Poll: How often do you raise your rates? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| | | Haven't lost a client yet... | Jan 8, 2007 |
I haven't yet lost a client by raising rates, because if they don't accept a raise, I still keep working for them!
Sounds a bit lame, but unless I have better work that fills my entire schedule, I will continue working for a good client for an established rate, especially since I typically spend less overhead time on those clients.
| | | | Hipyan Nopri 
Indonesia
Local time: 10:29
Member (2005)
English to Indonesian
+ ...
I have no regular pattern of raising my rates. Therefore, I voted other in this poll.
I raise or lower my rates depending on my evaluation of the past transactions. Thus, my rates may be raised, lowered, or maintained according to the existing recent conditions.
| | | | Anne Wosnitza
Netherlands
Local time: 05:29
Member
English to German
+ ...
| Depends on client | Jan 8, 2007 |
I have certain rates I won't undershoot. So if a client wants less, I won't do the job. That's the only rule I have, everything else depends on negotiations
[Bearbeitet am 2007-01-08 13:49]
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| Rarely a subject of discussion in our case | Jan 8, 2007 |
I must summarise the situation in our case by saying that this matter of raising rates is rarely a subject of discussion over here.
We have a rather stable base of customers and our rates with them are rather stable too. It's them who occasionally ask us for a special, lower rate for this or that large project or long-term cooperation for an end customer.
On the other hand, with the many great translators out there, we need to keep competitive all the time and haven't r... See more I must summarise the situation in our case by saying that this matter of raising rates is rarely a subject of discussion over here.
We have a rather stable base of customers and our rates with them are rather stable too. It's them who occasionally ask us for a special, lower rate for this or that large project or long-term cooperation for an end customer.
On the other hand, with the many great translators out there, we need to keep competitive all the time and haven't raised our rates for as many as 9 years with some customers, and for 5 years with most customers.
So I chose "Never"...
[Edited at 2007-01-08 09:14] ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Increasing Rates | Jan 8, 2007 |
Well, I increase my rates at least once in 2-3 years anyways, had I been working in any other industry I'd have received an increment at least once a year so it is fair.
Of course, it's not easy but it's something that needs to be done as the rate of inflation (in spite of the government data) is always on the rise and we pay for all that stuff from our income... and of course, our experience and knowledge have increased over the years and usually, a person is supposed to be a bette... See more Well, I increase my rates at least once in 2-3 years anyways, had I been working in any other industry I'd have received an increment at least once a year so it is fair.
Of course, it's not easy but it's something that needs to be done as the rate of inflation (in spite of the government data) is always on the rise and we pay for all that stuff from our income... and of course, our experience and knowledge have increased over the years and usually, a person is supposed to be a better professional when he/ she has a certain experience. And I make it a point to continue updating my knowledge so that I'm not cheating anyone and it's only fair to increase rates.
I don't think I could survive with the same rates nine years from now unless I increase them (as much) right away.
Just my point of view.
Ritu ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Regular price rises are most acceptable | Jan 8, 2007 |
...for customers I find: no protest is made, whereas if you tried to up your prices by a larger amount less frequently it "hurts" more!
I tend to put my prices up in accordance with the inflation rate as published here in Spain by the INE, because no one can argue against that, but this is a problem if you originally priced yourself too low when you started out (big mistake, boys and girls!).
Cheers and Happy New Year to all!
| | | | Parrot
Spain
Local time: 05:29
Spanish to English
+ ...
aceavila wrote:
I tend to put my prices up in accordance with the inflation rate as published here in Spain by the INE
The Consumer Price Index squares up a euro-integer every 2-3 years, so I put 2-3 years. No sense in decimal points.
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| Depends on the client... | Jan 8, 2007 |
Up until now I have not made a general and fixed increase in my rates for all existing clients as I tend to believe that this would not benefit my business, at least for now.
However I try to work with new clients only at a more raised rate than my usual for my existing clients.
