Working from Home: Transcription

So you want to work from home but you aren't really feeling telecommunications opportunities such as phone work? Or maybe you don't have a setting that is quiet enough to allow for other work from home opportunities? On your journey to finding a work from home job you may discover some options will not work for you. Many need a super quiet environment because you may need to talk with customers or employers on the phone. If this is the case then transcription might just be what you are looking for. Transcription is the act of listening to a verbal recording and transferring it to written word. The demand for this has been growing over the past few years and technology has made this a perfect job to outsource to home workers. In this article I will cover some of the things you need to know to get yourself started.

When you work as a transcriber you usually become an independent contractor. What this means is that you will have a contract that you will sign. This is normal practice; it protects them and it protects you as well. Of course always read the contract to make sure that it would be a good fit for you. An independent contractor (IC) would be responsible for filing your own taxes since the company will not take any out for you. It is necessary to decide how much to keep out for taxes, depending on your family's income and number of dependents. The normal amount is 15 percent. Of course it is wise to go to www.irs.gov to look in to filing your taxes as an IC.

All companies that offer opportunities from home offer full training. Some will require you to have experience, others will take people with none. The training is done through e-mail, various instant messaging programs, and their own server/system. Later in this article, I will include a link for researching various companies on your own. If you choose to apply with one make sure to have the instant messenger set up before you apply. They do not like to wait around while you figure that out. You can find out what you will need in the application process or on forums.

Usually it is necessary to download only a minimal number of programs for transcription. Each company varies in what they prefer to use. As a beginner you want to go to www.nch.com.au/scribe/ and download the free version of Express Scribe. This program is a substitute for a foot pedal. A foot pedal is your ultimate goal. This will allow you to use your foot to control the recording by allowing you to stop, rewind, fast forward, and do a few other important things. Foot pedals will also leave hands free to type. This will improve work quality and help projects move faster, brining you more money. This also lets employers know that you can do a job well done.

Foot pedals can run anywhere from $30 USD used to $80 USD new. Never pay more than this if you can help it. You might want to hold off buying a foot pedal in the beginning. Perhaps you want to find out if transcription is a good fit for you or you'd like to wait till you get your first pay check. This is where Express Scribe comes in. It is a free program that can do anything a foot pedal can do. Once this program is downloaded onto your computer you can begin downloading audio files in to it . Then you can rewind, fast forward, and stop using hot keys instead. Not as fast but still gets the job done.

That brings us to pay. There are a few ways that you can receive your pay check. Each company has its own standards on how often and what method they use. Some will pay bi-weekly and others will pay monthly. Once again this is something to research. Most companies will pay by check or direct deposit into your bank, though some offer Pay Pal. If you do not have an account get one set up well in advance from here: www.paypal.com. I could go on a brief tangent about how every one needs Pay Pal with its debit card but I'll save that for another article.

Pay can vary by company and as a norm the companies that hire with no experience typically do pay less and have more unreliable amounts of volume. However for you this can be a positive thing! Even though you have little to no experience these companies will take a risk on you, provide training, and give you the experience needed to get on with better paying companies with more traffic. Expect to only work with companies like this as long as it takes to work up your resume and learn how to transcribe. Then you would move on, possibly keeping this company for back up work.

The reason I say to view this as a positive is that we all need a place to get our feet wet. We know our work won't be as detailed as a seasoned worker but everyone must start somewhere. They get to pay cheaper wages and you get a chance to get experience for better paying gigs. Transcription is something that takes time to perfect. Each company has their own style to learn. Do not expect to walk into this industry making tons of money and being extremely fast. Do understand with time and hard work you can open many other doors bringing more money and security.

I do not want to discourage anyone, but if you are one who becomes easily frustrated then this field can be very difficult. There are times recordings might not be the best quality or the accents might be hard to understand. Considering it takes practice and time to become proficient in transcription you might as well get paid for it in the meantime. This is a fantastic field, many people making a very nice living at it. Transcription just takes patience.

Starting out, you may find times that you only make a few dollars per hour. You can quickly improve with practice and learn to make anything from $6 USD an hour to $15 USD per hour (possibly more if you are truly dedicated). Of course the higher end of the scale would be with some of the top paying companies who want experience.

One thing to remember is that you NEVER have to pay to work a job from home. They pay you! Outside of a foot pedal or on occasion a background check there is no fee! You might run across sites that want you to pay them to teach you how to be a general transcriber--DON'T DO IT! These often charge you a fee to then send you to free resources you could have found on your own. This is not to be confused with medical transcription which I will cover in a different article. For that you might need to go to an accredited school which can be done on-line.

Depending on how much money you are trying to make, acquiring a few contracts may be optimal. Most companies do not care how many contracts you hold and with whom. You are bound to their contract and when you do work for them they expect it in their style. This is a good job for someone who can multi-task. There are many different kinds of transcribing and some might work better for you than others. I'll go in to some of that now.

Transcripts are used in a wide variety of professional fields. Tax companies use them for quarterly earnings phone calls as well as recordings of their meetings. These usually have many terms that might be unfamiliar to you at first. Companies that specialize in this are usually busiest four times a year: the times the quarterly taxes are due. The rest of the year their might not be as much work offered as desired. This is when you might moonlight. If you went with this sort of company they would give you a long vocabulary list to study up on before you started to transcribe. One such company that hires with no experience is AccuTran Global. More information can be found here: www.accutranglobal.com .They provide full training and usually start their hiring sprees a month or two before the tax session starts. Remember, for this type of transcription you create transcripts for large companies and corporations who file four times a year.

There are other transcription companies who transcribe media such as television shows or radio. These can be more difficult to get on with but far more interesting. They also pay well. Then you have companies who have a general transcription area. Sometimes these company also do medical transcription and have the general items sectored off for those without medical knowledge. In general transcription you can get just about anything you could imagine. One good company to start with that specializes in general transcription is Tigerfish . They can be found here: www.tigerfish.com/employment.html . Another company that hires with no experience is SpeakWrite. SpeakWrite has a general transcription and a legal transcription department and are found here: www.speak-write.com/TypistNav/Employment/index.cfm.

I give transcription an 8 out of 10. What a great way to work from home living on your own terms! But don't just take my word for it. There are many useful forums on the web where you can find out what people think who are currently working for certain companies. Also keep your eyes open there for lists of other great companies and opportunities. Try checking out transcription work from home message boards and hearing what the people think. A great one for this is the WAHM message boards found here: www.wahm.com/forum/forum_topics.asp.

If you have read this far then you might just have the patience to have a successful rewarding career working from home as a transcriber. Do not be afraid to take the next step as the freedom working from home offers can be just want you need to thrive and live on your own terms. Also think about how nice it would be to save the gas money from the commute!