Become a General Transcriptionist
You’ve probably seen advertisements on TV offering to train you for a successful career as a medical or legal transcriptionist. While these can be rewarding careers, you can also become a successful transcriptionist without spending all your time and money in classes and learning all the special terms. Their programs are pricey to buy, then there is the expensive equipment and software they say you must buy as well.
You can get to work within days as a general transcriptionist. A general transcriptionist needs to be able to listen to spoken notes and type them in a format that is understandable not only to the person who gave the dictation, but also to a third party reader looking over your documents. This means you have to be able to type, but also think on your feet, to interpret what people are saying, and understand a variety of voices.
One of the benefits of being a general transcriptionist is that there is very little start-up cost to get your business going. In fact my good friend Loretta has an awesome ebook “Transcription Crash Course“, that will walk you through getting started immediately with no money spent on equipment or software except for the computer you already own.
Getting work as a transcriptionist not only requires you to be able to type quickly, you also have to be able to do it accurately. Your skills will improve as you work, but you have to have some skill before you get started. If you aren’t the best at typing, don’t worry; just keep going until you get it. Practice, practice, practice.
Also, practice listening to someone and typing what they’re saying at the same time. You will want to brush up on your spelling and grammar. Spell check will catch some of these, but not all of them, and it takes longer to fix than to do it right the first time.
Once you have everything you are ready to go. There are a lot of online sites, like Elance, that post work for you to bid on. Just make sure you have a quality cover letter ready to send. You may have to start out slow, but if you build quality results and reviews, you’ll eventually get the business you’re looking for.
Get started quickly by reading Transcription Crash Course. I tried transcription myself but I don’t have a knack for it. If I had started off with Loretta’s ebook it may have been a different story. I’ve read every word and it is spot on with her recommendations. This ebook is more than just spouting things you’ve already heard or loading up affiliate links for products you don’t need. This is literally how she has built her very successful transcription business that allows her to work from home full time and spend very little, if any money.
Please be aware that links may be affiliate links where I will make a commission. I stand by my reviews of products as they are my personal opinion and not swayed by income made from any links
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Hi Antonio, thanks for commenting. I have a great group of ladies in the US that I outsource to.
First off, thank you very much for these great ideas you have made regarding job cover letters. All prospective employees could surely enhance their cover letter as it would be a shame to miss an opportunity for not having done so!
As medical transcription general transcription is good outsourcing business for countries like India. Thanks for writing this article. I will send this link to my friends.
I only kept this reply up because it pissed me off so much. I highly suggest NO ONE outsources to India for transcription. You won’t get anything an American can read if you do so. Sure you saved a ton of money, but you will still need to go over the entire transcript and retype it up. Outsource to your own language and save your time and money. Plus, sorry, I only support North American promotion. Sure I love some UK companies as well, but I like to keep it local.