{"id":4718,"date":"2026-01-15T03:39:37","date_gmt":"2026-01-15T03:39:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/?p=4718"},"modified":"2026-04-12T03:55:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T03:55:11","slug":"transcript-ata-ces-episode-22","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/2026\/01\/15\/transcript-ata-ces-episode-22\/","title":{"rendered":"[Transcript] ATA Continuing Education Series Podcast \u2014 Episode 22 \u2014 Natalie Pavey on Scaling Your Freelance Business"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_3721\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-3721\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3721 size-large\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-1024x681.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-1024x681.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-768x511.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-1536x1022.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-2048x1363.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-772x514.jpg 772w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/glenn-carstens-peters-npxXWgQ33ZQ-unsplash-624x415.jpg 624w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-3721\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">ATA FLD Podcast. Photo Credit: Unsplash<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-2293 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/A-Propos-Logo.png\" alt=\"The A Propos Logo\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/A-Propos-Logo.png 150w, https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/A-Propos-Logo-96x96.png 96w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/>To make our Continuing Education Series Podcast more accessible and searchable for FLD members and the general public, we are now offering transcriptions of our episodes right here on <em>\u00c0 Propos<\/em>. Many thanks to our volunteer transcriptionists, who are credited at the bottom of each transcription. If you\u2019re interested in helping us transcribe podcast episodes, email divisionFLD\u00a0[at]\u00a0atanet\u00a0[dot]\u00a0org.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>HOW TO LISTEN TO THE ORIGINAL EPISODE<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><strong>SOUNDCLOUD<\/strong>: You can listen to or download\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/ata-fld\/ces-episode-22-natalie-pavey-interview-jan-2022\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Episode\u00a022<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0and all previous episodes on Soundcloud\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/soundcloud.com\/ata-fld\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>ITUNES<\/strong>: This episode and all previous episodes are available on iTunes\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/podcasts.apple.com\/us\/podcast\/caf%C3%A9-linguistique\/id1873375190\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>here<\/strong><\/a>. You can subscribe or listen online. Like what you hear? Rate us and review us! It really helps get the word out.<!--more--><\/p>\n<h2><strong><u>Episode\u00a022 \u2014 Natalie Pavey on Scaling Your Freelance Business<\/u><\/strong><\/h2>\n<p><strong>Andie Ho: <\/strong>This is Andie Ho, host of the continuing education series, a podcast produced for the members of the French Language Division of the American Translators Association, offering educational content about the craft of French-to-English and English-to-French translation and the division.<\/p>\n<p>Full-disclosure at the top of this episode, I am a subcontractor for the company whose owner we are interviewing today, although, as of this recording, I have not worked on any projects for the company, and, anyhow, it doesn\u2019t affect any of the content that we discuss today, but I just wanted to let you guys know.<\/p>\n<p>Today we\u2019re joined by Natalie Pavey, a certified French-to-English translator who holds a bachelor\u2019s degree in French from the University of Pittsburg, and a master\u2019s degree in French language and culture from King\u2019s College, London. She translates for clients located primarily in Canada in the fields of business communication, marketing, the environment, and sustainable development. Since beginning as a freelancer in 2011, Natalie has worked with more than 300 clients, and since 2021, has been collaborating with other freelancer to become a one-stop shop for French-to-English <u>and<\/u> English-to-French translation services, which is what we are here to talk about today. Welcome, Natalie.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Natalie Pavey: <\/strong>Hi, Andie. Thank you for having me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Thank <em>you<\/em>. So, you brought something to my attention which I found very interesting, and so I wanted to talk about it on this podcast today. You have a company called NP Translations, or Traductions NP in French, and it\u2019s a slightly different take on what most of us think of as a traditional agency. So, give us a quick overview of how your business works.