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Next Level supports translators and interpreters with five or more years of experience as they seek to achieve their business goals. We provide information for both freelancers and company owners to use in all aspects of their careers, from improving their privacy protections to planning for retirement.

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A Bid Too Far – On Reaching For and Losing Projects

By Next Level | June 28, 2023
A bid too far – On reaching for and losing projects

This post is a reblog, originally published on Tip of the Tongue. It is republished with permission from the author. The question of when a price proposal is too high is quite complex. Last week, I submitted a bid for a specialized service to an experienced professional. In my proposal, I took into account my investments in terms of time and energy as well as my assessment of his perception of value and ability to pay for and appreciate the result. I would like to say the negotiation ended in agreement but, alas, he wrote to me that I was…

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Bilingual Review Files: A Productivity Aid or a Waste of Time?

By Next Level | April 27, 2022
Bilingual review files: a productivity aid or a waste of time?

This post is a reblog, originally published on Andrew Bell’s blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. Bilingual review files come in many shapes and sizes, but they all have one thing in common, and that is that they’re meant to facilitate the revision stage of a translation project. As you can see in the image above, the…

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Can Clients Find You? Help Them With Google My Business

By Next Level | April 6, 2022
Can Clients Find You? Help Them With Google My Business

I am willing to bet that marketing your translation or interpreting services to potential clients is not something you look forward to. Most of us usually dread or postpone this task. Wouldn’t it be nice if clients came to you instead? Well, it is possible to get closer to that goal with a Google My Business (GMB) listing. In this…

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How to Keep Working While the Ground Is Shifting

By Next Level | March 23, 2022
How to Keep Working While the Ground Is Shifting

This post is a reblog, originally published in the Tool Box Journal Newsletter, Issue 22-3-335 on March 15, 2022. It is reposted with permission from the author. Maintaining a normal work pace can be difficult in challenging times. If you are like me, you’ve spent way too much time following the news on the horrible war in Ukraine over the…

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Volume Discounts: Should I or Should I Not?

By Next Level | March 9, 2022
Volume Discounts: Should I or Should I Not?

When was the last time you were asked to provide a volume discount? My guess is not too long ago. Did you say “yes” to the request? Do you have a strict policy in general? Do you decide ad hoc, based on your workload that day? Do you feel like there is pressure from the market (i.e., from your colleagues…

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7 Marketing and Productivity Tools for Gmail and Google Workspace (G Suite) Users

By Next Level | February 23, 2022

This post is a reblog, originally published on Madalena Sánchez Zampaulo’s blog. It is reposted with permission from the author. As freelance translators and interpreters, we can spend a lot of time in our inboxes on any given weekday. This can be both distracting and a never-ending game of whack-a-mole, as you try to answer all your emails and keep…

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Successful Freelancing with ADHD and Other Brain-Based Conditions

By Next Level | February 9, 2022
Successful freelancing with ADHD

If you continuously struggle to stay organized and tend to work long hours to compensate for daily distractions, learning about productivity can mean wading through a body of presumptions. The advice of self-help materials–repeated in a myriad of online resources–can be difficult to follow, as there are relatively few productivity resources that openly acknowledge the impact of physical and mental…

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Ready to Plan for a Mid- to Long-Term Medical Leave? Part 2

By Next Level | January 19, 2022
Thoughts on Planning for Medical Leave

In the last post, we looked at the financial issues underpinning a need for COVID-related medical leave. This week, we turn to organizational issues. Since I first drafted this article, some of those issues have changed, both in the United States and around the world. Response to the highly contagious Omicron variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus differs from what we’ve…

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Ready to Plan for a Mid- to Long-Term Medical Leave? Part 1

By Next Level | January 5, 2022
Thoughts on Planning for Medical Leave

The idea for this post was born on my most stressful day in recent memory: the day I took three of my children to the doctor for COVID-19 tests. If even one tested positive, all three would need to skip school and spend up to two weeks at home with me. Along with my fears for my children’s health, my…

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How to Get Approved for a Mortgage as a Self-Employed Person

By Next Level | December 8, 2021
How to Get Approved for a Mortgage as a Self-Employed Person

Imagine if you could freeze your rent payment forever. Now imagine that it could disappear by the time you retire. That financial advantage is a major reason why people take the plunge to become homeowners. Being a homeowner means that your “rent” will never increase unless you authorize it. Sure, taxes will increase, but never as much as rent tends…

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Teamwork: The Pros and Cons of Being a Lone Wolf or a Pack Animal

By Next Level | November 24, 2021
Teamwork: The Pros and Cons of Being a Lone Wolf or a Pack Animal

This post is a reblog, originally published on Nikki Graham’s blog, My Words for a Change, and later published in the ATA Chronicle. It is reposted with permission from the author. From the outside looking in, most translators probably seem like lone wolves, happily working at their desks all day with hardly any social contact. In fact, many freelancers highlight…

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