Can Anyone Do Home Based Transcription for a Living?

I can't promise you that just anyone can earn a successful living with home based transcription business. It is a profession like any other profession and requires a few certain skills and some education to be competitive in the field and satisfy your clients or contractors.

If you're looking to make a career in general transcription, the main considerations, besides a love of typing and being at home in front of a computer most of the day are:

• At least a high school diploma
• Post-high school business courses are excellent for your Résumé as well
• A good command of the English language including spelling and punctuation, especially if you're getting contracts from within the United States. This is imperative.
• Ability to hear and distinguish the speakers
• Solid knowledge of computers and how to use word processing programs, specifically Microsoft Word and Corel WordPerfect
• Knowledge of and ability to download digital audio files from the Internet

Along with those certain skills, if you want to be able to contract the better clients and earn a good, solid living with your transcription business, here are some questions you should ask yourself first:

• Do I have a private room or office where I can set up my business?
• Are there things that will constantly distract me from getting my transcription work done on deadline?
• Can I make a schedule around my kids' nap times or school?
• Will I have an uncooperative husband/spouse/significant other who will expect too much of me (housework, kids, etc.) while still running my home based transcription business?

If you have any of these issues, you may want to resolve them first so when you're ready to start your business, you can get right into it.

You don't want to start taking on clients only to find out that it's not what you expected or it just won't work into your lifestyle.

 

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