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Poll: How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2020?
Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
ProZ.com Staff
SITE STAFF
Aug 5, 2020

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2020?".

View the poll results »



 
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida
Maria Teresa Borges de Almeida  Identity Verified
Portugal
Local time: 02:18
Member (2007)
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Very (I'm optimistic by nature) Aug 5, 2020

Business has been quite good this year. I only had a slow May but even that was nothing out of the ordinary. I have been extremely busy since and will continue so until the 24th August. I’m already booked for a two weeks project beginning in the second half of September.

Philippe Etienne
Juan David A Aquino Marquez
 
Thayenga
Thayenga  Identity Verified
Germany
Local time: 03:18
Member (2009)
English to German
+ ...
Somewhat Aug 5, 2020

Thus far this year has been both very slow and extremely busy. By nature it's difficult to predict the business development in the future, but I tend to look at things in a more positive way.

Liena Vijupe
Aline Amorim
Michael Harris
 
neilmac
neilmac
Spain
Local time: 03:18
Spanish to English
+ ...
Somewhat Aug 5, 2020

Unlike colleagues who rely on agency work, the COVID-19 situation hasn't really affected my work; in fact, I've probably been sightly busier than usual since March. So, I expect my workload to remain more or less steady until the end of the year. Most of the workforce of my main client, an IT-related company, are working from home, so it's pretty much business as usual.

 
Silvina Dell'Isola Urdiales
Silvina Dell'Isola Urdiales  Identity Verified
Italy
Local time: 03:18
Italian to Spanish
+ ...
doom and gloom Aug 5, 2020

Hi,

In my language pairs, working with traslation agencies has been even more problemetic since they usually are prone to offer very slow fees.

I'm almost working with direct costumers and only a very few loyal agencies.

I'm afraid that I'll be forced to redesign my business and focused mainly on my side projects devoted to web design and marketing at silvinadellisola.com and education at Unige.

In my humble opinio, the pandemic has been the l
... See more
Hi,

In my language pairs, working with traslation agencies has been even more problemetic since they usually are prone to offer very slow fees.

I'm almost working with direct costumers and only a very few loyal agencies.

I'm afraid that I'll be forced to redesign my business and focused mainly on my side projects devoted to web design and marketing at silvinadellisola.com and education at Unige.

In my humble opinio, the pandemic has been the last tile that fell on a now saturated translation industry.



Silvina






[Edited at 2020-08-05 09:33 GMT]
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Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
"Trends" Aug 5, 2020

It's futile trying to identify any industry-wide trends based on our own personal experience. And anyway, how do we know why we have had more/less work in recent months?

I happen to have been largely unaffected by the pandemic. Logic says others will have been. But we will never know by how much.

Ultimately, life goes on, and the world will continue to need just as many translations. Well, at least until we all come to our senses and adopt Iaith y Nefoedd as our univers
... See more
It's futile trying to identify any industry-wide trends based on our own personal experience. And anyway, how do we know why we have had more/less work in recent months?

I happen to have been largely unaffected by the pandemic. Logic says others will have been. But we will never know by how much.

Ultimately, life goes on, and the world will continue to need just as many translations. Well, at least until we all come to our senses and adopt Iaith y Nefoedd as our universal language.
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AnnaSCHTR
Michael Harris
Philip Lees
 
Tom in London
Tom in London
United Kingdom
Local time: 02:18
Member (2008)
Italian to English
Oh Aug 5, 2020

ProZ.com Staff wrote:

This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2020?".

View the poll results »



Oh, I'm always optimistic.


 
Muriel Vasconcellos
Muriel Vasconcellos  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 19:18
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
+ ...
Not very Aug 5, 2020

My business relies largely on international organizations, and they are having a hard time. In two cases, the U.S. Government, their most important donor, has not been making its quota contributions and their work has slowed considerably.

