered experts, right?
A shorter version of this article was originally published in the American Translators Association’s The Savvy Newcomer.
Julia has started monthly live broadcasts on LinkedIn, YouTube, and Twitter – all with great information for you!
The broadcasts are Ask Me Anythings – almost! As long as it’s about marketing, negotiating, selling, branding, and all those wonderful business ideas and skills that we hear so much about…
Some of the broadcasts will also include guests, who will be chosen because they can shed light on what we need to know as freelancers in certain domains. Our first guest was the former Chief Interpreter of the US Department of State, Patricia Magno-Holt (formerly Arizu) talking about Diplomatic Interpreting in December 2022, then The Interpreter’s Voice in January 2023.
Here is the link to the full YouTube playlist , so you can keep up with new shows, and go back to watch favorites.
And here is a list of some of the topics that were discussed in the videos:
Questions answered: – Did you get voice training? – How do I get my name out and sell my services? – How do I convert interest in my social media posts into clients? – How do you approach a situation when a client would rather work with a company? – How to talk to clients
Questions answered: – how do you interpret with a sore throat? (since I had one!) – what is a personal brand? – how do you build a personal brand? – should we work for agencies when we just start out? – what do we do when we accepted a job, and a better one comes along?
December 2022 – Guest, Patricia Magno-Holt on Diplomatic Interpreting
January 2023 – Guest, Patricia Magno-Holt on the Interpreter’s Voice
March 2023 – Guest, Peter Sand on Consulting Interpreters
If you like the videos, or want to be notified when they arrive, please follow Julia on LinkedIn (and ring the bell to be notified of posts) and/or subscribe to the YouTube channel.
“Wait a minute,” I can hear you say. “I didn’t sign on to be an interpreter to work remotely – I want to go to conferences in exotic places! I want to see and work with my friends! I like people, and don’t want to work alone in my office!”
Remote simultaneous interpreting (RSI) platforms have been around for a while – some started up as early as 2014, so they aren’t new. And they have been building up a following since then.
The novel factor is the recent choice: to either work remotely, or possibly not work as interpreters at all. So let’s see what we can do about it, and turn this situation into something that works for us too!
Educate yourself
First of all, there is an enormous amount of information about RSI platforms, sound technology, appropriate headsets, and so on. A good starting point is the list of resources supplied by AIIC’s Taskforce on Distance Interpreting and Technical and Health Committee. This is a huge opportunity for you to educate yourself on what RSI is all about, and what it isn’t.
When I started educating myself, my negative opinion changed once I realized that I could simply treat RSI platforms as consoles. Of course, there is a lot more to them than that – in fact there is a whole ISO standard on them – but, for my purposes, they exist to deliver my interpreting to my customer. They all have a form of mic on/off switch; there are incoming and outgoing language channels; some allow relay, others don’t. Some aren’t even RSI platforms per se, but have some of the functionalities.
Moreover, by educating yourself, you can gain a better understanding of the features each platform has, and how they could meet your clients’ needs.
Understand what RSI platforms are good for, and what not
Do your clients hold multilingual events involving many languages and speakers? In such cases, some platforms would work better than others.
Do they hold webinars, with most of the information going in one direction, and only one speaker and some slides? Then another platform might be better.
Does your client need a quick two-language meeting, to check on their counterpart? Then yet another platform would be best.
Does your client need confidential meetings for legal purposes? You can explain end-to-end encryption, and why no cloud-based RSI platform is a good idea.
But always put the choice in your client’s hands. Firstly, this avoids legal issues for you if the platform doesn’t perform as expected. And secondly, you aren’t stopping them from having their meeting – you are giving them the information for them to make their own informed decision.
Know how to get what you need
Once you have educated yourself, you will discover which platforms will require work-arounds.
Many platforms allow you to listen to your partner and to the floor simultaneously – but that is only a part of what we need. I’d like to see that my colleague is relaxed or struggling, or if they need me to write down numbers for them.
If these functions are not integral to the platform you are on, what kind of parallel set up would you aim to use? Would you rather a video call on an app, a shared document, or a video meeting on a second device? Work that out with your partner ahead of time.
