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Repost because nothing has changed: Why I am not a journalist!

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Originally posted 4/13/2010:

I love to write. I love to do research. I love to read. So, why am I not a journalist?

 

Because your job is harder than mine.

 

You are given or come up with a topic. You work hard to find the right resources and work out a schedule to interview those resources and gather all the necessary information and make a powerful, informative article that people will want to read. Sounds easy to some, but I know better.

 

The topic must be something that you are familiar with, interested in, or can at least relate to. Or for those who just have wonderful skills, be able to KNOW how to sponge the information from various research for use in a fabulous paper for print.

 

Resource can be anyone. Can ramble so badly that you want to shout – GET TO THE POINT, or worse, could answer your questions without really answering your questions. Occasionally the smooth, precise, clear speaker is found, but it is a rarity. (trust me, this I do know.)

 

Scheduling the interviews – Resources can schedule the interview and change ten minutes before it was to begin, as if their time is the only time to consider, or can start the interview and have to go due to some conflicting appointment after just 5 minutes, or even want to do the interview so early in the morning or middle of the night – just because they can. Others just want to talk to hear themselves talk and can go on and on and on. For these however, many of you have your interview stopping statement to bring it to a close, and are so charming when you use it.

 

Those items can be tough enough, but what’s worse is when you are interviewing someone who is so arrogant, uninteresting, incoherent, or a double talker. Someone who assumes you know nothing at all, questions your abilities and knowledge and lets you know it. Or someone who said they could help you in your mission for a really good story and you find out they really have nothing at all. For example, you asked about really great marble to use in a bathroom remodel and they talk about port-a-potties. You know what I mean. And many of you are so diplomatic that you find something – anything – this person has talked about in order to say it was not a wasted appointment.

 

And then there are times the interview goes well. You have what you need and you find that you did the entire 50 minute interview and forgot to turn on your recorder, or it malfunctions during the interview (or after), or your computer crashes and you lose the entire kit and caboodle.

 

All of this is just the items I can decipher from transcribing your interviews. All of this is what amazes me when I see your final product after publication and am amazed how wonderful it is. Your job is much harder than mine.

 

I just transcribe the interviews and other material. If I had to deal with just that kind of “stuff” I would probably be unemployed from saying something like “hey, Buddy, do me a favor and just answer the damn question. And while you’re at it, can you pay attention to what you are responding to and stop eating or calling out to your friends who are walking by as you talk to me, and hey buddy – the phone works better when you talk into it. Can you get any closer to the man yelling in the background, I am not hearing what he is so mad about. I was ready yesterday for our 10 a.m. appointment and you changed it to 3 a.m. so how about pay attention to the questions so I can go back to bed.”

 

Me, I can sit here, transcribe your audio, and smile…better you than me. I will just wait for you to go to print and see how amazing you made the information into something that others can understand and draw from.

 

That is why I am not a journalist. I am just a transcriptionist, here to type your audio, help you meet your deadlines and watch you take all that hard work you do and make an article worth reading, sharing, and discussing for months and months.

 

Better you than me. I will stick to reading your articles thus remaining employed.

 

 

 

https://www.clktranscription.com

End of the Summer. YEAH!

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With the end of August we find schools are opening their doors and our children are back to the grind of books and learning, the cooler weather is coming and people are done with those warm weather vacations.

I could not be happier, and I love summer heat.

Why?

Because this year has been the busiest we’ve been here at CLK, and with it came the summer months and vacations, and kids being home, and illnesses, and fires, and even more than a few weddings and honeymoons, and those things slowed us down in the production end, even as we geared up and increased staff.

Every member of the team is happy to be getting back to the real regular grind of a work schedule with less interruption and less distraction.

Many of our clients have been so understanding and we hope we have taken opportunities to make it up to those we have had to turn projects away and say ‘we can’t’ to. It is one of the hardest things we have had to do, but rather than be dishonest and make promises we can’t keep, we feel being honest in our ability to handle a deadline is better in the end for everyone involved.

It has been busy, but busy is great, right?

