I worked for an agency for around a year as a freelancer. I noticed that I am excluded from deal negotiations completelt. This have put an immense pressure on my ability to set my terms as it bacame harder to convey my concerns to clients unless it passes paranoid sheshold of agency representatives. Then, I decided to find clients directly through platforms. This later options allowed transperancy and resulving disputes with clients to florish while it moved me from local to international competetion. In the long run, I would recommend platforms option as it helped me to raise my fees by a milestone of my choice: I can, for example, add one more dollar to my rate for each 5,000 words I translate, or $20 for each 20 hours finished in interpetation.