Choosing The Right Transcription Equipment And Where To Buy

For aspiring transcribers across the globe, one of the challenges he or she may face is choosing and buying the right equipment.

We recommend taking your time to decide the transcription gear available to you. There are a lot of machinery out there to chose from.  



Do your home and consider these factors:

• Compatible software
• Quality
• Price

Upon selection, discern whether or not your transcription software will work with your foot pedal. For example, I have a universal foot pedal that work fine with the FTW software, but not so with the free verson of Express Scribe. You'd have to upgrade to Express Scribe's premium version in order to use the pedal. So do your homework!

Quality and price kind of go hand in hand meaning you may not get a great piece of equipment under $50.00. If so, I'd be leary on whether it will work or not and it so, for how long. We've provided price ranges for several types of equipment we feel may meet your budget. We'll be discussing the different types of foot pedal, headsets and software to be used in transcribing so that you will have plenty of options to suit your preferences.

Foot Pedal

Professional Three Pedal Foot Controller. The Professional Three Pedal Foot Controller are high quality 3 pedal controllers that is especially made for professional transcriptionists. This provides a convenient way for professionals who must have their hands free for other tasks. Stop, Record, Rewind, and Play are all controlled using the foot control.

Here are our recommendations for this kind of foot pedal:

• AltoEdge USB Transcription Foot Pedal - This is a high quality foot pedal that you can connect to your Windows PC or Mac OS X. It costs $79.95 and can be shipped worldwide.
• Olympus RS-27 USB Foot Pedal - This foot pedal also connects with your Windows PC or MAC OS X and controls recording or playback functions of a recorder connected with it. This costs $69.95. However, shipping is only available to USA and Canada.

Game Controller Pedal. These pedals are actually made for games. However, you can also use this in transcribing files. It's very common and available at most computer stores. So this is a great option if you really need a foot control as soon as possible. The one that we recommend is the Infinity USB Gaming Foot Pedal. This is a high quality, rugged USB foot controller that allows you to take control of your applications with your feet as well as your hands. This costs $69.95.

Wire your own or modify an old-style pedal. If the two options above are out of the question, then you can always have your own old-style pedal that you can modify to suit your preference. This is the cheapest option wherein you can make your own cable/plug. You can buy an ordinary pedal that costs as low as $12.00 and buy a special cable to connect it.

Headset

Now that you have chosen a foot pedal that you can use for your work, now is the time to choose a headset that best suits you. This means the comfort, the best fit, and sound for transcription.

Here are the different types of headsets and their costs:

Ear-Buds - Ear-Buds are known as behind-the-head earphones. This style is purely a matter of personal comfort. You can opt for the VEC LHT-RA Transcription Earbuds at $19.00 or the Sony MDR-E424 Headset at $29.00.

On-Ear - On-Ear headphones are the ones that sit on the outside of your ear. Comfort varies considerably with this type of headphone so it may take a lot of trial and error in finding the right on-ear headphone for you. You can have something as fancy and portable as the Ultrasone iCans or something inexpensive as the Koss PortaPro Headphones. Both are available at Amazon.

Ear-Cup - The Ear-Cup headphones may be old-fashioned but it's the most comfortable especially for extended wear. This type of headset can help eliminate background noise more efficiently than noise-cancelling ear-buds. Our best bets are Sennheiser HD280 Pro and Bose TriPort Around-Ear Headphones which are both available at Amazon.

Under-Chin - And last but not the least, we have the Under-Chin earphones. They are the rarest of all types and the price can range from $15.00 to over $200.00.

So having the right equipment and investing in them can make all the different in your work. To sum it all up, you can set aside as low as $70.00 or as much as $900.00 depending on your budget, and your needs. 

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services

The Pros and Cons of Working as a Transcriber

Working in a transcription company can be a rewarding experience especially if you have the desire to pursue transcribing as a career. However, it's not all sunshine and daisies in this field. Just like any other job, transcription has its pros and cons.

Before you decide on working as a transcriber, be sure to weigh out the pros and cons. If you think that the pros outweigh the cons, then that's a positive signal for you to engage in this career. Here are some of the pros and cons of working in a transcription company:

Pros

• Can be therapeutic
• Not difficult once you know what you're doing
• Work at home in your own time
• You don't need to spend a lot to start working
• You can actually earn enough just by doing this kind of work
• You can learn a lot from the recordings you are asked to transcribe

Cons

• Can be tedious
• Have to possess self-discipline as you juggle home and work demands
• Deal with people who doesn't respect your work time
• Face the computer for a long period of time

The transcription job is not for everyone. Only those with passion for transcribing can survive in this career. This work can be a daunting task, but once you get used to it,  the rewards are fulfilling. You'll be able to enjoy it and become better in doing it.

