Top 10 Benefits of Being a Freelance Translator

Once a professional translator or a beginner decides to try freelance translation work, it may seem challenging and even frightening. Not knowing where to start and what tasks to choose sounds intimidating. Do not let it put you down since the benefits of being a freelance translator are evident! You can choose the types of work that fit you the most and stop whenever you feel tired or need to switch your mind to something else. 

It is high time to review some of them below to see how you can enjoy some aspects of working as a freelancer: 

1. You Are Free to Decide. The best part about working as a freelance translator is that you can decide what tasks to choose and what to ignore. You are like your own manager who can make the final decision and set the price. Your working pace is not forced, which is quite important! Taking only those tasks that you can handle is great. When you work as a freelance translator, you’re at the liberty to choose your client and specific language that you’ve attained mastery over. Be it transcripts translation services, medical translations or Urdu language translations; you can select the best fit for your professional assignment.

2. The Flexible Schedule. Another great aspect is a flexible timetable, which means that you can work late at night or sit with a cup of coffee while translating some part of a book or lyrics of a song. Yes, even such requests are quite popular among freelance translation experts. The best part about working from home is knowing that you can stop when you already feel exhausted or take a walk in the park to keep your mind away from translation. 

3. More Translation Work. As the practice shows, you may have even more translation work than when being employed by some large translation agency. While it is not always the case, you can always seek more orders. Since you can combine several projects, it increases your chances of earning more. Think of translation websites for freelancers, start with a blog where you advertise your skills, or cooperate with some famous brands by contacting them directly. Since you can be accessible most of the time and provide secure person-to-person translation services, your chances of getting hired are much higher. 

4. A Better Income. Speaking of your salary, freelance translators belong to those high-paid jobs that can be done from home. Even if you spend only 2-3 hours daily, it will still increase your chances of earning something. You do not have to turn your freelance work into some office hours. Start with a light schedule to work out a suitable pace. It will help you to determine how much you can earn and what time and resources it would take. Just remember to have a good resume with relevant language certificates! 

5. A Selection of Interesting Projects. As a freelancer, you can always take part in some international charity project or provide services as a tutor. Your help may even be needed for specific projects if you provide technical translation services. Think about helping our veterans, joining various clubs for women, saving the Amazon forests, and making a positive difference in your local community by cooperating with people from all over the world. 

6. Making a Name for Yourself. While it starts with a good resume and positive customer feedback, it is also good to take a look at the top translation companies reviewed by professionals to determine all the requirements. See what requests are most popular and meet the quality benchmarks. If you have a blog or an extensive resume online, remember to copy some words and phrases that you find suitable. The correct wording matters quite a lot! Doing things right will help you to get noticed! 

7. You Can Always Say “No”. As a freelancer, you can always choose your work and reject those projects that do not match your vision. Do not try to take them all! Choose only those projects that you can complete on time. Taking it all is never good for your reputation and health. Start with at least 2-3 tasks at first and see whether you receive revision requests and how much time it takes to edit and proofread the final document. Remember that every additional request that you receive must be paid for unless it has already been specified otherwise. 

8. You Can Work 24/7. If you work with Australia, Europe, or Japan, being available late at night is valuable for international customers. You build your own schedule as a freelancer! If working late at night or early in the morning fits you well, you can coordinate your efforts with the foreign partners and provide online translation help for business negotiations or live blog posts. 

9. Work and Study At The Same Time. You can combine your studies and freelance translation work. Start with a language certificate and combine your major to provide technical translations. It usually includes work with the medical manuals, product descriptions, technical and engineering translations, or court hearings if you have a background in the Law field. As a rule, technical translations always cost at least 50-60% more than a typical non-technical work. 

10. Your Family Will Appreciate It. Most importantly, watching you work from home, they will never miss some quality time with the family. Since you can always stop and take a quick look at the children’s room, you will never have to worry when taking a quick break. Seeing the happy smiles of those you love is worth more than anything in this world! 

What Orders Should I Take?

Just think about how much time and energy it takes you to translate a single page. Start with some simple projects and see how it makes you feel. Do not try to take too much and avoid setting your price too low. Listen to your heart and experience to achieve the best of both worlds!