Hi, fellow The Open Mic members! Hope you had a great start into the new year! It mustn't have been easy to go through and reply to your unread emails and to open books, planners and schedules again to pick up where you left. But the desire to achieve great things, learn something new and precious and reaching new milestones in 2018 must be stronger! Have you started planning for 2018 yet? Have you made your new year's resolutions for your business? Where will the next challenge take you? Share it with us! ? ?

Hi eleonorang I wrote down few things down for my 2018 plan but I am planning to go further and divide my goals into smaller and achievable ones. However, I am planning to master Trados as I am still new to the software but I will be using it every day now. I am also planning to write and publish more articles whether on my LinkedIn or the Open Mic. Unfortunately, I used to practice yoga or meditation daily but I stopped and allowed work and school to get on my way. So I am planning to go back to yoga and take care of body and health. What are your plans eleonorang ?

Fadwa I wrote down few things down for my 2018 plan but I am planning to go further and divide my goals into smaller and achievable ones. That will surely help! Smaller goals are easier to achieve, even when motivation goes MIA (happens to everyone) ? Also, thumbs up for picking up on where you left with yoga or any activity to put your mind off business stuff! I will have a lot on my hands too ? I'm currently almost done setting up my new website and then I'll focus on "profiles": on Proz, Linkedin, and Facebook, and as regards social media I surely will need to put more effort into actually visiting them and be active. I plan on attending one or more conferences and to read more (books, but also blogs) about my specialty sectors. Among the goals that seem to be farther in time, but still within the next year: setting up a newsletter to acquire potential leads AND a blog, and start publishing regularly. HELP! ?

eleonorang Every year I try to make it a year of something. For example, last year was a "Year of Productivity". I tried to re-think my approach to time management and started using time-tracking software to see how much time I spent on everything. It was a great thing for me because it helped me understand how I use my time and how I can leverage it and channel it in the right direction. This year will be a "Year of Change" for me. The biggest change, of course, that I'm going to become a father any day now. ? I'm extremely excited about it and anxious at the same time! But I know it'll be great. The other change is my re-branding. I'm going all in with my main field: video game localization. I got myself a new domain name as a Christmas present: https://videogamestranslator.com/ and I'm currently working on a complete re-design that'll be laser-focused on my niche and will also feature some really cool art from a talented pixel artist that I work with: <iframe data-s9e-mediaembed="twitter" allow="autoplay *" allowfullscreen="" onload="var c=new MessageChannel;c.port1.onmessage=function(e){style.height=e.data+'px'};contentWindow.postMessage('s9e:init','https://s9e.github.io',[c.port2])" scrolling="no" src="https://s9e.github.io/iframe/2/twitter.min.html#948302834952482816" style="background:url(https://abs.twimg.com/favicons/favicon.ico) no-repeat 50% 50%;border:0;height:250px;max-width:500px;width:100%"> I also changed my Twitter handle to @itranslategames - I think it suits me better ? Did the same thing for LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/videogamestranslator/ And Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/videogamestranslator I also plan to revive my blog and write more about video game localization. As far as my other baby goes (aka The Open Mic), I plan to continue maintaining and supporting this community and I'm also currently working on full featured standalone platform for building online courses, designed for the translation community. An alpha version of this can be found here: https://academy.theopenmic.co/ - still lots of work that needs to be done in terms of design and functionality and don't even get me started on promoting and bringing course creators to the platform. I also will be looking for business development partner for The Open Mic as it seems it's getting harder and harder to keep up with everything (even with our small army of awesome volunteers).

Dmitry Well don Dmitry. You have already started your journey by changing your Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. This will definitely to remind you of your goal. I would suggest that you keep a journal of the challenges you face and solve during game localizing and maintaining your blog. These notes would be a great source for a new post and maybe a course in game localization. I would recommend the same for @eleonorang as she will be working on her business. What have you learned during the journey of establishing your website? how do you use social media for clients and marketing your services? These points will help you create great content for a blog post. I am so excited to know about the Academy and I think there are some awesome translators I can suggest to create online courses.

eleonorang reading more books and blogs is a great goal. I have been following Forbes on LinkedIn and they post interesting articles. Checking 2 of their articles became easier as I check my LinkedIn 3 times a day, at least. I want to read about translation, localization, and self-development in general. I am really looking forward to expanding my scope for this year since 2017 was mostly about myself as a translator. It would be great to have a post in this forum about what are we reading and our review about it.

