With office cutbacks, downsizing, the poor economy, and whatever other reasons, I'm seeing more and more individuals getting into the transcription business.

While I'm the first to admit that transcription isn't brain surgery, it's not as simple as listening and typing. For one reason, listening and hearing are two different things. It's pretty simple to listen, but it's a lot harder to hear.

Many of these new-found transcriptionists didn't even transcribe as 'employees' in their past employment. I'm all for giving people chances and that we all had to start someplace, but I don't think that gaining experience at the cost of clients, customers or whatever you want to call them is right. That's like closing the gate after the cattle have walked out and running freely on the range. 

The three most popular transcription "gigs" are student typing, legal and medical. I won't touch medical with a 10-foot pole. Why? Because even though I have some workers' comp experience, I don't consider myself anywhere near qualified enough to transcribe medical case history, reports, etc. I have three medical dictionaries, but to stop and look up the spelling of medical terminology when I don't know the correct spelling, or even sure if the word is correct, is counter productive.

I am also adamantly opposed to sending confidential medical reports offsite to some unknown to be transcribed. I have first-hand experience at how my life *almost* changed because of someone's ignorance, inexperience or just not caring or paying attention. I had a lump in my RIGHT breast. My doctor sent me for additional testing. The specialist reviewing the tests determined that the lump was suspicious and surgery was suggested. The day before surgery, my own doctor sent me to get the tests, reports, etc. to bring to the hospital the next day. The x-rays meant nothing to me, but I make a living with words. Even though I understood little of the medical terminology, I do understand the difference between LEFT and RIGHT. The report was one page. In the first two paragraphs it said RIGHT breast, RIGHT breast, RIGHT breast was suspicious and said the LEFT breast was normal. Then wham, in the last paragraph on the page, it said the LEFT breast was cause of concern. The transcriptionist was so concerned in equating money to keystrokes, she wasn't even hearing what she was listening to. No red flags, no yellow flags, no "hey, this is contradicting what I've typed throughout the report -- I need to flag it so someone will see." Whether the doctor himself dictated LEFT instead of RIGHT, or whether the transcriptionist was just bored and typed LEFT on her own doesn't matter -- the transcriptionist should have picked up on the discrepancy. What does matter is the INACCURATE typed report intended to be used during the surgery. How many people have their lives changed because of an inaccurate or inconsistent left or right, or a completely wrong diagnosis because the medical term, even though spelled correctly, was the wrong spelling for the correct word? Pretty scary to think of the surgeon with a scapel ready to cut the wrong organ from your body, or being prescribed the wrong medication for the wrong disease because of the inaccuracy of a typed medical report.

There is a fairly new transcriptionist on the Internet that is neither experienced in medial or legal -- and she is typing for both professions. It used to be that she would just post asking the correct spelling of one medical term. Now, she has begun posting 15-20 "unsure" terms at a time. She has no business playing roulette with people's lives. She has no business transcribing medical reports. A few days ago she posted that she has branched out to the legal field -- that she had a word that she isn't sure of the spelling, but it sounded like 'voo wah dear.' To protect innocent lives on the operating table and in the courtroom, this woman needs to go back to the real world and get a job where she will be under someone's control and checking that her *i's* are dotted and that her *t's* are crossed.

Transcription is not brain surgery, but the poor transriptionists give everyone a bad name. Maybe the kitchen is the right place for you afterall.

[end of blog]

The biggest reasons I began working for myself: office politics along with the cattiness, the backstabbing, the jealousy, the laziness ...

Working for yourself in a transcription/secretarial business, you wear all the hats -- at least initially -- you are the worker bee, the marketeer, the accountant, the salesman. You make the rules. To be successful, you need to know in advance what to expect -- unless, you know a lot of people that are just going to give you work immediately, you are going to spend many hours, days, weeks, months and possibly years without a "billable" -- use this time wisely to market your services, hone your skills and expertise.

Although you won't know how much it's going to cost in overhead to work for yourself until you begin getting work, do some research on what and how others are charging. Don't set in stone someone else's rates and don't copy the business practice of others, making it your own. Don't simply pull a figure out of the sky because someone else has -- it may or may not be working for them, and you certainly don't know if it will work for you. 

This is not a "one size fits all" business -- nor should it be! Your skills, experience, expertise and clientele will determine what someone will pay for your services. I've always been a minority because I charge hourly -- and I've never had a problem charging hourly. There are all sorts of charge rates out there -- line rate, page rate, character rate, audio hour (the length of the audio tape and NOT the length of time it takes to transcribe) ... From reading transcription forums, it is my opinion that 99.9% of these charge rates actually come back and bite the person in the butt, because until you actually hear the quality of the audio, you have no idea how long it will take to transcribe -- if not charging hourly, there is no way to place a value on your time. These are the same people that type the audio but tell the client that it is their (i.e., the client's) responsibility to proof. I actually have to chuckle when I read this, because how many of the clients are actually going to go back and listen to the audio word-for-word?--if they are going to take the time to do that, they could have just typed it themselves to begin with.

