Minimum charge? But why?

You might be wondering why some of us insist on minimum charge. Here’s the 1 h (the equivalent of my minimum charge) timeline of an under 100-word job.

Opening e-mail, clicking on platform, downloading materials: 5 minutes;
Reading the source, preparing the source Excel for the CAT-tool, setting the project up in the CAT-tool: 15 minutes;
Researching most of the terminology to determine if specific terms are products or product features: 25 minutes;
Downloading the translator note form and writing comments, as the source seems to have been segmented incorrectly: 5 minutes;
Typing and spellchecking the translation: 10 minutes.

So, short translations aren’t always short, unless you do not care about quality. If you are an LSP, you are paying for a good job. If you’re a freelance translator, keep in mind that you don’t put one word after another, but actually make phrases that make sense, and that means more minutes than you might think.

Here’s another opinion on minimum charges, from Claire Cox, a well-respected and experienced translator. And the featured image from a most beloved translator’s blog. Meet Mox, ingeniero traductor.