In the 1990s, the boom of the DotCom enterprises gave rise to a large number of translation companies. Influenced by the high market price of its clients, these companies could charge absurdly high rates for their services. As time went on, the bubble burst and the scenario began to change drastically.Translation companies were forced to find a way to lower costs and so they started to push the translators to lower their prices. While this happened, there was a good cushioning for this price reduction for agencies and freelance translators alike due to the unfavorable parity of the Brazilian Real in relation to stronger currencies (the British pound and US Dollar, and later, the Euro).
Once again, time went by and the Brazilian currency grew stronger. When we renegotiated our translation fees, we were dealing with a 5:1 Brazilian Real to GBP ratio. Today, this ratio has dropped to 3:1 and the scenario is not expected to change in the near future…
The problem does not stop there! Clients keep pushing us to lower our prices even further, whether by lowering them permanently or demanding more tasks at a lower fare. Fixed costs like rent, electricity, telephone and salaries have risen. The only option is to increase the work volume to counterbalance all of these losses.
This brings us to a riddle that not even in 1001 nights Sherazade dreamt of asking the Sultan. How will it be possible to produce more in less time while paying our vendors less without risking quality?
