Being a stay-at-home-mom, have you ever wondered how to get into the dictation transcription business? If the answer to this question is yes, then you should know that despite being a highly paid occupation, it is not something easy to break into and will require you to face numerous challenges. Outsourcing to third world countries and voice recognition programs have had huge effects on this industry, but it is still a feasible and worthwhile career to consider.
The first thing you require to start your own dictation and transcription business is good education. This is not a field where you can just jump into without having proper education or training. As a beginner, you will be required to attend a training program. Depending on how good you are at learning new things, you can either go for a local community training program or an online course. It will take you a minimum of six months to get acquainted with digital transcription, whereas some programs can even take 1.5 years or more to finish.
As far as the costs of starting a dictation transcription business is concerned, the good news is that you can start with minimum or sometimes zero start up costs. If you are really lucky, you can find a client who can let you use his/her tape transcriber at your house. However, if this is the case, you should make sure that the equipment is kept out of the reach of kids because if it gets damaged, you’ll be the one to pay for the repair service.
If, on the other hand, you need to purchase transcription equipment yourself, a good way to save money is to join an online network of women involved in the same business. Here you will regularly see women selling off their used transcription equipment at discounted prices. Another option is to buy the equipment online. Online retailers dealing with transcription machines regularly come up with discount offers.
If your client is not lending you the transcription equipment and you also don’t have enough money to buy it yourself, then you can make use of your computer keyboard and speakers together with free dictation transcription software. This technique may not be suitable in the long run, but can be used initially until you have enough money to buy the foot pedal to manage the playback as well as transcription headphones to listen to the audio.
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