Your turn

We'd like to hear from you! What are some pros and cons about working in the transcription industry? Leave your comments please.

Several Real Reasons You Need To Step Away From Transcribing

Revelation and Fact: 

Transcription or the process of transcribing recorded data to a text file is not for everyone. It's totally not. If you do your research [online], you'll discover more sites than I care to count of people saying that 'Anybody can Transcribe'. And this is not so.

In this post, I will go over several reasons why you should leave transcription for people who know what they're doing.

Like Medical Transcription, general transcription IS typing BUT additional skills are required to produce successful results. I've worked with a lot of contractors who think that as long as they can type, the rest is history. And this is not so! They couldn't be further from the truth..

Let's list and discuss the reasons WHY some contractors transcribe in the first place and why this way of thinking can cost a transcription company loads of money!

1. [REASON] Financial [need money quickly] - This is the main reason of course! Internet rumors have it that if you're looking to make money FAST that the way to go is to apply to be a transcriber. It's also rumored that as long as you can type the work, you're good to go.
1. [CONSEQUENCE] - The downside of this rumor is that transcription companies seeking to hire contractors will hire inexperienced transcribers due to the heavy workload. And as a result may spend more money, time and energy fixing your disaster and possibly missing client deadlines.
2. [REASON] The work is easy [I've transcribed before] - This way of thinking can possibly lead a transcriber to over-estimate their skills. It's all a matter of how experienced you are, and what the last time you worked.
1. [CONSEQUENCE] - Transcription companies are blind-sided and at times desperately seeking 'skilled' and 'fast' workers only to realize the the person they hired do not know what they're doing. Like the consequence listed in the first reason, this move can potentially cost transcription companies loads of money, time and energy

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services initially started working with newbies in the very beginning. We believe that everybody need a start somewhere. But as time progressed and business picked up, we started realizing that inexperienced workers are not the way to go. Taking a step back and looking at the performance logs we keep, we came to the conclusion to start seeking more experienced contractors.

Here are some of the mistakes we see happening all of the time:

• Pronunciation
• Grammar
• Formatting
• Communication
• Honoring deadlines
• No listening skills
• No research skills

These are core skills needed to be a success in this industry. Getting these factors mastered is the key to landing long term work with a transcribing company. We highly recommend practicing, and taking classes to improve your skills.

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services specializes in general transcriptions for small businesses, marketers and the like.

TeamBynes group - Yammer [ask for an invite]

Staying Organized In A Transcription Company

Staying organized in your workplace organization is vital to maximize the success of your transcription company. It's not just during those busy times that you have to stay organized, but the quiet days are as important. That is why it is quite essential that you constantly work towards staying organized no matter what. To get started, you can try out these tactics that we have laid out for you to help you stay organized.

Tactics

1. Organizing your files make it easy to find them so you save time and effort and focus on the important things.

2. Have a To Do List that syncs with your mobile phone and use a strategy that makes it simple for you to cross off things.

3. Don't let your electronic devices or applications control you. Instead, make them work for you.

4. Simplify your life and take the necessary steps to unclutter your life and your lifestyle.

5. Use applications and software that can help you stay organized and stay on top.

Applications

If you are wondering what applications to use to stay organized, you can check these out and utilize them for your own.

1. Evernote can help you stay on top of office needs and live a more organized life as a working professional. You'll be able to put similar items together in one notebook making it easy for you to retrieve them.

2. Yammer acts like a social networking application that allows you to organize meetings and events, share them with your employees and keep track of their progress and performance. It allows you stay up to date with the happenings in the company and helps you delegate tasks in an orderly way.

3. Insightly is a great CRM tool that will help you manage your customer relationships and projects. This in turn, will make you become more organized and efficient.

4. Another tool that we recommend is Zendesk which is a lightweight help desk solution. Zendesk's job is to help you organize your knowledge base into categories making it easier for you to look for content that you need.

5. And who can forget Gmail? Gmail is outstanding when it comes to managing your email as it syncs with other Google apps that may be vital to the company. You can organize your emails into separate tabs so that you can get to your most prioritized emails without the other emails blocking your way.

With these tactics and tools, you'll be able to get started in staying organized with your transcription company. Staying organized is quite crucial to your business as this helps you progress and become more successful at what you do. 

You'll be able to focus on the most important things in your job and will help you increase your personal productivity skills. That means more work is done in less time.

What applications are you using to keep your business organized?