Hopefully you’ve had a chance to read my post on working at home as a transcriptionist. As promised, I’m back to give you all some information on how you can get started working at home in the transcription industry!
So how do you get started? Explaining it all in one post is nearly impossible, but if you are interested in pursuing transcription as a career, here are the steps to get you headed in the right direction.
- Find a pair of quality headphones.
- Download Express Scribe and install Microsoft Word if it’s not already on your computer.
- Brush up on your grammar rules.
- Learn how to research words, names and terms online.
- Download audio from a variety of sources and begin practicing.
- Create or brush up your résumé and cover letter.
- Begin applying as an independent contractor.
- Look for projects on Guru, Elance and/or Craigslist.
- Continue developing your skills and looking for ways to increase productivity.
Posts on all of these aspects can be found interspersed on Transcription Talk. However, if you’re one of those people that need things laid out in an orderly and step-by-step fashion, I recommend purchasing General Transcription 101.
When my partners and I started Transcription Talk, our mission was to help other moms not only get started working at home as transcriptionists but also to give them the tools to improve their skills and speed so that they can earn more in less time giving them more availability for their family. We made a commitment to blog daily towards this goal; however, we quickly realized that a daily blog of this sort in addition to our other obligations was taking too much time away from our own families.
We made the difficult decision to discontinue posting on Transcription Talk but not before we published our first transcription ebook, General Transcription 101: Your Complete Guide to Getting Started. We worked very hard to make sure that General Transcription 101 walks the reader through each of the steps to getting started as a work-at-home transcriptionist. We had it reviewed by people just getting started, those considering the industry, experienced transcriptionists, and even professional editors. We did rewrites, design changes, and tweaked it more times than we can count.
All three of us are very proud of the end result, and we’ve received nothing but positive feedback from those who have purchased it. I’m hoping to hear that it’s helped some of you out as well!
Related posts of interest on Deal Seeking Mom:
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I have the greatest difficulty with finding time, that is my biggest challenge. Between juggling my home responsiblities, running after a toddler, teenager and hard working husband. It takes alot of time…to do it halfway well.
I would love to have your book to see if this might be a realistic option for bringing in some additional income.
Thanks for the posting!
Patricia´s last blog post..Sales Cycles/Very Important Information!!!
My biggest barrier to working at home is my husband. I love him dearly, but he has a hard time “giving up” my accountant salary. We truly do not need my entire salary, but his worries about it, make me nervous to completely walk away from my career and start something new. He would have to be very sure that this is something I can do, and something that pays out in the end. Time is ticking away as my boys grow up without me spending the time with them I want and they deserve.
My biggest barrier to working at all is time. I homeschool my 3 children, 2 that are adopted with special needs. My parents are in a nursing home and I am their primary source of outside care. But I am a great typist and my husband’s business is slow so this might be a possibility. Would love to win the book!
My barrier is that I am afraid that they are all scams! I would love to bring in extra money other than what I make doing surveys (which is minimal) but I don’t want to put us in a bad financial situation by risking being scammed. Also, finding time would be difficult, but if I was actually making money rather than just “playing around on the internet” I believe my husband will be likely to help with the kids during my set working hours.
Rebecca C´s last blog post..Giveaways 10/21
My biggest barrier is my child. I want to stay home with her and be able to contribute some sort of income too. So, for me finding the time between taking care of my daughter and finding work that would accomadate my schedule.
My biggest barrier is knowing what is a scam and wasn’t isn’t so I haven’t even looked into any of these options. I think finding someone who does it and trusting them is what can open the doors for you.
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My biggest barriers are not knowing what a realistic earning potential is and how to find an opportunity that is not a SCAM! I’d love to learn more from your book!
my biggest barrier is time management. i can’t seem to figure out how to balance my obligations to get them done AND have time for myself at the end of it all. so then i get burnt out. maybe that’s my biggest barrier! :)
any type of “work at home” businesses i’ve come across have wanted me to investa ridiculous amount of money into the company BEFORE they could even tell me how to start making money. I just want to contribute more to my household without having to give up my first born to do it. I have heard of transcribing before and thought that it was something that I could definitely do, but didn’t know how to go at it. This book would be a life saver for me!
Hi! I would love to be included in the give away. My biggest barrier that I have came across when working from home is working too much taking and taking time away from my kids. When I realized this is happening I close it all up until bed time!
I work as an office manager from home, I sell on ebay, I blog, and I have worked for ChaCha as an internet guide. I think ChaCha is job that most anyone can do. I have been too busy with my office management job and starting my blog to work for ChaCha lately. My last check for them was right at $550. This was all earned working really hard for about 45 days.
I posted a blog about working from home about ChaCha and other opportunities if you are interested in reading further.
I will not post a link here, because that may be consider rude! :)
I love your new wordpress format. I have plans to transfer over to wp too one day.
Thanks for the give away!
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So far, the work from home opportunities I’ve had have been home-based businesses which have required buying product, buying ahead, buying large quantity, & all things ‘money up front’.
The money up front part is what always got us.
Your gig sounds hopeful.