Except that we, here at CLK Transcription, understand that every piece of audio or video, and every hard copy conversion, or any project that we accept or that we have to turn away is more important to the client than it is to our opportunity to say we assisted them in completion, and we take it to heart when we cannot do what we do best – meet a deadline and help our clients meet theirs.

So now with the end of the summer, and the summer madness over, we are happy to be able to get back to the work that we love so much on a regular frantic schedule.

We learned a lot this summer. We continued and will continue to increase staffing and offer continued education for all the transcriptionists here, and we have worked on increased scheduling for the weekends, with a cutoff for priorities and project files accepted in the evenings and on weekends, so that we could continue to treat every client as the valued client they are here at CLK Transcription.

Some may have found those changes too much to bear and moved on, but we hope that in the end, they will realize these changes were made for every client and their projects and will once again let CLK Transcription assist with their transcription needs. We are ready and willing to remind them of why CLK Transcription’s team of transcriptionists rock!

We truly love what we do.                                                Bring on autumn.

www.clktranscription.com

Preparing for a New Year as a Small Business

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Are you ready for the New Year?

It isn’t just about parties and champagne when you own a small business.

For a small business, in most cases, being ‘ready’ also means:

  • Closing out the accounting for the year,
  • Organizing and filing away the previous year’s records,
  • Developing 1099s, W2s, and final quarter tax reporting,
  • Reviewing potential ‘needs’ for growth in the New Year, and
  • Reviewing items that need attention for improvement,

all the while continuing with your daily routine of handling projects, employees, contractors, and inquiries.

As a small business owner, the party comes when those items are complete, and completed without interrupting the quality you offer your clients. If we can get that finished and still have hair and without depleting the nation’s coffee supply, then we can celebrate.

Some things we can do to make that end of the year rush go smoother:

  • Find a bookkeeping program and use it. Make sure to enter and file receipts as soon as possible. Find out from your tax person/CPA which program they use and find one compatible if possible. Closing your year and sending an accountant’s copy is faster and easier, and more complete, than trying to develop spreadsheets and sending packages of receipts.
  • If you haven’t done it yet, begin a filing system that makes sense to you.  It doesn’t matter if it makes sense to someone else. If you need something, you will be able to find it. Once you have done that, then train someone else to handle your filing using the same method you use. Now, not only do you have assistance with the mundane chores, you have backup for when you may not be available. And that filing system should be for both current and ongoing items as well as what you have in storage from previous years.
  • That bookkeeping program I mentioned, find out if it provides the data for your 1099s and w2s you need to develop. Most, like Quickbooks, have the information handy, even if you do not pay for the premium versions. You just have to play with the program and get used to where those reports are. As a bonus, Quickbooks for Dummies is a great read.
  • You’ve worked the entire year with established and new clients. You handled projects you have never worked before and may have spoken with potential clients on bidding for new projects. Whether you won new projects or had repeat clients, be sure you research what your niche’ needs, what others are offering, or what others are looking for. Reflect on those items you may need to improve or offer so the New Year allows you better opportunities for growth.
  • You may have also kept in contact with your clients over the years, but be sure to keep that connection and communication open before, during, and after a project. Ask for feedback and make note of those concerns your clients have with regard to your finished product. A complaint is not a bad thing if you can use it to improve what you offer. Just be sure to work to improve it. That one client complaint, if ignored, will soon become a complaint of many if left unchecked. It is only a plus to be able to have a client who complained, come back for a second try, and you can make them happy.

Keep in mind this preparation is not just for clients. You should be reviewing your vendor list, chart of accounts, and even your supplies are current and appropriate for the New Year.

And lastly, review the social media sites where you have profiles and update them, keep them fresh and relevant. Remember, this will be something your clients or potential clients will review, as well as others who may not need your services but are researching for others who may. Having a pretty picture and no description of what you do, how you do it, and who you do it for will just end up being a pretty picture better posted on Instagram.

So I ask again, are you ready?

Organizing your projects…straight through to the invoice

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After working with many journalists and authors, I have come to realize that very few, if any, work on one project at a time. Whether it is their work project or their family/life’s project, or a combination of both.

