“I work much longer days but I’m so much happier”
Emile Lorent is freelance translator in the mornings and furniture maker in the afternoons
I met Emile Lorent at a co-working space in Brussels a while back. He would be there most mornings, working on translations, stretched out in his desk chair. When the clock struck 14:00, his desk would be empty. At first, I figured he might be a deluxe freelancer, but eventually I discovered that he was actually working double-time. Emile is a freelance translator in the mornings and makes custom wooden furniture for clients in the afternoons. I recently sat down with him to learn how he makes this combination work.
How did you come to combine freelance translating with furniture making?
After working as a translator for five years, I was finding it pretty difficult to work from home by myself, sat behind a computer all day. I wanted to diversify and connect with others more. At the same time, I did not want to give up translating, which earned me a good living and allowed me to organise my days how I wanted. I started DIY’ing, working with wood little by little, watching YouTube tutorials, asking questions, making mistakes. I envisioned it mostly as a side-activity that would allow me to meet more people.
When was this?
About two years ago. I found a beautiful co-working space where I was able to also have a little space in the basement for hardly any money. I thought I would start trying stuff out there, build up experience, with no intention whatsoever of making any money. And with time, my skills improved, the projects became bigger and more interesting, and my network of followers grew. I’ve gotten all of my customers through social media and word-of-mouth.
And after a while you realised you might simply combine the two?
Exactly. Being a freelancer is a bit like a drug in the sense that you know it’s not always healthy to be on your own. At the same time, it’s hard to quit because [you value] your freedom etc. I liked what I did and didn’t want to completely give that up. But I thought why not make a little less money and [use the freed-up time] to do something I enjoy?
Was it also about balancing creative work with manual work?
Of course. I like to start working around seven in the morning. By noon, my brain is completely fried, but my body is fresh and ready to go because I’ve been sitting all day. This also means that I’m completely wiped out in the evenings now because I’ve exhausted both my brain and my body.
You’ve been doing this for two years now. What would you say is the added value of combining the two?
The added value is that I’m very happy. Because I’m happy to sit down behind my desk in the mornings, while before it was a struggle. At noon, I have lunch and I’m delighted to go to my workshop. I no longer feel anxious on Sundays because of the week ahead. I also feel less tired and meet so many more people. I meet clients in their homes to discuss what they want and I regularly visit my suppliers.
At the same time, combining two part-time gigs generally means working 120%. I work much longer days and often on weekends, but I do so happily. Because I really want to finish something, not because I have to.
To what extent do you communicate to your clients that you have this other completely different business activity?
When clients ask me to turn around a large translation project in two days, I sometimes tell them that I work in the workshop in the afternoons. I don’t think it particularly interests them. With my woodworking customers, I generally tell them at one moment or other that I have limited availability because I combine two activities. No translation client has ever asked me for a woodworking job or vice versa; they’re two separate worlds.
Your email signature mentions that your office hours as a translator are from 08:30 until 13:00. Was it a big step to be so explicit about your availability?
I set business hours even before I took up woodworking, from 07:30 to 16:00. At some point, you have to create a sort of framework; otherwise you never stop [working]. Some people excel at emailing you on Friday evening for an assignment they need on Monday.
When I first took up the woodworking, my phone would be right next to me in the workshop. So that when clients contacted me for a translation job, I could quickly email them back that I was available. But now that the woodworking is starting to make me money, I’ve changed my translation office hours to just mornings. I’ve lost a few rare clients as a result. So be it. I wouldn’t have dared to do this at the start of “my career” so-to-speak, when you want to build up a solid client base and accept to work more or less whenever.
What about other practical things?
I have one email address for my translation work and one for my woodworking clients. I have one professional bank account. I hardly have any expenses as a translator. With woodworking, I spend money almost every day. I have an Instagram account where I post completed woodworking projects.
You split your time between both activities pretty evenly. But what’s the divide money-wise?
Right now, it’s 80% from translating and 20% from woodworking. It’s also been 60%-40% for several months. Of course, I would like to get to a fifty-fifty situation. But it’s hard. Artisanship doesn’t pay well. With translating – I mostly translate legal and technical copy from German and Spanish into French – I can have as much work as I want to. With woodworking, if no-one contacts you, you don’t have any work. And they’re usually one-off jobs.
What advice do you have for freelancers who would like to combine two very different activities?
Don’t immediately give up your main activity. Often when you cut back on the main thing you do, you realise that it’s not that crappy, but that you’ve just had an overdose. Being self-employed, working from a computer, is a luxury at the end of the day. And if I had completely given up on translating to only do woodwork, I would have been bankrupt after six months and really regretted [my decision]. The reality is sometimes also different from how you imagined it would be. Craftsmanship appeals to a lot of people; it looks fun. But it’s physically hard and doesn’t pay well.
At the end of the day, it doesn’t cost much to start experimenting with something new on the side, while the pay-off can be huge in the form of a good balance and mental health. So go for it, but go slowly, explore, scout the field.
You can check out Emile’s completed furniture projects on Instagram and Facebook
Interview and photographs by Linda A. Thompson