Why You Need To Research When You Are Transcribing [TeamBynes]

EDITED January 28 2018

Being a transcriber requires skill, talent and a passion for this kind of work. Being able to type isn't the only skill involved in transcribing. And settling for little nuances like not being familiar with unusual words is no excuse.

Today, we're going to shed a little light on the Importance of researching. To deliver quality results, you will need to search the internet [or current reference books] for correct spelling of important or stand out names, and/or the names of group affiliations. 

It can't be avoided that you will encounter
certain words that may be foreign or new to you. The worst thing you can do is hand the client back the completed transcript without doing your due diligence. We call this move a career killer, a disaster waiting to happen. In other words, this practice of not searching for information for validation could end your career as a transcriber.

Clients DO NOT WANT to have to go behind you to correct errors they paid you to do. You can guarantee they'll never call you again. 

Freelancers with web research experience prior to transcribing can use this to their advantage. You already have the skill of 'looking' and you'd know where to look as opposed to someone who hasn't a clue of where to begin. It's highly recommended to learn as much as you can about the transcription industry. Another thing to do would be to practice, practice. We're not asking you to practice for speed. This will come later. You're being asked to practice to increase efficiency and productivity.

With Bynes Transcript and Typing Services, it's imperative for the freelancers we work with to be efficient and have a high accuracy rate. We expect this from every single team member in our organization. 

CONSIDER THIS A GOLDEN NUGGET FOR YOUR NEXT PROJECT: Look first, do your research, practice, practice and practice.

Recommendations: We strongly recommend anyone NOT to get into this type of work just for the money. This reason has the propensity to affect work quality. We need focused and highly passionate folks who love what they do.

Coming up....The Reasons Why People Transcribe and How This Can Affect the Quality of Your Work

Take Our Survey! Should Freelance Transcribers Be Paid for Submitting Poor Work? #TeamBynes

Let's talk 'quality' for a minute.

Hello Subscribers. Thank you for taking the time to follow our blog. We've been pretty busy in our back office and haven't been consistent with our writing. However, I just had to take the time to post this survey.

Some time ago, we blogged several reasons why some freelance transcribers should step away from this industry. Here is the post. I honestly cannot believe that there are people out there posing as a transcriber simply to earn money. What I mean by this is there are people scouring the internet agreeing to work as a transcriber; they get hired, they turn in poor work and expect to be paid for it.

If you've been keeping up with our blog, you know that we are serious about our work. We are serious about the quality of work we present to our clients. Some of our posts talk about work ethics, the importance of listening and doing research when transcribing.

Sadly, in the past year, we've worked with transcribers who've generated sloppy work, turned it in and expected to be equally paid. And when i say 'equally' paid, I mean they expected full compensation as if the work was accurate and acceptable. It is a belief in our company that there are several factors that can influence payment. Come on, why should your client pay you for badly presented work? It's a misrepresentation on your part and it's not fair to them.

Here are several factors that can influence payment.

1. The work is presented to us in poor condition i.e. the formatting is not what we requested. 
2. The file is filled with errors, which we may present to you to show proof of our corrections. 
3. Submitting half of the work you originally agreed to do. 
4. If you miss deadlines.

You are a service provider! And like walking into a store or in a restaurant and not getting what you ordered. Well, it's the same here with transcription. It's not all the time that you get what you pay for specifically after you test a transcriber and they pass. I think it's only fair to pay for what is received. If you do shoddy work, you should be paid a shoddy rate.

Bottom line, DON'T EXPECT BYNES TRANSCRIPT AND TYPING SERVICES TO PAY YOU FOR POOR AND SLOPPY WORK.  

Please take this time to take our survey! Tell us what you think. 

I've communicated with a few transcribers that do not agree with our logic. They actually believe that I should cut them a check for a file that I had to re-do simply because they transcribed it. They'll live. However, I will say this: TeamBynes will pay you. However, it will not be at the full rate or the agreed rate. And to back this up, we have a billing policy that we have all transcribers sign before starting to work with us.


More to come on this topic.

Post your comments below.

[New] Facebook Group for Freelance Transcribers [Join Today!]

Freelancers!

A new facebook group was created just for you! This year this blog will be focused more on posting additional information to help forward your career as a transcriber; the best one on the planet!
Speaking of planet, we are accepting registration so we can give our our FREE REPORT [How To Be The Best Transcriber on The Planet] Order now to get a copy!  Order here

The group is public so it's no hassle to join. To get the best out of the group, we also recommend you to SUBSCRIBE to this blog and received information straight in your inbox! In this group, we'll post freelancer tips, rules of the trade, things clients look for, templates and a whole lot more.