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Sure, well, I don\u2019t think it looks too much different from the client\u2019s point of view. I present myself as an agency, as well as a freelance translator, but freelancers know the difference in that the unique thing about my business is that translators, the freelancers, communicate directly with my clients through a dedicated email address, and that\u2019s usually not the case with most translation agencies. Usually there\u2019s a project manager who\u2019s the middleman, and the companies don\u2019t disclose the names of their freelancers. So, my agency is built on a collaboration. It\u2019s like an informal translators\u2019 cooperative. So, I work as a French-to-English translator, but I subcontract English-to-French translations, and I also subcontract French-to-English translations when you\u2019re overloaded, so that I\u2019m not turning clients away when I\u2019m too busy. So, it\u2019s a bit risky, in that I could potentially lose clients to my freelancers by putting them in touch person-to-person, but I feel like the benefit of attracting more clients, because we have a higher capacity, outweighs the risk.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Yeah, so do you have any parameters in place to protect that level of trust with your fellow translators?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Well, I have an NDA that everyone signs, and there\u2019s a clause in there stating that they can\u2019t approach clients for a certain number of years, until the contract expires. And I work with colleagues that I trust, that I\u2014most of them I know personally\u2014and I just think the translation world is pretty small, that if someone was taking clients from me, I don\u2019t know, I\u2019d, like, hear about it or, it just&#8230; the relationship wouldn\u2019t be good, like, there must be something underlying it that the freelancer wouldn\u2019t want to continue working that way to benefit both of us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>So, they\u2019d just be shooting themselves in their foot anyway since the community is small enough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Well, I\u2019m thinking, I think that if I did lose a client to a freelancer, the client would probably be approaching them, or the freelancer would be approaching them, to work at a lower rate, so, in the end, the freelancer is losing out if they take a client from me.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Ah, I see what you\u2019re saying. Oh, that\u2019s interesting. That\u2019s a good point, a good perspective. So&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>I was advised not to subcontract, to put clients in touch with my freelancers because there have been stories of people who\u2019ve lost clients but I don\u2019t know anyone personally who has, so&#8230; I\u2019m trying it out.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>All right. Well, yeah, you hear all these stories floating around the industry about various scams and whatnot, but on a personal level, anecdotally, I have never met anyone, I don\u2019t think, who has fallen victim to them. So I think, in my opinion, people are pretty trustworthy.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yup. And then that\u2019s the whole foundation of it is you have to trust the people you\u2019re working with.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>So, why did you decide to go this route at all. Why not stay a freelancer?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Well, at one point I was&#8230; just couldn\u2019t keep up with the work that was coming in. So, I was realizing that I needed to subcontract some of my own work, but&#8230; I should explain that I live in Saint John, New Brunswick, which has a large majority of anglophones, even though New Brunswick, which is the province in Canada, is the only bilingual province in Canada, officially bilingual, and the population is about one-third francophone. So, there\u2019s a need to translate a lot of content into French for that minority, and people were contacting me regularly for English-to-French translations. They were just seeing my business pop up on Google, and they\u2019d just give me a call, so I was losing business by referring work to my colleagues.<\/p>\n<p>And that was my original philosophy, was to refer colleagues&#8230; refer projects to colleagues who were in other fields or who translated in the opposite direction, because I felt like they would return the favor, but, in the end, people weren\u2019t returning the favor. Maybe they just weren\u2019t getting those inquiries. Maybe they\u2019re not networking, so they\u2019re not getting those potential clients. So, I just thought that I should take advantage of the opportunity of the high demand. And there\u2019s also only one other English-to-French translator in Saint John, whose very selective about her projects and she doesn\u2019t even call clients back if she\u2019s not interested, so I really had heard that there was a need.<\/p>\n<p>And I also bring a lot of experience to the table as being my own, as a translator, having worked for eight years as a translator at that point. I have learned how to network. I feel like I\u2019m comfortable networking. I\u2019ve learned to quote appropriately on projects and set the appropriate rates and determine the right turnaround time. And I\u2019ve also established a network of colleagues that I\u2019ve met at conferences, so I have a lot of experience and people that I can contact, which is my added value. Yup.<\/p>\n<p>[both talking]<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Go ahead, sorry.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>You talk about, you know, learning how to quote and all these new things. What all sorts of new skills and new explorations did you have to do to set up this business?