Excerpt from virtual industry e-book

An excerpt from my e-book "Working From Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa" which retails for R120. Contact me gpaynter@telkomsa.net for more info and to buy.

STARTING OUT



Now that you’ve decided what aspect of transcription you’re going to do, let’s get started!


It’s a great idea to start out part time if you possibly can and build things up slowly, however if you have lost your job or have some  financial backing to see yourself through some times of setting up, then it may be viable for you to start out full time.

You will probably get many people who tell you it won’t work. Those are people who either want to manipulate you in some way or have employee mindsets. If you go into this with an entrepreneurial mindset and the belief that it’s what you want to do and if you are prepared to work harder than you’ve ever worked before — as Shakespeare puts it, “suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune”, then there is no
reason why it should not work. Be warned however, this is not for people who are lazy and want things to fall into their lap. It has to be fought for, and things can happen for you from day one or from year six. Fighting for something you believe in means going against the flow if necessary and surrounding yourself with people who believe in it as opposed to listening to negativity.

"Gaynor Paynter has written a down to earth, user-friendly guide based on her own personal experience. It’s easy to read and mostly comprehensive." – Michelle Nel, freelance environmentalist journalist. 

World Wide Virtual Service Billing Rates

Robert Brenner is the Publisher: Pricing Tactics and Small Business Guide to Pricing and the

Manager of  Real Prices Confidential(RPC) online database.

He recently published the following which he gave me permission to publish. Of note is the fact that South Africa doesn't feature.

I don’t hav stats but my gut feel says that there are more Vas in SA than in the Ukraine, and Hungary. The Ukraine’s population is 46 million, Hungary a paltry R10 million.  Our population is 49 million. It would be interesting to find out what percentage of people are Vas and if there eare more in SA or in these countries. After all, Hungary also have political differences and I don’t think can be considered first world. Unless, like the Chinese government, their focus is on education and they have free internet, I cn’t see how they can have more than us. It leads me to wonder whether this bears out something that my colleague Alison Fourie of AMF Typing - who put me in touch with Robert - and I have always wondered. Do South African VAs NOT ADVERTISE?

World Wide Virtual Service Billing Rates

Based on almost 6,000 prices that we’ve collected (most in the last 6 weeks) a Quick Look analysis shows the following:

Sample size: 5,982 companies (and growing)

Price Range: $5-$300/hour

Average Price: $27.66/hour

Countries represented: 21

Top Countries Advertising on the Internet (listed by number of ads found):

USA

Canada

India

Australia

UK

France

Hungary

Pakistan

Ukraine

The highest average hourly rate was $35.80 for the UK, then $31.50 for Canada. The U.S. came in with an average of $27.69. Billing rates for India averaged $9 per hour. Details for all of these prices are in our Real Prices Confidential database (RPC). RPC will be used to develop the 2012 Special International Report on Virtual Service Prices< /i> (available this month). If you’re thinking about outsourcing work or creating a strategic partnership with a company offshore, these may be helpful to you.

Hopefully this information will help you start 2012 focused on increased sales and profit and ready to prosper in the New Year!

Best wishes,

Robert Brenner, MSEE, MSSM

Brenner Information Group

www.brennerbooks.com

Publisher: Pricing Tactics and Small Business Guide to Pricing

Manager: Real Prices Confidential(RPC) online database

P.S. We’re also developing a Special International Report on Web Service Prices. Are you interested?

A VA for You.

Hi guys,

I'm sorry I haven't posted in so long. It has been quite a difficult time, what with my husband going down with Hepatitis A and then it being school holidays. With this in mind, what I want to stress today is the importance of having a good support structure in place. It's all very well happily going along as you are, but when things get hard, can you continue running your business the way that you do in peaceful times?

For us who work from home, it's particularly difficult if for whatever reason, we cannot do our work. No sick leave or paid annual leave for us, and for the most part, no other staff to help pick up or slack! So I'd urge you that now is the time to sort out a back up system, if you haven't done so already. Have somebody on standby who can assist you so that in the event of a disaster, your business can still run ... or, should you wish to go on holiday, you still can ...

It's no good waiting until the worst to happen to try to sort something out. Now is when it should be done. It's not only in the case of emergency that we work at homers need support. All too often, I've heard the lament "I just don't have time for myself. I can't get away from my work. My admin takes up every spare second".

So what can we actually do to ease our loads? Consider a concept which I have been turning over in my mind with great interest since it was first suggested to me three weeks ago.

A VA for the VA.

Think about it. Chew on it and mull it over.

Transcription companies have transcriptionists to help them complete their work. VAs have contractors to help them complete their typing work. So why can't it work the other way too? Why can't we use the concept that we use to sell our services to our clients - that having somebody virtual to assist is immensely beneficial, allowing potential clients more time to do their core business - to ease our own load? It's a concept that is taking off internationally and I can't see why it shouldn't work here too.

So - A VA for the VA. What better way for the experienced VA / transcriptionist to mentor somebody else, teach them the right ways and also take a massive load off their own plates? Seems so simple, really when we think about it, doesn't it? And it opens up a whole new avenue of potential employment for newbie VAs, with the added benefit of a first hand teacher, who actually pays you!

So - if you're a VA or transcriptionist with too much on your plate, contact TAVASA and we can find someone for you.

Please note though that Alison and I are not looking for VAs!

South African Medical Transcriptionists Alert!

If you are a South African medical transcriptionist wanting to a) contribute to upholding standards and procedures in the industry, and b) have the potential of new medical work from us, then Alison and I invite you to sign up at our forum TAVASA. http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/. When you've done so, drop us an introductory mail saying you're an MT.