Managing Your Freelance Client Portfolio

This post is a reblog, originally published in the Slator Tool Box. It is reprinted here with permission of the author.

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An agency that occasionally gets in touch sends me an email with four image files attached. Taken with a phone, the pictures show separate pages of a medical patient record. No attempt has been made to redact personal data, and the text is blurry. Can you please prepare a word count and quote, then do the translation as quickly as possible?

The sloppiness of the inquiry bothers me. What would patients say if they knew these medical records were so carelessly forwarded to strangers via email? I politely declined the project, citing lack of time, but the request landed the company on my annual review list.

Freelancers sometimes mistakenly believe that they must hold on to every client they’ve ever had, but building a productive client base is a continuous process.

Early in your freelance career, there is nothing more exciting than adding new clients to your portfolio, but the situation changes a few years down the road when you discover the value of your experience and specialization. Suddenly, clients who keep sending you work at entry-level conditions are taking up more of your bandwidth than is helpful.

The difference between those two phases is associated with mindset: while you have few choices as a beginner, you don’t have to passively accept every project that comes your way later in your career.

Key Criteria for a Healthy Client Base

Here are a few characteristics of a client base that can set your freelance business up for long-term growth:

• Number of accounts. Ideally, you want two to five bread-and-butter clients (your A List) who send steady amounts of work in specific fields, along with a few less frequent accounts (your B List).

Don’t hesitate to change the constellation of these accounts over time to help you set new goals and increase your rates. If you can, strive to diversify your accounts. For example, clients in different countries or those paying in other currencies add valuable economic security to your portfolio.

• Payment practices. The clients on your A and B List are willing to pay your rates and offer payment terms that don’t require undue sacrifices on your part (such as PayPal transfer fees).

These clients provide fair compensation for tasks such as layout or text amendments. In addition, you can count on their payment by the agreed due date. The resulting income security allows for better planning and financial forecasting.

• Concern for quality. Ideally, your clients (mostly) send you interesting, challenging work that is commensurate with your experience. They regularly provide qualified feedback to help you improve and are interested in building a long-term working relationship with you.

This concern for quality is evident, for example, in their efforts to share terminology and answer your questions. Their quality expectations not only make your work more consistent, but also challenge you to keep learning.

• Respect. The communication with the client staff, however brief, makes you feel respected and part of a team. A and B List clients are mindful of your time (and time zone!) and set reasonable deadlines.

These clients are equally respectful of their own end clients and are willing to listen to your comments and questions.

Being a valued partner to your clients in the translation process reduces your stress levels and allows you to make better use of your time off.

Achieving a client portfolio that meets these criteria is not a matter of luck or superior skills. Rather, it takes continuous effort to identify and retain the clients you truly want to work for.

To make room at the top, i.e., for more challenging work that provides learning opportunities, for better pay, or for improved work-life balance, something has to give.

While it makes no sense to let go of hard-won clients in your first years of freelancing, restructuring your portfolio becomes an essential strategy in the later stages of your business to avoid burnout and underselling your skills. That’s where your C List, if you have it, comes in.

My Best Tips for Saying Good-Bye to a Client

Above all, keep in mind that the language translation industry is relatively small and well-connected. Letting go of a business connection must therefore be a deliberate process. Except in cases of unacceptable ethical breach, don’t ever put your reputation on the line by ending client relationships in anger.

My preferred approach is to keep an annual review list of clients who may be a better fit for someone else. I take stock of business development early in the third quarter to assess the quality of my client relationships and to look at new opportunities.

If I decide to let go of any clients on my review list, I write them a courteous note to let them know I will no longer be available for new assignments as of the new year. That gives them three months to make internal arrangements. I also assure them that I have no complaints about the cooperation and that my decision is prompted by a focus on new fields of work or direct clients.

This concept has given me a chance to concentrate on the client accounts of my A List and to do most of my work with and for people who care as much about language translation details and quality as I do.

If you’ve been telling yourself that you have reached the “top of the pay scale” or if your freelance work consists mostly of repetitive assignments for entry-level pay, it may be time to implement your own strategies for portfolio management.

 

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About the Author

Dorothee Racette, CT has been a full-time freelance GER < > EN translator for over 25 years. She served as ATA President from 2011 to 2013. In 2014, she established her own coaching business, Take Back My Day, to help individuals and organizations solve problems related to workflow and time management. As a certified productivity coach (CPC), she now divides her time between translating and coaching. Her book Complete What You Started (2020) provides a blueprint for carrying big projects across the finish line. You can read her blog at takebackmyday.com/blog.