Is this an easy job?

Somebody who had seen one of my brochures rang me yesterday to say she was considering finding a work from home job, and was what I do easy?

I stopped to look at my situation before considering my reply. I had just developed a head cold and was not feeling at my best - sinussy, clogged, sneezy. I was busy with transcribing a two day conference for a regular client who doesn't usually send regular work, but who contacted me yesterday to say it was urgent and she needed it back this morning (which I have completed - with the help of fab sub contractors). I am the mom of two and it's rather a choppy period for them at the moment - one is battling with his schoolwork and the other changing schools next year.

Before I could answer, the lady continued to say that she wanted to spend more time with her children and therefore wanted to work from home. And I always feel like I'm letting people down when I tell them that since starting doing this, I spend less time with my children and that no, it's not easy. I spent about 6 months when I first started out working 24/7 on my business and some days I still have to do that, depending on my clients.

When you get those regular clients in, it becomes a bit easier, but just like a boss in an office, a client wants his work back - whether or not your child has a difficult homework project, etc. And regular clients are not that easy to find and must be treasured when you do find them.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not trying to put people off, it's just that I have five years experience doing this and I call a spade a spade. If you want something for nothing, to spend all day long with your children, and to be able to nurse yourself back to health in bed when you have a cold, this job is not for you. But if you want to be your own boss, build a business for yourself and a heritage for your children and have good typing and grammatical skills and a professional manner - then yes!

World AIDS Day

Hi there, I would just like to say I support the sentiment behind World AIDS day and that I make the following pledge:

For every confirmed transcription order I get in today, I will donate 10 per cent of the proceeds to The AIDS Foundation of South Africa http://www.aids.org.za/index.htm

I'm willing to extend this to say that even if it's the 2nd of December in South Africa when you place your order, if it's the 1st in your country, then the deal is on.

When do you sleep?

A friend asked me this yesterday and I'm still pondering the answer. The truth is, as a mom of two, a wife, the owner of a busy transcription company - and a person who also likes to have her own life outside of all of this - sleeping does not get the time it should, really.

I find exhaustion is my constant companion, but it's all self imposed, so I don't resent it. I don't have a boss or someone telling me which hours to work, when. So yes, if I work late in the evenings when it's quiet and peaceful in my house, even though I know I have to be up early the next morning, it's my choice, and I believe this is what makes the exhaustion tolerable. Besides, when clients need something done, or there is a transcriptionist with an emergency to sort out, or you have a child with a problem, sleep is not really an option.

I do value though the odd moments of peace and sleep I do get. I guard them fiercely and this I believe is what keeps me going.

Afrikaans transcribing, yes, typing in Afrikaans!

Hello everyone, from a very cold and wintry Johannesburg. Who can believe temps of 14 deg Celsius in summer! I've my winter clothes out again.

Today I feel I have surpassed myself. Late afternoon yesterday, a client got hold of me and said that she had a transcription for me and please would I pull out all the stops to try to get at least some of it back to her as the gentleman being interviewed actually passed away this week and they would like to use some of the transcript for his memorial service.

Of course, I couldn't say no to that, and anyway I'm not in the habit of saying no to my clients. I will always go the extra mile to try to meet a client's requirements, and so I said "of course, send it along".

I received it. It was 198 minutes of Afrikaans transcription.

Now ... I sat there contemplating this. Yes, I'm an English speaking South African, and usually when I start speaking Afrikaans, Afrikaners speak back to me in English. But my vocab is not bad, I've recently begun working on my Afrikaans again and in fact I reread Dalene Matthee's book "Fiela se Kind" last week, in Afrikaans. And the client only asked for a portion of it back this week and she said that I can have 10 days to complete the rest of it. Ordinarily my first thought with Afrikaans work is "outsource it".

But to be honest, I like the Afrikaans language. I find it poetic and descriptive, and since rereading Fiela se Kind I find I actually think in Afrikaans. So I thought, I'll take this on. I may only get through 10 minutes of it, and if so can always outsource it, but let me give it a try.

