5 Steps To Nailing Marketing As A Freelance Translator Or Small Agency [Guest Post]
08/28/2017
Episode 143: Is It Better to Work with Agencies or Direct Clients? – Interview with Oleg Semerikov
09/11/2017
The general advice about clients is that you should be seeking new ones all the time because you never know what’s around the corner. Not only should you be looking to replace clients that you are not keen on working for, but you also need new ones to fall back on if you lose some. In this episode, we are going to discuss some reasons why agencies might stop working with you and what to do about it.
Important things covered in this episode:
- Most common reasons why an agency stops working with a translator
- Things we can do if they are not happy with our work
- Reasons should we avoid at all cost
- Tips to keep the good agencies for the long run
Important links mentioned in this episode:
- 18 Reasons Why an Agency Might Stop Working with You
- 22 More Reasons Why an Agency Might Stop Working with You
- Thirteenish Reasons Why You Might Stop Working for an Agency
- Fifteen More Reasons Why You Might Stop Working for an Agency
Nikki has written quite a few post on this topic. She has also explained why letting some agencies go is a good thing. She also gave some tips that we can do to keep the good agencies working with us. I hope you have found these tips as valuable as I have. Please share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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6 Comments
Interesting! And I really like the tips given to subtly catchup with your preferred clients.
Hi Aude, sorry for the late reply, I’ve only just realised there were comments on this episode. It’s always easier to reach out to clients we know because we have worked for them before than to try to find new clients.
Hello there,
This discussion, based on the list Nikki gives in her own blog (which I wanted to comment on there but it is from 2015 and this discussion is more recent), is of great relief to me I must say. I worked with an agency who gave me lots of work over the last few years but have only given me a couple of jobs this year and ignore my emails when I try to keep myself in the picture with them, in various polite and subtle ways (including the xmas greeting). They did not even treat me that well when I worked with them – paying late a few times was one example though at least they always paid – so as Tess says it is a bit like a romantic relationship, in this case they were treating me mean to keep me keen I suspect! I don’t even tell other translators who I work for (or agencies which other agencies I work for and they have never insisted either on me telling them) so it cannot be other translators badmouthing me. It might be editors however, if it is someone in the translation world. Unfortunately, it may also be someone in my personal life ruining things for me but I’m hardly going to say this to an agency.
I am encouraged by Nikki sending an email herself to cut ties with an agency as it is a way of moving on properly without hanging on for a response from such a discourteous agency. The only advantage is they are a small agency so I always knew who I was dealing with. They never were big on small talk which is fine but keeping someone hanging by ignoring them is another thing.
Thank you for the comment Anne! Yes, sometimes we just have to let some agencies go and it is OK to send a (polite) email.
Hi Anne Maria,
My apologies for not replying to you sooner. I’ve only just noticed your comment.
There could be many reasons why the agency no longer gives you work. They might not be getting much work themselves in the area or areas you used to translate for them. I’ve just done a job for a client that used to send me quite high volumes to translate every month, but which I hadn’t done a job for since last July (eight months). They said it was because things were not going well for them and they had not had anything to offer me. Of course, this is the reason why we should always be trying to increase our circle of clients (I wrote about this on my blog: https://nikkigrahamtranix.com/2015/05/26/client-circles/) .
I actually miss the work the agency I fired gave me, as it was alwasy really interesting. But we need to be treated properly, in our work and personal lives, and I had definitely reached a point where I’d had enough. If this agency paid you late sometimes and ignores your emails, then it might be better if you put your energies into trying to find new clients. PMs can sometimes be so busy they don’t find time to reply to emails, which can be frustrating. Some agencies I work for happily send loads of long emails, others barely respond and I’m left wondering whether they actually received the files. I guess everyone is different and the way the work is too.
Good luck with finding more and better clients.
Oh and thanks by the way to Nikki and yourself Tess!! I like both this website and Nikki’s and as I said that list and the discussion was very helpful.