We try to assist them, not only by saving them time transcribing their audio / video for them, but also by organizing the transcription / audio / video portion of their projects and the billing information they need to be properly paid themselves for the work, as well as keeping the different parts of their projects together and easy to work with.

How do we do that?

CLK starts by acknowledging receipt of every single file. They know we have received it. We ask them for a drop-dead deadline. Although we work to return all files within 72 hours, and of course even sooner whenever possible, regardless of the length of audio, everyone has different deadlines. So if they need it quicker, they just let us know.We never want to push them further to their project deadline and cause more stress in the process.

We gather the names of the participants / speakers, and we are sure to label each speaker accordingly. We can time code the transcript or number lines if they wish, and we use a clear simple format for them to be able to review the transcripts for content they may need in their end product.

We clearly mark any portion where there may have been an inaudible word or phrase, so they can take a listen and see if they can hear it. They were the ones in the room during the recording.

But we don’t stop there.

Naming their files:

We name the finished report exactly the same as the audio, so our clients can match up the corresponding audio with the finished report.

Helping manage and track a budget:

We add the total length of the audio into the name of the report, so our clients can confirm that the complete audio was transcribed – there wasn’t a download / upload issue causing only a partial transcript or they didn’t send us the incorrect file to begin with.

We also add the total cost of each audio into the file name, so that our clients can better manage their budgets as they go along, rather than worry about it in the end, when their concerns should just be putting it all together into the fabulous end result we all enjoy in that book, magazine, online, or production piece.

In addition, our clients can further maintain their budgets by giving us precise times on the audio they want transcribed, down to just a few seconds, to blocks of minutes throughout the audio. This way they don’t end up paying for material they do not need for their project. We all know some interviewees can get chatty.

Helping their billing, through our billing:

Many of our clients use our invoices to invoice their clients and will request separate invoices for one or all of the audio files using project codes or other client information. This allows them to keep their project invoices organized, and they don’t have to sort through which transcript coincides with which project and which invoice is for which project.

Many times, we have clients request the invoice be sent directly to the project manager they are dealing with. We are happy to do that. Of course our client’s are ultimately responsible for the invoices, but being able to forward our invoice to their client for them allows them the freedom to ‘keep it moving’ and not worry about that part of the task.

Working with them to save them time and money:

We know how hard it is for our clients to monitor every little aspect of their project, and we try to make it just that much more simpler and cost-effective. It may not sound like much, but we find that in the end, our clients appreciate the added little extras we do to keep their projects organized and labeled appropriately.

We are always observing our clients work online, and watching for additional ways to help them organize and make the process of transcribing and organizing the audio / video portion of their projects that much simpler to work with.

 

How can we assist you with your transcription needs? We are an email away from beginning your project!

 

Visit us at www.clktranscription.com and find out today!

 

 

 

Want to save up to $50 on Transcription Services in addition to paying lower per minute rates? Who doesn’t? #in

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CLK Transcription is proud to be able to maintain rates that are lower than the national average, yet provide the quality and speed with every project file we transcribe. We know how important all of those things are to our clients.

It is a commitment CLK made many years ago.

CLK Transcription works hard to help their clients with budgetary and time restrictions in their work, and with an average of 115 new referrals every year for three (3) years in a row, and over 800 project files every month, we appreciate every ‘word of mouth’ referral we receive.

We love what we do and we always have room for more!

We offer discounts throughout the year to assist our clients in the ‘saving money’ part of their project needs, and offer timely return of quality reports to assist with meeting or beating their deadlines, allowing them the time to handle other aspects of the project, or their life.

The Referral Reward opportunity is just one of those offers.

Refer a friend so they, too, can save time and money and increase their productivity, or just have time for friends and family, and you can receive up to $50 off our invoice generated in February 2014.

Connect with CLK Transcription on Twitter (CLK_Shortcake), LinkedIn (CarolLee Streeter Kidd), or Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/CLKTrans) and make two (2) new referrals to CLK Transcription during January 2014, and you could receive $25 off your invoice for each referral you make.