I've been doing this six or more years and have a lot of information to share. We ask that while in the group that you adhere to group guidelines.

• we ask that you not engage in spammy posts. these will be deleted and you will be deleted from the group
• we ask that you carry yourself in a professional manner 
• we are against the discrimination against race and religion. 
• you will be deleted from the group if you harass or stalk anyone and reported to Facebook officials

By joining this group, you agree to these group guidelines. Email us teambynes@groups.facebook.com
TeamBynes will not buy, sell or trade your personal information.

 JOIN GROUP!

WE'RE HIRING! We are looking for 1 or 2 transcribers to help process  mini Youtube videos. APPLY HERE

WE LOOK FORWARD TO SEEING YOU!

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.

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?

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services Welcomes New Projects for Contractors

UPDATED INFORMATION: [01/26/14] We are still seeking creative people interested in lending us your talent with these project. If interested, forward your email address for the group invite.Be advised that we will need to see a record of your skills and experience.

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services is working diligently to clean off our desks. Back office support has created a list of projects that need to be worked on and completed.

This blog post is an invitation to those who are interested in lending us a helping hand. There are a variety of skill sets to match each talented contractor.

To get involved, you must be a member of our collaborative group, Yammer and apply for one of the projects.

 Types of Projects [some of them]

• Create and maintain Pinterest account
• Email marketing
• CRM maintenance
• Back office manuals

THIS IS A GREAT WAY TO EARN EXTRA INCOME!

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services

Teammembers@bynestranscriptions.com

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services is Accepting Applications forTranscribers

Hello everyone! I hope everyone is having a good day. We'll be making your good day even better with our good news! We are accepting applications for transcribers!

If you're someone who is looking to earn extra income and have experience in transcribing, we are looking for you. If you know someone who's looking for work and fit our criteria, give them our contact information.

 

As a company, we want to make sure that we have acquired the right kind of people. Hence, we require applicants to take a test to see if you are a good fit for the job. Newbies don't need to worry about this. If you can pass the test and you've done some practicing yourself, then you may just land a job here at Bynes Transcript & Typing Services. Applicants are required to have an odesk account. So feel free and don't hesitate to send us your applications at teammembers@bynestranscriptions.com and we'll make sure that the process will be seamless and smooth.

P.s. join us in our new collaborative site, Yammer. Ask for an invite. 

Dealing with Homophones Part II: Why It Is Important To Understand Their Meanings

On a previous post we had about Homophones, we mentioned that as a transcriptionist, you must consider the group of words surrounding a homophone as this can impact the whole transcript. You must also have a wide English vocabulary so that you can determine which is the correct word to use. It's important that you know their meanings so that the transcript will make sense.

If you don't know how to deal with homophones the right way, it can be a real fuss. Words can get mixed up and meanings of the sentences won't make sense at all.

Let me give you some examples on some homophones: the definitions of each words and how to identify which words to use.

"...will basically sell products..."

"...we'll basically sell products..."

Notice that both fragments make sense. "Will" is a verb expressing the future tense while "we'll" is a contraction of "we will". So which of the two should you use?

If you only heard these words without listening to the preceding one, you will definitely have a hard time figuring out which one to use. However, if you found out that the preceding word is "you", then you will know which one to use. It will be the first set of words. So it's not only important that you know what "will" and "we'll" are, it's also important that you determine the word/s before it.

Here's another example:

"...by that item..."

"...buy that item..."

It's hard to determine which word to use in this one. But if you know the preceding words are "when you", then you'll know which one to use exactly. If the words before that are "place a check mark", then you would choose the first one. Of course, this is assuming that you know their meanings already. "By" is a preposition identifying the agent performing an action while "buy" is to acquire in exchange for money or its equivalent.

Transcribing is not just listening intently to an audio or video recording. It's not just about typing what you heard. It's about understanding the material that you are transcribing especially in this context. It's about making sure that the sentences are coherent with each other and they make sense.

So whenever you encounter homophones, make sure to listen and understand the material you are transcribing. It will create a really big difference to your transcript and to the overall quality of your work.

Www.bynestranscriptions.com

What words are you having issues with? LEAVE A COMMENT IN THE SECTION BELOW

Top Websites Hiring For Transcribers

Are you looking for a transcription job and are confused on where to start? Do you want to know if you will qualify as a freelancer transcriptionist? If you answer yes to these questions, then you're in the right place.

