| Pages in topic: < [1 2] | Poll: What percentage of your income comes from clients in your home country? Thread poster: ProZ.com Staff
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| Country of residence | Oct 24, 2010 |
Most of us have been answering without considering the implications.
I work with clients in my country of residence because:
1. I offer a language pair which is probably the most sought after here.
2. I know where my clients are and perhaps feel more confidence in new clients because of that: if we were to find ourselves at odds over payment, I might find it easier (and certainly less costly) to claim my money.
3. Likewise, albeit perhaps without many ground... See more Most of us have been answering without considering the implications.
I work with clients in my country of residence because:
1. I offer a language pair which is probably the most sought after here.
2. I know where my clients are and perhaps feel more confidence in new clients because of that: if we were to find ourselves at odds over payment, I might find it easier (and certainly less costly) to claim my money.
3. Likewise, albeit perhaps without many grounds, my clients may feel more confident about my abilities because they recognise the place where I am working.
4. I don't have any uncertainties over currency fluctuations.
5. It is cheaper to move money around between accounts in the same country, and quicker. So I don't lose out over payment issues, and don't have to quibble with payers over payment costs.
6. Because I live in the same country as the producers of my source texts, I often understand the cultural background to those texts, in a way in which someone not living in Spain may not (for instance, someone who has not lived in Spain may not understand the complexities of "pedir la baja" or "convenio colectivo" or "que le den dos duros" or "ser de pueblo" etc).
7. Likewise, having lived in a country using the target language, I can transform the concepts expressed above into something which users of the target language can follow.
8. If the worst comes to the worst, I am familiar with the legal processes in my country of residence, know where I stand and know on what grounds to demand payment/compensation.
9. Despite the good amount of business that Proz has brought my way, I also get a fair amount of work by word of mouth. If I weren't here I wouldn't be getting that.
There are of course plenty of other arguments favouring not being "on site", but I'll leave those for someone else to express!
May be of use for someone trying to make a decision about where to work. Although in my case, there was no debate: I wanted to be here and my loved ones were committed to being here too, so no contest! ▲ Collapse
| | | | | To clear the questions ....... | Oct 24, 2010 |
I believe correct way to ask is "what percentage of your income comes from your own currency":)
| | | | Sheila Wilson 
Spain
Local time: 19:47
Member (2007)
English
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| Where is "home"? | Oct 24, 2010 |
aceavila - Noni wrote:
I wanted to be here and my loved ones were committed to being here too, so no contest!
My home is where I have chosen to live i.e. the south of France, rather than the London suburbs where I spent the first 38 years of my life.
But why should I expect my clients to make the same choice?
Certainly, many of my clients are francophones - natural enough for a Fr-En translator! But a good many are not from France. In fact, as I specialise in proof-reading (both Fr-En and monolingual English), they are scattered around the world.
There are certainly advantages to limiting your client base to the same currency zone (in my case, the euro-zone and the UK) but I don't turn down all other offers.
I often accept jobs where I am paid in other currencies - I just have to calculate what I think I need to be paid to earn enough, and then I need to keep my fingers crossed in the hope that the inevitable currency exchange fluctuations are not too damaging.
P.S. I know many English locals (not translators) who talk of 'going home for Xmas' as though they're just on holiday here, whereas they've been living locally for 10+ years - I think that's really sad.
| | | | Henry Hinds
United States
Local time: 12:47
English to Spanish
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In memoriam
Most of it in fact is from right here in the same city, with some from across the border and if people have been watching the news, that is Ciudad Juárez, the murder capital of the world.
So I remain here in peace, work and prosper.
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Heinrich Pesch
Finland
Local time: 21:47
Member (2003)
Finnish to German
+ ...
| Advantage of across border trade | Oct 25, 2010 |
One has to invoice tax on services provided to a customer in one's "own" country. So it is natural that people try to avoid this by using service providers from other countries. And it looks like that agencies and freelancers charge automatically more from inland customers. That explains the 42 % result for less than 20 percent (+ 0 %).
| | | | Interlangue (X)
Angola
Local time: 20:47
English to French
+ ...
Heinrich Pesch wrote:
And it looks like that agencies and freelancers charge automatically more from inland customers. That explains the 42 % result for less than 20 percent (+ 0 %).
I do not think agencies and/or freelancers charge more for inland customers, but VAT (21% here in B) is NOT applicable for abroad based customers (intra EU [forgot the reference to mention on the invoice] or extra EU [under article 21 par. 3.7 of the Belgian Value added tax Code]), if they are VAT registered or are international organisations, schools/universities, etc.
| | | | Rebecca Garber
Local time: 14:47
Member (2005)
German to English
+ ...
| and then there are the multinational agencies... | Oct 25, 2010 |
The PMs I am in contact with are not located in my country of residence. They are in at least 3 different countries. The agency's bank, otoh, is located in my country. So, where does that fit in this scheme of things?
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