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Well, I was just going to mention that in 2021, it was when I was really overloaded, and I realized that I needed some professional advice, so I got a little bit of funding to work with a business coach, Dave Veale, who lives in my own town. And he took me on because he has a similar business model with other business coaches. He\u2019s the business owner and he subcontracts to other coaches who work under his company, but they are not employees. So, I\u2019m sorry, I\u2019m losing the question here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Oh, what did you have to do to set up your business?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Okay, let\u2019s see, I made some notes about that. I realized I needed a lot of help with project management. Just the process of assigning projects, managing deadlines, and keeping track of those, and making sure I was being billed correctly by the freelancers for their rates and number of words, it was just too much to track. I was using an Excel sheet. So I got translation project management software called Projetex, which is the agency version of Translation Office 3000, which I was using previously as a freelancer.<\/p>\n<p>I also needed to find a better way to manage my accounting because of the billing issues, and I got a grant to get accounting consultant services. They set up QuickBooks for me, and they educated me on how to use QuickBooks to issue POs to subcontractors, so that I can easily subcontract revenues and make sure I was managing my billing right and paying people by the deadline, by their billing deadline.<\/p>\n<p>And then, lastly, I worked with an intern for ten weeks. I had someone who was interested in working with me. She\u2019s a translator and also has project management experience, so she helped me find\u2014analyze my workflows and my project management process, identified gaps, and also, we figured out a way for me to maintain my translation memories and term bases in Trados, without paying for an expensive agency account with Trados. And we also improved my sales process, so I use a CRM now to track requests for quotes and to follow up on them. So, I became much more systematic in how I work.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>So, I don\u2019t know anything about your\u2014you\u2019re based in Canada. I don\u2019t know anything about Canadian business structures, but did this change your business structure at all?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>No, I\u2019m still a sole proprietor, and I did speak to a lawyer\u2014my accountant advised me to incorporate for tax purposes\u2014but I spoke to a lawyer about it and he was&#8230; he advised me that it\u2019s not necessary to incorporate because, as a\u2014from a lawyer\u2019s perspective\u2014the risk is that I could be sued, and then that\u2019s when you want to have your own business separate from your personal tax identity. But since I have insurance through the Quebec Translators Association\u2014it\u2019s professional liability insurance\u2014it covers work performed by subcontractors up to two million dollars, one million dollars each incident per year, so it\u2019s really&#8230; he told me that it was substantial enough that I don\u2019t need to incorporate for accountability purposes. So it\u2019s just&#8230; I can\u2019t imagine paying a thousand dollars to file a business, incorporate a business tax return every year, which is required in Canada. So it just didn\u2019t make financial sense either.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Every year, wow! Okay. [laughter]<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah. I don\u2019t know if that\u2019s how it is in the US. I know you can also be an LLC in the US, but we don\u2019t have that here.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Okay. So you said your translators who you subcontract to, they are in touch directly with the client. Can you tell me more about that? Why you made that decision?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah. I guess there are a few reasons. I thought it would be beneficial more than risky. So, the big risk is that I could lose a client once the client knows who the freelancer is, but the benefits are that I am not fielding questions, which is time consuming for me, and it also reduces the turnaround time because translators can ask their questions right away to the client and get answers faster. They\u2019re not going through me. And if the answer isn\u2019t clear enough, they can ask for more clarification, and it also helps build relationships between people, so that it\u2019s not just me being like, \u201cThe translator has a question,\u201d and, it\u2019s just much more personal. So I feel that that\u2019s a big benefit. And the freelancers get to know the client more, just&#8230; their way of communicating, and I think it just makes you understand their company more. So, that was the big reason.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>But you were still cc\u2019d on all communications?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Right.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Okay, so you can kind of maintain, not necessarily control, but at least have oversight of what\u2019s going on.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah, and then the risk is that the client could also contact the freelancer when they have another project, thinking that the freelancer will field the project, but since I get all the emails, I can intervene and take over at that point to give a quote and assign the project.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>So, from the client point of view, do they understand that your partners are not employees? Is that distinction important at all to them? Or does it even matter?