Tuesday, May 7, 2013

WHAT MAKES A GOOD TRANSCRIPTIONIST

There are many reasons why it seems a great idea to set up as a transcriptionist – be it for health, personal or financial reasons – but it is not like driving a car. What you get out of this business is directly concomitant with what you can put it.

The two most important considerations are (a) your ability, and (b) your equipment.
The equipment is reasonably simple: a chair, a desk, a PC, good internet connection and a foot pedal (not essential – some manage extremely well using hotkeys).
And off you go...

The catch here is your ability. Dictaphone typing can be likened to transcription only in so far as one types another’s words. Dictaphone typing in an office situation deals with correspondence, reports, file notes – all of which should be familiar to you. If you work for a mining company, for instance, the subject of the above will be mining. If you find a strange name which you can't make out you can ask for assistance; if a typo slips in, somebody will probably pick it up and correct it.

In the world of transcription you're on your own and this is where the specialised skills of transcription come into play.

Spelling, grammar, punctuation
I believe I owe a client good English at the very least. You must be able to distinguish between principal and principle, there and their; to be able to hear the difference between his, he's and hiss. If you are going to attempt to obtain international clients be aware of the difference between UK and USA punctuation and spelling.

Spellcheck!
This is a tool of vast importance – it is a gift – use it.

Reliability
Take rush jobs only when you have gained confidence. A client may be prepared to grant reasonable time for you to turn into an impeccable transcript, but, if you cannot meet the deadline, the client will move on immediately. Reliability is a key marketing tool in this game.

Typing speed
This should not be an overwhelming factor. Fair enough, you need to have a reasonable typing speed but you don't need to be a whizz. There are plenty of other factors which contribute towards a great transcription.

Taking instruction
Fortunately most clients want intelligent verbatim – no err, mmm, or general babbling. Legal proceedings require keener attention to verbatim speech than interviews, for instance. It is up to you to enquire what the requirements are and stick to them. If a client sends a template don’t substitute yours.

General Knowledge and Google
Ah, don't we just love Google? But even Google can't read your mind. You will work in many different fields with a vast variety of subjects and you can't just turn in a helpless well-I-can't-know-everything transcript marred by question marks and the famous inaudible. Say, there is mention of a mine in Finland – your Finnish may be fluent but mine certainly isn't – there are ways of tracking down that name. It takes time and skill but you can usually get there.

There are of course many aspects to be considered – marketing strategy, web design, advertising, your accounting system, tricks of the trade – the list is long - but it is my belief that without the above qualities you are not going to be successful in the transcription field.

Michele Johanson
Good Hope Transcription Services
michelejohanson@yahoo.com
http://goodhopetranscription.weebly.com
Fax
: 086 6021 791
Skype: Michelej6
Ph: 084 6944 307

Friday, April 12, 2013

Typing for Students

I thought I would repost this article as I am getting quite a few requests coming in from students looking for assistance in typing their Assignments.

When typing for students the first thing you need, whether doing copy typing, formatting or transcribing student files is the student’s guidelines from their professors on what they want the document to look like/layout, formatting etc. Each student receives the guidelines before they start writing up assignments.
Most students follow the Harvard Business methods and Academic writing methods with their assignements (there is copies of these documents in our Tavasa files online in our Yahoo group.

Referencing:
Referencing must be a specific way: (placing of brackets around references)

• start of a sentence, example: Malcolm Knowles (1984)
• middle of text, Lieb (1991: 1),
• end of a sentence, example: (Jarvis, 1987: 185)

University Professors are very fussy when it comes to references and students often get marked down on their referencing.
You can assist your student by checking that the references at the end in the reference list, link back to references within the document. With each reference listed within the text there must be a final reference for it at the end of the document in the reference list.

Example of Harvard Business method reference style:
Wayne, S., Liden, R. & Sparrowe, R. (2000). An examination of the mediating role of psychological empowerment on the relations between the job, interpersonal relationships, work outcomes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 85:407-416.

Put the book or journal title in italics the rest of the reference is not in italics.

The students,  professor Guidelines will give you instructions on:

• Font
• Spacing
• Underline, Bold and Italics
• Justification
• Bullet points.

