Speaker 1: Hey guys, welcome back to the channel. My name is Laura. I am the founder of Superhumans. On this channel, we talk loads about freelancing, working from home and making money online. And in this video today, we are going to be talking about four reasons why I don't recommend freelance translation jobs online. And if you want to know exactly what those are and why I might not be the biggest fan of translation jobs or any type of, let's say, low barrier to entry jobs, then stick around and keep on watching because I've got loads to share with you today. All right, so before we get into the four reasons, I've got a little story to share with you. The other day, I was looking through some of my notes that I was taking when I first started working with folks who were looking to start a freelancing career. And I realized quite quickly that there is a common thread that applies, actually, to a lot of the people that I've been working with or that have reached out to me. And the more I checked, the more I realized that actually, this tends to apply to a lot of these folks. And that is, they started looking into freelancing by trying to get translation jobs online. And when you think about it, that makes a lot of sense because smart people who understand that freelancing is an amazing way to own your career and to make your own decisions and to really find ways to generate an additional income stream, they are the ones that tend to speak multiple languages, probably like most of you as well. And what they try to do initially is use the skills that they already have, speaking those multiple languages, to get jobs easier. And the first one that comes to mind is translation. And that is actually the case. So many of the people that have reached out to me did that because either they found me on YouTube and they've watched some of my videos or because they had tried to have a freelancing career and do that by offering translation services. And then they got stuck and then they reached out to me. So today I want to share with you these four reasons why I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of freelance translation jobs, especially if not done right. So let's get straight into it. All right, you guys, so let's get to the reason number one, why I'm not necessarily the biggest fan of freelance translation jobs online or data entry or this type of jobs that are advertised everywhere as being easy to get, beginner friendly, and you know, all of that, which they are, but there are lots of caveats to that. And the first reason why I don't typically recommend them, not even for beginners or for people that I work with that are just starting out, is competition. And here's what I mean by this. Typically, when you think about the way that economy works and that a market, any market works, is that there is demand and there is supply, right? And because translation jobs or data entry jobs are jobs that have a low barrier to entry, which means anybody can start them without getting very skilled necessarily or without having any degree or without having much experience either, then that means that there is a lot of supply. It means that there are lots and lots and lots of people who are offering this type of services. And even if you're new to freelancing, if you just go to Fiverr and you type translation or you go to Upwork and you type translation when you're searching for talents, you will find tons of people, which goes to show that right now in the market, there is an oversupply of data entry and of freelance translation services. And that leads to very high competition. And when the competition is very high, the only way to win is through differentiation. And when you offer this kind of low barrier to entry jobs, it's really hard to differentiate. There are some really smart ways that you can do that. And I've actually talked about these in some of my previous videos, which I'm going to link down below. But generally, most people don't necessarily think about differentiating. And if they speak, let's say, English and Spanish, they will just offer English to Spanish or Spanish to English translation jobs. Or if they speak English and Portuguese, they will offer Portuguese to English and the other way around translation services. But that is not enough of a differentiation to allow somebody to really escape the high competition. And because of that, the high competition leads to getting jobs in the space to be really difficult. And it's kind of counterintuitive at the first glance, I believe, because you would think that's easy. I can offer that right now. So it should not take too long to get a job because, you know, I can create a profile and start offering this kind of services right away. Well, actually, the mechanics of economics and the way the markets work will prove you wrong because due to the very, very high supply of services in the market and the low potential of differentiation that generates or that makes the services almost be commoditized. And in that case, that means it will become really difficult for you to get a job either as a freelance translator or in terms of data entry jobs. So definitely competition is one really important aspect that you need to consider when you're thinking about applying for freelance translation jobs and trying to get your first one. All right, you guys, let's move to reason number two, why I don't typically recommend freelance translation jobs online. And that is they are low impact. Let me explain. What I mean is not that they are not providing value. Absolutely. They are. That's why people are looking to hire freelance translators or data entry specialists. It's not what I mean. What I mean by low impact is that they typically tend to generate a low business impact for the company that will be hiring you. You will not be impacting their revenue. You will probably not be impacting their costs or their expenses, and you will not be impacting their business continuity. And in my opinion, these are the three reasons why somebody would pay you more or less. And I've actually spoken a lot about pricing strategies in one of my previous videos, which I'm going to link down below. And if I remember, I'm going to link it up here as well. And in that video, I go into lots and lots of details about these four principles or actually three principles and how you can think about them for your own niche. But when you think about