And remember that it is very rare that you could be the interpreter AND the moderator/tech/troubleshooter all in one. Make sure you can focus on the job at hand.
More visibility
I am also convinced that our new environment has provided an excellent opportunity to make our clients more aware of us, rather than less.
As we have moved farther from the client – from consecutive to simultaneous, to booths at the back of the room with dark glass, to booths not in the room, to off-site remote – we have lost many opportunities to remind the client of our place in the value chain. We have fewer meals or coffee breaks during which we may ask questions and cement ourselves in their minds as being part of the process.
If we as a profession were to become involved in hosting and moderating interpreted meetings, we would have an unprecedented chance to remind clients of our presence. Moderators could introduce the fact that speakers are being interpreted, and that they must wear headsets, or not speak over each other. Dry runs and rehearsals will give us a say in how the meeting is run. And we will help shape the communication process.
RSI knowledge helps with hubs too
We have all jumped on the hub bandwagon, now that we realize that remote is here to stay. We can work off-site, away from the venue, but all together, and with technicians to boot!
Hub setups vary greatly – from using the usual consoles in our usual booths, to being given a laptop per interpreter.
If you think about it, current social distancing requirements mean that even in a hub you may each be in a separate booth, presenting some of the same difficulties as interpreting from home on an RSI platform.
The booths may not be next to each other. Some consoles and computers don’t have repeater speakers that can be set to a different channel than your incoming channel – which means you still need a second device to hear your partner and the floor at the same time. Or a way to write down numbers which doesn’t rely on a pad that’s visible between you.
And if your colleague is so focused on the speaker that they don’t look at the chat on the RSI platform or at you in the booth next door, you still need a way to signal the handover that will catch their attention the way touching their shoulder used to do…
But hubs do give us something valuable besides the presence of technicians to troubleshoot for us: while hubs may present some of the same difficulties as online platforms, you can at least have drinks with your colleagues afterwards!
We’ve all been there, right? We get a phone call with our perfect assignment, all but offered on a silver platter. It’s in our niche, with our ideal customer, we know what the market will bear, and we know we are in the right geographical area. We have all the information the prospect wants, and they are speaking to us one-on-one.
And then… silence. Or the dreaded “thank you, but” email comes – thank you, but we have decided not to go through with this job. Or perhaps – thank you, but we have found someone else who better fits our budget.
Why you don’t want to win the bid
Of course we didn’t win the bid! And frankly, under these circumstances, nor should we have. Someone called us and asked our availability and price. That’s it, nothing else. They didn’t offer any more information, and they didn’t answer any of our questions – if we bothered to ask any.
These are all signs that the prospect was just looking for the service provider with the lowest price.They have limited knowledge about our profession – all they know is that they need someone with our working languages. They assume we are all the same, because they found us on the website of our professional association. So their only point of comparison is price. Even if we volunteer more information, send in a CV, or try to engage them in a conversation, they would still only look at the price. And there is always someone cheaper than us.
That means that to win the bid, we have to be cheaper than anyone else the prospect can find with a quick online search. But do we really want to be the cheapest? It’s a tough position to defend, as someone else could always come in just that little bit cheaper. And it’s not like we don’t have bills to pay. It’s true that we can have a large amount of flexibility in the rates we charge, but if we are always the cheapest then we have to work more hours to pay those same bills.
Moreover, we have to find a partner to work with – interpreting with us, providing the equipment. Which means that the fact that we charged rock-bottom rates will spread to the rest of the market, becoming part of our reputation and brand. And even if we can find someone to work with us at these low rates, we won’t inspire loyalty in our partners.
Surely there’s a better way to win bids?
Don’t worry, it can be done. Perhaps I can illustrate with a personal experience:
A tale of two jobs
Two jobs, both alike in every respect:
two lawyers – let’s call them Lawyer A and Lawyer B – called within a month of each other
to interpret for similar legal jobs – Job A and Job B – with
the same language combination
the same team strength, and
the same type of interpreting.