Your first page which is normally the student details, student number, title, the title page is normally not numbered, hidden number, your second page onward including table of content should be in roman numerals, then the page that your assignment, thesis, dissertation starts should be on the first page number 1, and carries on with ordinary page numbering.
Any tables, figures, drawing within your document, must be listed underneath the reference list at the end of the document. Each table, figure, drawing within the document must be named underneath or above it, example, Table 1, Graph of Trends, Table 2, Three Hats etc.
Underneath reference listing you should have:

List of Tables:
Table 1, Graph of Trends
Table 2, Three Hats

The same applies to appendices.

Make sure you proof and grammar check the assignments etc. At the end of your typing always read through your work to make sure you have missed nothing and reading through gives the addition of proofing after doing a spell and grammar check.
The one thing that I find it a hassle to use is Track Changes, I never seem to be able to switch it off and every time you open the document the track change come on, you then have to Review, and Final, this then closes Track Changes until the next time the document is opened.

If you want to add anything to this article or have additional comments please email me at amftyping@mweb.co.za or alison@amftyping.co.za, or skype: amftyping.


Thursday, April 11, 2013

Question and Answer

Question: I truly love your site.. Pleasant colors & theme. Did you develop this web site yourself? Please reply back as I'm planning to create my own personal website and would like to find out where you got this from or what the theme is called. Appreciate it!

Answer: Thank you for the comment. My theme is from the Blogger's own themes. All the content on the site is my own words, There may be an occasion article on the blog from a few others, it is 90% my own content. This is not a website it is a blog and I choose the template from what is available from Blogger. regards Ali amftypig@mweb.co.za or alison@amftyping.co.za

Thursday, April 4, 2013

OIVAC Early Bird Special catch it before 15 April

Are You the Early Bird?  http://oivac.com/register/


The OIVAC is launching its 8th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention (OIVAC) May 16; it will run through May 18, 2013.
We’re doing a shout out to all “early birds” to grab your rod and grab your seat for the OIVAC, -- before April 15--to receive a $50 discount from the original “sign up” price.
This year’s Convention, themed, Building Business Success in the Virtual World, is designed and the presenters assembled to guide Virtual Assistants at all levels of their business, so they can do their building and maintaining on a foundation strong enough to last for years to come.
Now, in case you may have forgotten even one of the benefits you’ll get in on by attending OIVAC here are some teasers for this year’s events:  http://oivac.com/register/

• 45+ hours of training, best practices seminars, networking and workshops

• Learn how to get new clients, to make your current clients happy, and how to grow your business by leaps and bounds.

• You connect with like-minded colleagues and find new opportunities to branch out

• Recordings available.

• Intro to the VA Industry session – for new VAs or people thinking about entering the industry

• Awards presented to two Virtual Assistants for the footprints they’re leaving on the industry

• Events are presented completely on line in PC and Mac compatible VoIP meeting rooms

• Pay one fee to cover the entire convention. (No hotel, travel, food, babysitting or loss of business while attending).

• Network with and exchange ideas with people from all over the world

• Sessions all hours of the day and night (across continents and many time zones)

• As the Seasoned VA sessions, a panel of experienced, expert VA

• And more  http://oivac.com/register/

If any of the above “speaks to you” and if you’re inclined to see a $50 savings in your hand, be an “early bird” and click the button now (and definitely before April 15th) to register for the 8th Annual Online International Virtual Assistants Convention.  http://oivac.com/register/
By clicking the “buy now” button, you’re not only saving $50, you’ll receive access to the Private Convention Facebook Group where you can ask questions and connect with other VA participants. Click it now, and we’ll “see you on the other side”.

http://oivac.com/register/


Monday, April 1, 2013

How easy is it being a Virtual Assistant?