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Well, that was a point I brought up with my business coach. And he\u2019s actually, after we started working together, he sent me a couple of things for translation. So I asked him his perspective on how it went as a client, and he was like, &#8220;[sigh] I don\u2019t know, it just feels like,&#8221; well, at that point they weren\u2019t using email addresses, but he said that from a client perspective, he doesn\u2019t care who\u2019s doing the translation. He just needed it done, and if you have trust in the company you\u2019re working with, you\u2019ll trust that it\u2019s quality work.<\/p>\n<p>So, now that I\u2019m working with\u2014freelancers are working with a dedicated email address, I\u2019m transparent that they\u2019re not employees. I call them my colleagues or my team. On my website, even in the \u201cAbout\u201d section, I have their bios, nine out of the ten people I work with regularly, including you, Andie&#8230; that they\u2019ve agreed to use an email address and it\u2019s clear on the \u201cAbout\u201d section that they are freelancers. So it\u2019s clear to everyone. But I think that the added value I bring and the reason that people contact us still, or contact me, initially, is that I have experience in project management, I know who to contact for the right project\u2014for each project, and they don\u2019t have to go around looking for someone, which is really\u2014there\u2019s a lack of visible freelancers in New Brunswick. People just have trouble finding them. So, that\u2019s the added value I bring is that I can find someone quickly and make sure they get the translation done, which is their main concern.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>So, how did you choose your subcontractors. You mentioned that you know almost all of them personally.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yup. Over the past ten years, I\u2019ve gone to like at least one conference a year, usually two, and it\u2019s the best way to meet people and start building trust. I don\u2019t know, I consider the people I work with friends. Even the people I haven\u2019t met in person, I\u2019ve had a virtual call, a virtual chat with someone that I started working with, and I intend to do that with other people that I start working with that I haven\u2019t met in person. Or they\u2019re, they\u2019ve been people that have been recommended to me by other colleagues that I trust and respect. And occasionally, if I\u2019m in a bind, I\u2019ll post something on one of the Facebook groups I belong to and people will tell me if they\u2019re available and what their experience is, and I\u2019ll assign a project to them and evaluate their work. But I also look for certified translators. The majority of people I work with are certified, and I feel that\u2019s a gauge of quality, also.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Um, so what are the pros and cons of this new way of working versus before, when you were \u201cjust\u201d a freelancer?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah, I mean, I think as a freelancer it\u2019s really lonely. I have to have double the social life because I don\u2019t have colleagues, coworkers, that I see regularly. So, it\u2019s nice to collaborate with people regularly, who understand you and your work and you can talk about the work together. So, you feel more like a team. Another major \u201cpro\u201d is that it\u2019s more income for about the same number of hours per week, if you set your margins right. And there\u2019s a potential for unlimited growth, whereas, if you\u2019re a freelancer, you can only get paid for the number of words you can translate and there\u2019s a limit to how much you can get done in a week. So, when you\u2019re subcontracting, you can subcontract a large project and get a significant margin without putting in all the hours. That was the big benefit, I realized, when I spoke with my business coach was that, if I continued to freelance, I would be losing out on a lot of potential for growth.<\/p>\n<p>But the \u201ccon\u201d is that it\u2019s hard to get away from work. For example, I signed a contract with my largest client to be available for all the projects they outsource. They have internal translators, but sometimes those two people are overloaded, so they\u2019ll outsource work. And I signed a contract with them to be available at all times, so that\u2019s a little stressful when you want to end the day and you have to assign a project, or deliver something. I\u2019ve also worked with a virtual PM to manage that on two occasions: to take a vacation, which has been a way to deal with it, but it\u2019s another cost, and then you need to train that person.<\/p>\n<p>And there\u2019s a risk, another \u201ccon,\u201d that clients won\u2019t pay you and you\u2019ll lose money, because you have to pay your freelancers\u2014it\u2019s just a best practice. And that works to the freelancer\u2019s advantage, which is a benefit of working with an agency, but it\u2019s a big risk to me. And there\u2019s also the risk of errors, that the subcontractors will make errors, but as I mentioned, I have NDAs in place and also professional liability insurance to cover subcontractors\u2019 work, so there are&#8230; I think the pros definitely outweigh the cons.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>You mentioned at the top that you went for this business model to begin with because you wanted to capture all this excess demand that was floating around. Have you been successful in doing that, you feel?