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!
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label vacation. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
Tuesday, April 07, 2009
Working at Home as a Transcriptionist - During School Holidays
WORKING AT HOME AS A TRANSCRIPTIONIST – DURING SCHOOL HOLIDAYS
By
Gaynor Paynter
Owner: Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC.
gpaynter@telkomsa.net / www.typewritetranscription.co.za
Gaynor Paynter is a writer and transcriptionist living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I have two sons aged 8 and 10, and I work from home as a transcriptionist. It’s now school holidays … so I thought it would be fun to tell you about a day in our lives. I’m hoping to dispel the notion that we work at home moms don’t actually work, and all the other rumours out there that just make me laugh!
Now I don’t know about all of you but when its school holidays I tend to relax routine a little bit for the kids – and since I’m a night owl I find I naturally slip back into my work all night, get up a tad late routine. This also works quite well since I have clients in Australia. Anyway, after working until 11pm last night, at 07:30 am I am still asleep. … not for long.
Two missed calls on my cell phone have me awake. Well with no message left there’s nothing much I can do, but I drearily stumbled out of bed. Immediately, I feel something is wrong. It’s very quiet … why? Where are the kids? I make my way through to the kitchen and find them playing with the dogs, one has his hand in the dog’s water bowl and is trailing water around my kitchen making it look as though snails had been there all night, and the other is gleefully looking on, no doubt relishing the trouble his little brother would get into.
I make them breakfast, stumble through to the office and turn on the computer .. now I’m never at my best in the morning but when a client is trying to explain a complicated computer system to a fuzzy brained me, well – we progress to the point where we realize that it was their client who hadn’t set the system up correctly. This took us two hours, in between interruptions, my son running in yelling “There’s a big yellow van at the door!” and since I’m still in my nightie, I leave my client hanging on Skype, run through and dress faster than I ever have before, while sending my 10 year old out to appease the delivery man … run out there, sign for CDs (the story of their arrival is a whole other one, but suffice to say the lady who has sent them to me is very relieved about their arrival – and people get very angry with you when they are trying to deliver something to you and your doorbell is not working) – to pick up my client on Skype.
Phone rings, it’s my son’s friend.
20 minutes later, bellow at son to get off phone as he’s blocking potential business calls.
10:30 am – a skype from one of our TAVASA ladies asking me if she should start up in medical transcription, general transcription or if it doesn’t matter. I’ve answered the same question from the same lady three times over – and the answer always remains the same, if you want to do MT great, but you have to study for it … and if you want to be a general transcriber you don’t need to study a medical course … (all of these details are available in my book, “Working from Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa)
Phone rings. It’s Damian – trying to help me set up the system. Client skyping continually – and we decide, okay, we’ll do it the old way for today until we can get their client to sort it out. So I log into the old system. Only to discover that this is going to be ultra confusing as the client is dictating in the NEW way, and I’m transcribing in the OLD way … all the while at the back of my mind is, “I’ve got to start on those CVs, and I’ve got to market my business more … “ (Until a few months ago I was using a free website host and the host took it over, thereby directing all of my traffic to a bunch of garbage … anyway that’s nearly sorted out but in any case marketing is something that should be done on a daily basis in this field).
2pm - file spell checked and uploaded. I’ve promised to take my kids for milkshake and nobody’s had lunch yet –so off we go to KFC about 6 – 7 blocks down the road. (we walk as we only have the one car and Damian uses it for work). This is a thing the boys and I do every school holidays – our tradition and we love it.
3pm, back home to 3 emails and 2 skypes that need answering … so, I settle the kids down to their various activities – Andrew wants to play his new computer game and Brandon is playing with the toy KFC kindly just gave him – and I answer them – actually as the moderator of TAVASA I’m feeling a bit guilty that I can’t always get to the questions as quick as I’d like – but still, we keep on trying and will keep on trying to support others in our field.
The boys begin to fight – I’m always hoping my oldest will find a pastime different to that of making his little brother scream by taking his toys away, and that Brandon will learn to ignore him and not play up to him – so I develop my lung capacity by screaming the full length of the house at them (heaven knows what the tenant must think). All is calm for about five minutes, and then the same again. There comes a time in every school holiday when any siblings even if they are the best of friends have had enough of each other’s company. I go to remove the oldest from the youngest’s room. This only works on dire threat that he will be made to wash the dishes the whole week if he does not desist.