Being a Virtual Assistant (VA) is not all about the client sending you typing, you do the work and send it back, there is much more involved.
As a VA we do many things, there is month end administration with invoices every month so no matter how busy you are, you stop and do your invoices, it is important to be paid for the work we do. You set aside a day and get your invoices out. Bookkeeping and updating your schedules. This is just one part of our administration another part is, we need to push clients and contractors for payments and invoices, we have to battle with clients who do not want to pay, who query what we do.
One of our aims is to keep our clients happy all the time, we need to keep that client as they provide us with ongoing work so we nurture that client; our clients are our bread and butter. We need to liaise with our clients often.
Managing many clients work is not an easy task. Keep their work in separate folders also in my documents have client folders and in email. With regular clients it is best to invoice monthly. All my clients are regular so I prepare all their invoices at the end of the month and get them all out at the same time so that I can monitor payments coming in. This is where my work log comes in handy as I document all work incoming, and I check back against this when doing my invoicing for each client.
Administration as we call it is a major part of being a VA. We need to market continually, our company needs to be out in the public eye and be seen. Our websites/blogs need to be updated. We continually look for new avenue’s to market our work to. Networking is just as important, there is always the need to tell everyone and anyone what we do, who we are, get the word out there. Any person you talk to could be a potential clients or referral, that’s why it is important to talk about your business no matter where you are, when you can and who you are with. We continually need to look for avenue’s to advertise our companies.
Often we need to do debt collecting with clients who do not pay, this is not a nice part of the job but we must do it, we need to be paid for what we do.
Managing of contractors, when a VA is overloaded we then get the opportunity to help out newbie Vas by contracting to them or helping out established VAs with a bit of extra work. Contracting work out is not as easy as you think. We are on our contractors backs to get them to keep in touch, they need to meet our deadlines, what if the contractor decides she is not doing the work or cant for some reason then we need to find a replacement in the middle of the work that is time taking. Paying of contractors on completion of work.
Another favourite is quoting for work, often ad-hoc jobs come in and we need to arrange a quote, quoting is not quick we need to ask questions to be able to place a price on the work, very time consuming especially with larger jobs.
Filing must be done as with any job, the office administration as seen above is often the hardest part of our job to do, but that comes with running any company/business. There are still many other facets about being a virtual assistant, the best way to learn about doing this type of job is to talk to established VAs as they know what they are doing and they can give you valuable information.

So you see it is not all about sitting and typing, it is about running a full time business/company, and these are only a handful of the tasks we do.

Written by Alison Fourie VAcertified
AMF Typing Service cc





Question and Answer

Q. Could you list of all of your shared sites like your twitter feed, Facebook page or linkedin profile?


A. I dont post info about my articles on twitter, linkedin or facebook or post the links there for articles I write. regards Ali amftyping@mweb.co.za or alison@amftyping.co.za Here is a link to go and view my website http://www.amftyping.co.za Im not that keen on social media and also just don't have the time to keep up with it.

Sunday, March 31, 2013

OIVAC 2013 Early Bird Special

The OIVAC - Online International Virtual Assistants Convention http://oivac.com/register/ is being held from 16 to 18 May 2013 online. We are currently running an Early Bird Special till April 15th.

Building Business Success in the Virtual World
Thursday, May 16—Saturday, May 18, 2013
A Breakthrough Paradigm Shift in Learning and Self-development

You’ll receive over 40 hours of high-quality content and networking at OIVAC. To attend an onsite conference of this caliber, you would easily spend $1,500 when you take into account event registration, travel, lodging, food and entertainment and potential business loss from being away from the office. We guarantee you’ll be engaged in the learning experience —interacting in each session far more than any other “distance learning” or online networking events you’ve ever participated in before.
Combine all the learning, training, workshops, networking, opportunity to interact with Virtual Assistants from around the globe and the option to view and listen to sessions from the comfort of your office and home computer, the value continues even after the convention closes.
A Low-Stress, High-Value Convention that Efficiently Gives You a Top-notch Learning Experience with Spirited Networking, Up-to-the Minute Training and Motivational Interaction – We Guarantee It!












   

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The Transcriptionists and Virtual Assistants Forum of South Africa
T A VA S A
http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/ Yahoo group email based discussion forum

From Wikipedia:
An Internet forum, or message board, is a bulletin board system in the form of a discussion site. People participating in an Internet forum will usually build bonds with each other and interest groups will easily form around a topic's discussion, subjects dealt with in or around sections in the forum.

Belonging to a forum is like being part of a family, you get to know everyone on the forum and it is a great place to discuss work problems, issues, advice, software problems, advertise events, courses etc. It is a great place to spread industry news.
Our forum was founded by Gaynor Paynter (Transcriptionist) and Alison Fourie (Virtual Assistant). This forum is very chatty with Vas and Transcriptionists asking many questions.

An example being;
Question: What in your opinion is the best digital recorder to advise a client to buy?
Answer: I think the most used one is Olympus, anybody have a closer idea than that? Thanks.

Other forums members will answer with their options and often a discussion will ensure. It is also a great place to vent your frustrations on when you have a bad day, there is always someone on the forum who will reply and give you encouragement that things will get better.
Forums are an excellent way of communicating with groups of people, especially so in the working environment.