I've faultlessly typed 30 minutes of it (without a spell checker, I might add - the lack of Afrikaans spell check options is a whole other potential blog post) and I'm in the happy position of being able to tell my client she will be able to have at least an hour of it if not more before Saturday. And here is the moral of the story:
Don't underestimate yourself. Try things. Have a back up plan in place, but trust yourself and try things. Your clients will appreciate this.

Reading and Transcribing

Hello everybody,

Today I would like to make a point that is very close to my heart - that reading good literature can be very beneficial to transcriptionists.

Reading teaches a variety of things that are essential to transcriptionists in their daily jobs. A good book is edited before being published and therefore is a good source reference for students of English (something all transcriptionists should be, whether they are English speakers or not, for the pure and simple reason that transcription is not just typing. It requires thought, and getting things right). Reading teahes the following skills essential to transcription:
- Getting things contextually correct. Pay special attention to where 'there', 'their' and 'they're' are placed. Yes ... they all mean different things! Getting this right is what puts humans apart from voice recognition software.
- Spelling (by reading the same word over and over a sufficient amount of times, you will learn how to spell it when encountering it in dictation).
- Grammar (ditto the note next to 'spelling').

Having said this, Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services CC would like to align itself and state its support for a new initiative promoting reading in South Africa, Read South Africa.

Here is a bit more about this initiative:

The pursuit of information, the desire to "broaden ones horizons" has unfortunately and tragically remained a "Western" and "elitist" construct.

We as the writers of our time would like to move beyond these artificial barriers and create literary awareness and a passion for reading among the majority of South Africans.

We want to use our profession to reach the oft ignored South African classroom, the beleaguered minds of young and old alike.

We want to offer other paths that could be followed to somehow stem the tide of violent rhetoric that has permeated and diminished the lives of South Africans, where ignorance plays a major role in perpetuating this violence, where it becomes cyclical and passed on from generation to generation.
(read less)

The pursuit of information, the desire to "broaden ones horizons" has unfortunately and tragically remained a "Western" and "elitist" construct.

We as the writers of our time would like to move beyond these artificial barriers and create literary awareness and a passion for reading among the majority of South Africans.

We want to use our profession to reach the oft ignored South African classroom, the beleaguered minds of young and old alike.

We want to offer other paths that could be followed to somehow stem the tide of violent rhetoric that has permeated and diminished the lives of South Africans, where ignorance plays a major role in perpetuating this violence, where it becomes cyclical and passed on from generation to generation.

Mission: Encouraging everyone who has interest in the future of South Africa to read.

This innovative initiative can be contacted and supported at:

http://www.readsa.co.za
http://readsa.book.co.za/blog
http://twitter.com/readsa
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=logo#/pages/Read-South-Africa/146421296979?v=info&ref=mf

Working From Home in the Czech Republic by Pearl Harris

Today we have the pleasure of a guest post from the accomplished author, second language English teacher, proofreader and editor, Pearl Harris who has recently written a book "From Africa to Bukova"

Born within sight of the red sand dunes of the Kalahari, PEARL HARRIS lived most of her life in South Africa, until taking the drastic step of emigrating with her husband, Ian, to the Czech Republic (with their Labrador and cat).

Teaching English as a Foreign Language to the Czechs—a new career for the author—has its joys and trials, which Pearl shares with the reader in "From Africa to Bukova".
You will also learn about her early childhood on an isolated South African farm and about her British Settler ancestor who chose to emigrate from England to Africa as a 19-year-old, spending the rest of his life in South Africa.

Pearl’s travel articles have been published in South African magazines, "Diversions" and "Your Family", and in Czech magazines, "Lifestyles" and "Bridge", as well as on the websites, http://www.timetravel-britain.com/ and http://www.transitionsabroad.com/

Pearl taught English at the České Budĕjovice branch of POLYGLOT from 2002 to 2007. At present, she works from home as an English teacher, proofreader and travel writer. The Czech Republic has become her permanent home.

