9 Years of Freelancing: My Journey as a German Marketing Strategist and Translator so far
The end of August 2015 will forever have a special place in my memory. It marked the end of my pampered employment life and the start of my full time freelancing career as a translator.
Aged 28, with very little experience, some money saved (I’m German after all) and not much of a clue what was going to expect me, I took the plunge.
Today, with 9 years into freelancing, I want to share my story with you so far, how it all started, what I changed on the way, and how I kept adding more services to my portfolio to bring my clients the services they really needed.
Maybe (hopefully) this article can help, support and inspire you on your way to growing your small biz, too.
How it started
My university career path was pretty straightforward I’d say: I took my B.A. in Translation in Magdeburg, Germany, and my Master’s in Translation in Leipzig. Before I went to uni though, I took professional training as a language assistant with economics. I basically did this because the final exam would allow me to go to university later. Little did I know how handy those economics skills would come in later in my career.
And because every foreign language university program includes some time abroad these days, here’s a quick list of my stations in the world while studying:
- Galway, Ireland: Receptionist at a language school. You won’t believe how ridiculous phone calls can get when neither of the two people on each end speak English well (in a language school of all places!)
- Granada, Spain: university student and Project Manager at a translation agency
- Luton and Harpenden, UK: Project Manager at a translation agency in Harpenden, Bedfordshire. I rented a place in Luton, probably because it was affordable, and still feel like I know St. Pancras Station like the back of my hand
- Madrid, Spain: first real paid job as a Project Manager at a translation agency (in between B.A. and M.A). I was very proud when I had my first paycheck in my hands.
After studying I obviously didn’t feel ready at all to go freelance. I couldn’t believe my professors when they said that the life of the self-employed would become the reality for 80% of us. So, I first took on a job as a language assistant at a small (now big) research centre in Leipzig where I worked with researchers from all around the world and helped them fill in German forms for their business travels and hunt apartments. We had lots of fun. But I also knew that this was not going to be for me forever. So, I handed in my notice after a year to start freelancing and work in the trade I had actually studied for all these years.
First steps in the freelance world
Imagine you started your first day of full time freelancing in your home office. And you’re all excited and ready to get cracking. What would you expect it to be? Maybe you’d organise your office, make a list of things to do, polish up your online profiles, things like that, right? Well, for me, that day started with an unplanned visit at a computer repair shop, sweating the August sweat and with a heavy computer under my arm. Because: my computer decided that that was the perfect day for a major system error and a blue screen. Thank god I am not superstitious. Not much, at least.
This was kind of a bumpy start, I admit, but luckily it didn’t put a dent in my enthusiasm. The following days, weeks and months I spend mostly reading books by people who teach the art of becoming a freelance translator, getting my online profiles ready and applying like crazy to translation agencies (just over 100 or so). After a few months, the first jobs rolled in and work started to pick up. And within six months, I was able to cover my cost of living.
My specialisation back then was technical translations, which I had studied as a subject field at uni. So, my work mostly came from translation agencies who needed technical translations from English into German. The payment wasn’t great, but the amount of texts that were needed allowed me to live quite well for a beginner. The constantly tight deadlines and big projects though were really exhausting. And after a few years, I felt that something needed to change if I didn’t want to hate my job any time soon.
Needing a change
In 2018, I thought that it would be amazing if I made use of my location independence and travelled and worked abroad for a while. I missed Spain. And luckily I had a friend who kept nudging me to put my idea into practice. So, I rented a “rare find” on Airbnb, booked a coworking space and bought plane tickets to Barcelona. I then spent 3 months in the beautiful quarter García in Barcelona, working in an office space just around the corner, exploring museums and parks at the weekends and inviting my German friends to visit me.
And maybe it was the fresh ocean breeze or the relaxed way of living, but it was there that I decided to switch specialisations. I wanted to do something that challenged me in a good way, allowed me to be creative and offered more variety than technical translation. Being able to work for direct clients and with broader deadlines would also be a plus. I had worked on a couple of marketing texts for my regular translation agency clients in the past, and knew that I liked that type of text. So, after some consideration, I said to myself: Let’s just go for marketing translation. And I did.
The following weeks and months were hence filled with CPD around marketing. I ordered a dozen bestselling books about marketing and copywriting (and read them), attended various online marketing courses (such as the Google Garage and the Language Service Marketing Academy), found out about transcreation, and slowly started to feel more and more confident with the topic. After some time, I informed my existing agency clients about my change in specialisations (very scary!).
Also, LinkedIn appeared on my radar, and I started to connect with my new translation bubble. Last but not least, I joined the East Chapter of the German Association of Interpreters and Translators as a seminar organiser and board member. (I really did need a change, now that I look at all this).
Switching up that portfolio
Ok, it’s something like 2019, and I am now a Marketing Translator working on texts that I enjoy. Most of my clients are still translation agencies though, deadlines are still super tight, and I am too often receiving texts that seem a complete waste of money for the end client. Texts that just wouldn’t have any effect on the German market like a blog post about what German Christmas markets are like, or a newsletter on how to navigate the latest tax law changes if you are a US company.
That obvious lack of advice and no interest from some translation agencies in checking what the content they assigned me for translation was actually about, had me fuming. I realised that most businesses need more than just a plain translation of their marketing content. They needed to know who precisely they wanted to target, what content would be able to achieve that, how to culturally adapt their copy and content, who their competitors are and how they can be different from them etc. They needed at least some kind of strategy that would enable them to market their business effectively in Germany, and help them to not throw money (and their brand reputation) down the drain.
The idea started to grow that I could offer more than “only” transcreations and translations, and additionally give my clients advice on how to be more strategic with their German market entry.
And I clearly needed help to get there. So, I booked an 8-week online marketing program for solopreneurs to develop new services, create a product ladder, write landing pages, blog posts and newsletters, redesign my website and promote it all on social media. Phew! It was tough. And sometimes I thought I’d never finish that stupid lead magnet. But I did. (thank god).
Outro
Today, in 2024, I work mostly with direct clients on their German marketing and copy, offering a variety of different services. And I am still learning to find ways to better connect with my ideal target group of small businesses in the UK.
9 years is a long time. And while I am not at all yet where I want to be, I know I can be proud of myself. And I also know that most of us freelancers and small businesses out there, don’t celebrate their wins enough. So, if you have taken any inspiration from this post at all, you’ll pull up your calendar right now and mark your next business birthday to celebrate how far you’ve come. Invites accepted.