The biggest laugh I'm having this week is an ongoing discussion of how, by default, Word inserts one space after the period instead of two spaces. I can't believe the number of people crying because they are losing money because of the one space.

For grins, I've grabbed a report I previously typed that has 100 pages, 36 text lines per page. The report is single-spaced with double-spacing between paragraphs. I've randomly counted twelve sentences per page. Three of the sentences end a paragraph, so those periods are a moot point because there's no space(s) after them -- that brings us down to nine periods on the page. Roughly, with one space after the period, there are 900 periods in the  total report. Inserting two spaces after each period might possibly stretch the report a half-a-page. If 900 versus 1800 spaces or 100 pages versus 101-1/2 pages is going to make or break a transcriptionist, they better pack it up because this is NOT the business they should be in.

[end of blog]

I'm constantly reading that people are afraid of returning work to a client without finishing or without beginning.

Since 1992, I haven't done it often, but I have done it, and I can tell you that the sky didn't fall nor was I struck by a bolt of lightning -- and if I was bad-mouthed through town, it didn't stop people from giving me projects to be typed.

Sometimes the audio is just so bad that there is no way it can be completed. I learned that the hard way -- anyone going back to earlier blogs will see where an attorney was standing in front of a running jet engine while she dictated. I tried -- I really tried. I stayed up for two days and three nights bound and determined that I was going to complete the job. It didn't happen and if I got the same kind of audio today, it wouldn't take me more than five minutes to let the attorney know that it was impossible, and here it is back for you to deal with -- maybe even try to hear the audio yourself.

Recently I had a couple of weeks of a lull. I was contacted by an author who had interviewed an older gentleman in the middle of New York. I believe originally she said she had five tapes that she was transferring to CDs or DVDs. I thought fine, no problem -- it would fill in the two weeks lull and then I'd be back to legal transcription. I will NEVER, NEVER complain about legal again -- another lesson learned. First of all, I never heard from her again for over a month. Again, I'm not someone to call, call and call a prospect again asking where the project is. It's like begging for work and I'm not about to let someone know that I need "their" project in order to eat or pay the bills. I just won't do it. Thankfully, with where I'm at in my business, I'm pretty well past that stage of wondering where the next project is going to come from, or more importantly, when is it going to come.

When she finally contacted me again, I should have just declined -- although she said she was not in a hurry and had only copied three of the tapes and there would be more. It was obvious that she was a procrastinator in the fact that these interviews occurred several years before (the gentlemen had since died) and that she was going to be giving the audio to me piece meal. I should have still declined, especially when she gave me approximately 20 pages to be used as a "cheat sheet" with names, places, etc. It probably would have been different had they been organized even in somewhat of an alphabetical fashion instead of a hodge-podge of words. One copied audio tape should have taken me roughly three hours -- however, it took me about 16 hours -- which just was not acceptable to my own time schedule -- so I knew it wouldn't be acceptable to her checkbook. I just couldn't stand the thought of even beginning the next two, let alone, the remainder that she hadn't even given me. The audio was poor and I had to keep looking through page-after-page of the cheat sheet and the subject (classical arts/literature) was boring the living #$#$#@#$ out of me. I was finding all kinds of excuses that were calling me from the keyboard -- the lawn needed mowed, the dog needed walked, I needed to cook a 10-course meal, the toilet bowl needed cleaned ... I just couldn't get into these interviews and felt absolutely no qualms about packaging them up and shipping them back to her with a letter saying that they deserved someone better than me who could put their heart and soul into them. I printed off the one I finished and sent it along knowing that I had donated my part to the arts because I knew that I would not see a dime for my efforts -- which was fine -- the lesson I learned was more than payment.

Give me crime, murder and violence and I promise I'll sit in my little chair transcribing happily away -- culture and arts just don't do it for me.

[end of blog]

It's a sad state of affairs what our country, The United States of America, has become when they don't honor cash -- or, worse yet, that you must produce your ID when using cash!

Yesterday I had to go to the District Attorney's office to pick up some discovery for one of my attorneys. Once through security after taking off my watch, taking off my rings, taking off my belt and finally convincing the security guard that it was my foot making the alarm sound and that I couldn't remove the screw in my foot, I was finally able to continue with my mission.

The discovery was $5.95 -- I knew in advance and made certain I had EXACT change. I handed her a five dollar bill, three quarters and two dimes. She told me that she couldn't accept cash. With my blood pressure rising, she went on to say that she could take neither my personal check nor a credit card. The options were an attorney's check or a money order from the bank. Still having my money in hand, I went into the first bank I came across and explained that I needed a money order in the amount of $5.95. She said, no problem, will that be coming out of my account -- DUH, I'm holding my money in my hand in plain view for you to see. I told her that I was paying cash. She then asked for my account information. I told her that I didn't have an account at the bank, that I simply wanted to purchase a money order with cash. She said that since I wasn't a customer, she could not take my cash or sell me a money order. 

