Watch the sax, buddy!
Jun. 6th, 2001 10:56 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpHo, hum. Another day spent chasing my tail.
I was calmly checking mail this morning around 7:25 am when Galina suggested I take my morning constitutional over to the store and open the shop for business while she took a shower. As it takes about 40 minutes to walk from the store, I figured it would take about the same time to go the other way, which would put me 10 minutes late opening the shop, and that assumed I left now.
My assumption proved correct, and it turned out that we both got to the store at about the same time. In fact, we just about met at the front door (she, coming from the back of the store; me, arriving at the front).
I got a short break around 11 am, when I went home to shower and shave. While home, I finished checking mail. About the only thing I accomplished was sending a query in response to something I'd found in Radek Pletka's weekly list of translation job opportunities.
Radek is a good guy. I've known him for about 10 years, first meeting him on CompuServe's FLEFO forum (Foreign Language Education Forum, if memory serves). He seems a pretty crusty guy who says pretty much what he thinks. That ofttimes puts people off. However, I've found that once you understand that Radek is about the most straightforward guy in the world, he doesn't seem so crusty anymore.
I remember he always used to post messages with a signature line that told you where he was. One day, sometime in 1994 or 1995, I noticed his signature said he was in Pagosa Springs! I dropped him an e-mail and we ended up meeting for lunch at the Pagosa Lodge.
We've done a couple of projects over the years, and probably the most memorable was the one where I helped him write a proposal to translate documents for a company that was looking to bid on installing a cell phone system in what was then called Czechoslovakia. (Radek is the top Czech translator I know of in the business.) In a business where most translators are afraid to negotiate good rates with client (because they don't really realize they're in a business, but I digress...), Radek and I whipped up a proposal that probably made the prospective client swallow hard. But Radek's selling point is, basically, that you can pay me a bunch now, or you can pay me a whole bunch more later.
I've been in the same position, and it works like this: Imagine client X, who approaches you with a project and asks "How much?" You state a figure. X blanches and tells you he has a quote from another translator, or has a guy in the mail room who's bilingual, or whatever, and the bottom line is that he can get the job done for a quarter as much. You tell X (nicely), "Good luck!"
Two days before the final deadline (typically), X calls in a panic. "The translation is horrible! We need you to do it. Are you available?" Yes, you may say, but there is the issue of time... and time's good friend, money. Usually, the client ends up paying a hefty premium on top of the original quote.
A few years ago, Radek started sending out a free compilation of translation job opportunities he'd managed to find from various sources to a mailing list, and later put the list on a subscription basis. I'm sure it makes a nice line item in his income statement. He deserves it.
Anyway, after the mail check and the shower and shave, I went back to the store and remained there for the rest of the day. Business-wise, it was a good day, but I was not able to spend any time on the long-range issues. Sad to say, my argument to the effect that long-range issues are just as (if not more) important than immediate customer service don't hold water with Galina. (I'll admit that I don't like seeing customers waiting for service, either, but we're not talking a line out the door, here, people.)
I got another translation today, due Friday. I'll undoubtedly have to spend most of tomorrow on it. I'm going to try to sneak in some of the long-range stuff for the store while I'm at it. One of those items is to put together a customer-service survey for our box holders, along with a one-page announcement of new services we're now capable of offering (photo scanning, CD burning, CD cleaning). I'll probably also inform the store's customers of the new postal rates that will go into effect on July 1.
But right now, I am one tired puppy. Time to go to sleep.
Cheers...
I was calmly checking mail this morning around 7:25 am when Galina suggested I take my morning constitutional over to the store and open the shop for business while she took a shower. As it takes about 40 minutes to walk from the store, I figured it would take about the same time to go the other way, which would put me 10 minutes late opening the shop, and that assumed I left now.
My assumption proved correct, and it turned out that we both got to the store at about the same time. In fact, we just about met at the front door (she, coming from the back of the store; me, arriving at the front).
I got a short break around 11 am, when I went home to shower and shave. While home, I finished checking mail. About the only thing I accomplished was sending a query in response to something I'd found in Radek Pletka's weekly list of translation job opportunities.
Radek is a good guy. I've known him for about 10 years, first meeting him on CompuServe's FLEFO forum (Foreign Language Education Forum, if memory serves). He seems a pretty crusty guy who says pretty much what he thinks. That ofttimes puts people off. However, I've found that once you understand that Radek is about the most straightforward guy in the world, he doesn't seem so crusty anymore.
I remember he always used to post messages with a signature line that told you where he was. One day, sometime in 1994 or 1995, I noticed his signature said he was in Pagosa Springs! I dropped him an e-mail and we ended up meeting for lunch at the Pagosa Lodge.
We've done a couple of projects over the years, and probably the most memorable was the one where I helped him write a proposal to translate documents for a company that was looking to bid on installing a cell phone system in what was then called Czechoslovakia. (Radek is the top Czech translator I know of in the business.) In a business where most translators are afraid to negotiate good rates with client (because they don't really realize they're in a business, but I digress...), Radek and I whipped up a proposal that probably made the prospective client swallow hard. But Radek's selling point is, basically, that you can pay me a bunch now, or you can pay me a whole bunch more later.
I've been in the same position, and it works like this: Imagine client X, who approaches you with a project and asks "How much?" You state a figure. X blanches and tells you he has a quote from another translator, or has a guy in the mail room who's bilingual, or whatever, and the bottom line is that he can get the job done for a quarter as much. You tell X (nicely), "Good luck!"
Two days before the final deadline (typically), X calls in a panic. "The translation is horrible! We need you to do it. Are you available?" Yes, you may say, but there is the issue of time... and time's good friend, money. Usually, the client ends up paying a hefty premium on top of the original quote.
A few years ago, Radek started sending out a free compilation of translation job opportunities he'd managed to find from various sources to a mailing list, and later put the list on a subscription basis. I'm sure it makes a nice line item in his income statement. He deserves it.
Anyway, after the mail check and the shower and shave, I went back to the store and remained there for the rest of the day. Business-wise, it was a good day, but I was not able to spend any time on the long-range issues. Sad to say, my argument to the effect that long-range issues are just as (if not more) important than immediate customer service don't hold water with Galina. (I'll admit that I don't like seeing customers waiting for service, either, but we're not talking a line out the door, here, people.)
I got another translation today, due Friday. I'll undoubtedly have to spend most of tomorrow on it. I'm going to try to sneak in some of the long-range stuff for the store while I'm at it. One of those items is to put together a customer-service survey for our box holders, along with a one-page announcement of new services we're now capable of offering (photo scanning, CD burning, CD cleaning). I'll probably also inform the store's customers of the new postal rates that will go into effect on July 1.
But right now, I am one tired puppy. Time to go to sleep.
Cheers...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2001-06-07 04:04 pm (UTC)Do you translate freelance? If you do, do they need more translators?
Ok, that's two questions.
no subject
Date: 2001-06-07 07:00 pm (UTC)Do "they" need more translators? In principle, yes. But "they" covers a lot of territory, and I can't speak for "them." Have you done translation work in the past?
Cheers...