Working from Home in the Czech Republic
by
Pearl Harris

Nearly eight years ago, my husband and I emigrated from East London to Buková, a tiny village in South Bohemia, near the Czech border with Austria.

I started off teaching English (EFL) at a private language school which was situated 30km. from Buková in the city of České Budějovice. Teaching was the last career I ever wanted to follow, but this was the only employment available to someone without the slightest Czech language ability.

English is in great demand in this country, especially since its inclusion in the EU. In former days (the communist era lasted for 40 years) only Czech and Russian were taught at school. Czechs were not allowed to travel and were totally isolated, so now there is great hunger to learn English as an international language.

In South Africa, I worked as a Radiographer and later as a Medical Transcriptionist for Radiologists. The latter work was particularly stressful as I worked under extreme pressure in a very busy X-ray dept. of a private hospital.

I had to type at such a rapid rate, for so many hours on end, that I developed osteo-arthritis in my fingers!

Before leaving S.A., Ian and I did a crash course in TEFL at the Cape Town TEFL Institute, so that, when thrown in at the deep end of teaching here, we had a slight inkling of what it involved. I taught for five years at the private language school, travelling to and from České Budějovice at unearthly hours—in snow, blizzards and pitch darkness in Winter. My students were mainly adults who attended classes either before or after work, hence the awkward teaching hours.

By 2007, deciding that I had had enough of teaching, I resigned from the school, but kept teaching a few private students who came to our home for lessons. This was so much easier! I then wanted to develop my proofreading business, which had been a mere sideline, due to the fact that I was spending most of my time teaching and travelling!

I found a great demand for English proofreading. This is because Czech to English is translated mainly by Czech speakers, there not being anything like enough English native speakers sufficiently fluent in the impossibly difficult Czech language! Therefore, the English translations are anything but perfect –as is to be expected when one is translating into your 2nd or 3rd language!

Today, one still sees hilarious translations on some restaurant Menus and online. Many translators still mistakenly consider themselves good enough not to warrant any proofreading. However, fortunately for me, there are many today who realise they do need proofreading in order to produce quality translations. This has been especially noticeable since the Czech Republic became a member of the EU and recently held the Presidency.

I began by advertising on an Expats website, which chiefly serves the expatriate community in Prague. Many employers advertise on this site for English native speakers. In this way, I slowly built up a regular clientele. The average fee for proofreading is 100Kc per norm page (1800 keystrokes) – which is about R50. For more specialised texts, the fee may be up to 180 Kc (R90) per page.

I often proofread texts for university students and lecturers. Many theses and academic papers today have to be published in English. Further, I do regular proofreading for “Statuss”, which is an upmarket mag. catering to the elite, published in Russian, Czech & English. I also proofread for an agency which publishes monthly business magazines in English.

Now that my time is my own, I have been fortunate in being able to develop my travel writing too. My articles are published on the websites: www.TransitionsAbroad.com and www.TimeTravel-Britain.com as well as in “Bridge” a Prague magazine for High School English students, and in the South African, “Diversions”. So I am fortunate in being able to combine my love of travel with earning something back after our travels.


Ian and I are both keen photographers and usually illustrate my articles with our own photos. Living in Central Europe is such a huge bonus—however, we never have enough time or money to travel as much as we would really like to!

In December, 2008, I finally went the self-publishing route and published my travel memoir, “From Africa to Buková”, through createspace.com (See details below.) The book deals with individual funny, not-so-funny & frustrating incidents during our early years as immigrants in the Czech Republic. I would ideally like to rewrite and polish it, but that will have to wait until (if ever) I get a regular publisher interested!

I send my chilled greetings to all the VAs in sunny South Africa!

Pearl Harris.


Book From Africa to Buková

may be ordered online from:
https://www.createspace.com/3359697
OR
http://www.amazon.com/ Books
OR
by contacting Pearl Harris at
ian.harris@quick.cz

Working from Home in the Czech Republic by Pearl Harris

Make your website a true representation of what you offer.