After that, eventually get to make a start on the four CDs I have to transcribe before Wednesday, guess what it’s terrible audio and the kids are being noisy too (but not fighting), and I soldier on and will proofread at the end of it …
Which gets us to 16:30 – Damian’s home, and since we need to eat and have no food in the house, and the kids need meds, I’m off out to buy those things while he starts supper – unfortunately, it’s been raining and it takes me half an hour to travel 3km, and the queue in the chemist is just as long … I don’t particularly like driving in the dark so I’m getting more and more antsy, but eventually I get out of there.
So kids are fed and bathed, and it’s 18:50, and here I am ready to carry on working for another hour or so! And that’s a day in the life of a working general transcriptionist mom, when her kids are on school holiday! And let that dispel any notion anybody may have that
a) Work at home moms get to spend more time with their kids than other moms
b) Work at home moms spend all day going to shops or having their hair done
c) Work at home moms watch TV all day.
d) Work at home moms have it easy.
So then you may ask, why do we keep on doing this? There are many reasons. We like to be in control of our own destiny. We like to provide our clients with quality service. We like that we are own bosses and that the work we put in becomes what we get out. We like the idea that somewhere down the line we will have something to provide our children with. I like to think that for children with an uncertain future in an uncertain political environment, this is something invaluable for them. And yes, although it’s hardly ever possible, I like that I can have an hour off to take my children for lunch, even though it means I must work until the small hours to make up for it sometimes. That small investment in quality time with them is worth more than the things I could give them if I was a highly powered corporate. And as for TAVASA, yes it can be demanding and questions and issues come up at times when we find it hard to answer them timeously. But try we always do, and we always will, because I’d like to feel that for that one moment, that one email, that one second where we are advising somebody or giving assistance where we can, we are making a difference in the life of that one person. And that’s worth more than money can buy.
Gaynor Paynter
Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC
Cell: +27834424689
Web: www.typewritetranscription.co.za
TAVASA Cofounder and Moderator http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/
ASK ME ABOUT BUYING MY EBOOK 'WORKING FROM HOME AS A TRANSCRIPTIONIST IN SA"
By
Gaynor Paynter
Owner: Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC.
gpaynter@telkomsa.net / www.typewritetranscription.co.za
Gaynor Paynter is a writer and transcriptionist living in Johannesburg, South Africa.
I have two sons aged 8 and 10, and I work from home as a transcriptionist. It’s now school holidays … so I thought it would be fun to tell you about a day in our lives. I’m hoping to dispel the notion that we work at home moms don’t actually work, and all the other rumours out there that just make me laugh!
Now I don’t know about all of you but when its school holidays I tend to relax routine a little bit for the kids – and since I’m a night owl I find I naturally slip back into my work all night, get up a tad late routine. This also works quite well since I have clients in Australia. Anyway, after working until 11pm last night, at 07:30 am I am still asleep. … not for long.
Two missed calls on my cell phone have me awake. Well with no message left there’s nothing much I can do, but I drearily stumbled out of bed. Immediately, I feel something is wrong. It’s very quiet … why? Where are the kids? I make my way through to the kitchen and find them playing with the dogs, one has his hand in the dog’s water bowl and is trailing water around my kitchen making it look as though snails had been there all night, and the other is gleefully looking on, no doubt relishing the trouble his little brother would get into.
I make them breakfast, stumble through to the office and turn on the computer .. now I’m never at my best in the morning but when a client is trying to explain a complicated computer system to a fuzzy brained me, well – we progress to the point where we realize that it was their client who hadn’t set the system up correctly. This took us two hours, in between interruptions, my son running in yelling “There’s a big yellow van at the door!” and since I’m still in my nightie, I leave my client hanging on Skype, run through and dress faster than I ever have before, while sending my 10 year old out to appease the delivery man … run out there, sign for CDs (the story of their arrival is a whole other one, but suffice to say the lady who has sent them to me is very relieved about their arrival – and people get very angry with you when they are trying to deliver something to you and your doorbell is not working) – to pick up my client on Skype.
Phone rings, it’s my son’s friend.
20 minutes later, bellow at son to get off phone as he’s blocking potential business calls.