YEAH! If you are reading this, we must be connected, so you are halfway there.

New referrals’ projects must be a minimum of 90 minutes of audio transcription during January 2014 and invoices must be paid promptly.The Referral Reward will be reflected on your invoice generated in February 2014.

Referrals you make with smaller projects could be eligible for up to $5 Referral Reward (per referral) if new referral invoices are paid promptly.

Be sure your referrals mention you when they contact us.

The Referral Reward Offer is valid through January 2014. Those with outstanding balances over 30 days as of February 1, 2014, are not eligible. Referral Reward must be used during February 2014 and cannot be carried over or ‘gifted’.

Referrals using any of our non-transcription services will be evaluated for Reward on a case-by-case basis. Contact CarolLee@clktranscription.com for more details.

www.clktranscription.com

Always read the email. You could be missing something important.

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I get upwards of 50 emails a day from independent contractors looking to “break into” the transcription world, or from seasoned transcriptionists looking for extra work.

I welcome them all. I am always looking for new talent to assist with the projects I have to handle. I also enjoy watching newbies to CLK learn and grow into their skill through hands-on experience and reviewing information provided with any necessary edits on their work. Over the years, I can almost always tell if they are someone who will love the work as much as I do.

I can tell because they are the ones who have read the email…I can’t be the only business that has these issues, but I can only speak for myself, so here it goes…

For every 10 that make contact with me asking for information…yes, they make contact with me…five actually read the email replies I send to them, but only one will follow directions.

Yes, in all fairness, I admit my emails are long and very detailed, but only because it saves us both time. I want them to know what they are getting themselves into being a vendor for CLK before I take time out of my schedule to set them up and begin working with them.

IF they read it and reply that they understand what I am looking for as their client, that they understand they are an IC and what that means, and that they understand the tools necessary to provide me quality service, I then spend time setting them up, preparing for the time I will spend working with them on the first assignment, and then setting up the proofing team to work with them.

How do I know they do not read the replies? Simple.

I send two emails. One with all the information about my company and what I expect from my ICs. I ask them simply to “reply to me that you understand and have done your due diligence into what it means to be an independent contractor with CLK, and that you can begin setup within three days from the date you reply to this email.”

I also ask for professional courtesy of a declination reply if they have decided, after their due diligence, that this is not for them – but that is a whole other blog post…

Again, 10 will reply that they are “ready to go” sometimes the same day, sometimes a week later. When I receive the reply to that first email, I send a second email with the setup information needed to begin accepting assignments and again ask them to make sure they can, at the very least, complete setup and get me the documentation I need within three days…

Now here is how I know who reads my emails.

Out of every ten ICs sent that second email, five may actually be ready for setup within three days. another 5 never come on for setup but will come back to me weeks later and wonder why I don’t have a spot for them.

Out of the five who complete setup within the three days, two will never come on for an assignment and I will have wasted at least a day on my side of the setup process. Three will come on for an assignment; one of which will never communicate with me and never return the assignment, one will complete the first assignment and then need to take a week or two away for personal reasons, and one ends up a star.

Now anyone who does transcription understands it is a time sensitive and detail oriented job. If you can’t follow the directions for the setup you asked for, how am I to have faith you will follow any other instructions for my assignments?

And if you can’t offer me the timeliness of setup so you can actually accept assignments, how am I to trust you will meet my much faster turn around times for the assignments you requested?

And as an independent contractor, if you can’t offer your client quality and availability, why would I assign any projects to you?

I write this now because it is a new year. I am hoping that I won’t be called names (yes, very unprofessional names from those wishing to be called professionals) because I could not wait for someone to want an assignment. I needed to move on to someone who will take an assignment. CLK is growing and I want the ICs working with me to grow as well.

CLK has a base of 143 ICs available at different times, different days throughout the year. Through great communication, we work together so that everyone is happy. Of course I always look for great talent. ICs do not need to have a  regular schedule, and sometimes it seems like I never have enough ICs available, even when all are on. But it takes communication and great scheduling on everyone’s part.