Fingers crossed!
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I have searched and searched the web for at home jobs! Most sites I come across expect you to pay to start working for them. I think that is the biggest scam of them all! I would never pay someone to let me work for them! I have a fun part time job as a guide for ChaCha.com researching and answering questions. It doesn’t pay much, but it is a fun past time that pays!
I went to school and got a ‘certificate of medical transcription” yet I do not have experience. I can not find work in transcription that will hire a newbie. I am really interested in this book! I really hope that I win!
Lacy Reyes´s last blog post..
Lots and lots of barriers. Mostly scams or things that are not worth the trouble. The legit things I am hesitant because I feel like I can’t devote the time unless I am good at planning things for my kids to do while I am working because only 1 naps now and while “playing alone” and “room time” sound great my kids haven’t mastered that yet and I fear I’d be dealing with “mom, mom, mom” while I’m trying to work and end up getting fired because the person I transcribed for would say “um, no one said MOM in this meeting, why is Mom typed here 40 times?” (ha) oh did I mention all the scams out there?
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I get to the part where they ask for money and then I think, “OK, how do I know this will work.” and I stop. I just wish I knew which jobs are legitimate if I put the work in and which ones aren’t.
Thanks again for all that you do.
Kim
akjulian at aol dot com
I’ve done general transcription before, but I worked part time in an insurance consulting office. I have always wanted to do it at home, but do not know where to begin. Plus, I know I need to get some equipment, such as a foot peddle if I want to be effective and get some work done in a timely manner.
I have a real hard time with discipline. It’s hard for me to sit and work when I see a mess in my house or dishes still not done. When I have work to do, the laundry seems to call to me. I also struggle with procrastination; this is my biggest barrier. Yet, I realize it’s self-imposed.
The biggest barrier for me on getting a job outside the home is the expense of a new work wardrobe. I just don’t have more than a few items that are appropriate. All of my old work clothes have been donated and I’ve been wearing sweatshirts and jeans ever since while raising kids.
My biggest barrier is not having the time to research good at home working opportunities so I can make the move from my regualr job. I don’t want to give in to any scams, and that fear alos becomes a barrier.
I think the biggest barrier is finding something that is legit and worthwhile. I had a friend who thought she had found a great work-from-home deal where she put together little crafts for something ridiculous like a quarter each. It sounded fine on paper, but when the stuff came in the mail she realized that each one took over a half hour to do. I don’t want to invest money into something that isn’t likely to work out.
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The biggest problem I have run into is finding legit companies that do not want a start up fee.
My biggest barrier, like many others’ is finding a great work from home job that is not a scam. I’ve been searching desperately and haven’t found a single thing yet besides medical transcription (and I didn’t realize there was such a thing as general transcription – even better!). I can’t afford to take the medical classes at this time (I was going to school for nursing, so I know some medical terminology…), so this may be what I need to do for now! I just don’t even know where to begin… I’ll have to ask my husband if I can buy the book – thanks!
My biggest barrier is my fear of starting something and then finding it takes too much time away from my kids. I tried selling Pampered Chef for a couple of years, but ended up missing too many of my kids’ activities because I scheduled a show before I would get their schedules. And it took up way more time than I thought it would during the day as well. I may as well have had a regular job outside the home. I’d love to win the book to hopefully help me get started in a job from home that I can manage around the kids’ schedules.
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I have 3 boys, 2 who are in school and one still home.
My husband is away half the year and me being home is a need as well as a want.
I have no luck in a job that allows me to be home with my kids and help my husband out financially.
I must stay home with my kids so they have a stable life.
Having a great job at home would be a blessing and a relief for my husband.
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Staying at home with my kids is so hard. Id love this!!!! I just can not leave my kids with someone besides family. At this point family cant do babysit, so I stay home.
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I am a professional freelance editor, but I work very part-time as I have a preschooler at home and an adopted child on the way. I’ve thought about doing transcription as a fill-in between editing jobs. Freelance editing is feast-or-famine, so I think transcription would be a nice supplement. And I already have some of the equipment!
I used to be a Legal Transcriptionist. I quit to be a stay at home mother when I had my first child over 2 years ago. Money is extremely tight right now so I have been doing a few surveys here and there, but don’t really make but a few dollars a month. I would really like to start working on something like this in order to help with our financial struggles.
My biggest barrier to working at home is finding my niche. Unfortunately I’m the “breadwinner” in my family. My husband is a musician, so his income is extremely variable.
I’ve often thought of looking into transcription, so if I don’t win, I’ll most likely be purchasing. Thanks for making this available to us.
It seems that we all share the same common barriers; time and fear of getting burned by a scam. Since seeing your guest post at moneysavingmom on working at home, I’ve been considering the transcriptionist idea as the best one I’ve come across so far. It seems like a great opportunity. I homeschool my kids, so finding the time to prepare myself would be my first challenge. Then comes the challenge of finding work for a beginning transcriptionist. Then, I’m back to the challenge of having time to actually get the job done. And, to be honest, there’s also a fear of failure there too for me. I suppose it is probably better to try and fail than to never try at all!