translation or data entry, they generally don't impact the company's revenues or income streams, the company's expenses or the company's business continuity, which means that they are low impact type of services. And that leads to low pay. And that is really what happens in this space. You will be getting quite low pay by hours spent or if it's translation by number of words translated or by the length of audio content that you are translating. And that together with the competition makes it really, really difficult to get your first job. And because of the high competition, the price is being dragged even lower and lower. And since there's not much impact, then there is very or there are very few ways that you can ask for higher income or for higher prices. And I have actually created a couple of videos on my channel where I talk about freelance translation jobs that actually pay well or data entry jobs from home that actually pay well. And that is because in those cases, there is a higher impact that is being generated onto your client's business. So then it is easier to ask for a higher price. Other than that, as I said, typically, it's pretty difficult to do it. And that is why I'm not a big fan of this type of services. All right, you guys, let's get to reason number three. And that is the risk of automation. And if you've watched my previous videos where I was talking about the future of work and the jobs for the future and jobs that have no future, there's a lot around automation. In fact, I've created a dedicated video where I talked about jobs that will disappear because of automation, which I'm going to link down below, you can go on my channel and watch that as soon as this one is over. And specifically for this type of low barrier to entry, low impact type of jobs like freelance translation jobs or like data entry, the risk of automation is really high. And in fact, we're already seeing that right now with Appin.com and Lionbridge and even Rev.com that are developing solutions that will be replacing the human translation because they are able to do that automatically. And I'm not saying that this is bad in any way, shape or form. I actually think it's good because it allows people to spend their time using their creativity and using other skills that they already have or giving them time to learn new ones instead of doing this type of jobs that would get paid quite low anyway. So again, I'm not saying that the fact that solutions like Rev or Lionbridge or Appin.com exist is not good. I think it's fine, but there is a risk that if you are providing translation services or if you are providing data entry services within a matter of six months or a year or two years or three years, you will no longer have that many job opportunities because for the most part, companies will stop looking for freelancers to outsource this type of services to and instead look for solutions that can work 24 seven that are much more cost effective that have lower error rate because they are automated and the human error rate will not be factored in and lots of other reasons why they would do it. So I would not necessarily recommend that you go into freelance translation or into data entry because of this risk of automation. You guys, number four is one that is very near and dear to my heart. And you probably already know this. I am a business strategist. So the way my brain functions is thinking about growth and thinking about the future and expansion. That is genuinely how my brain functions. And not only that, but I have been a career advisor and a career coach for many, many, many, many years right now. And I have worked with dozens and dozens of people. And whenever I do that, I always think about growth opportunities for them. Whenever we build a career path, we always think about the next step and the next step and the next step and the opportunities to get to a North Star. And I could not hold myself from doing that in this case as well. And I believe that the limited growth opportunities are the fourth reason why I don't necessarily recommend freelance translation jobs online or data entry jobs from home. Let me tell you what I mean by this. Whenever somebody looks for a job, they should look for that job through a lot of lenses and evaluate it through a lot of lenses. And if you guys are interested, I'm more than happy to talk more about career growth and personal development and this kind of stuff. But for the purpose of today's video, I'm going to try and keep it short. When you look for freelance jobs, I see no reason why you wouldn't do the same. I don't think anybody will be enjoying doing the same thing for 10 years or 20 years or 30 years or however long you want to work for yourself and be a freelancer. So what I believe is really important is to think at least midterm as well, because if you've decided to be a freelancer, it means you want to own your career. It means you want to do it on your terms. But it doesn't mean that you're going to be doing the same thing for ever moving forward, right? You still want to grow. You still want to progress. I mean, if you don't grow, you die. That's basically my logic. And I've learned that from Tony Robbins, so it's not mine. But again, growth opportunities should definitely be something that you take into account when you make decisions about your freelancing career. And if you choose translation jobs or data entry jobs, there aren't that many growth opportunities. In fact, you might actually get stuck and find it really difficult to evolve, not only to higher paid type of jobs, but also to something that allows you to cross sell and upsell. I'm not saying it's impossible, but it's going to be difficult if you start with the standard freelance translation jobs or data entry jobs and you don't pick a niche and do it in a smart way. All right, you guys, that was it for today. Like this video if you liked it, be sure to subscribe if you haven't done so, and also share with a friend who might also be interested in starting a freelancing career and might be looking into freelance translation jobs or data entry jobs from home and let them make the decision by themselves. With that being said, I hope you create everyday magic, I hope you have a lovely day and a lovely week, and I hope to see you back very soon on Superhumans, the place to be if you're looking to create a fabulous career and master your life. Till next time, bye.