Hello everybody. I finally have a little bit of a gap today and took half an hour to update my website this morning. I thought it would be a good idea to stress to you how important it is to make sure that your website is a true representation of yourself.

I feel that if your website misrepresents you it can have an impact on how clients see you. If you are a huge transcription or VA entity, then your site should present you as such. If you are, such as myself, one person who sometimes makes use of sub-contractors, then your website should present this too - and if you don't use any sub-contractors at all, then this too should be clear. This shows the client from the start that you are honest and transparent, and it can prevent misunderstandings and problems later when you find that more (or less) is being demanded of you than you are capable of.

My site can be found at http://www.typewritetranscription.co.za/.

Non English language transcriptionists.

Urgently looking for non English language transcriptionists including - French, Spanish, Portuguese, Zulu and Urdu. Contact me directly - gpaynter@gmail.com.

Transcription for the 2010 soccer world cup and other newsworthy events

Hello everyone, this is just a quickie, a call to journalists and others needing transcription services in South Africa during the 2010 soccer world cup (and other newsworthy events - we can transcribe anything you need). Typewrite can assist with this, so please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. The sooner the arrangement is in place, the better for all. We can provide references, do tests, etc. etc.

Journalists, publications and all others welcome to contact us.

Make your transcripts make contextual sense.

Hello everyone, just a very quick comment today about the importance, when transcribing, of making sure what you transcribe makes sense contextually. I've just proofread a document where the transcriptionist didn't really make sure that what she typed fitted in to the context of the work. The speakers were talking about copies of a document and one man said "Could you please bring me more copies?" and what the transcriptionist transcribed was "Could you please bring me more coffee?"

Please I want to urge every transcriptionist to pay attention to this. Being able to make contextual sense of things is what sets us apart from things like Google Voice and other automated transcription services.

Working from Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa

Updated: 29 August 2012

If you are a transcriptionist starting out in South Africa, why is it necessary to own a book such as Working from Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa, which I've listed on Bidorbuy. 

The simple answer is that it tells you all the ins and outs, and provides the answer to your questions.
- How do I start up as a transcriptionist?
- How do I get that first client?
- How do I keep those clients?
- What administrative procedures are necessary?

My ebook, which retails for R120, will tell you the answer to all these questions, and more.


The reason I came to write this book was that after a chat with my colleague, we realized that we would have benefited greatly and got our businesses off the ground so much faster had such a book been available when we started out in the virtual field in South Africa. We realized that we had gained a lot of experience along the way, and that others could benefit from what we had learned.

Today, if you want to work as a transcriptionist in South Africa, there is no need for you to go through the difficulties and hassles I went through when starting out. Your questions can be answered easily.

Working_from_Home_as_a_Transcriptionist_in_South_Africa

On a personal note I would like to mention that Bidorbuy has become my supplier of choice. There are many things available on there that are pretty much impossible to come across elsewhere, such as the anti nausea bracelets I found on there when my husband had hepatitis and needed them badly. I was unable to find them elsewhere although I spent an afternoon searching.

Business procedures

Hi everyone, today I want to talk about the importance of procedures to your business. Procedures are vitally important in any business, but perhaps in a virtual business they are of tantamount importance. A procedure in essence is a plan, and generally speaking, to use the old hackneyed phrase, failure to plan is to plan to fail.

I believe any business must start with a business plan. Even if you don't intend to use it to obtain a loan, it would be something that allows you to clearly state your intentions about what it is that you are trying to do. It's a mind clearer. And the natural next step (or even included in your business plan) would be to plan your procedures. This means you sit down and think of eventualities and plan how you're going to deal with them. What are your steps to follow when a query comes in? What are your steps when an order comes in? How are you going to invoice? These are things that, I believe, every newbie VA and transcriptionist should document.

Here comes the challenge, though. Your first client comes in, followed by your second, and your third. And suddenly, you're very busy. At this point it is easy to let go of procedures. And this is a danger to your established business. Much as you are tempted to go straight to bed after a 4 hour transcription, do not do so without at least blocking out some time the following day to do your admin. It's important, because doing it regularly does save you time in the long run, and consider that admin left for two or three days, or longer, can begin to make you feel overwhelmed.

