Do you charge a minimum fee to major clients for individual jobs?
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| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | | User | Thread poster: Astrid Elke Johnson Do you charge a minimum fee to major clients for individual jobs? |
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stephanie45 
Canada
 Partial member
English to French
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| | I agree with Steven | Jun 22 |
That's also what I do. I always charge a minimum fee on all jobs, no matter who the client is and no matter what the job is.
It prevents people from giving me 5 jobs of 200 words each, not to mention I also make some money at the end of the day.
Stephanie.
Steven Capsuto wrote:
Bookkeeping and billing take the same amount of time for a short job as for a long job. Therefore, without a minimum fee, short jobs would not be very profitable on a per-hour basis. Frankly it's not worth my time to take a bunch of tiny $9 or $20 projects.
Among other benefits, the minimum fee encourages clients to batch their short jobs together rather than sending me a five 20-word documents during the course of a week, each to be invoiced separately.
[Edited at 2008-06-22 16:12] |
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| | | | Margreet Logmans
Netherlands
 Member (2006)
English to Dutch
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| | No, but no separate invoices either | Jun 23 |
Hi Astrid,
I don't charge minimum fees for most clients, but I don't send separate invoices either.
My regular customers have all agreed to one invoice per month. I usually include these small jobs in that invoice. Very small jobs (10 minutes work) I will do for free if I have a good working relationship with someone.
If I had to write an invoice for each separate job, I would certainly charge a minimum fee (half of my per-hour rate).
Charlie's suggestion is good, too.
Good luck!
Margreet
| | | | Nikki Graham
United Kingdom
Member (2003)
Spanish to English
| | Maybe I'm mean, but... | Jun 23 |
Nesrin wrote:
I do usually charge my minimum fee to any client, major or not.
But there are exceptional cases, such as one I had last week: The client sent me a small 300-word job, then 5 days later sent me a 200-word job which was quite obviously for the same client (same topic, plenty of Trados repetitions). They did issue a separate work order for the second job, but when I invoiced them I decided to send a single invoice, charging them for the TOTAL word count. I felt it was only fair enough. |
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I would have charged two minimum fees in this case. Five days later, I need to remind myself what it was all about and drop whatever I am doing to fit it in. I charge minimum fees in these cases even if the extra work on the same project comes in the day after I have handed it in. The only time I don't charge minimum fees is when I do a translation for free, and this only happens when a regular client asks me to translate something very short (say 10 words or less) and it takes me a matter of minutes (in other words, it's not a slogan, etc.).
Personally, I hate having to do short translations which interrupt my work flow. Perhaps I should raise my minimum fee so that they can become someone else's headache 
 
| | | | Jenny Forbes
United Kingdom
Member (2006)
French to English
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| | Absolutely agree with you, Nikki | Jun 23 |
Nikki Graham wrote:
Nesrin wrote:
I do usually charge my minimum fee to any client, major or not.
But there are exceptional cases, such as one I had last week: The client sent me a small 300-word job, then 5 days later sent me a 200-word job which was quite obviously for the same client (same topic, plenty of Trados repetitions). They did issue a separate work order for the second job, but when I invoiced them I decided to send a single invoice, charging them for the TOTAL word count. I felt it was only fair enough. |
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I would have charged two minimum fees in this case. Five days later, I need to remind myself what it was all about and drop whatever I am doing to fit it in. I charge minimum fees in these cases even if the extra work on the same project comes in the day after I have handed it in. The only time I don't charge minimum fees is when I do a translation for free, and this only happens when a regular client asks me to translate something very short (say 10 words or less) and it takes me a matter of minutes (in other words, it's not a slogan, etc.).
Personally, I hate having to do short translations which interrupt my work flow. Perhaps I should raise my minimum fee so that they can become someone else's headache |
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I do exactly the same as you, Nikki. Indeed I charge quite a high "minimum rate" precisely in order to discourage clients from sending me these time-consuming short jobs that interrupt my work flow and are often devoid of clarifying context. Some agencies still send them, though. Of course I'd do a setence or two free of charge for a really trusted regular client. But otherwise, a minimum charge is a minimum charge. If an agency tries to make you charge less for short jobs, try asking this: Which part of the expression "minimum charge" don't you understand?
All the best,
Jenny.
| | | | Juliana Starkman
Canada
Member (2007)
Spanish to English
+ ...
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That my best clients are the ones who understand that my time really is worth their money, and they have no problem at all paying a minimum. Keeping me happy and fed keeps them happy as well  .
| | | | Giovanni Guarnieri MITI, MIL
United Kingdom
English to Italian
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we are a business, after all. Unless it's a 2 word job and I'm asked to do it for free as a favour - which happens very rarely - all my clients understand that and wouldn't dream of haggling with me.
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| Samuel Murray
South Africa
Member (2006)
Afrikaans to English
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| | A minimum per invoice | Jun 23 |
Astrid Elke Johnson wrote:
I have to send a separate invoice for each individual job, because the client needs different invoices for the different end client files. |
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Separate invoices are usually paid separately, right? Well, for me that is what my minimum rate is for -- to compensate for banking charges etc. I suppose "admin" is included in the "etc", but one should have a good admin system if you're running a business anyway. My answer, therefore, is to charge a minimum rate if the amount on the invoice is below a certain amount.
| | | | Steven Capsuto
United States
Member (2004)
French to English
+ ...
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Margreet Logmans wrote:
Hi Astrid,
I don't charge minimum fees for most clients, but I don't send separate invoices either.
My regular customers have all agreed to one invoice per month. |
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Really? I prefer to invoice each job separately. That way I get paid faster (for some jobs an entire month faster). My uphill battle has been to get clients to NOT expect one invoice per month.
In any case, I would charge per-job minimums even if I were invoicing on a monthly basis.
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