How to Get Clients for Your New Transcription Business [#teamBynes]

You are great at transcribing, and you know you want to use your abilities to create a business. You want to get out of that 9 to 5 environment and start freelancing. There is just one problem.

Where do you get clients from?

It would be great if you could make full time income from your transcription services, right?

Well, you can! It just takes some effort. Getting clients is much like the being on a job, meaning that it takes WORK. And if you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you can grow your business and get enough clients to make a full-time living at freelancing as a transcriber.

Okay, so that piece of advice is great and all, but it’s not a concrete tip, right? Well here are some real tips that can get you some experience and more importantly, some money in your pocket. This can put you on the path to becoming a small business owner, running your very own transcription company.

First things First

You can’t just go up and tell people you are a wonderful transcriber. I mean you could, but be prepared for glares and stares. You have to show proof of your professionalism. The best way to start doing this is to create a website.

A website speaks volumes of your new transcription services. It’s your online business card, and it means you have been willing to invest time and money into your new company. Clients with inquiries can contact you directly through your website to express a concern or ask a question.

What Type of Website?

You can decide to create the website yourself or hire someone else to do it. It really does not matter. What does matter is that it needs to be a well laid out site with graphics and content that speaks of your professionalism. You also need a contact page and a page where past clients have left references of your service, and preferably a blog where you can offer examples of your service or tips for people that might need transcription services. We will get into the importance of a blog in a later post. For now, just getting the framework of a website with blogging capabilities will do. 

 Social Media

Once you have a website, you will also need a presence on social media websites. Preferably, you need a professional LinkedIn profile and Facebook page. These are social sites, so you want to make social posts. You can do this in the form of tips, ideas, topics of interest and photos. The important thing is that you network with people here, and in between social interactions, you add a few posts advertising your service and a few posts that demonstrate any successful work you have completed. Generally, you want to keep it at about 80% social interaction and 20% business advertising. Just remember to keep your social interaction related to your business. In other words, don’t get to personal. A bonus: link your social sites to your website for optimal interaction from potential clients!

Business Stationary

It’s important that you have business cards and flyers made up. You want to be professional at all times and these are business products that need to be taken seriously.

On Bulletin Boards

Once you have all the business items you need, you are ready to start finding clients. You need to start in several places because there is no one best place to look. Take an afternoon off from doing other things and visit your local colleges, laundromats and restaurants. Look for bulletin boards where you can post flyers of your service. Be sure to advertise on digital bulletin boards as well. Many cities have local classified websites, and then of course, we all know of Craigslist.

By Email and Phone

Go online and look for websites of local medical clinics, lawyers and insurance providers. Call the offices up and explain your services. Offer to drop off a business card. If you email, then explain your services, leave your website address and your email address. 

Freelance Websites

A bonus: a good place to start generating income are on freelance websites like Upwork or Freelancer. 

Both of these websites offer a safe option for both people who need to get work done, and those who need to find work. These sites are often only a starting point, which means that you may need to offer your services at a lower price to start getting a few clients. However, this gives you the opportunity to acquire the experience you need for future clients – and more importantly, it gives you immediate income for your new business. 

Bottom Line

Acquiring customers for your new transcription business comes from many different places. However, it is crucial that you first have the business presentation elements you need in order to present yourself as a professional transcriber.

Much Success To You!

P.s. Information like how to network and what to charge will come in a future post.   

Bynes Transcript and Typing Services

#generalTranscriptionSupport

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.

TeamBynes | The Perfect Candidate [Transcription]

Greetings,

It's the season again! What season is it, you ask? In our office, around this time of the year, we are extremely busy. And it's this time we look for transcribers to jump in to help with the work load. We have an ad out right now for assistance. One thing we notice about applicants is that most of them are over qualified. These applicants carry large titles like VP, Office Manager, Therapist, Producer, Librarian and the like. And most of these are seeking full-time employment. As much as we like to hire everyone, we've come to the realization that the above mentioned are over qualified for our field of work.

I've put together this short list of some qualifiers that may help land you a job as a transcriber.

1. You'd like to transcribe part-time. Many transcription companies are seeking people who are seeking to earn 'extra' income, not necessarily be the only income. In fact, if you're already working, chances are you'd be hired.
2.  You own and operate a transcription company. If you're applying to help another transcription company, you're likely to get the job if you have run a transcription company yourself.
3. Looking to learn about the industry. Companies like Bynes Transcript and Typing Services are always looking to mentor anyone interested in learning more about this field of work. Transcription companies, and not necessarily individuals seek freelancers who are willing to learn from the bottom up.

So you see from the information I just provided, positions like VP, Office Manager and the like can potentially hurt your chances of becoming a freelance transcriber simply because you are over qualified. Unless you open up your own firm, gather and maintain clients, you most likely won't earn the income you're seeking.

For more information, shoot us an email at teammembers@bynestranscriptions.com

To be qualified to work for TeamBynes

1. Must be willing to work on an as needed or contract basis
2. Have at least 1 year transcription experience
3. Must be willing to take a 1-3 min typing/audio test
4. Must have resume and references

COMING SOON!

We are at the end of our free report to be distributed.
We are working on the extended version of this 'free' report.
We are considering starting a 'Newbie Transcriber' training camp.

[Snippet] Free Report "The Best Transcriber on the Planet" [TeamBynes]

Hello freelancers,

We trust all is well. We'd like for you to know that we are soon to release our FREE transcriber's report. We honestly feel that this report will help freelancers who are looking to expand their experience in this industry.

Here's some good news: a snippet of this report is available right here to read. Grab an idea of the tone we're using in this report. Remember, this report is just an overview of our ebook and other marketable items that will be available to you.

So with out further ado,

..snippet from "The Best Transcriber on the Planet " report:

"SO WHAT DOES POTENTIAL CUSTOMERS AND EXISTING CLIENTS WANT TO SEE AND HEAR FROM YOU WHEN THEY'RE SHOPPING FOR TRANSCRIPTION SERVICES?"

WHAT DO THEY WANT TO KNOW ABOUT YOU?

• ○ They would want to know that you are dependable, capable and willing to work
• ○ Some may want to see references or samples [we'll talk about sample work in the extended version]
• ○ Potential customers would want to know your workflow or systems
• ○ Potential customers would want to know how you handle confidential documents

Whether you're a freelancer or run a transcription business, you should always have a system in place for dealing with security; sensitive documents, files, etc. [we'll talk about this in the extended version]

Sounds good so far? If you want a copy of this free report, leave a comment below.

#Teambynes