Procedures can also be revised, as you get busier or add new services or products to your business. But the bottom line is - stick to your procedures.

Learn Transcription Ebook

Links and email updated 2025

E-Book “Working from Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa”! only R120! Contact gaynor@typewritetranscription.co.za.net to purchase.

This E-book is packed with everything you need to know about working from home as a transcriptionist in South Africa. I started out as a transcriptionist in 2005 and I’ve included everything I’ve learned along the way that I wish someone had told me.

How do you get that first client, how do you keep your clients, how do you invoice, and quote? What about where can you find support? What equipment do you need? All this information and more is available in my E-Book. Buy it today. This is information I wish somebody had told me – I would have been able to get going so much faster.

These are my tried and trusted methods. There are many American transcriptionist guides but “Working from Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa” has challenges and obstacles all its very own and answers particular questions faced by South African Transcriptionists.

Which other author will happily provide after sale support to you about how to get into the transcription field after you have read the book?

Buy my book today!! Much cheaper than other shorter publications on similar topics. Only R120! Contact gaynor@typewritetranscription.co.za to purchase.

Minute taker / recorder

Hi guys,
TAVASA is looking for a minute taker or alternatively somebody who can record meetings (using at least four microphones) IN JOHANNESBURG ONE SATURDAY A QUARTER. IF YOU CAN'T COMPLY WITH BEING IN JOHANNESBURG OR WORKING SATURDAYS QUARTERLY, OR PLAN TO RECORD USING YOUR CELL PHONE, DON'T CONTACT US ....

If you can, then please get in touch with Gaynor - gpaynter@telkomsa.net. This would be ongoing work.

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!

Dispelling some fallacies.

I was chatting to an office worker friend of mine yesterday and it started coming across that she was actually quite sorely jealous of me both as a happily married woman (she is going through a divorce) and as a work at home mom. She seemed to think that I spend all day playing with my children. Now one of the reasons this attitude irritates me highly is that I know I spend more time working now than I ever did at any office.

Marriage aside, I know many if not all work at home moms have come across this attitude during their work at home careers. Nonetheless, I was quite bemused by my friend's attitude. Now I have a number of unpleasant, stressful issues at the moment myself that I am trying to resolve, but it would never ever cross my mind to say to someone "my problems are greater than yours". I believe that all problems are relative and everybody has different things to cope with. Nobody can judge another's problems until they've walked a mile inthat person's shoes.

But after this friend had almost trivialised what I was saying, the age old "you're so lucky, you get to spend time with your children", came up.

Undeniably there are advantages to working from home, and it's a choice that I made after due consideration. But I have yet to have one successful work at home mom tell me that she is regularly able to spend more time or even quality time with her children. I'm also yet to encounter the successful work at homer who sleeps until 11 am, gets out of bed at 12 and may put in a few hours of work in the afternoon. If you work from home and are successful at it, you're pulling 12 and 13 hour days regularly, and 18 hour days when the need arises. And weekends and public holidays - what are those? I work in South Africa for international clients. They don't have the same public holidays as us and don't care if we are having a public holiday. Two weeks leave? What's that? If I want time off I have to arrange it weeks in advance and then it's not always possible as my clients actually need me to work - they don't have stopgap people who can pick up the fall. And there's no such thing as paid leave. We get burnout, we get repetitive stress injuries and frozen shoulders - and we can't take time off to recover. I'm not denying that office work is also very hard or that there are some undeniable advantages in what we do - we don't commute or pay for childcare. But there are advantages in office work too. You have a regular salary and you have a knock off time. I'm not complaining about it - those of us who choose to work from home know all this before we begin. But weigh up the pros and cons of what you want to do - and give us work at homers our dues.