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Uh, well, in Saint John there\u2019s more of a demand for English-to-French because most of the people are English speaking. So, when they need translation, they need it translated into French. So, there\u2019s been a lot of growth with the English-to-French side, but I\u2019m still working on gaining more French-to-English clients. 2021 was a really busy year and the work has decreased a bit this year in that respect, but I really see the English-to-French side growing, so that\u2019s a good sign. I just need to get out there more for French-to-English clients.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Did you consider any other business models besides this one?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Not really. The only other thing I considered was not subcontracting, stopping subcontracting, because my initial thought was, well, to actually do the translation is so much&#8230; you get so much more pay for it. If your project comes in and you do the translation, you get 100%. And I was just thinking it didn\u2019t make sense to subcontract because the margin was so small, but, in the end, the more you subcontract, the more you\u2019re making. So that\u2019s why I decided to not really be the traditional freelancer anymore. And I\u2019ve considered having an employee but I\u2019m not at that point yet. I don\u2019t have the consistent enough work coming in that I could pay someone, and there\u2019s also a lot of time management that goes into managing an employee, so I\u2019m not ready yet for that, but, for now, I\u2019m just happy subcontracting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>So, I assume that you personally are spending less of your time translating, actually translating, than before. Do you miss that at all? Do you like having that mix? I personally loved project management, so, you know, I enjoy that. What have you found?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah, it does feel like I\u2019m translating less, but I think it\u2019s that I\u2019ve&#8230; I don\u2019t think that I\u2019m really translating that much less. I\u2019m starting to track my time to see where my time\u2019s going. Money-wise, I\u2019m making the same amount as how much I normally make translating, because I\u2019ve raised my rates over the years and I\u2019m translating less but making the same amount, if that makes sense. But tracking my time, just the past few weeks, I\u2019ve noticed that I\u2019ve been translating 25% of the time, and then the other time is spent with business development. I\u2019m working on my blog, quoting, following up on quotes, planning networking events to go to, and then project management is probably about 15% of my time.<\/p>\n<p>But I do enjoy it, and that\u2019s another realization I had with my business coach is that I do enjoy business development. I enjoy getting a new client. That\u2019s really exciting for me. And I like, when clients come back, I like knowing that they like working with me and my colleagues. So, yeah, I don\u2019t know for sure that I\u2019m translating less. I\u2019m figuring out that right now, just to know, but, yes, so there\u2019s a lot of different tasks that go into subcontracting.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Interesting, interesting. Okay, I have to know, juicy question. Are you saving all the best projects for yourself to translate?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Um&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Because I would.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Let\u2019s see. I have, yeah, but actually, the strategy I learned is that there are lots of rush projects. I mean, I charge a rush rate. I feel that there\u2019s a significant amount of projects that come in that I consider rush, like, delivering within 24 to 48 hours, and about, I guess, probably seven years ago, I started charging a rush rate. But when I was subcontracting, so much was coming in that I was like, well, I\u2019m at my limit and I can\u2019t take on anymore so I have to subcontract this rush project. First of all, it\u2019s stressful to subcontract a rush project and, second of all, you\u2019re giving a higher paying project to someone. So now I leave more leeway for myself. I\u2019ll take on projects that have more of a longer, maybe a longer deadline, to leave room to take on the rush projects so that I\u2019m getting the projects that are more high paying. So that\u2019s a strategy I\u2019ve learned, but I do sometimes subcontract things that I just don\u2019t feel like translating.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Yeah. Been there [laughter].<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah. Sometimes it can be a challenge everyday to get the actual paid work done.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>All right. Is there anything else you want people to know?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Well, I guess, I would recommend, definitely recommend this business model if you\u2019re interested in\u2014if you like business development and you\u2019re starting to feel burned out, if you\u2019re getting too much work and you can\u2019t manage it, it definitely could be for you. That was the position I was in. But the model isn\u2019t also for everyone. For example, I have a\u2014there\u2019s a colleague who doesn\u2019t&#8230; he speaks French, translates into English, and he doesn\u2019t like really communicating in English and especially negotiating. So he told me once that he appreciates that I do the negotiations, and that\u2019s another benefit of working with me is that he just gets to do the translation. So, if you\u2019re not into business development, or working with direct clients and you just want to translate, then I would say don\u2019t go into this.