Help me determine my rates for the Egyptian market (and other markets)! Thread poster: Dhikra Merrouche
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Hello fellow translators,
I am starting my journey as a freelance EN to AR translator. I have been working under a company for 2 years and 6 months with a monthly pay (~294$), and now that I have to determine my own freelancing rates, it's a bit difficult not knowing the nature of the market and its prices.
Please guide me!
| | | | Samuel Murray 
Netherlands
Local time: 09:54
Member (2006)
English to Afrikaans
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Dhikra Merrouche wrote:
I have to determine my own freelancing rates, it's a bit difficult not knowing the nature of the market and its prices.
You're right to price your services according to a market and not according to your residence. You may find that you would be able to make much more money as a freelance translator for Egyptian agencies as you were able to as a salaried worker in Algeria.
Unfortunately, ProZ.com's statistics on average rates do not take into account market, and just assumes that a given language combination will be priced the same everywhere in the world.
Even so, you are unlikely to get the ProZ.com average of USD 0.08 per word for English-Arabic in Egypt. USD 0.05 is more likely. I suggest you try to get USD 0.08, but be flexible when the agency wants to negotiate. Also, remember, you can change your rates at any time between jobs -- simply tell the client that your rate has gone up. If the client is okay with that, then you'll earn more money from subsequent jobs.
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Determining your rates as a freelance EN to AR translator can be challenging, but there are a few factors you can consider when setting your prices:
Market Rates: Research the market rates for freelance EN to AR translators in your area and online. This will give you an idea of what other translators with similar experience and skill sets are charging. You can use this information to set your rates competitively.
Your experience: Your level of experience as a translator will also pla... See more Determining your rates as a freelance EN to AR translator can be challenging, but there are a few factors you can consider when setting your prices:
Market Rates: Research the market rates for freelance EN to AR translators in your area and online. This will give you an idea of what other translators with similar experience and skill sets are charging. You can use this information to set your rates competitively.
Your experience: Your level of experience as a translator will also play a role in determining your rates. If you have been working as a translator for several years and have a strong portfolio of work, you can charge a higher rate. On the other hand, if you are just starting out, you may need to charge a lower rate to attract clients. ▲ Collapse
| | | | Baran Keki
Türkiye
Local time: 10:54
Member
English to Turkish
| Badea, is that you in disguise? | Mar 14, 2023 |
Maria Rodrigues wrote:
Determining your rates as a freelance EN to AR translator can be challenging, but there are a few factors you can consider when setting your prices:
Market Rates: Research the market rates for freelance EN to AR translators in your area and online. This will give you an idea of what other translators with similar experience and skill sets are charging. You can use this information to set your rates competitively.
Your experience: Your level of experience as a translator will also play a role in determining your rates. If you have been working as a translator for several years and have a strong portfolio of work, you can charge a higher rate. On the other hand, if you are just starting out, you may need to charge a lower rate to attract clients.
It looks like you've changed your location and sex. Great pearls of wisdom as always...
To the OP, if I were you, I would pretend that I were living in Amsterdam or Paris (you might want to check out those places on Google Earth to make the fantasy more credible if you like), and set my rates based on the standards of living in those places. That means working with European agencies at rates no lesser than 0.09 EUR per word. You might not get too much work at first, but once you've landed a few clients willing to pay such rates then you're set. You can then even visit Amsterdam and see Sam Murray there. But if you take his advice about rates in general, then I'm afraid you'll only see him on Proz forums. I don't know if that makes any sense to you.
Don't work for cheap. I remember a translator on these forums once said something along the lines of "negotiate from a position of non-neediness". I took his advice and it paid off for me. If you start cheap, you'll find that you won't be able to raise your rates in the future despite what Mr. Murray says. You'll have to ditch your existing clients and look for new ones, and it'll be a painful process.
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Dhikra Merrouche
Algeria
Local time: 08:54
English to Arabic
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TOPIC STARTER
Thank you for your response, I will take that into consideration for sure.
The client that I'm going to work with has reached out to me because of my residence, so faking that won't work unfortunately haha.
However, I would appreciate some guidance on negotiating rates.
I have accepted the rates they gave me as I am a newbie at freelancing and wanted to have experience first, and my post was for the purpose of better understanding the market I'm dealing wit... See more Thank you for your response, I will take that into consideration for sure.
The client that I'm going to work with has reached out to me because of my residence, so faking that won't work unfortunately haha.
However, I would appreciate some guidance on negotiating rates.
I have accepted the rates they gave me as I am a newbie at freelancing and wanted to have experience first, and my post was for the purpose of better understanding the market I'm dealing with.
Thank you again! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Mr. Satan (X)
English to Indonesian
Dhikra Merrouche wrote:
The client that I'm going to work with has reached out to me because of my residence, so faking that won't work unfortunately haha.
No, Baran Bey wasn’t suggesting you to fake anything. What he meant by that, is for you to try maintaining the equilibrium with the Western European and North American markets, price wise. You, I, and Baran Bey have one thing in common: we live in places where the West considers as backward countries. A lot of agencies would try to use this as an excuse to justify their price-dumping strategies. This is especially bad for English-Arabic translators who live in Western Europe, the Scandinavia, or North America, since their average expenditures are much higher than ours. Whether you would heed his advice largely depends on your discretion as a business owner.
@Mods
Edited to fix a grammar error. Aaaaargh, please don't hurt me. I have three virtual children.
[Edited at 2023-03-16 02:38 GMT]
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What I charge for a project depends on several factors: complexity, volume, format, urgency, source language of the text and other practical circumstances, but not on the client’s country of residence. I haven’t work for any Egyptian agency but I know that a friend of mine does and she has the same “philosophy” regarding rates as I do…
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