Legal interpreting happens to be one of the areas where I do a lot of work. I know the pitfalls, so I know what to include in my contract. I know the rates that the market will bear. I know who I’d want on my team. I probably know more than the lawyers about the rules in certain venues.
I sent in my fees and conditions to each of them. I also sent in a CV, and expressed my desire to help.
This is where the story splits:
I found out later that Lawyer A was shopping around. They had spoken with at least one other interpreter, and most probably several. Fair enough.
As you can imagine, I did not get Job A. Lawyer A wrote a polite “thank you, but” email declining my services. Reasons given (to me and the other bidder I know of) were many and strange: they wanted someone closer to the city (where all of us are based), they wanted someone who could better accommodate their client’s schedule (we all could). And they wanted someone who better fit their client’s budget. Ah, now there’s the rub!
Lawyer B, in contrast, contacted only me. Having asked for my fees and conditions, they said everything was fine, and asked that I note down the dates of the event in my calendar. Thank you very much, very happy to do business with you, fait accompli!
Every respect but one
The crucial difference between Lawyer A and Lawyer B is how they found me.
Lawyer A searched my professional association’s website, and wrote to me (and others) from that list. There was no attempt at any personal connection and no relationship at all.
Lawyer B had a need, and asked a former colleague for a referral to a good interpreter. The colleague referred me. Lawyer B then contacted me, gave me the details, and accepted my fees and conditions. There was no bid, nor any competition. There was just a satisfied customer, with whom I stay in touch, giving a recommendation to a former colleague. This meant that from the outset there was a foundation for trust and reciprocity, even before we discussed availability or price.
Start the relationship
To convert your Lawyer As into Lawyer Bs, you must build a relationship. In Lawyer A’s case, I made sure not to send only my fees and conditions, but also a CV that showed my expertise in this field, as well as an email stating that I was ready to help. While nothing came of it this time, perhaps I managed to plant a seed. They may call again for a future client with an appropriate budget, after having had experience with someone with less expertise, or less of a desire to build a relationship.
In the meantime, Lawyer B will not have complete radio silence from me. Nothing too much, but a note now and again to keep me top of mind. If the job gets cancelled, it won’t be due to concerns about my professionalism, but because one of the parties decided not to continue. And by the time we meet in person, I will be cemented in their mind as the best choice they ever made.
Learn to recognize and avoid the reverse auctions out there. Rather, focus on building and maintaining relationships. In the longer-term it will pay off.
I just walked 3000 steps more today than yesterday! Recently I was given a pedometer, and now I can see how close I am to the ideal 10,000 steps per day. And more to the point, I can keep track of my performance.
As interpreters, there are metrics we should be tracking in our business as well: How many days did I work last year and the year before? How much did I earn during each of those periods? We may become even more detailed, noting the types of clients – international organizations, individual businesses and sectors, government ministries, courts, etc.
Two key metrics to evaluate profitability
As business people, there are two essential metrics that we should track, ones we hear about whenever we watch Shark Tank and Dragon’s Den: CAC and LTV.
CAC, or customer acquisition cost, is a business person’s way to understand if their clients actually make them money. In our case, CAC is the cost of convincing a client that they want to buy our service.
To put it simply, CAC may be calculated by dividing all the costs spent on acquiring clients by the number of clients acquired over the same period. For example, if we spent 1000 CX (currency X) on marketing in a year and acquired 10 clients, the CAC for each client is 100 CX.
In our case, we could measure CAC expressed in money or in time, since we usually charge by the day and we know what our day costs. If our daily fee is 800 CX (100 CX per hour for an 8-hour day, including all lunch and coffee breaks, to make the math easy), we just spent the equivalent of 10 hours marketing, and were able to acquire 10 clients, each with a CAC of 1 hour.
If we then consider how much we project to earn from a client over time, the LTV or customer lifetime value, we can determine if that individual client is profitable, and then compare that client to others to see which are the most profitable. In other words, we can see who is helping us to cover our expenses and earn us a profit, and who is literally costing us money to work for.
How it works
So let’s say it took us the equivalent of 4 hours to market to Client A before s/he agreed to sign a contract for 3 days (3×8, or 24 hours) of work. That client is profitable to the tune of 20 hours.
