Are you getting hit by the storm? Tópico cartaz: Jason Young
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Jason Young 
China
Local time: 19:48
inglês para chinês
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这场风暴有段日子了，就我个人而言，接单数量上多少有所影响，10月份前半个月十分明显（为了每个月高额的帐单，$0.03/字从一家国内的公司接了些单，做的两眼直冒金星，可能还是价格导致的心理因素在做怪吧）。我的一位客户被我问到的时候，也直言 sales is slowing down。还好月末这些日子单量有所回升。
不知各位同僚状况如何？希望大家都还好。。。
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Xu Dongjun
China
Local time: 19:48
Membro (2006)
inglês para chinês
这个风暴对我的影响主要是由欧元贬值造成的，眼看着从10.50跌到8.80...... 以前美元贬值，我就逐渐开始用欧元报价，现在看来是个巨大的失误！我的心在滴血
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Jason Young
China
Local time: 19:48
inglês para chinês
+ ...
CRIADOR(A) DO TÓPICO |
| Do financial crises influence everybody? | Oct 25, 2008 |
When a global financial turmoil evolves and businesses get credit pinch and many of them even collapse, cash is again the king and everyone is cutting costs and craving for liquidity, companies are surely cutting back translation budgets.
Besides that, I still insist that the best time (by 'best time' I mean a period in which online outsourcers and suppliers have almost ready-made mutual trust) for online translation marketing is going away if not completely over.
Onl... See more When a global financial turmoil evolves and businesses get credit pinch and many of them even collapse, cash is again the king and everyone is cutting costs and craving for liquidity, companies are surely cutting back translation budgets.
Besides that, I still insist that the best time (by 'best time' I mean a period in which online outsourcers and suppliers have almost ready-made mutual trust) for online translation marketing is going away if not completely over.
Online clients probably will soon no longer trust anyone simply because she/he has a nice-looking picture, a glamorous profile or a flashy website. They will need to grab something concrete about that person, something they can prove as reliable. More and more wise outsourcers know a simple rule: Established translators never lack jobs. So they are unlikely to stay online everyday looking for new clients and new projects and pay this fee or that fee to get job opportunities.
On the other hand, if you started earlier like 2001-2005 (when many online swindlers hadn't even realized there's a market that they could also easily cheat in), and if you can keep your good quality and hence have retained a good client base, you should not feel much pain during this hard time. Having a large client base is like investment diversification (although this strategy is not doing very well at this time in the financial market ) - there are always long-term clients giving you enough jobs.
If you work as a freelancer, lowering per unit rates won't bring you out of the mire. Instead, it will kill your translation skills until one day your quality is ruined and you can never get any good clients. The theory behind this is quite simple: to earn enough with low rates, one has to overwork and for long hours, and this results in unavoidable lower quality. After a time, when it has become a habit, the translator can no longer provide quality services and never get good rates. This is a vicious circle.
Therefore, don't worry about other people's low rates. Keep your rates and quality and the client will come back when those guys fail them time and again. And also don't worry about those clients (agencies) that only accept low-cost offers without caring about any quality, they are swindlers themselves and will be kicked out of business after a while.
Freelancers are individual business entities and all businesses need a sound development and risk management strategy. If one has knowledge about these and the necessary mechanism in place, one will regret less when financial disasters happen and it is a lifetime's job to learn from these experiences.
Nice trading (jokingly)...
Jianjun
Jason Young wrote:
这场风暴有段日子了，就我个人而言，接单数量上多少有所影响，10月份前半个月十分明显（为了每个月高额的帐单，$0.03/字从一家国内的公司接了些单，做的两眼直冒金星，可能还是价格导致的心理因素在做怪吧）。我的一位客户被我问到的时候，也直言 sales is slowing down。还好月末这些日子单量有所回升。
不知各位同僚状况如何？希望大家都还好。。。
[Edited at 2008-10-25 03:39] ▲ Collapse
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TRANS4CHINA
China
Local time: 19:48
inglês para chinês
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英语这几个月确实量少了很多，特别是内地的翻译量减少了很多，
不过我除英语之外还做小语种翻译，小语种平常量就不大，所以我觉得变化不大
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Jason Young
China
Local time: 19:48
inglês para chinês
+ ...
CRIADOR(A) DO TÓPICO
你所言极是，不过我这次与降价没有关系，那个客户是我仅存的一个国内客户，合作很多年了。起初都是0.02美分，后来我很少接他们的单了，他们主动加了0.01。不过，原则上，我还是在没有其他单的时候才接，他们也能理解，我也很尊敬这个客户，因为合作一直都很愉快。但不存在质量上的区别对待，我的原则是，要么不接；接了，就要负责，我相信“出品如人品”。
... See more 你所言极是，不过我这次与降价没有关系，那个客户是我仅存的一个国内客户，合作很多年了。起初都是0.02美分，后来我很少接他们的单了，他们主动加了0.01。不过，原则上，我还是在没有其他单的时候才接，他们也能理解，我也很尊敬这个客户，因为合作一直都很愉快。但不存在质量上的区别对待，我的原则是，要么不接；接了，就要负责，我相信“出品如人品”。
Besides that, I still insist that the best time (by 'best time' I mean a period in which online outsourcers and suppliers have almost ready-made mutual trust) for online translation marketing is going away if not completely over.
