Getting Paid: Rates, Clients & Your Translator Brand
Set a rate card, find agency and direct clients, and run the business so translation becomes a real income.
Skilled translators stay underpaid when they neglect the business, because the market rewards good business, not just good translation. Learn to build a rate card from your real costs and value (not the cheapest number you can find), apply surcharges and a minimum fee, choose deliberately between agency and direct clients, find clients through a clear specialised brand, and pitch, negotiate, invoice, and get paid like a business owner. Reliability, not the lowest price, is the moat that makes translation a sustainable income.
What you'll learn
- Build a per-word and per-hour rate card from your real costs
- Apply surcharges, discounts, and a minimum fee sensibly
- Choose between agency and direct clients strategically
- Find clients through a clear, specialised translator brand
- Pitch and negotiate from confidence, not fear
- Invoice, get paid on time, and run the business side
Course content
- 1. Skill is not enough: the business decides your income (14 min)
- 2. Setting your rate card (15 min)
- 3. Surcharges, discounts, and the minimum fee (14 min)
- 4. Agency vs direct clients (15 min)
- 5. Finding clients and your translator brand (15 min)
- 6. Pitching, negotiating, and running the business (15 min)
Translation Rate Calculator: real per-word and per-minute rates Langixy pays certified translators.
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