On the other hand, if it took us 10 hours to convince Client B, who ended up hiring us for only one day, Client B cost us 2 hours. If we do not expect to work for them again, and they are not amenable to giving us a referral or a testimonial, then Client B was not worth the time we invested.
Know your cost of living
Before doing this exercise, make sure you understand your expenses on a monthly (recurring costs such as rent or mortgage, food, health insurance, transportation, child care, office supplies, etc.) and annual basis (monthly expenses plus all one-off payments such as a car, a holiday, a computer, an emergency fund, etc.). Divide this grand total by the number of days you can realistically expect to work in a year to get the bare minimum rate you must earn per day worked to be able to break even. (Download Julia Böhm’s excellent article for information on what to include by clicking here.)
For example, if you must earn 2000 CX per month, then in the case above you would have covered only 1800 CX of your monthly expenses (Client A brought in 2000 CX, and Client B cost you 200 CX). So you would need one more day of work for someone who is easier to sell to than Client B.
If we expect to work for a client again, and don’t have to expend more effort or money to convince them to hire us, the LTV just keeps going up. So if we could plan on Client A hiring us even one more day, we would have just earned another 800 CX at zero cost. Whereas, unless they radically change their behavior or give us lots of referrals or an amazing testimonial, we should just stop trying to sell to Client B. After all, why keep a client who continuously makes changes, thus using up far more time than we have budgeted for? Let them go!
Of course, we may decide to work for clients who don’t make us much, if any, money – but only if we know our expenses, that they are covered, and we have another reason to work for them. Reasons abound: we like the cause, we want to gain a toehold in a new market, we want the prestige… but we must know what those clients cost us.
Evaluating your clientele
So how do you do this? List all your current clients, and try to remember how much money or time you spent in convincing each of them to buy your services for the first time. Expenses would include the cost of one business card, time writing emails, a portion of your website, any dedicated expenses such as transportation to a meeting, etc. It may have been very little, if it was a referral from another client; it may have been a lot, if it was someone whom you had to introduce to interpreting.
Do this for all your current clients and rank them by CAC. Do you notice any trends? Are clients from a particular industry less expensive to acquire than others? Make sure to do this exercise for any new client you acquire.
For the same clients, consider how many days you have already worked, and how many more days you might realistically work for each, as well as how much more money, time and effort you will have to expend to convince each of them to hire you again.
Then calculate how much these clients could earn you and see if there are any common features among them. If there are, this should be your niche, your specialization. In fact, this approach could be another way to come at the ideal client question I posed in FAQ 3: If you already know that your most profitable sectors (lowest CAC and highest LTV) are electric power generation, or environmental protection, then you have found your ideal client niche.
If this niche isn’t your favorite, consider if you can make it a favorite and specialize. You have already made inroads into the sector, which will save you a lot of preparation and research time for future jobs, meaning that your effective daily earnings have just increased without having to increase your nominal fees.
If you can’t, then try and understand why you are able to market yourself so successfully to one niche, and not so successfully to another. Once you have that figured out, your business should grow in your ideal niche, and you will know for certain that all your clients are profitable.
What will trigger a potential client’s realization that they need an interpreter? And how will they go about finding one? Hard to say right off the bat, so let’s start by thinking about how we search for something, for example terms for a medical conference. The internet, of course – but where exactly?
There are many search engines available, bringing up lots of websites – some gathering all sorts of terminology, others giving you just one term at a time. One of the medical speeches will be about how substances in smaller quantities can be helpful, but larger can kill you – digitalis is one example. So you look up digitalis and get lots of photos of flowers, one of which you just saw in your garden. Really? What’s its common name? Foxglove! Hmm, where did that name come from? And you find that in various Gaelic languages, it’s “folksgloves,” like fairy folk. Then you wonder, do languages other than Gaelic mention the fairies when talking about this plant? And down the rabbit hole you go, not looking up from your computer for hours.
The internet has so many different paths that no one’s journey is alike, even if they start at the same place. And really, maybe no one even starts at the same place either – you noticed the digitalis, maybe another interpreter focused on nanoparticles.