The benefits of forums:
1. Working from a virtual location, you can keep in touch with what is happening with the industry you work in.
2. No need to get lonely as often there is always someone around on the forum who will reply.
3. It is an excellent way of passing information around a group of people.
4. You can use the forum for pc problems, questions you need to know about the industry you work in.
5. A means of communicating.
6. A forum is an excellent support tool.
7. A good networking tool for small businesses.

Since the creation of Tavasa, we have helped many people working from home with questions and answers that they do not know. The more established people on the forum have been able to answer questions which helps the newbie members and assists them in setting up their own businesses.
Tavasa has been successful in that it also provides job leads and contractor positions, anyone who is part of the group can apply for a contracting position if they have the skill needed. It is a great way of getting help with projects that you need and it’s a good starting point for newbies contracting out, as they grow their own businesses.

Written by Alison Fourie, AMF Typing Services cc, © Copyright 2001 AMF Typing Services cc®, Ck2001/083866/23. All rights reserved.



Friday, March 15, 2013

How to cope with work and your family

Being a VA the one thing you need behind you is your family’s support. Your family needs to be understanding when it comes to you working longer hours, working weekends and public holidays. Children need to know there are boundaries within your office.
Work to a schedule/routine this makes it easier.
If you do housework then get a maid, get some assistance, you can employ a maid for your company like I have done with my maid, (for tax purpose my maid works for AMF Typing Services http://www.amftyping.co.za), or you can contact an agency that supplies maids, but the main thing is to get assistance with the housework, now you are working full time you will not have time to do this.
When you close your office door it means you do not want to be disturbed let the family know this and ask them to abide by it unless there is an emergency that they need you to deal with. The kids can answer the phone and say you are busy and take a message. Make your kids self sufficient, teach them how to get/make their own lunch, cold drinks etc. Get them into a homework routine; be there to assist when they need you.
Make sure your husband/partner is on board with you working as a VA. It is very difficult working as a VA if your husband/partner is not happy with you doing this. If your husband can’t cook teach him to cook, if you can look after the kids so can he, he is capable of doing what you do for the kids, if he works and you work then work together to make things work, share tasks. A supportive husband will be willing to share as they will understand how important your business is it you.
Do your washing when you get up, put your washing on the line early morning, and take it off at the end of the day when you finish work, or run outside like me when a storm draws in. If you have a maid then she can do this for you and also do the ironing, or your husband can assist with the ironing if you are busy, ironing is not just a task for women, show your husband how to do it, share this task it makes it easier if you don’t have a maid.
Share cooking with your husband and your kids if they are old enough, plan a menu in advance, I cook in my slow cooker a few times a week, this way I only have to prepare rice, potatoes etc to go with later in the day. Know what you are going to eat that day, you can prepare everything early on a morning so that all you need to do is cook it later in the day. Your husband and kids can turn on a stove for you so that things can cook while you are busy. Your maid can start dinner for you and you only have to end it after work. Family can assist when you are busy, they should not have to rely on you to do everything. Sharing is caring.
Let friends and family know they can’t just pop in for coffee, ask them to ring you first to see if you are available, you can’t stop for coffee and a chat if you have an important deadline. Work as though you are working in the corporate world, have set work hours, set breaks, lunch etc. When you work for many clients you need to jiggle your time so that work is done for each clients when required, know how to prioritise and schedule your work, see what is urgent, its deadline, maybe smaller tasks can be fitted in between larger tasks.

Be disciplined, if you work to a routine things will work.



Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Answers to Comments

Here are a few answers to your comments: A huge thank you for your comments but please leave your email address and I will contact you further.

Q: With having so much written content do you ever run into any problems of
plagorism or copyright violation?
A: I write all my own material and do not copy from others, all my info is original from my own experiences over the years of being a VA. If I use information from other people/sites etc I make sure I get permission to do so first.

Q: Is your theme custom made or did you download it from somewhere?
A: My template is from Blogger.com, I went through the template designs they have available and picked one I liked, I change it periodically.

Q: What is your experience?
A: I have been working in the corporate world for about 20 years and as a Virtual Assistant since 2001 and have gained lots of experience along the way, most of my experience has been written down in an ebook guide: How to start up your own VA Business, which I have available for new VAs starting out in the business, its is full of everything you need to know to start up your own business. Send me an email if you would like a copy and please enclose your email address.

Q: Do you except guess articles?
A: Yes send me your articles amftyping@mweb.co.za including your email address. I am happy to except articles as long as they are relevent to my topic.



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