10:30 am – a skype from one of our TAVASA ladies asking me if she should start up in medical transcription, general transcription or if it doesn’t matter. I’ve answered the same question from the same lady three times over – and the answer always remains the same, if you want to do MT great, but you have to study for it … and if you want to be a general transcriber you don’t need to study a medical course … (all of these details are available in my book, “Working from Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa)
Phone rings. It’s Damian – trying to help me set up the system. Client skyping continually – and we decide, okay, we’ll do it the old way for today until we can get their client to sort it out. So I log into the old system. Only to discover that this is going to be ultra confusing as the client is dictating in the NEW way, and I’m transcribing in the OLD way … all the while at the back of my mind is, “I’ve got to start on those CVs, and I’ve got to market my business more … “ (Until a few months ago I was using a free website host and the host took it over, thereby directing all of my traffic to a bunch of garbage … anyway that’s nearly sorted out but in any case marketing is something that should be done on a daily basis in this field).
2pm - file spell checked and uploaded. I’ve promised to take my kids for milkshake and nobody’s had lunch yet –so off we go to KFC about 6 – 7 blocks down the road. (we walk as we only have the one car and Damian uses it for work). This is a thing the boys and I do every school holidays – our tradition and we love it.
3pm, back home to 3 emails and 2 skypes that need answering … so, I settle the kids down to their various activities – Andrew wants to play his new computer game and Brandon is playing with the toy KFC kindly just gave him – and I answer them – actually as the moderator of TAVASA I’m feeling a bit guilty that I can’t always get to the questions as quick as I’d like – but still, we keep on trying and will keep on trying to support others in our field.
The boys begin to fight – I’m always hoping my oldest will find a pastime different to that of making his little brother scream by taking his toys away, and that Brandon will learn to ignore him and not play up to him – so I develop my lung capacity by screaming the full length of the house at them (heaven knows what the tenant must think). All is calm for about five minutes, and then the same again. There comes a time in every school holiday when any siblings even if they are the best of friends have had enough of each other’s company. I go to remove the oldest from the youngest’s room. This only works on dire threat that he will be made to wash the dishes the whole week if he does not desist.
After that, eventually get to make a start on the four CDs I have to transcribe before Wednesday, guess what it’s terrible audio and the kids are being noisy too (but not fighting), and I soldier on and will proofread at the end of it …
Which gets us to 16:30 – Damian’s home, and since we need to eat and have no food in the house, and the kids need meds, I’m off out to buy those things while he starts supper – unfortunately, it’s been raining and it takes me half an hour to travel 3km, and the queue in the chemist is just as long … I don’t particularly like driving in the dark so I’m getting more and more antsy, but eventually I get out of there.
So kids are fed and bathed, and it’s 18:50, and here I am ready to carry on working for another hour or so! And that’s a day in the life of a working general transcriptionist mom, when her kids are on school holiday! And let that dispel any notion anybody may have that
a) Work at home moms get to spend more time with their kids than other moms
b) Work at home moms spend all day going to shops or having their hair done
c) Work at home moms watch TV all day.
d) Work at home moms have it easy.
So then you may ask, why do we keep on doing this? There are many reasons. We like to be in control of our own destiny. We like to provide our clients with quality service. We like that we are own bosses and that the work we put in becomes what we get out. We like the idea that somewhere down the line we will have something to provide our children with. I like to think that for children with an uncertain future in an uncertain political environment, this is something invaluable for them. And yes, although it’s hardly ever possible, I like that I can have an hour off to take my children for lunch, even though it means I must work until the small hours to make up for it sometimes. That small investment in quality time with them is worth more than the things I could give them if I was a highly powered corporate. And as for TAVASA, yes it can be demanding and questions and issues come up at times when we find it hard to answer them timeously. But try we always do, and we always will, because I’d like to feel that for that one moment, that one email, that one second where we are advising somebody or giving assistance where we can, we are making a difference in the life of that one person. And that’s worth more than money can buy.
Gaynor Paynter
Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC
Cell: +27834424689
Web: www.typewritetranscription.co.za
TAVASA Cofounder and Moderator http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/
ASK ME ABOUT BUYING MY EBOOK 'WORKING FROM HOME AS A TRANSCRIPTIONIST IN SA"
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)