And yes, I am a client. The CLK team consists of independent contractors and employees who have a marvelous work ethic for their own “business” and they take pride in the work they do for CLK. Together, we do remarkable things for CLK clients.

And those who make it as an IC at CLK,  who showed their client, me, that they truly wanted to be part of the team, did so simply by having read the emails with the information they asked to receive.

If you are interested in accepting assignments as an IC for CLK Transcription, tell me a little about yourself in an email to transcription@clktranscription.com. I will get that first email out to you when time permits. (I do not do resumes. I am not hiring you as an employee. You are truly an IC with CLK.)

If you are in need of outstanding transcription services, we are always accepting new clients and projects. Our standard TAT is within 24 to 36 hours in most cases.  We offer discounts to UPOD, ASJA, AHJC, NASW, FLX, APH, SEJ, SPJ journalists. For more information, email carollee@clktranscription.com.

 

www.clktranscription.com

You would not take a job to build a shed and not find out where the shed should go, would you?

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In most cases, when hiring someone to handle a task, I go over the task, what I am looking to have as an end result, and I will let them do what they do to get to get the job done. I mean they are the professionals, right?

But there is always specific items the “employer” needs when hiring a contractor. I like to call these needs ‘requests’. Not too difficult a word, right?

You wouldn’t hire a contractor to build a shed and not tell them where you wanted the shed, would you? Or a painter to paint your house and not give them the colors you want for each room.

This is particularly true when hiring a contractor to perform work for a service-provider business.

I mean really, how often do you start a job, any job, and have all the answers no matter how much experience you have with other companies? If every company did everything in the same manner, there would be no competition or variety of services offered.

Most cases, when considering a contractor for my business assignments, I explain why I need things done a certain way and give my requests in detail, but hey, if I am asking for it and paying for it, then I really have no need to justify why I want what I pay for done the way I want it done, do I?  After all, I could be giving these step-by-step instructions because I already know what works, and what is the best way to get to the end result that I am paying to get, and because that just happens to be what works for my business.

Am I wrong to expect a job done the way I want it done? I don’t think so. After all, I am a client using the services of contractors.

Again, in those cases where I may have a method to my madness, I give very detailed requests, step-by-step instructions if you will, on how I want something done and many times I do this to save time for me and for the contractor. I mean no one really wants to have to redo anything because a contractor didn’t pay attention to the requests of the client, do they? I know I put my clients needs and request on the front burner, so I expect the same when I am a client to others.

It may not make sense to them, but it is what the client is paying for, right?

What I find interesting is that sometimes those requests are not heeded in any sense of the word and the client will hear from the contractor, “I thought I could do this,” or “I thought doing it this way was better,” or “I thought you might like this.”

Really? So now you feel you know better than the paying client on what they want and why they want it? It isn’t as if you didn’t have time to discuss your thoughts when you accepted the assignment. It is simply what the client wants.

As I look around the internet and read forums and threads of other contractors complaining about the steps they have to take to complete a job they are paid to do, it amazes me. Complaints about steps they have to take for a task, not being able to find or use shortcuts, or just complaints about the client themselves.

If you are that unhappy, why do you do what it is you are doing? Either you love what you do, love the money you make, or simply love the idea you have a job to do at all, or then again, you have three choices:

  1. Do the job, grudgingly (or with a smile),
  2. Do the job, and ask for more money, or
  3. Quit, and find another job.

Even more interesting is that these same people who moan and groan about the job they are paid to perform, feel that the people who pay for their services should have the trust in them and their work. How? If you do not take pride in the work that you do, how are we ever going to have faith in the work?

If I am to have trust in work being performed, I ought to be able to trust my requests are being considered.

It is kind of like looking for a truck and the car salesman keeps showing you sedans. Do you trust them to make you happy?