Guys, it's just great! @Dmitry That's wonderful news! Congrats on your new little family member on its way ❤ I can only guess how excited you are! The new designs look really cool and the domain name will sure help you establish your business further in this niche! Way to go ? Also, can't wait to see Academy up and running, no matter how long it takes ? @Fadwa You are so right, it's so much harder to look back and try and remember the challenges you faced, what was hard and what was not, than just easily write notes about it for the future. It would make a valuable starting point for several articles about our experience. Fadwa, in addition to article reviews we could also share resources about how to actually use LinkedIn and how to make sure we have relevant timelines that show the articles we're actually interested in... I feel like my LinkedIn currently shows a bit too much garbage ? Anyway guys that sounds great and I'm so excited for you about everything! Fingers crossed

2018 business resolutions, anyone?

ninadepalma

Interesting discussion. I like the idea of having each year be the "year of [something]." For me, 2018 will have to be the year of getting established!

I guess this is more of a goal than a resolution, but I'd like to, well, earn a living translating this year! I'm relatively new to freelancing, and I still have a part-time job on the weekends to help pay the bills. But...I'd like to be able to focus on translating full-time!

A resolution that can help me reach that goal would be not being too hard on myself as a newbie. I have to be patient!

Also, I'm moving to a new, more spacious apartment in February, and I'd like to develop better work-from-home habits so that I don't have to spend money to work at cafes every single day!

Fadwa

ninadepalma Best of luck and I hope the new apartment will allow you to create an office corner or environment to start your career. Start your freelancing career with reading massively about freelancing for translators. This will help you a lot to do the right steps from the beginning and save you plenty of time.

Check Tess's blog and podcast http://marketingtipsfortranslators.com/ as she has so many useful tips and posts. Good luck again.

eleonorang

ninadepalma It's great that you've set your priorities straight right from the start, it shows a great sense of responsibility and awareness! You're off to a good start!

There are plenty of articles on The Open Mic and topics here on the forum about productivity at home, how to stop (or simply not start) procrastinating, and so on, I've left you a couple of links at the end of this message so you make take part in the discussion or ask for advice if you like, we're open to helping and advice here, no putting up walls because of 'competition' and so on ?

Hey, @Teresa, hope to see you around often! We could hold each other accountable for our objectives by checking in here on the forum from time to time. Networking's not easy for me either! Have you identified possible conferences to attend yet?

https://forum.theopenmic.co/d/199-how-long-is-your-typical-workday/11
https://forum.theopenmic.co/d/194-full-immersion-or-frequent-breaks-how-do-you-translate/3
https://forum.theopenmic.co/d/159-do-you-prefer-working-at-home-or-at-cafes-pubs/6
https://forum.theopenmic.co/d/106-how-do-you-stay-healthy/7
https://forum.theopenmic.co/d/58-how-do-you-tackle-your-marketing-tasks/10
https://forum.theopenmic.co/d/50-workspace-setting/6

Teresa

Hi, everyone! I hope your start into this new year was wonderful.
This is such an interesting thread, @eleonorang. I also plan to be more active on social media and attend more conferences. Networking would be my main goal, I think, something I always have trouble doing as I'm always putting it off.
@Dmitry Wow, that's amazing! Congratulations! ? I'm so happy for you, it must be an indescribable feeling.
Also, hats off to you for your re-branding project, I really dig your re-design idea.

Fadwa

Teresa and @eleonorang It is really great that you are considering social media as a tool and a goal. Check Tess's blog and podcast http://marketingtipsfortranslators.com/ as I have implemented some of them and they paid off.

I focused on social media last year and I dedicated a month or two for each tool (this includes creating an account, designing a header and profile picture and writing your bio). This helped me to establish each one fully. Now, I used "buffer" to keep posting on social media (Twitter and LinkedIn). I installed it on my Google Chrome which made it easier to use and schedule all posts.

ninadepalma

eleonorang Wow, thanks so much for those links! I have some reading to do... :-)

Teresa

eleonorang Checking in on each other's progress sounds like a great idea! As for conferences, three have caught my attention so far: The Translation and Localization Conference 2018 in Warsaw, BP18 in Vienna, and the Localization unconference in Berlin (this unique format makes it really interesting). I would like to attend at least one of these. Do you also plan to attend any?

eleonorang

Teresa So far I've set my eyes on a couple of events in Italy (such as TradPro in Pordenone, in April) and on the BP18, because I will surely be in Vienna those days for personal reasons and it would be great if I could fit this in ?

ninagruenewald

Dmitry Wow! That sounds pretty full on ? I am very excited about the Open Mic Academy! ?

ninagruenewald

I am on the same page as ninadepalma. I have been playing around for a few months now, trying to get my foot in and my head around translation. And after a few months, I have to say... I still love it! So my goal for this year is to make a living from it.