Office workers, if you want to work from home because you want to spend more time with your kids or think that it's going to give you more freedom, then in my opinion transcription and virtual assistance are not the fields for you - and neither, probably, is any work from home job. If however, you want to work from home because you are entrepreneurial, like to type and are customer driven, and are prepared to put in the hours, then yes I'd recommend it.

Have a great Resumé

Why is it so important to have a great CV or Resumé?

1. Often your CV or Resumé is the first indication a potential employer has that you are interested in working for him. As we all know, first impressions count.

2. Your CV or Resumé is probably your first opportunity to show a potential employer what you are capable of. It is in effect a presentation. An untidy, inaccurate one will present a bad impression of you but a neat, accurate, grammatically correct professionally presented one will show the employer you mean business. Having a second person with expertise in presentation draw up your CV or Resumé is added insurance that you will not make grammatical errors.

3. It’s a written testimony to your capabilities, your achievements, what type of personality you have, your experience and your education.

4. It’s a one stop document where a potential employer can see all he needs to know at a moment’s notice. It’s imperative to make sure all that information is there.

All of the above points will make your resumé stand out from the crowd.

Have a great Resumé!

Contact me at gpaynter@telkomsa.net / www.typewritetranscription.co.za to do a great CV or Resumé for you!!

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.

How to move from cassettes to digital dictation.

Hi everybody, I've just had an interesting query from a gentleman and I thought it would be beneficial to publish my answer here.

The query ran: " I use a typist for my small business but now I am moving away and wish to use the same person. How can i get documents or folders to her by e mail to type for me and send back using modern technology? At the moment I still use tapes and adictaphone but this will not work when I am 150kms away. Can you guide me on what I can use to go electronic? I can see you do such work but I am hoping you would not mind guiding me?

My answer to him ran as follows:

Most of my clients use Olympus to dictate their work into mp3 format for me (I think it's Olympus 5000), which they then send to me via www.sendspace.com, and I've recently implemented a system whereby they can upload files to my website. I then transcribe it and send it back to them using email, so the entire process is done digitally. There are also other digital dictation machines available I've done a google search for you here - http://www.google.co.za/search?hl=en&q=digital+dictation+machines&btnG=Search&meta=cr%3DcountryZA and you see Olympus comes up tops.

If you or your typist have any further queries I will be happy to help - I've even got an ebook available for R90 which shows how I set up and started, which could be very useful to her.

Good luck with the move, and if ever you have any excess transcription or somebody else enquires, I'll be happy to oblige!

Further to this, I looked up the suppliers of Olympus digital recorders here in South Africa and their details can be found at http://www.maynards.co.za/olympus.php

Pet Peeves

Hello everybody,

After a day of transcribing on a new client system that is absolutely horrible - it's taking me three times the amount of time to transcribe the work - I wanted to discuss a couple of pet peeves I have:

1). IM etiquette. If I hang up a busy sign in my IM profile, this means I am BUSY - don't interrupt me! People will ask then, why if you are busy do you sign into IM, and the short answer to this is because if my clients need to contact me, they can. They know that the busy sign up there does not apply to them. Unfortunately, it does apply to everyone else. That's why I have email - you can email me and I can get back to you in my own time. If there's a "Do Not Disturb" hanging on an office or a hotel door, people do not disturb them - this folks is the 21st version of the same thing.

My frustrations are not limited to the virtual world.

2). Doorbell ringers. In South Africa we have a combination of factors that can become really annoying to some poor transcriptionist trying to work out of the back office of her suburban home. Factor one - horrible crime rates mean that we live behind big, high security gates and walls. Factor two - high gates necessitate an intercom on the outside gate. Factor three - unemployment, which leads to many hawkers walking the streets trying to make a living for themselves.