I don't mean to suggest that my case is typical of the entire industry. I receive a lot of inquiries from agencies, but most of them are offering rates that I was making 45 years ago. Since I also have retirement income from my former in-house tran
... See more
My business relies largely on international organizations, and they are having a hard time. In two cases, the U.S. Government, their most important donor, has not been making its quota contributions and their work has slowed considerably.

I don't mean to suggest that my case is typical of the entire industry. I receive a lot of inquiries from agencies, but most of them are offering rates that I was making 45 years ago. Since I also have retirement income from my former in-house translation job, I can afford to turn them down.
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Aline Amorim
Aline Amorim  Identity Verified
Brazil
Local time: 23:18
English to Portuguese
+ ...
Somewhat Aug 5, 2020

I'm always optimistic but I'm more or less just kind of worried about market. Let us move ahead!

 
Lieven Malaise
Lieven Malaise
Belgium
Local time: 03:18
Member (2020)
French to Dutch
+ ...
Quite optimistic. Aug 5, 2020

The month of April was worrying (about 30% income loss), the month of May was really bad (+50% income loss), but the months of June and July were absolutely great. Furthermore I'm already fully booked for the next 2 weeks. So quite optimistic here.

[Edited at 2020-08-05 13:29 GMT]


 
AnnaSCHTR
AnnaSCHTR  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 21:18
English to Czech
+ ...
ups and downs Aug 5, 2020

Chris S wrote:

Ultimately, life goes on, and the world will continue to need just as many translations. Well, at least until we all come to our senses and adopt Iaith y Nefoedd as our universal language.



I wouldn't be surprised if the Cardiff Rift re-opened this year, so everything is possible...

The only change I see are the ups and downs (in terms of new projects) being even more dramatic than usual. With the clients across 3 time zones, it's sometimes difficult to juggle deadlines. But no one can assess the real economic impact at this point. Time will tell.


Christopher Schröder
 
Christopher Schröder
Christopher Schröder
United Kingdom
Member (2011)
Swedish to English
+ ...
Who? Aug 5, 2020

Anna Schuster wrote:
I wouldn't be surprised if the Cardiff Rift re-opened this year, so everything is possible...

Nice Tardis lamp. You’d have thought The Doctor might have done something to prevent the current situation though... Or perhaps at some point he will. Or already has.


AnnaSCHTR
 
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Kay-Viktor Stegemann
Germany
Local time: 03:18
English to German
In memoriam
Somewhat optimistic Aug 5, 2020

The pandemic has forced a lot of companies and organisations to work online, so that there will be even more content to translate than before. Change is always good for translation, since change means new content that needs to be translated. Remember when the GDPR was introduced, and all the GDPR content and privacy policies we had to translate? This will happen again with other regulations and international relations and new COVID and sanitation rules and vaccination activities and whatnot. Com... See more
The pandemic has forced a lot of companies and organisations to work online, so that there will be even more content to translate than before. Change is always good for translation, since change means new content that needs to be translated. Remember when the GDPR was introduced, and all the GDPR content and privacy policies we had to translate? This will happen again with other regulations and international relations and new COVID and sanitation rules and vaccination activities and whatnot. Companies will offer new products and services. New apps and online services will appear. Work, work, work.Collapse


Vi Pukite
Dan Lucas
 
Yaotl Altan
Yaotl Altan  Identity Verified
Mexico
Local time: 20:18
Member (2006)
English to Spanish
+ ...
No Aug 5, 2020

Big enterprises are profiting a lot while small businesses in our neighborhoods crash.

 
Laurela Bruka
Laurela Bruka  Identity Verified
United States
Local time: 22:18
German to English
+ ...
quite well Aug 5, 2020

Well, to be honest, i have been quite busy this year, i hope it will stay the same until the end of the year.. of course if a meteor doesn't hit the earth (it wouldn't shock me with all these gloomy developments)

 
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Poll: How optimistic are you about your translation business in 2020?






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