Poll: How many regular clients do you have at the moment? Persoa que publicou o fío: ProZ.com Staff
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This forum topic is for the discussion of the poll question "How many regular clients do you have at the moment?".
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| | | | Lieven Malaise 
Belgium
Local time: 15:25
Membro (2020)
French to Dutch
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This year, until now, I've been working for 15 customers, all regulars.
| | | | Lingua 5B
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Local time: 15:25
English to French
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Regular, probably around five. None of them is for translation though.
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Two of them are more regular than the others (meaning every month).
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Gregor Trebec
Slovenia
Local time: 15:25
English to Slovenian
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It used to be 5, now it's just 3. The industry is shrinking, that's a fact.
| | | | Mario Chávez
United States
Local time: 09:25
English to Spanish
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| What's a client? | Oct 24, 2025 |
I sympathize with so many of you, folks. From my imperfect memory, I recall distinct eras:
My New York City era: 15-25 clients, many of them regular ones
My Southern California era: 12-15 clients (I lost several regular ones in NYC)
My in-house translator/freelance translator era: I'd keep around 10-18 good clients, many of them regular
My 2 years in South America: I kept one regular client (80% of my generous income at the time) in the Los Angeles area; then acqui... See more I sympathize with so many of you, folks. From my imperfect memory, I recall distinct eras:
My New York City era: 15-25 clients, many of them regular ones
My Southern California era: 12-15 clients (I lost several regular ones in NYC)
My in-house translator/freelance translator era: I'd keep around 10-18 good clients, many of them regular
My 2 years in South America: I kept one regular client (80% of my generous income at the time) in the Los Angeles area; then acquired 10-12 more or less regular ones.
My in-house translator era (first decade of the 21st century): about 5-9 more or less regular clients
Around 2013, I had about 15 clients, one big regular one in 2013-2014 (full time contract work). After 2014, about 6-8 regular clients and a smattering of casual ones, but I was making much less income.
In the 2016-2018 segment, I had less than a dozen clients as I was studying full time in Europe. After my return, it all went downhill.
It didn't help that I refused to drastically lower my rates. What saved my bacon were the in-house jobs I've held since 2018 until the present time. ▲ Collapse
| | | | CasaPhil
Spain
Local time: 15:25
Membro
English to French
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3 at the moment (several jobs this month) and 5 different customers invoiced in 2025, 6 in 2024, 5 in 2023, 7 in 2022, 8 in 2021 and 2020, 10 in 2019, 13 in 2018, 9 in 2017, 13 in 2016, 7 in 2015, 9 in 2014, etc.
Small figures all the way!
Philippe
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Cecília Alves
Argentina
Local time: 10:25
Membro (2011)
English to Portuguese
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| Define regular | Oct 24, 2025 |
Certainly not the same as it used to be.
| | | | Vincenzo Di Maso
Portugal
Local time: 14:25
Membro (2009)
English to Italian
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| what do you mean with "regular"? | Oct 30, 2025 |
It depends on what you mean as "regular". I use to work with 5-10 clients per month. A few of them do not contact me for months. A client contacted me for a huge project after 3 years. She already paid, everything worked fine, but then I didn't received more work from her. There are far less requests for Italian
| | | | David Mossop
United Kingdom
Local time: 14:25
German to English
For me, the days of regular translation clients are well and truly a thing of the past.
Late last month, I received an email from one of my oldest agency clients (whom I first started working with back in 2009), stating that the catastrophic market conditions were forcing them to liquidate the business. That's another boutique agency gone to the wall - most of the others I worked with over the past decade have either been gobbled up by the big players or have also been forced to clo... See more For me, the days of regular translation clients are well and truly a thing of the past.
Late last month, I received an email from one of my oldest agency clients (whom I first started working with back in 2009), stating that the catastrophic market conditions were forcing them to liquidate the business. That's another boutique agency gone to the wall - most of the others I worked with over the past decade have either been gobbled up by the big players or have also been forced to close down. One formerly-great Swiss agency I used to work for a lot back in the day (ca. 2012-2019) told me last year that they were now only offering MTPE - I note that their 'new' website has been a building site for well over a year now, so they may also have gone bust in the interim.
I now have only one 'regular' client, who sends me one translation job every 1-2 months. I'm very lucky that I managed to launch a new career after the pandemic, and now only really translate for the sake of nostalgia - the little money I make from these jobs goes straight into my kid's savings account. Kudos to any of my translator colleagues still managing to make a living from it! ▲ Collapse
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