Hence you have me, the transcriptionist in the back office of her house working to a deadline and trying her hardest to get through a string of things before the kids come home from school - just recovered from the interruption of an IM coming through a busy sign - when - bing bong, bing bong!! Off go the headphones, and up I get to peer through the window to see who is at the gate. Turns out this is not somebody I'm expecting, and moreover, it's a hawker, selling a ware I don't need, and I've given my last R2 - yes, my last - to my son for charity at his school that morning. I ignore the bell. Yes, I know you can see me through the window. The fact that I've looked at you and walked away should be some kind of hint that I'm not interested. So why, why, does the hawker ring the bell again - and keep ringing it, until I'm forced to get up again and say something impatient throgh the intercom? If I market my service to a client, and I don't get a response, I realise that now just isn't the best time, and I move on. I'm not alone in my feeling on this. See what author Damaria Senne has to say about this: http://damariasenne.blogspot.com/2009/04/drafted-6-poems-as-part-of-poem-day.html

Next blog post will be on pet peeves particularly related to transcribing.

Writing, proofreading and editing blog posts as a new service

I read a few blog posts last night and was quite shocked by the poor quality of them, particularly one as I happen to know the author of it is quite capable of writing in grammatically correct, properly spelled English. I have a theory about it. I think that people who are the best of professionals in their every day lives tend to get rushed and overexcited when writing blog posts - I know from experience it can be something you hurry to fit in at the end of a busy day - and I do think it's a shame that these errors occur, as a poorly written blog post can tarnish the author's otherwise brilliantly professional image.

In the rush, after one has worked an 18 hour day, "Their computers" become "there computers" or worse (to me) "they're computers" ... or "Don't get worn out by long hours" becomes "dont get warn out by long hours" ....

Full stops become commas in the rush to get the text down ... "I transcribed 14 hours of audio today. The client was really pleased, and I have more for tomorrow. He needs it back by 6pm." - this looks so much worse written as "I transcribed 14 hours of audio today, the client was really pleased, and I have more for tomorrow, he needs it back by 6pm."

Another pet hate of mine is incorrect capitalisation. I did a grammar and spelling quiz on Facebook, and my result was "English Professor Material" - which amazed me, because one of the questions actually had no correct answer! It read:

They took ________ dog for a walk and afterwards _________ going home. Which are the correct words to fill in here?

a) Their, they're
b) there, their
c) They're, there
d) there, they're

I picked a) and hoped for the best as it was, I supposed, the most correct, but it too is not correct. If you slot the words in, there is a horribly incorrect capitalisation in the sentence.

If you are unsure whether you can get your spelling and grammar correct on your blog, outsource this function. I will from now on be offering writing, proofreading and editing of blog posts and entries as a service to my clients.

General Recording Tips

Nothing is more stressful than receiving poorly recorded audio to transcribe. You just know that try as you might, you are going to struggle to give your client the quality transcript you usually return. Therefore, I urge clients to look at the following, and for transcriptionists to distribute the following general recording tips to clients.

• Ask participants not to speak simultaneously. If possible ensure that each person has a microphone to speak into. One recorder placed in the middle of the table is not sufficient.

• Mikes should be placed close to the speaker and pointed at him or her. If there is only one mike and one respondent, point the microphone towards the interviewee as it will be of less consequence to lose what the interviewer is saying than the interviewee. Spell out difficult names or references.

• Ask each speaker to introduce him or herself clearly at the beginning and spell out their name.

• Send a list of commonly used jargon or names to us. Agendas and notes help greatly with transcribing conferences. If the interviewer has used a list of standard questions, please send that along too. If you're concerned about the quality of the recording, ask the interviewer to repeat what the respondent has said.

• Try to minimize background noise. Some common sources of background noise include: Traffic, construction and other street noise Noise from other rooms or hallways through open doors. Machinery running in the background TV sets and radios. People making noise in the background. Pets or other animals. Clocks that chime. Doors shutting or slamming. Coughs, sneezes, etc.

• Try to minimize people leaving or entering during the event, but if they must ask them to do so quietly and to not bang the door.

• Conduct a thorough sound check before the event.

• If possible, encourage speakers to make some verbal reference to things they may be indicating visually.

• Although we accept recordings in most formats, we prefer mp3 as this format is standard, works on most digital playback software, and does not usually require conversion.

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/
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