The beauty of cash is that it doesn't require identification. Now my blood pressure is really shooting up there. I walk three blocks and enter my own bank. With money still in hand I say that I want to purchase a money order -- sure, no problem.  Now I get to trek back to the DA's office only to go through the security practice again. 

I don't agree, but I can somewhat accept the DA's office not taking cash -- although with all the security, I can't see someone getting through with guns a blazing with the intent of robbing the District Attorney. With that said, maybe it's the employees that can't be trusted with cash -- if that's the case, then the hiring process when dealing with money should be more stringent.

It's completely unacceptable, however, for the bank to refuse to take my cash money .

[end of blog]

Yep, it's true. Since becoming a business person, I'm not the naive, trusting person I once was -- especially, since not too long ago, a thief stole the contents of my site and used it as her own.  BTW, for that individual, you know, I know, who YOU are -- I know your name and where you are located. You aren't off the hook -- as anyone that knows me will attest -- once you do me wrong, I NEVER forget. 

At any rate, I can always tell when newbies are trolling the Internet -- it's like an attorney, you can spot one a mile away. For me, I can tell by the key-phrases and hits on my site (actual search phrases -- typos, grammar and incorrect punctuation/capitalization not changed):

1. legal transcriptionist wanted;

2. learn legal transcription;

3. what is the going rate for legal transcription;

4. openings for legal transcriptionists;

5. do i stiull need a person to transcribe a video?;

6. what is the going rate for paying transcriptionists by the word?;

7. looking for work as a independent legal transcriptionist;

8. all legal transcriptionist job openings;

9. legal transcriptionists wanted;

10. how legal transcriptionists charge;

11. flyer for legal transcriptionists;

12. i m an legal transcriptionist and don t have health insurance;

13. pay scale for legal transcriptionists work at home;

14. transcription service japanese rate [I DON'T UNDERSTAND HOW THIS ONE GRABBED ME, OR WHY I WOULD KNOW OR EVEN CARE WHAT THE JAPANESE CHARGE FOR TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES;

15. vervatim transcriptions [THIS ONE ALWAYS GIVES ME A CHUCKLE -- KIND OF LIKE PEOPLE WHO SAY DUCK TAPE]

What has set this blog entry into motion, is a few days ago I received an email. The name of the sender was a man and the subjecrt was "Possible Work." I opened it up and a couple of things hit me directly between the eyes -- first, the email was set up using stationery background -- which may be okay for an email to your Grandma, but think twice before setting it up for a business/professional email. This particular stationery was bright blue with flowers and butterflies. I suppose if your business was a florist or garden center, this email stationery would be appropriate, but not for a transcription service!

Second, the email is from a woman using her husband's, brother's  -- maybe even father's email account -- although the signature block in the email has "HER" name and a name of a transcription service. In doing an Internet search, the woman doesn't have a website, although she does come up under all the free listings -- which, myself trying to project a professional image, I'm not really interested in signing up for these freebies.

Third, the body of the email: "Do you do any editing of verbatim transcription? I am looking for someone to edit/correct/send feedback to some insurance conversations. If you do, can you tell me what you charge per line?"

The THIRD point is the one that shouts impostor. Now, let's think about this: editing of verbatim transcription -  what exactly does that mean? Verbatim is the exact true and correct copy on paper as was orally spoken. If you edit it, it is no longer verbatim. Now, could she be talking about editing and inserting and/or correcting capitalization and punctuation? Both of these scenarios say to me that the transcript has already been typed -- so, is she asking me to review and correct someone else's transcript? If so, I would rather pluck feathers from a chicken. It takes longer to correct someone else's work -- especially when they don't have the knowledge, experience and expertise to have done it right in the first place.  -- and send feedback to some insurance conversations -- what?? feedback regarding how the conversation was recorded? feedback on the topic or conversation itself?

Maybe I'm completely wrong about this woman using a man's email address. Maybe she really is a legit transcription company, and maybe she actually has work -- although I'm still a skeptic and think she's a total fraud summed up in her reply. I replied to her original email telling her I probably wouldn't see the bottom of my desk until mid-summer, and that I couldn't help her at this time.Her reply: "Okay, I understand." Again, it's probably me, but I wouldn't have just said "okay, I understand," -- I would have gone on and added, "well, I'll probably be contacting you again when my need arises, and hopefully, your desk will be clean."

My take on the woman and the email: she's either fishing and has gotten a call for such a project and is trying to figure out a price; or she wants to bid on a listing on one of those free sites, or she has heard about verbatim transcription and thinks it is something anyone with a computer, a boom box and a pair of ears on her head can do.

[end of blog]