I don't know if this will finally work or if I will be forced (due to the inflation or the conditions of living) to increase my rates, as I certainly don't think that we can have the same unchanged rates for ... See more Up until now I have not made a general and fixed increase in my rates for all existing clients as I tend to believe that this would not benefit my business, at least for now.
However I try to work with new clients only at a more raised rate than my usual for my existing clients.
I don't know if this will finally work or if I will be forced (due to the inflation or the conditions of living) to increase my rates, as I certainly don't think that we can have the same unchanged rates for 5 or 10 years.
Thank you all for voting and sharing your opinions on this.
Take care,
Dimitra ▲ Collapse
| | | | | Once an hour (if necessary) | Jan 8, 2007 |
Someone has just posted a 109 word editing job for Members only and has offered to pay €2.18 by Paypal 5 days after job is delivered. And yes, someone has bid.
So in that case, I'd raise my rates at least once an hour, for a while anyway.
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aceavila wrote:
...for customers I find: no protest is made, whereas if you tried to up your prices by a larger amount less frequently it "hurts" more!
I tend to put my prices up in accordance with the inflation rate as published here in Spain by the INE, because no one can argue against that, but this is a problem if you originally priced yourself too low when you started out (big mistake, boys and girls!).
Cheers and Happy New Year to all!
Official prices for sworn translations in Poland undergo an annual review and I change all my rates accordingly unless the rise is negligible and the hassle with new invoice calculations would exceed the profit. No point in charging 20.50 instead of straight 20.00 (whatever the currency) and then topping it up with 22% VAT
[Edited at 2007-01-08 13:41]
| | | | Irene N
United States
Local time: 22:29
English to Russian
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| Translation rates - never | Jan 8, 2007 |
Reason - dumping in the EN-RU market is getting unbearable and the competition is tough. In today's situation I still never go below .$10/word for the easiest jobs and only for the old friends. My remedy - specialization, and a fairly narrow one. Over the years I've even eliminated some fields from my profile/resume, for example, I'm no longer up to top speed in stock exchange and so it's gone, and when I do legal/insurance it revolves around oil&gas, so to speak. I work on the same subjects at ... See more Reason - dumping in the EN-RU market is getting unbearable and the competition is tough. In today's situation I still never go below .$10/word for the easiest jobs and only for the old friends. My remedy - specialization, and a fairly narrow one. Over the years I've even eliminated some fields from my profile/resume, for example, I'm no longer up to top speed in stock exchange and so it's gone, and when I do legal/insurance it revolves around oil&gas, so to speak. I work on the same subjects at a pace of 10-50% faster than I used to years ago, still without CAT tools, just with my own precious glossaries. My subjects remain in high demand for 16 years and are not about to go away - no reason to spread myself too thin and do all the extra research in the fields of little interest to me for essentially the same money, if you add extra time to the cost.
I would probably be trying harder in search of good direct clients but today I actively employ another remedy - ~60% and up to a 100% of my monthly income comes from interpretation where my rates have tripled+ since I was a 1st-2nd year rookie doing escort interpretation on a shopping spree:-). One can not maintain a steady direct clientelle and the appropriate business practices being out of the office/town/country 70% of the time with the cell phone mostly off during business hours, so God bless my agencies:-). ▲ Collapse
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| You have to raise your rates every year if you outsource work | Jan 8, 2007 |
The reason, naturally, is that buying the services of other translators becomes more expensive every year, so I have to keep up with their price increases.
Astrid
| | | | | I worry that translators don't raise their rates more often | Jan 9, 2007 |
We need to stand together on this!
Some of the rates being paid by agencies today were being paid 30 years ago. I can remember back in the early 1970s when the going rate was US$.03 a word and translators in Canada and Europe were sometimes snagging jobs at rates as high as US$.10 a word.
I don't know the exact figures, but I'm sure the cost-of-living index has risen considerably since then.
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