Like everyone else I am scared of the scams. I want so much to work from home as I am a night person so working in the evening after the kids are in bed is not a problem. I just would love to find out how and where to do it so I don’t get caught in a scam.
It is my dream to work from home and help with the finances.
Thanks for the opportunity.
My biggest barrier to working at home has been making enough money to make it seem worthwhile! I’ve tried a couple things here and there but rarely made enough money to stick to it long term.
Amanda´s last blog post..October One
I’m interested – - sign me up!!
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My biggest barriers are not knowing the realistic earning potential and how to find an opportunity that is not a SCAM! How do I know this is not a scam?
I find it difficult to work from home with the kids running around everywhere. I haven’t figured out how to set boundaries for “work time” and not to have it interfere with “family time”. I would love to be able to add some income for our family while staying at home.
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My biggest barrier would have to be my confidence. Right now I am a licensed daycare provider, but with the economy the way it is, people are having to adjust their expenses, and unfortunately daycare is one of them. I think more people are having family members help out and right I’m having a hard time filling my spaces.
But I don’t always like to make change in my life, so stepping outside my confort zone and trying something new is hard. I would like to find something in addition to my daycare where I am still able to be at home for my own children. So maybe this would be an avenue I should think about exploring.
Thanks for offering this generous giveaway…and if I’m not the lucky one I’ll have to order the book!!
My biggest barrier is thinking they are all scams and not having the cash to start. We are relocating and I would love to work from home and save myself the 2 hour commute. This would help!
My biggest barrier is finding time – in that I could carve out time everyday for something worthwhile, but time spent with peanut-payers and dead-end leads is not worth the sacrifice of time with my girls. I would love to find out more about transcription because it seems so doable.
I work but have often wanted to find something like this to do for extra income. Everything I find I feel like it is a big scam! I would love to win this and know more about it because I love writing and using the computer. Maybe I could earn enough money to finally build on to my house like we so desperately need to do!
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My biggest barrier to working at home is ME – it’s going to require a lot of initiative and persistence to find the right job and sometimes, I just don’t know if I have it in me. I want the perfect job to fall in my lap! I am a superb and fast typist, however, so this may be just the thing to give me the push I need!
The biggest barrier has been finding work that will add to our income and not drain away with child care fees. I’ve found some work that has added ‘egg money’ to our income because I can take the kids with me occasionally if I don’t have someone else to watch them for free but I’ve been thinking about transcription since finding your blog this summer. My next stop is to hit the ‘buy now’ button and get the ebook. thanks.
I tried teaching online through several international ESL programs. It was tricky to decipher some of the international “contracts” I was sent. So one barrier for me was transacting basic business stuff – deposits, etc.
Now, the barrier is simply my own insecurities – knowing how to budget and predict income, etc. I guess I just want a “sure thing” from any home business I commit to!
I have been looking something I can do from home in my spare time to give my family some extra cash . I have sold Amway and now I sell Avon but now I want something else with a better income. I would love your book and info my barrier is that I work away from home during the day and at night I at home with my family
My biggest barrier is my 9 month old son. He’s my fourth and is the only one that I breastfed. He is extremely attached to me. He was like that since he was born. He wouldn’t even let my husband hold him without screaming. He cries all the time, in the car, in the store. He really stresses me out!
My biggest barrier is losing the income from my full-time job until I get going well with the at-home business.
Biggest barrier: effective time management! (a lack thereof, obviously)
Also, finding something that would pay what I could make out in the big bad world……….. ugh.
My barrier has been lack of know-how and being afraid they’re all scams. I like step-by-step instructions, which is why your e-book would be great.
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The biggest barrier to working at home that I feel I have is giving up the security of a dependable job working for the government/dependable paycheck and benefits. I have always wanted to “be my own boss”/work from home but have never felt I could as I have a child and need the guarentee of income.
thanks for the chance to win!
I really want to get into working from home but haven’t found anything really worth it yet. I have tried ‘mystery shopping’ , but they were all scams. Great giveaway, thanks!
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It seems that many of us view a real barrier in not knowing if a program or job is legitimate and what the earning potential would be. I hope your book would alleviate some of this concern.
I had no choice but to become a stay at home mom. I needed to get my son better. So, we sacrificed my income and we have been struggling ever since to try and find a source of additional funds ever since. I would love the oppotunity to get us out of debt and I belive this could very well be the ticket. Thanks for the great info even if I don’t win.
I want to continue being a SAHM, but also want to increase our income. But, so many of the home opportunities are not really worth the effort in what you are able to bring in. Would love to learn about something that has some earning potential.
I am a stay at home Mom of 4 little girls and I love my full-time job!
I was a licensed realtor until my 4th daughter was born last year.
While working from home as a part time assistant to my Brother in law , who is a broker, I struggled to find time between showing homes and meeting with clients. I was spending less time as a work from home Mom and more time trying to find childcare. The housing market took a nose dive and so did our income, then we added our fourth blessing.
I would love to find a legitimate job that I can work into our family life.
Tanya
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