Our potential clients face the same problem. They could start with a search for linguists; they may understand that they want spoken or oral translators. They might even know the word interpreter, though some of those hits will bring up actors or computer programs that execute other programs.They could look for an individual, or an agency. They may already know someone who knows someone. Or they may simply call the local university to ask for a student who speaks that language. Or the embassy of that country. There is no set path.
The customer decision journey
So let’s take a look at the typical customer decision journey. It starts off with a trigger, something that prompts a search, in this case for an interpreter. That trigger could be anything – the boss wants to invite a famous speaker from another country to the AGM, the CEO has just thought about expanding into overseas markets, or the EU suddenly realizes that all their French interpreters with German will be retiring in the next few years. In other words, it could be anything.
The next phase of the journey is research. This is the scary part, as clients most probably don’t know you, may not even be aware of your industry, and they could go anywhere. They have multiple paths available, such as recommendations from friends and colleagues, television, print media, the yellow pages, and of course the internet.
Social media may help, if you are a prominent contributor of content that educates buyers on your own website as well as on LinkedIn and other platforms where serious clients would expect to find a professional. But it may also hurt, since it is easy to find others doing the same thing as you, as well as numerous other distractions. And SEO doesn’t always work here, e.g. if the client heads in a direction that is different from what you consider logical – keep in mind that phone call to the embassy! This phase is when clients gather and evaluate most of the information they need to find the interpreter(s) they will finally hire. In today’s world of immediate gratification, it may take very little time.
Once they have evaluated the information, clients start contacting the interpreters and agencies they found. In fact, well over fifty percent of their buying process will have been completed before they ever contact anyone – which means that clients already have in mind a ranking of the people or agencies they are contacting, and if the first person who answers even comes close to what the potential client wants, they will most probably get the job.
So any information they get from you both during and immediately after the search phase will be critical, as it will differentiate you from the mass of other providers that they are in effect interviewing.
This is where all your homework on what value you provide and how you differ from other interpreters will come in handy. Never merely state a price and end the call – you must have a conversation. The easiest way to start would be by asking where they found you, which is good market research for you as well. After that, make sure to ask all the questions you need to do due diligence on the client and the event, and listen carefully to the answers. If their problem is one you can solve, let them know that you will get back to them in [name a time] with an offer. Then get back to them at that time without fail, to start building trust.
The next point on the journey is when you are offered the job. This is only the halfway point in the customer journey, and takes little time, just like the trigger. It takes place once and is the start of the second half of the cycle, a portion that most of us ignore.
Groundwork for the future
You shouldn’t think that you can simply sign the contract, provide the service, get paid, and have a satisfied client. You may not realize it, but there are multiple contacts you will have with the client during the process of providing your services: obtaining documents, providing input on equipment, advising on how to ensure the event is truly multilingual as opposed to an event with a superficial patch of last-minute interpreter hires. Each one of those contacts will lead your client into thinking that you are easy to work with, fulfill their needs, and have an engaging personality – or it could prove the opposite. At the end of the day, it isn’t just your interpreting – it is this phase that makes or breaks you.
In fact, mediocre to bad customer experience is the norm, so anything you can do to enhance this relationship and experience will ensure that clients see you not simply as a service provider, but as the expert and partner that contributed to a successful event. Clients will not only know, like and trust you for the future, but they will become your advocates in a densely crowded and highly competitive market.
If a client is happy, ask for a written testimonial or a recommendation online, and for possible referrals to new contacts. The written aspect of a testimonial cements their opinion of you in their minds, and the social aspect shows others that clients speak positively about you, which of course is much more valuable than you talking about yourself.
At this point, you have come full circle back to when something new triggers their need to hire an interpreter. But since the previous experience was so positive, why would clients waste time repeating the research and evaluation process? They call you directly, and you take the shortcut directly to the point where you are hired again.
This is a simplified model of how a client finds a service provider. There are many other models that make the rounds, such as the funnel model (you run into that when you click to receive a free report and are required to give your email address to have it sent to you), or the hero journey (described by Joseph Campbell and exemplified by Luke Skywalker), but this one sums up best what we ourselves have to deal with when clients find us.
