Advice requested on rates for larger projects

AndersonT wrote:

The only real "overhead saving" I see in large projects is that I have to write one invoice instead of lets say ten. Since writing one invoice shouldn't really take more than five minutes, that "advantage" is negligible.

The logical failure I see is the assumption that large projects will cut down on prep and research time. In my experience there is nothing that would support such an assumption. And that for one simple reason, if we compare a 10k text and a 200k text, the 200k text will require more research, unless of course it is something highly repetitive like a parts catalogue (where discounts will obviously be CAT rate structures). As the word count of a descriptive text grows, so does the content/information it conveys.

More text = more information = more "topics" = more research.

Long story short, there isn't really any "economy of scales" if you provide a service. I have a fixed set of rates, and my time doesn't get any cheaper just because someone wants more of it.

Frankie JB wrote:

Again: what says Jacques is perfectly true, unpaid gaps are not lost (at least not all, and not fully), but firstly, this is purely subjective/preferential - personally having my workdays cut into pieces and feeling like a dogsbody is not good for my self-esteem/life balance - and, secondly, I'm yet to be shown that working effectively 3 hour every 4 hours is more efficient money-wise than working with no gap...

AndersonT wrote:

Someone a few posts up mentioned a 30% discount. I almost spat a mouthful of coffee over my keyboard when I saw that. I would rather spend a day doing unbillable work than throw out my work like that, because the only thing you communicate to your client(s) with discounts in that neighborhood is that you don't value your work yourself.

Have you ever seen lawyers give a discount for trials that last longer? Or surgeons give a discount for extra-long surgery? Or architects give a discount for additional levels of a building? I appreciate your perspective may be different, but I really can't see how discount for volume would make sense for a fulltime freelance service provider.

Bernhard Sulzer wrote:

Now there's nothing wrong with giving a small discount for a good reason. If you decide to give a client let's say a 5% discount on a 5000 word project for paying you immediately, I can understand that.

If you decide to charge a somewhat lower rate for a 100 or 200 000 word project, I would call that the "rate" (not a discount) for that project which a professional translator arrives at after taking into account everything (text type, complexity, your own skill set, the research involved, the deadline etc.); so that's not a simple discount. It's a rate and rates can be flexible to a certain degree. But it doesn't follow logically from the volume of a project that it will be done at a lower rate or with an automatic discount.

Automatic and/or arbitrary discounts or demands for such discounts simply for volume I consider wrong. That's not a wise thing to do.

Frankie JB wrote:

Recently, I was offered a project of 55,000 words, by an agency for which my rate is 0.13 (DE>FR). My rate is higher than average for them because they work with Transit (crap, very slow) and projects are smallish (on average 200-500 words). I didn't incentivize them with a discount and they didn't beg for one either. But deep down I couldn't turn a blind eye on the massive economies of scale I would make and that's why I granted them a 15% discount when delivering. I did "give up" about 1,000 EUR I could have kept but it would have been unfair compared to the time spent. I made them happy with this surprise, showing them "we are in the same team" and I still netted some 6,000 EUR for about one month's work (20 days), which is not bad at all, especially after only 3 years of experience, even considering all the perks we are missing out as freelancers...