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH:<\/strong> Yeah, I was thinking about that, because you were talking about all the new things you had to learn and set up and put in place in order to make this business the way it is, and I thought, &#8220;You know, um, agencies earn their keep [laughter] you know.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP:<\/strong> Right!<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>You know, that\u2019s a lot of time and expenses.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Right. Yeah. It is\u2014that\u2019s the one reason I justified subcontracting at one point, too, is that there\u2019s work involved in getting clients. I have to keep my website up to date. I pay for my project management software. There are other expenses you have to have. So it\u2019s just, yeah, I am just doing different work, but, in the end, I\u2019m hoping that it will\u2014I will grow and&#8230; I don\u2019t know if I ever want employees, but I don\u2019t want to limit myself, so yeah. There\u2019s a lot to learn, and you really have to learn a lot about a lot of different things to make it work, so it\u2019s not just translation, which I still love, but I do enjoy learning these new things about business.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>Well, fortunately, as a translator, you\u2019re an expert in research and teaching yourself new things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah, yup. It\u2019s one of the great things about working for yourself, and not being told what to do.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>All right, well maybe we will record a follow-up episode in a couple years and see where you\u2019re at then, huh?<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Yeah! That would be great. I also would love to talk about virtual project management, because I find that that\u2019s a great way to go when you\u2019re overloaded. So, another idea, for another podcast?<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>All right! Stay tuned, everybody.<\/p>\n<p>All right, well, thank you, Natalie, for your time today, and your very interesting story. We appreciate it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>NP: <\/strong>Thank you so much, Andy. I appreciate being able to talk about my experience.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AH: <\/strong>This concludes our episode for today. You can subscribe to the Continuing Education Series podcast on SoundCloud or iTunes by searching for \u201cContinuing Education Series.\u201d You can contact the FLD at divisionFLD [at] atanet.org. Visit our website at www.ata-divisions.org\/fld or get in touch with us on social media. This is Andie Ho signing off. Thanks for listening and <em>\u00e0 bient\u00f4t<\/em>!<\/p>\n<p><strong>Natalie Pavey<\/strong> is a certified French-to-English translator specializing in the fields of marketing, sustainable development and business communication. She helps purpose-driven companies and organizations attain their professional objectives through effective communication in both French and English, whether their target market is Canada, the United States or an international audience. Visit her website <a href=\"https:\/\/www.traductionsnp.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>ATA Podcast host\u00a0<strong>Andie Ho<\/strong>\u00a0is a certified French to English translator specializing in the food industry. She earned her M.A. in translation from Kent State University and is now based in the Houston area. She currently serves as the ATA\u2019s French Language Division administrator. You can follow her on Twitter at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/jhawktranslator\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>@JHawkTranslator<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or email her at\u00a0<strong>andie [at] andiehotranslations [dot] com<\/strong>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To make our Continuing Education Series Podcast more accessible and searchable for FLD members and the general public, we are now offering transcriptions of our episodes right here on \u00c0 Propos. Many thanks to our volunteer transcriptionists, who are credited at the bottom of each transcription. If you\u2019re interested in helping us transcribe podcast episodes, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/2026\/01\/15\/transcript-ata-ces-episode-22\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">[Transcript] ATA Continuing Education Series Podcast \u2014 Episode 22 \u2014 Natalie Pavey on Scaling Your Freelance Business<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[58,57,37,36,38],"class_list":["post-4718","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ata-continuing-education-series","tag-en-anglais","tag-english","tag-freelance-business","tag-natalie-pavey","tag-scaling"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4718"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4809,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4718\/revisions\/4809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4718"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4718"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ata-divisions.org\/FLD\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4718"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}