I have to learn how to set those specific goals that everybody is talking about! Time management is also a big one for me. Sometimes I spend 10 hours translating and reading a day. .. I still enjoy it but it can get quite tiring. So, I would love to be able to make my job a thing that I don't need a break from - automate it some way if possible...

Sometimes I don't know what is normal? How much time per day do freelancers work? How much of that time is spent translating? And so forth ... ?

eleonorang

ninagruenewald Those are all justified questions and the very thing you're asking yourself all that means you do care about your business and want it to succeed!

Luckily there are plenty of webinars and resources about time management and business goal setting and marketing planning, I'll make sure to post the links to any of those as soon as I find them (watched/read them in the past).
As to how long freelancers work and translate each day... that depends on the particular situation and needs we're facing, on the earning goals we've set for ourselves and on how quick we are at translating, to mention only a few ? Have you determined how much you need to earn to sustain your business? Based on that you should understand how many billable hours you need to work per day!

ninagruenewald

eleonorang Wow, thanks for your helpful reply! I really do want to succeed, although sometimes I have to remind myself of that. I really should implement the learning part more into my daily work. I managed that for a few weeks and then I got drowned by other things and forgot all about it ? May I ask how you plan your day? ?

ninagruenewald

Hello! I actually have two questions at the moment and I am not sure where to ask them ? So I am just going to put them here and maybe you can direct me to another thread?

First, I have never gotten a job through ProZ, so now I am thinking about getting the paid membership. Does anybody have experiences with that? Is it recommendable? And if yes, is the PLUS membership worth it?

Second, I would like to work mainly with direct clients. How do you work? Mainly with direct clients or with agencies? And how do you find out which specific client is your perfect client and how to land the job? This is a big one, but I am just wondering, how to approach this right ?

? Happy Friday!

eleonorang

ninagruenewald Sorry, Nina, I only saw this post now.
The Paid membership is very useful at the beginning because you will more easily get clients by answering to job postings or consulting the Blue Board to identify which agencies to target. In time, as you gather experience and develop your marketing strategies, you may depend less on platforms such as Proz. As a paying member you get notified of new postings instantly, do not have to pay anything to answer, can read entries in the Blue Board, can access a library of free webinars on possibly any translation-related topic... you also get freebies every once in a while ? A couple of months ago it was a free license for Baccs, which is an accounting software specific for translators, and some time back free glossaries... Imho the Plus membership is worth it. If you decide to pay for membership you may as well choose the Plus plan!

As regards the second question, it's a much broader topic that cannot be answered in a paragraph, so I suggest opening a brand new discussion ? This actually applies to any other question you may have (do ask them!), it's always best to open a new topic ? The more, the merrier!

ninadepalma

ninagruenewald

How do you work? Mainly with direct clients or with agencies?

Actually, it's a business resolution of mine to start working with agencies in 2018. I've been working exclusively with a few small direct clients, and in order to gain experience and make more money I want to work with some agencies! I know that most people say you can earn more with direct clients, I simply want exposure and experience so I can one day be a better translator to my direct clients. I've been noticing that for my language pair (RU>EN) small, boutique agencies, often based in Russia, are the ones that give me the most promising responses. I'd imagine, though, that if you're translating into English there are more opportunities? I dunno, actually.

But yeah, this could perhaps do with its own thread, haha.

ninagruenewald

eleonorang Wow, excellent! Thank you for the tip re ProZ! Since I am fairly at the beginning of it all, I think I will get that membership! And you are right, I was thinking if I get one, might as well get the Plus plan ?

ANd that is a good idea! I will open a new discussion! ?

ninagruenewald

ninadepalma Thank you for sharing! I somehow think I would rather work with direct clients, but I guess it is a good idea getting into some agencies as well to secure some more frequent cash flow ... ?