If you’ve got excellent typing skills (I don’t) a great side hustle is to become a transcriptionist and work from home.
Basically, this type of work means YOU CHOOSE your hours to fit in around your lifestyle and make your own work schedule.
If you really enjoy typing and are fast and accurate, then why not increase your earning potential, make extra money and sell your skills as a transcriptionist?
I first came across the term ‘transcriptionist’ around 10 years ago. At the time I had just started my own online training and coaching business.
I had taken loads of online marketing courses (which cost me a small fortune). 🙁
Most of the Internet marketers mentioned that they would provide me with transcripts of their videos, interviews, podcasts and coaching calls, etc.
Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. Read my disclosure page for more info.
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1. What does a transcriptionist do?
A transcriptionist turns audio or video files into text. You’ll listen to the audio or video and then type what the presenter is saying and produce a text version of the audio.
You may have heard of legal transcriptionists or medical transcriptionists. They are specialists and both require previous knowledge of either the legal system or the medical/healthcare sector.
But the good news is, to become a transcriptionist you don’t need any particular certification. Although being certified will help you find more work.
But what you DO NEED is a certain set of skills, which I’ll cover a bit later. Using the services of a transcriptionist has become very popular for several reasons.
Many coaches and business owners require transcriptionists, this is because they can increase the cost of their products.
If they also provide clients with a text version of their audio and video products, they can charge more.
Types of transcriptions they order :
- interviews
- speeches
- coaching calls
- training calls
- videos
- webinars
- podcasts
- sermons
- presentations
2. Skills needed to become a transcriptionist and work from home
- Good active listening skills
- Ability to understand many different accents
- Fast and accurate typist (obviously)
- Good spelling and grammar
- Able to meet tight deadlines
3. Equipment needed to become a transcriptionist and work from home
If you want to become a transcriptionist then you’ll need a few pieces of equipment in place before you begin:
- Computer/Laptop (with enough power to play audios and videos)
- Fast Internet connection
- A headset – get yourself a decent headset to hear the audio crystal clear while you are transcribing
- Audio Playback Software
Here are two of the most popular FREE audio players:
You can download the FREE version of Express Scribe here and start practicing!
a) Foot Pedal
There are a LOT of foot pedals to choose from. You may want to look around to find one that suits your needs and your budget before you buy it.
I’ve included this link to a whole bunch of foot pedals here.
In the UK? You can find foot pedals here.
The Infinity USB Digital Foot Control with Computer plug has over 700+ customer reviews on Amazon and seems to be very popular.
b) Word Processing Software
Microsoft Word– may already be on your computer, if not you’ll have to pay Mr. Bill Gates for it. MS Word is the word processor industry standard.
Open Office – free open-source software.
4. How can you prepare for the tests and assessments?
If you’re serious about becoming a transcriptionist then you’ll need to prepare in advance and any job offers that come your way.
Before you apply to any of the transcription companies you should have built up your speed and accuracy. The faster you can type per minute the easy the work will be for you.
It’s estimated that a beginner can take around 3 to 4 hours to type ONE hour of audio. This could even take you a lot longer…
How can you practice to get your speed up?
That’s why you have to practice to get your speed up. A couple of free and easy ways to do this is to:
- Go to iTunes and download a podcast, time yourself converting the audio into text.
- Watch a video on YouTube and create a transcript of the audio …and just listen and type you will get faster!
5. Any training to become a transcriptionist?
I searched around before I found great training to recommend to you, the best one I found is TranscribeAnywhere from Janet Shaughnessy.
Janet started working from home as a medical transcriptionist in 2007. Since then she’s started her own training company offering self-paced online courses to help other budding transcriptionists.
Take a FREE Mini-Course to become a Transcriptionist and get started!
You may want to consider the General Transcription: Theory and Practice™ course which is a more comprehensive 6-module training course.
If you are seriously considering becoming a transcriptionist, this course will help you master the art of transcribing audio and video into text documents.
6. Where to find work as a transcriptionist?
You’ve got to start somewhere and it could mean you signing up with a few transcription companies. They’ll find the clients then pass the work on to you.
But you can still work around your family commitments and more importantly when it suits YOU.
To find transcription home-based jobs you’ll have to send your resume and a cover letter. Most will expect you to take a test or an assessment.
Some will expect you to have a lot of experience but some will make allowances for beginners at entry-level.
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