Minimum fee 论题张贴者: Peter Motte
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Peter Motte 
比利时
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成Dutch荷兰语
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Now that CAT tools are becoming more and more sophisticated and MTPE is on the rise, minimum fees are becoming more important.
Otherwise you might end up with jobs with pay only 88 ... cents! DOLLARCENTS! Not even eurocents, as happened with me lately.
My minimum fee = hourly fee, because you easily waste an hour on the administrative side of the job, like being contacted by the client,some mails which go between you and the client, putting everything in order to do the job, the book... See more Now that CAT tools are becoming more and more sophisticated and MTPE is on the rise, minimum fees are becoming more important.
Otherwise you might end up with jobs with pay only 88 ... cents! DOLLARCENTS! Not even eurocents, as happened with me lately.
My minimum fee = hourly fee, because you easily waste an hour on the administrative side of the job, like being contacted by the client,some mails which go between you and the client, putting everything in order to do the job, the bookkeeping and the taxes. ▲ Collapse
| | | | | I completely agree | Apr 14 |
My minimum translation fee is equivalent to one hour’s work, but I only apply my minimum charge to one-off jobs from new clients. If a client regularly wants lots of little jobs done then I switch to monthly invoicing and I’ll add up everything at the end of the month. With some of these customers I have negotiated a special fee (for instance, I charge a fixed rate per job to a very regular client regardless of the number of words, as it never exceeds 20 words and most times consists only of... See more My minimum translation fee is equivalent to one hour’s work, but I only apply my minimum charge to one-off jobs from new clients. If a client regularly wants lots of little jobs done then I switch to monthly invoicing and I’ll add up everything at the end of the month. With some of these customers I have negotiated a special fee (for instance, I charge a fixed rate per job to a very regular client regardless of the number of words, as it never exceeds 20 words and most times consists only of 10/15 words). For long-standing clients I tend to include the small job into the next invoice or even not to charge it at all. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Samuel Murray
荷兰
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2006)
English英语译成Afrikaans南非语
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Peter Motte wrote:
Now that CAT tools are becoming more and more sophisticated and MTPE is on the rise, minimum fees are becoming more important. ... Otherwise you might end up with jobs with pay only 88 ... cents!
This has been a problem for decades, and is not related to CAT tools or MTPE.
Whether to charge a minimum fee depends on how much work it is to invoice for it. If your client requires a separate invoice for each job, then an 88 cent invoice would be a waste of time, but if your client collates all micro jobs into one larger purchase order and you can invoice for it as part of a larger amount, then a couple of dozen 88 cent jobs are not necessarily a problem.
| | | | Peter Motte
比利时
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成Dutch荷兰语
+ ...
主题发起人
Fact was, the 0.88 US job was the only job for that client during a whole month, so cummulative billing didn't change the situation.
It's not only matter of billing: there is the time for the communication with the client, there is the time to set up the job and things like that.
Monthly invoicing really doesn't remedy the problem.
If a client ONLY sends you small jobs, the problem becomes even bigger. 5 small jobs can keep you busy a good part of the day, and you... See more Fact was, the 0.88 US job was the only job for that client during a whole month, so cummulative billing didn't change the situation.
It's not only matter of billing: there is the time for the communication with the client, there is the time to set up the job and things like that.
Monthly invoicing really doesn't remedy the problem.
If a client ONLY sends you small jobs, the problem becomes even bigger. 5 small jobs can keep you busy a good part of the day, and you might end up with very low total earnings for that day. ▲ Collapse
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Peter Motte
比利时
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成Dutch荷兰语
+ ...
主题发起人
Samuel Murray wrote:
Peter Motte wrote:
Now that CAT tools are becoming more and more sophisticated and MTPE is on the rise, minimum fees are becoming more important. ... Otherwise you might end up with jobs with pay only 88 ... cents!
This has been a problem for decades, and is not related to CAT tools or MTPE.