这一点上，我没有发言权，因为我自己开始开发国外客户也才不到半年。目前似乎没有感觉到你说的这一点，也许有一定的运气在里面吧，这半年开发的长期客户已基本能给到我fulltime workload，还得加班加点。就是10月份前半个月例外，刚好国内那个客户有个近四万字的项目，就接了，扫去了我的一点心理阴影，呵呵。
If you work as a freelancer, lowering per unit rates won't bring you out of the mire.
Therefore, don't worry about other people's low rates. Keep your rates and quality and the client will come back when those guys fail them time and again..
完全赞同！！降价抢单或拉拢客户的做法只能用一个字形容：DIRTY。希望有机会向Jianjun多讨教！
Best regards
Jason ▲ Collapse
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Jason,
确实，运气有时候起一定的作用。如果好运气加上好作品，相信一定能获得稳定客户群，一两年之后便会有很大起色。祝你顺利，有机会我们可以细聊。
建军
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Alvin Liu
China
Local time: 19:48
Membro (2007)
inglês para chinês
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stonejohn wrote:
这个风暴对我的影响主要是由欧元贬值造成的，眼看着从10.50跌到8.80...... 以前美元贬值，我就逐渐开始用欧元报价，现在看来是个巨大的失误！我的心在滴血
期间我还在欧元处于高位时把美元换成了欧元，损失更惨。现在周小川又说不排除让人民币贬值来提升出口，看来要么兑成人民币，要么还是换回美元？
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Jason Young
China
Local time: 19:48
inglês para chinês
+ ...
CRIADOR(A) DO TÓPICO
这场风暴主要波及超有钱的人，因为这些人的钱主要以股票的形式存在，现在又随股票灰飞烟灭了。前两天在一个社区里买DVD，卖碟的老板说早晨刚有个女的从18楼跳下，据说是股票。。。我老婆问从哪跳的，老板说就在我们身后，我老婆拉着我就走，碟也不买了。
就在前一周，同一个社区内还有一个男的从6楼跳下。。。再前几天，还是同一个社区，有个人从3楼跳下，没摔死，跳楼原因不明。难道没站稳不小心落下？否则不应该选3楼啊。。。
这个社区看来有钱人很多，有个几百万的都是穷人啊，只够买套房子的。
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不论是股市还是其他投资市场，赌博与投资只一念之差。因投资失败而自杀的人，是用自己全部的血汗钱去押宝，为的是赚大钱。而赚大钱与输大钱是各占 50% 的几率。用自己全部的资产去押宝，输光以后才会自杀。
投资需要脑筋、勇气和知识。我把知识放在最后一位，不是因为知识不重要，而是因为如果没有脑筋，一味靠投资知识未必会获得成功。而勇气则具体体�... See more 不论是股市还是其他投资市场，赌博与投资只一念之差。因投资失败而自杀的人，是用自己全部的血汗钱去押宝，为的是赚大钱。而赚大钱与输大钱是各占 50% 的几率。用自己全部的资产去押宝，输光以后才会自杀。
投资需要脑筋、勇气和知识。我把知识放在最后一位，不是因为知识不重要，而是因为如果没有脑筋，一味靠投资知识未必会获得成功。而勇气则具体体现为大将风度，懂得运筹帷幄，在大跌之中不恐慌，把握时机；在大赢之中不贪婪，不失理智。
国人炒股，一般并不学习投资知识，也很少有仔细阅读公司业绩，研究公司动态者。至于基金，其经理不过是些大赌徒，用基民的钱发财后，在股市不景气时，急流勇退了。
Jason Young wrote:
这场风暴主要波及超有钱的人，因为这些人的钱主要以股票的形式存在，现在又随股票灰飞烟灭了。前两天在一个社区里买DVD，卖碟的老板说早晨刚有个女的从18楼跳下，据说是股票。。。我老婆问从哪跳的，老板说就在我们身后，我老婆拉着我就走，碟也不买了。
就在前一周，同一个社区内还有一个男的从6楼跳下。。。再前几天，还是同一个社区，有个人从3楼跳下，没摔死，跳楼原因不明。难道没站稳不小心落下？否则不应该选3楼啊。。。
这个社区看来有钱人很多，有个几百万的都是穷人啊，只够买套房子的。 ▲ Collapse
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