Freelance work / retainer

[debthaven]

Years ago DH and I used to translate for extra income, then the work dried up (because internet translators are much cheaper ).
 
A former colleague / friend got a request from a small company to translate for them, because their translator died in August. Our friend is a professional translator. She also takes care of her very elderly mom, and she is retiring in January. She didn't want to take on a new client so she asked me if I could do it. I said yes.

DH and I translate as a team, so we are both involved in this.

I thought it would be very occasional. I did the first one, then another one came in, DH did that one. Today 3 more came in, and another one will come in very soon. All this in less than a month,  i.e. much more work than I was led to believe. 

The former translator was paid a monthly fee for both her translation work and for doing their PR. Now somebody else does their PR (the person she trained).

The owner of the company told me that they are extremely happy with our translations, and that he hopes that after 3 months we can agree on a "monthly fee" for all the translations. 

I told him I'm not thrilled with the idea but I'll think about it. 

Frankly I think it's a lousy idea ... I realise that there will probably be months with less work and months with more work, but I much prefer being paid for whatever work we do that month. Since we have only done 2 translations for them so far, and we bill each time (as is customary) I think part of the issue may be his not wanting to receive several bills per month. If that's the case, we can easily bill just once a month.

But I really don't like the idea of a "monthly fee / retainer". I don't know this person, so to me it seems like we could agree and then get slammed with a ton of long translations. Even if he is honest, he doesn't seem to know in advance how much translating he needs every month. (I asked him that question, he had no clue).

Another translator friend said I could get around that my negotiating a maximum number of pages to translate per month, and that if it went above it for more than 3 months, we could renegotiate. That seems like way too much work ...  I'd much rather just be paid for what we do, the month we do it. 

Thoughts?

ETA: The other thing that bothers me about the monthly retainer / fee is that it seems to me that once we accept that, we can never refuse a job. I do NOT want to be in that position. Another colleague who translates got a HUGE HUGE HUGE job 48h before she was leaving on vacation to the US. The day we worked together she was crying and about to cancel her vacation until I hooked her up with another translator friend who did half the job for her.

DH and I both work FT jobs. I NEVER want to be in a position where I "can't say no" or farm something out to another translator friend. It seems to me that once we go on a "retainer", or accept a "monthly fee", that's what we'd be doing. 

Basically, I want to retain our freedom in this: if a boatload of translations comes in 24h before we're going on vacation, or before DS3's Baccalaureate, I want to be able to say no, or tell them I need more time, or even farm it out. Even if that would be very occasional, to me it is the difference between having a choice and NOT having a choice, and that is extremely important to me. 

[Works4me]

Are you in the financial position to turn the work and therefore money away? If so, I would simply decline his request and state that you prefer to bill/be paid per document, that you are happy to invoice/be paid on a monthly basis, and any/all other things that important to you.

ETA - I completely understand and totally support your desire to retain your freedom. However, it comes down to a business question for him - ie, does that suit/fulfill his needs. If not he can either accommodate your needs or find someone that can totally commit to his needs.

[NastyWoman]

If it's the number of invoices that he objects to, maybe you could propopose an agreement for one invoice per month (and submit a report # of hours worked/pages translated statement with each document) without going to a fixed amount per payment period?

[Deleted]

Completely agree.

[debthaven]

Thanks for confirming what I thought.

I really don't know if it's the number of invoices or not ... I plan to suggest billing once a month next time I communicate with him. DH and I have basically decided to refuse the idea of being on a "retainer" / monthly fee.

The extra money is always nice but thankfully we don't need it to put food on the table. We both work FT, and those jobs come first.

[bobosensei]

Could you have your DD help- as in really have her do most all of it?  Surely she could use the money.

[973beachbum]

Oct 9, 2015 7:40:25 GMT -5 bobosensei said:

Could you have your DD help- as in really have her do most all of it?  Surely she could use the money.

That is a really good idea especially since Debt has more than one child that could do this.  I know maybe their skills might be up to yours but even them doing an initial translation with your or your DH would still be a big help I think. 

I would also ask why, as I wouldn't be willing to cancel a trip say, because they sent something to me.  Maybe a provision where they have to give you so much lead time or you being able to tell them your black out dates type of thing.

[CCL]

It sounds to me like this fella is the one who will benefit by this arrangement, not you. I suspect there will be a lot of months with more work and very few with less. No way I would agree to unlimited work for a limited paycheck. Talk to the guy and negotiate a fair arrangement that works for both of you.

[debthaven]

Bobo, DD couldn't be able to do translations, her written English isn't good enough for this sort of work. DS3 could do it but he's got a ton of schoolwork. He might be interested occasionally though, it's a thought.

Cheesecake I've come to the same conclusion. It is never going to be in OUR interest to have such an agreement. 

Thinking about it, I think he just wants an arrangement like that since that's what he's used to, because that's the arrangement he had before with the woman who did both the translations and the PR. 

Rukh the deadlines seem to be very reasonable, at least for now. We've been telling him when we can turn it around and he's always said "fine".

Beachbum that's a great idea of "blacking out" certain dates well in advance!

Like I said this only started a couple of weeks ago, so I assume all these issues will get resolved over time. 

Rukh, like I said, we've only done 2 jobs so far. I did the first (much longer) one and DH did the shorter one. He's doing this bunch though. He's sort of enjoys it, whereas I don't. He's also much faster than me. 

 

[The Captain]

debthaven - I don't know how lucrative this is, but if it's decent coin can you check with your friend to see how much work there was on average to see if the retainer was a fair arrangement?

As far as farming the work out, as a business person I can say that as long as the person I contract with owns the final product and ensures the level of quality I don't really care how it gets done.  There is absolutely nothing wrong with you farming out, then doing a final quality check and signing off on the product.  What you compensate your friend who helps you is up to you.

[ArchietheDragon]

Tell him you are not a Netflix fucking subscription service and you will be billing and getting paid for the actual work performed.

[debthaven]

Captain, my friend doesn't know. The only person who knows died in August (her boss didn't even know when I asked him.)

Archie I love that lol!