I agree, but it gradually become more frequent.
There is also the "longstanding client trap": in the beginning they come with big jobs, like manuals and contracts. The next jobs becoming changes to the original big jobs, and because it's a "regular client who also gives big jobs", people might drop the minimum fee for those clients.
However, those regularly returning big jobs gradually fizzle out and end up as "regular small jobs", for which out of habit no minimum fee is demanded.
Current CAT and MTEP sped up that process.
| | | | Lingua 5B
波斯尼亚黑塞哥维纳
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成Croatian克罗地亚语
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MTPE clients are *extremely* low budget clients, so I don’t even try it with them as I know it won’t work. I mean, I don’t work with them at all, just generally speaking.
There are only two types of clients: those with a budget and those without one.
| | | | Lieven Malaise
比利时
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2020)
French法语译成Dutch荷兰语
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I'm sometimes spontaneously offered a minimum fee, but I don't ask for it because it's not necessary in my situation: I don't have customers that only provide me with very short tasks and I'm happy to do them for my regular customers at my word rate.
New customers that would like to try to dump their short assignments with me, would probably give up rather sooner than later because I'm most of the time fully booked for at least a couple of days and short tasks tend to have very shor... See more I'm sometimes spontaneously offered a minimum fee, but I don't ask for it because it's not necessary in my situation: I don't have customers that only provide me with very short tasks and I'm happy to do them for my regular customers at my word rate.
New customers that would like to try to dump their short assignments with me, would probably give up rather sooner than later because I'm most of the time fully booked for at least a couple of days and short tasks tend to have very short deadlines. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Peter Motte
比利时
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2009)
English英语译成Dutch荷兰语
+ ...
主题发起人
wel wel, wij women blijkbaar hoogstens zo'n 20 km van elkaar af
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Lieven Malaise
比利时
Local time: 02:18
正式会员 (自2020)
French法语译成Dutch荷兰语
+ ...
Peter Motte wrote:
wel wel, wij women blijkbaar hoogstens zo'n 20 km van elkaar af
Asjemenou!
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I agree that a minimum fee equal to my hourly rate would be reasonable, but recently I noticed that agencies which otherwise offer good rates and conditions will refuse to pay a minimum fee. That's a trade-off I accept. I also had a lower minimum fee for a client who was easy to work with and regularly offered simple jobs of one or two sentences.
But the other development you mentioned here does bother me. Looking at my invoicing history, I only had one large project in 2024, but ev... See more I agree that a minimum fee equal to my hourly rate would be reasonable, but recently I noticed that agencies which otherwise offer good rates and conditions will refuse to pay a minimum fee. That's a trade-off I accept. I also had a lower minimum fee for a client who was easy to work with and regularly offered simple jobs of one or two sentences.
But the other development you mentioned here does bother me. Looking at my invoicing history, I only had one large project in 2024, but even that one was an update of documentation for an existing product line. This year, it's only been short texts and software updates. Focusing on reviewing makes my jobs even smaller. It's like I'm not being replaced by AI, but rather treated like a robot who can stand in a corner until it's needed. I don't think this is only my experience. It must be related to the SaaS business model and the wide-spread use of software libraries and frameworks, which combine to make it rare for new versions to be created from scratch.
Even when the handoff size ranges from 50 to 5000 words, or when you do charge minimum fees, it's hard to maintain a sustainable business that way, unless you're good at marketing yourself and are willing to risk being overbooked in good times. Which made me consider translating books as a way to fill up my time, knowing the disadvantages of that line of work.
Agencies seem to be creative in coming up with ways to waste your time. I've had a job where I substituted for a regular team and had to spend more time on reading previous feedback and solving access issues than on the paid work. Last week, I had a quality rating job which was well-paid considering the effort it required, but it required me to take twice as much time for each task as I'd need (apparently they didn't trust the raters, who could've just clicked through it without reading the translations). ▲ Collapse
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