With so many websites hiring for transcribers, it's hard to find which ones are credible and offer reasonable rates. If you're just starting with the transcriptionist career, you may find yourself consulting Google, but you never know if the ones you are applying at is genuine and offers a reasonable rate. With this list we present here and aside from Bynes Transcript and Typing Services, you will be able to find legitimate websites hiring for transcribers at reasonable rates.

1. Odesk

Odesk is not new to the online job marketplace. In fact, it is dubbed a the world's largest online workplace.

You may have heard of it and it not only gives opportunities to transcribers around the world, but also to different sorts of jobs and professions. There are millions of employers, freelancers, and thousands of job opportunities inside Odesk and with regards to transcription jobs, the qualifications depend on the employer and job being considered.

There are some transcription jobs requiring you to be an expert transcriptionist while some are open to beginners. There are also some which are just there for a short time while others are offering long-term transcription jobs. 

What makes Odesk stand out from the rest is that they have a payment option where you can guarantee that you will be paid. If you are unsure if an employer is genuine or not, you can choose the jobs with the hourly payment option since Odesk guarantees you that you will be paid for that.

You can check out the Odesk website for more information. 

2. Capital Typing

With Capital Typing, you'll be able to acquire a job not only as a transcriber, but also Secretarial Services and Office Administration, Data Entry, Online Customer Support, and Language Translation Services. They are currently seeking qualified people to offer professional business services to their clients and you can check them out at http://www.capitaltyping.com/employment-application

3. T'NT Transcriptions 'N Translations

T'NT Transcriptions 'N Translations is a U.S.-based company offering transcriptions and translations services. They are hiring new transcriptionists and gives an initial test before they hire someone. They are also looking for individuals who are reliable and can meet deadlines. Their website is http://tntmiami.com/about-tnt/ and you can email them at cgonza@tntmiami.com

4. Elance

Elance is another online workplace where you can find transcription jobs. It's similar to Odesk where you can not just transcription jobs but also all sorts of freelance jobs. The qualifications per job also varies per employer. You can check out more about this at www.elance.com/

5. Lead Transcription Service

Lead Transcription Service is a specialized company offering medical, legal and general transcriptions. You can opt for this company to start your transcriptionist career and become better at it. They are looking for people who are exceptional. If you are interested in applying here you can send them an email and an updated resume at careers@leadtranscriptionservice.com

There are a lot of companies and online workplaces out there and this is just a list to get you started. Once you entered the transcriptionist profession, you'll never regret it as there are plenty of opportunities for you to monetize and grow.

Is General Transcription a Career Move for You?

Let's get this New Year started!

Hooray! You've made it past the proverbial 'end of the world' scare featured on December 21 2012 and a few hours ago, wished and prayed a new year in. Like we said, you made it.  Now what? January 1st is here already knocking on the door of tomorrow. Time to start thinking goals, objectives and career.

Why we created this blog

Goals, dreams, minor pursuits, success, stability. Whatever your aspirations are, we want you to know that we know exactly what you're thinking and your thoughts are probably up in the air about what you want to do. Okay, so our industry is transcribing and if you've subscribed to this blog, chances are, transcribing is your industry too.

This blog was designed with you in mind, the freelancing transcriptionist, the freelance worker who transcribes for a living. If you're just starting out, you'll soon realize that this industry can be a scary place simply because there is a tremendous amount of competition. There are several niches to choose from and loads of do's and don'ts to follow. If you've been in the business for a while, then you know exactly what I am talking about. New or not, we want you to take a look around here, feel comfortable and grab all of the information we have to share with you.


Why we consider our freelancers to be a part of our team

Freelancers are considered team members with Bynes Transcript & Typing Services because they are just that  - a team. I have to tell you most of the time, if it wasn't for our team, we'd still be back there purchasing 'liquid' white out from Office Depot to correct type writer errors! Funny, huh? Our members are diligent in providing the best work on the planet - yes, the planet! They're dedicated, they communicate, they improvise if need to. These are traits worth fighting for when you're working with people.

How are we able to pick such pristine workers?

Passion for what you love to do

It's all a part of our interview process. No, we do not grill our candidates. We simply ask them a series of questions about themselves, past experiences working online and to give a detailed description of the most challenging project they've worked on.  We do this to be able to learn more about each person that will be potentially working with us. I observe how they answer just as well as what their responses are. Believe it or not, you can learn great things about people this way. In my organization, I look for compassionate, patient, well-mannered, leader-ship type candidates to become a part of our team.

More to come

There is more information to share with you, which will be distributed on a weekly basis. Please feel free to comment in the boxes below in each post.

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Frann