Nicole Fenwick - Translator & Lawyer-Linguist
Want to watch the interview with Nicole in full? Click the image above!
This Freelance Insights interview features translator and lawyer-linguist Nicole Fenwick.
When I opened my Instagram account, Nicole was one of the first people I started following. She’s really well known in the translation community, and I love how she shares both her work and her personality on social media. Nicole has such a great outlook on freelancing in general. I hope you’ll learn from her interview that there are no ‘shoulds’ when it comes to running your own business!
Nicole is very kindly offering readers some template terms of business that can be adapted for service-based businesses. She’s written them in plain English so they’re easy to understand for you and your clients. You can get access to them by clicking the button further down this page.
How do you describe what you do for work?
As translators, we break down barriers on a daily basis. But I like to think that I break down a couple of different barriers. I studied law at university and know that it too can be a barrier in so many ways, not just linguistically. Making sure that people can access the law in a language they can understand, whether that’s in their native language or just plain English rather than legalese, is what I do for a living.
What's your favourite thing about working freelance?
There are so many things to love about freelancing, but my favourite thing has to be the flexibility. Having a lot of friends in the legal profession helps me appreciate that I can travel when I want and have that independence. If I were to go back to being an employee, the flexibility is the thing I’d find hardest to let go of. Being able to set your own timetable is really important, especially nowadays.
Where do you usually work from?
I usually work from Barcelona, but because of the pandemic, I’m in the UK at the moment. I hope to get back to Spain by the end of June. I have an office in my flat there, which I share with a couple of friends. One of them is a translator too, which is really nice. Just before the pandemic, I tried out a coworking space where I’d like to be based a couple of days a week to enjoy the social side of things as well.
What does a normal working day look like for you?
One of the things I love about freelancing is that, for me, there’s never a ‘normal’ working day. I know that a lot of people like to batch their tasks, but I enjoy having a bit of everything in my day. So I might be teaching a legal English lesson and then mentoring, where I get my social interaction, before putting my headphones on and getting stuck into a translation task. I like mixing things up.
What one tip would you give other freelancers about running a freelance business?
Sometimes, even though we’re freelancers, we often still have this idea that we should be doing certain things. For example, we think we should be working Monday to Friday, 9 to 5-ish. But what I’d say to freelancers is to make a business that’s right for you. If you want to work on a Saturday instead of a Friday, provided that works for your clients, there’s absolutely nothing stopping you.
Free resource
Nicole is offering readers some template terms of business for service-based businesses. She’s written them in plain English so they’re easy to understand for both you and your clients. If you’d like to use them, adapt them, or get some inspiration from them, click on the button below.