I bet that most of those that called you out of the blue have already done a minimum of research, at least to find your name, even if that was simply searching for “spoken translator” + “your foreign language” + “your city”. It’s your job to then make their calls to you into such engaging conversations, showcasing your value to them, that they go no further, and become your biggest fans.
Things have been going well, you have lots of work with a great client, you are earning lots of money – and then suddenly bam! Something happens… and now you are making almost nothing. Your loyal client is no longer hiring you more than once in a blue moon. What can you do?
In actual fact, the question should be “what could I have done to prevent it?” Putting all your eggs in one basket is never a good career move – that’s why there are sayings and fables about it. So let’s take a look at clients and how we can make our situation more sustainable.
The myth of the ideal client
Most of us would think that finding that one client who can hire us every day of the year for decent fees and conditions is a godsend. How fantastic, we don’t have to take the time to market, research new jobs, figure out how to work for a new client, or anything else! We are practically employees, but still able to take our vacations when we want to.
Most often, this type of client is the hiring agent in a government interpretation service, an international organization or an agency. You like the work and don’t have to worry. Your contact knows you and your work, likes you and the ease of dealing with you, and trusts you. For them, you are a consistent element, so why would they bother trying to find another?
This is all well and good, but have you considered how fragile this situation is? What happens if your longtime contact falls ill, or retires, or changes jobs? Have you been nurturing an authentic relationship with them so you know ahead of time that they are moving, so you can make plans? Have you been educating this person for a long time, and can you ask them to pass on the fruits of that education to their replacement or to include them in a standard operating procedures file?
Or even more out of your control, what if you’ve been working for an international organization, and your main language combination is dependent on the political or economic situation in the world? In other words, the major country that speaks your language does something the international organization considers to be beyond the pale, and suddenly they no longer hire anyone with your languages?
Or have you thought about subprime loan risks that spread throughout the global economy? Governments the world over cut their budgets, so many international organizations are now just trying to keep their heads above water and there is much less work for interpreters.
These are all-too-familiar situations that can happen to any of us at any time, and all have happened to some of us. We can cross our fingers and hope that things will pick up again in the near future –though this isn’t very helpful because while the economic situation has only just started moving, it looks to be sinking again; the political situation looks frozen. And how long will this new hiring officer who actively doesn’t want to hire us stay in the job?
Or is there a more sustainable way of finding regular work?
Alternatives
Somewhat counter-intuitively, direct clients on the private market look to be the most sustainable way of working as a freelance interpreter today. Such clients are easier to get to know, and have multiple means of entry – you may get a toehold in the export department, and then get called to work with the marketing and sales departments. Once the company has a long term relationship abroad, you might get brought in to help manage their customer relations. And any time anyone makes a trip to visit that market, you have another job.
If you think about it, even if governments aren’t talking to one another, individuals still do. There will always be some sort of business relationship that people need to maintain. When deals go wrong, there will be international arbitration. And there are always some sort of civil society efforts that need interpreters. It may not be what you would strictly call conference interpreting, but these are fields that many of us have worked in.
If you have a strong base of private clients, even if they are concentrated in a particular niche, you don’t have to worry as much if one of them disappears. Even if they are in the same niche, they maybe at different stages in developing their foreign markets. You don’t have to worry when the hiring agent at one of them changes, that the economic situation in one company will be reflected in exactly the same way in all of them, or that a suddenly different political situation will hit each of them identically.
Moreover, if you have been educating all your points of contact to work with you as a full member of the team, and if you have been maintaining an authentic relationship with them, then when they move on, it may be a great opportunity for you! They may leave instructions for their successors, who will then understand that the company already knows, likes and trusts you; you’ll have less marketing to do to keep them as a client. Plus, you will have the added value of knowing that a second company doesn’t need the same level of education, because your former contact point is now preaching your cause in the new company.
So if sustainability is the watchword, and market diversification is the best way of remaining sustainable, then put more of your eggs in the direct client basket!
Know Your Worth: Understanding Marketing and Negotiating for Interpreters 