Why is a freelance interpreter business different from a regular business?
Because there are many kinds of businesses, I believe an interpreter’s private practice is as regular a business as any. My business comes from a combination of referrals from agencies and contracts with individuals, organizations, and businesses. The bulk of my work, agency referral, involves receiving an assignment request from an agency. The agency receives a request from one of their customers, usually the hearing party responsible to provide “reasonable accommodations” to the deaf or hard-of-hearing party per the Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA. The agency contacts me and asks me whether I am available to do it. As a freelance interpreter, I have the freedom to accept or decline based on my availability and self-assessment of whether I am an appropriate match for that assignment, taking into consideration the consumers’ language needs and my ability to meet those needs. At the end of every week, I send an invoice to the agency, billing for my time in half-hour increments a
