Recording categories for business

I added the following content to my services page:

WHEN REQUESTING A QUOTE FOR TRANSCRIPTION PLEASE INDICATE TO THE BEST OF YOUR ABILITY WHICH OF THE FOLLOWING YOUR AUDIO FALLS INTO (if you are unable to we will make this assessment for you)
Category A:
Clear speech
No background noise – recorded digitally in a quiet surroundings
A cleaned up verbatim transcript is provided unless specifically stated that strictly verbatim is required.
Category B:

Group discussions, Telephone recordings, Multiple speakers
Background noise, Technical subject matter, Outdoor recording, Low quality digital files
Speakers using English as a second language
Poor recording quality due to inferior equipment.
Analog recordings made on cassette
A cleaned up verbatim transcript is provided with notations where audio is unclear, unless you request otherwise.

Category C:
Multiple speakers with voice overlaps, background noise that interferes with the speech
Heavy accent, poorly spoken English, defective recordings
A cleaned up verbatim transcript is provided with notations where audio is unclear, accent is unidentifiable, speech is drowned out by loud noise, etc, unless you request otherwise.
Time stamps and different formatting can be provided on request.
With your requests for quote, please also provide deadlines required, as well as any
further documentation or information, should you have these available.
Send email enquiries (click here) or call 083 442 4689 or skype gaynorp
 stating it’s about a request for quote.

What are your comments?


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OIVAC international session

As posted by AMF Typing Serivces/Tavasa: Hi Everyone, Happy Friday to you. Today is International Virtual Assistants Day across the world, tonight the Online International Virtual Assistants Convention will be hosting a celebration for IVA day starting at 11pm to 1am South Africa time, the speaker this year is Kathleen Gage, the Thomas Leonard and Janet Jordan Awards will be presented to two exceptional VAs in the VA Industry and then there will be loads of prizes given out in a fun draw, and I mean loads of prizes. It’s a great celebration and full of fun. You will meet VAs from across the world. It is a free session so everyone can attend but get there early as it is usually packed. Would be lovely to see some South African VAs attending. Go to www.oivac.com
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Xhosa Translation and Transcription

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If you are available to transcribe and translate in XHOSA, please see below and contact me directly with your quotes (gaynor@typewritetranscription.co.za), contact details and availability.  Based on your quotes, I will put a quote into my customer and revert to you.
- 1 hour, Disk is in Xhosa and needs to translated into English and then transcribed into both languages.
- 29minutes, Disk is in Xhosa and needs to translated into English and then transcribed into both languages.
– 1 hour, 30 minutes, Disk is in Xhosa and needs to translated into English and then transcribed into both languages.

Business Mentorship and bouncing ideas off people

Some days ago I asked followers on my Facebook page how they cope when they've got a job to do that they know they can do, but they wouldn't mind bouncing it off someone else for ideas.

I rather liked Alison Fourie's idea - from AMF Typing - she said she bounces it off me, and that's the type of relationship we have - most of my challenges get bounced off her too. I guess we are each other's mutual mentors.

Other comments were also interesting - Roger Frost of Wett Inspections said: I usually Google my idea, and see whats out there. There isn't much out there that already hasn't been done. Usually it is just a matter of taking an old idea or product and putting a new spin on it.

Done van Mollendorf added that she approaches family and friends and also mentioned that joining online communities with the same interests helps so that one can get an idea of people's feelings and thoughts on the matter.

 When you work in an office full of people, you have colleagues. Usually there's the computer guy, there are office staff, managers, directors. Colleagues who you can brainstorm with. When you're self employed, working for yourself, that can be negated. So it is important that you establish a network of people that you can bounce your ideas off. I would love to see more comments on this post about this.



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Niamh Greene - A Message To Your Heart

Niamh Greene is an author who writes with a compassion that makes you feel she speaks to you directly. I chatted about one of her books at our local book club the other day and I was asked what makes the book readable. My answer was that I feel like her characters could be me.

Those of us starting and running our own businesses are going to love A Message To Your Heart. The running of the business is not the main subject of the novel, but the life of the business owner is. Do you feel like your family don't take you seriously? Have you got overheads you are not sure how you are going to meet? Do you have staff and other people in your life who are just not performing as you believe they should? Then read A Message To Your Heart.

The book itself is about a literary agent, Frankie, who has set up her own agency after having worked for a larger one. She is, to put it bluntly, battling to make ends meet. She has one big client, and the person who rings her the most is the bank manager.  To her family, she seems work obsessed and addicted to her phone, which her brothers call her Crackberry.

On a make or break business trip to San Francisco, Frankie loses the phone and once in America, she hires a temporary one. (There is not one business owner I know who can say they have never lost a cell phone, at least, not honestly). However she soon begins receiving strange text messages. Eventually she decides to reply to one to inform the person sending them that she now has the phone and is not the intended recipient of the messages. To her surprise, she receives a call from the person sending the messages - and things twist and turn in sometimes comic, sometimes heart rending, but always human turns of fate. Does Frankie get the client? Does she save the business? What is the reason for the text messages? You're going to have to read the book to find the answers to these and a lot of other things! I was sad to reach the end of the book. I wanted it to go on. I felt I'd made friends with Frankie!

Follow Niamh Greene on Facebook here.   If you want to read more about Niamh Greene, who she is and how she got published, then click here.

Query from a wannabe VA newbie

We received this query today:

Hi there

The term VA  is new to me! I never knew anything like it existed, but at the same time, it makes so much sense!

I read about it for the first time in a magazine this weekend.

It makes me feel like there is hope after all!

I am in a complete “limbo” situation at the moment.
·         45 Years old,
·          female,
·          never been married,
·          no children,
·          retrenched from a reasonably-paying management position just over a year ago (interior industry),
·         now in a much more “scaled- down position” (…. with a “scaled-down” salary to go with it),
·         never invested in property….
·         Not likely to inherit much
·         … and EXTREMELY concerned about my future …(I have literally 20 years to get myself together before I retire)

A Day in The Life of a Virtual Assistant with Children

Trish Donmall owns Conor's Admin Services.
Here she chats about running her business AND having children.

A Day in The Life of a Virtual Assistant with Children

 

I often hear people say that they want to work from home to spend more time with their children, then when they do they are discouraged as the “extra” time they have at home doesn't always turn into more family time. I know there are quite a few out there that will relate to this.

 

 

Translation / Transcription and the rates

We had this query on our Facebook page this morning:

Good heavens it is not easy to find a guide as to pricing for transcriptions! :) Not sure you can help, I have been asked to transcribe Afrikaans focus group discussions into English but don't know how to charge. Someone suggested the going rate is R100 for 100 words, that is R1/word. Is that roughly what people are charging? Thanks a lot!

This is the answer I provided:

Hi Ewald. Thanks for the question. To me R1/word is a good rate for TRANSLATION. But when a client makes this type of query, essentially they need to be educated that transcription and translation are two different things. First, you're going to need to transcribe the Afrikaans, and then you're going to need to TRANSLATE it into English. You can possibly do the translation as you transcribe, but that then will take longer than plain transcription. So you're going to need to charge a translation rate as well as a transcription rate. I would consider then having the transcript proofread, or at least proofreading yourself - as it's easy to make grammatical errors or type sentences that don't read smoothly when working this way. I hope this helps and give me a yell if you need any further help.

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