What’s the best way to quote?

What’s the best way to quote? This is another one-million-dollar question that a lot of translators ask when they start their careers, even more experienced translators can get caught in this topic. It can be difficult when you are just trying to make the best choice and you get so many opinions from all these different people. I think the secret is to take everything on board and then make up your own mind about it. Don’t get caught up in the conversation and all these opinions, not even with mine. At the end of the day, it is your business, so you better than anyone know what is best.

In this article, I will give you my honest opinion about this topic. This is what I have been doing since I started. It has been working for me. I will tell you about different methods, so you can see the differences and then choose your own. It doesn’t have to be my method or any of the methods commonly used by translators, it just needs to be something that you are happy with and that reflects what you want for your business.

Quoting per word

I think this is probably the method used by most translators. It is certainly the one used by agencies. The reason agencies like this method is that they can always slim down the price per word and sometimes remove repeated words. It doesn’t have to be that way though. You can set your price per word and stick to that price regardless of the offer. You must have a clear understanding of how many words per hour you can translate, so you can set a price that pays you a living wage.

Quoting per page

This is another popular way of quoting. Again, you must know how many words you have on average per page and how many pages you can do per hour to get a living wage.

Quoting per project

This method is very popular with some translators. In reality, this method is a mix of the previous ones, but it just doesn’t show in your Quote. In this method, the translator calculates the price per word, but then they also count time for research, printing and preparation, if they need to do that. It doesn’t mean that translators who chose the other methods don’t count that extra work, they do and they include that in the price per word or page.

My opinion

I use a combination of methods depending on the service provided. I like to have a Price List published on my website, I think that is an assurance for my clients and shows transparency on my part. For regular translation, I charge per word, for proofreading and certified translation I charge per page. It works for me and my clients.

Recently, I have started to provide copywriting services. For this service I charge per hour and in my Quote, I specify what the project entails and the hours charged for each stage of the project.

Although not all translators will agree with me, in reality very few do, I believe it is important to have a price list and tell your client how you price your services and, most importantly, how they are going to be charged.

I think the most important thing to understand here is what you want to do with your business and what you think is fair. Because there is no right or wrong way of doing it and each of these methods is perfectly fine. We, as business owners must decide what is best for our business, and if that means going against all odds, so be it.