the moaning freelancer

Can I still afford being a freelancer?

Times are rough and things are tough at the moment. I officially went as low as a freelancer can go: I have work but no money to go to work. Is this for real??? I never thought I could get to this point. Now, it’s “fashionable” for agencies to justify their own unpaid provided services by telling freelancers they are having problems “processing payments” or “the Finance Dept. at the moment is unable to make any payments” or “the payments system is down”… They might as well just tell us they haven’t been paid themselves!! 

This has brought me to self-brainstorming to find the most appropriate solutions for my freelance business. 

1) Because I’m a mom, I must realize that missing working days are going to happen, whether I can fight them or not;

2) Childcare always have to be paid, whether I have work or not;

3) No more Mrs Nice Girl! From now on, I will not accept anymore assignments/projects from outsourcers that don’t pay on time. - This can be hard, because I might occasionally not have a choice, so I am having to force myself not to take these (even when there’s nothing else to chose from); When payments are not paid timely, the assignments are cancelled and new projects are not accepted/delivered, at least until payment is done;

4) I should not take work at a lower rate than I have reached to be paid at, after certification. Take it or leave it! It’s a matter of principle. If I keep lowering my rates I (and consequently, my trade) will lose credibility;

5) I should keep looking for new Clients, never losing sight of the existing good paying ones.

My mom keeps telling not to give up, that all hard work will end up paying for. But I am running out of ideas. I cannot work or invest if I’m not paid on time (or paid at all!). When working as a freelancer or working as an employee pays the same, what choices do I have? :(

Autumn - Back to work to keep warm

Things have been quite hectic lately. I got back to work and the Medical Transcription is in Stand-by mode for a while. I am back to face-to-face and telephone interpreting. Not looking at it in a very enthusiastic way, but this time, since I don’t have more kids in my future family planning, I am going to “plunge” in to as far as it can take me (as long as it doesn’t include conference interpreting nor overnight stays, for the sake of my family).

I know I sound quite picky, but I cannot afford to work otherwise, and our home budget seems to be getting tighter now, having to pay for a child minder to enable me to work. You might not think it, but it’s hard to work as a freelance interpreter/translator. Most people seem to think this trade is a fortune-maker! It was at some point in the previous century, when translators were fewer and competition was much less fiercer, when knowing a language was a privilege. Now, anyone is accepted in the trade, even if it’s not linguistically certified, as long as is cheaper… CAT tools and machine translation has also left most of us knocked-out, market and financially-wise. I have always been not against CAT tools per se, but against the ever growing market targeting translators, not so much interpreters, fortunately… Being a linguist nowadays compulsory requires a reasonable initial investment. But to get there, you probably need to be prepared not to settling down (no marriage nor children) and many times to work nearly only to keep yourself warm.

It’s a fortnightly worry getting paid on time and, sometimes, getting paid at all! Adding to that, trying to fit the basic house chores and new projects bidding into my working schedule. Due to the credit crunch, customers want to get the same by a lower rate, but I am not willing to lower my rates any more, or I risk getting back to my trainee interpreter rates. It is ridiculous! It’s a question of principle and I am going to stick to my guns.

My spiritual search is continually being procrastinated. My children absorb me completely and in the intervals I’m always busy. When I’m not working I’m occupied with hateful house chores. They seem to keep coming… I have recently resolved some very emotional issues for me, related to old friendships that have been disrupted over 8 years ago. This meant a lot to me. I feel like a piece of me has been restored. Waking up in the morning is easier, I feel more motivated, more confident to face the world. I find myself more often in a good mood. I don’t feel alone any more. Don’t know if this is related to twin souls or similar type of spirits for that matter, but sorting out all the issues has felt right to me. I have been feeling more in sync with the world, although exhausted and walking around like a zombie… My youngest does not let me get any sleep at all in the evening… All this  seems to be helping to delay everything, really… Sleepy or not I am still following my instincts, !

Where to start?…

Reading through all the books, posts and articles and watching all the interesting videos about reincarnation is certainly putting me on my toes with curiosity. But… Where should I start?

Getting around the clock

I am trying to set things up to go back to work but it’s showing to be terribly difficult. I want to try and get back to work, but I want to try and work from home only, instead of going around performing face-to-face interpreting jobs. It pays better, but I will not get to spend the same amount of precious time with my little boy. His big sister is not really an issue - when she’s at school - but she’s definitely a challenging child when she’s around! Any ways, I need to get into some mum-working-from-home forums to find out how other mums get around their children-time and home chores, because I find it difficult to start working when the house is in a pig sty condition… So when I finally get the time to do something (organizing paperwork only, for now), when the baby is finally asleep, when I finished my 20 mins workout and showered, is then lunch time and the baby is again ready for some more mum-time. Then, after lunch and feeding the baby, he has a teeny-tiny nap that only gives me time to put the dishes in the washing machine, taking care of the laundry and get ready to pick my oldest one from school. Once we arrive, I prepare her a little snack and she’ll be busy for a while watching cartoons and if I’m  lucky enough, she’ll be dozing in 15. But that still leaves me with the baby feeding and getting him to sleep. When I finally do it, my husband’s back from work and all I can think of is taking care of the dinner while I still have some peace and quite. How the hell do I get around all this?!

The article title says it all!

The good and bad about working from home - http://pulse.me/s/5MLAo

Self discovery as part of my reinvention

As part of my reinvention I have committed myself to a spiritual research. This is something I have been thinking of doing for quite some time, but because I always seem too busy, I have never got around to do it, or never had that special trigger. Don’t ask me why but I believe my trigger to have been the birth of my male son. 

I have been brought up as Catholic. My parents are Catholics, not sure if by personal or forced choice. But to be honest I have never felt “God” in my heart or anywhere else. I respect everyone else’s choices as I hope mine is respected. I even have a mega-religious aunt that has tried to convert me a couple of times, but my skeptical inquiry completely knocked her out (so to speak :))

Surely there’s something more powerful than us and for sure there are extra-terrestrial beings - how conceited is it of us to think we’re the only ones clever enough to have survived several billion years of astro-catastrophes, weather changes and very possibly native-beings self-destruction -.

No skepticism convinces me that someone who instantly knows something has built a false memory. It’s impossible that someone that has never studied a subject all of a sudden knows it by heart. You don’t know deeply about a topic only because you watch the Discovery Channel. It might help, but not at such a degree.

I say this because, I have always felt very familiar around foreign languages, I had not even had my first English class (in Primary School) and I already helped an older friend with her English homework. With good pronunciation and everything! :) 

Now, what I find quite upsetting is the fact that this search of self can not only show itself as very disappointing or/and become quite expensive. I would of thought that these people who perform past life regressions would do it to benefit the evolution of mankind instead of profit. Specially considering that most of them, if not all, have other areas in their business, so they shouldn’t need to charge nearly £200 (about $300) per 90 mins sessions! Besides, what guarantees have you got that they’ll put you “under” anyway? Who will you complaint to? Is it money-back guarantee?!

Off the record, the only times I have been close to a meditative state or when I felt life made sense was when I had had a joint! Now wonder most of the best artists end up dying from an overdose! :D

I have to say I am really curious about reincarnation and there’s no doubt there’s everyday more people looking into it, so I say that must be a sign… I have read halfway through Allan Kardec’s Book of Spirits and in parallel have been reading Barbara Ford-Hammond’s “Past Life Tourism” and I have to say many of the things they “preach” makes all the sense to me, much more than any Bible.

Anyway, I’ll keep you posted about my findings.