 

 

www.clktranscription.com

A Transcriptionist’s Tale, by Amanda Friday…

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When I was younger, my parents always teased that I would never be able to find a job that I could do in my pajamas. I didn’t get into the transcription business because of that, but it definitely has become a running joke over the years! I have been a medical transcriptionist since 2007. I graduated from the Career Step program, which I found invaluable. I don’t know of any general transcription training course, as with general transcription you receive any kind of report under the sun, but for medical transcription I definitely recommend it. There is so much to learn language wise, procedure wise, pharmaceutical wise that jumping into it headfirst would be a detriment to your productivity. That is, if you could even find a job without that training in the first place!

 

After five years of medical transcription, I found myself getting burned out. I was sick of the medicalese and doctors dictating procedures or exam findings at the speed of light. Just because they say it a million times a day didn’t mean I knew what they were saying! It was a real struggle to make the short “commute” down the hallway to my home office every day, knowing I had the same kinds of reports as the day before to look forward to.

 

On top of starting to dread working, my largest account was sent overseas, causing my income to drop dramatically. I think offshoring American medical records, or anything that relates to American jobs, is just criminal. The complete lack of responsibility that these companies have towards their American employees is a travesty. To be fair, my company fought tooth and nail to keep my account in the US, but in the end money won out, as it usually does, and boom. Account gone. Practically overnight.

 

Staying home has been such a luxury as it affords me more time with my family. My husband works an odd schedule and without my working at home, I would see him one weekend a month. We don’t have children yet, but look forward to not having to pay any childcare costs, which are skyrocketing. My husband is the only one that commutes into work, so gas payments are down and the wear and tear really only occurs on one vehicle instead of two. I knew I didn’t want to work outside the home, but I felt my options were limited and I may have to reenter the outside workforce.

 

I looked into general transcription and am so glad that I did. It’s a joy to no longer type physical examinations and laboratory results! Every report I’ve accepted through CLK Transcription has been something different. Work is exciting and challenging, but in a good way! I can honestly say that I have learned something from every single report I have transcribed for CLK. And the flexibility CLK allows is tremendous.

 

In addition to transcription work, I also narrate and produce audio books so I need to be able to manage my time efficiently. With CLK, it’s a breeze to meet audio book deadlines, as I am not tied to my desk. If I’m feeling behind on my recordings, no problem. I just don’t sign in that day. No muss, no fuss. It’s fantastic. I feel incredibly blessed to have found CLK Transcription. I couldn’t be happier to be working with CLK and look forward to many, many more years!

 

Amanda Friday

http://www.facebook.com/AmandaFridayVoiceoverArtist

It is always nice to hear that you did a good job! Don’t you think?

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Below is a wonderful blurb developed by a client about CLK Transcription. Things like this make my day!
“About CarolLee Streeter Kidd, president of CLK Transcription and her company…You may have worked with numerous transcription companies over the years, but there is only one CarolLee Streeter Kidd. CarolLee is the hardest working woman you will ever meet. She takes personal interest in all of her clients and connects to them in a personal way, on the phone, via phone and Facebook/Twitter. There is not one transcription company out there that will listen to you intently and hold your hand throughout the process, delivering your transcripts exactly the way you need. But CarolLee will! Her commitment to excellence is head and shoulders above the rest. The company has worked with over 500 journalists, authors, ghost writers, scholars, and educators for over 10 years.
Check out CLK’s Brag page to see all the leading corporations, journalists, authors, and others, CLK Transcription has assisted!
 
CLK provides accurate, timely transcription for whatever your needs are. The company well understands tight deadlines and are happy to accommodate you.”
****

These words mean more than money to my team and me. We love what we do and are happy to be in a career we trained for, continue to train for, and love! We do have a special place in our heart for the non-medical side of transcription, but we also carry multiple medical accounts as well.

We know how busy our clients are and we understand their budgets and deadlines. We pride ourselves in working with them to master both of those challenges.

We offer the following services, and more:

  • Transcription of audio/video
  • Voice mail transcription
  • Audio conversion – tape to mp3, or other digital to digital formats
  • PDF development / conversion
  • Database development by either typing in your information or direct scan into a workable document
  • Time coding of transcripts for use in televised productions
  • Sorting / categorizing your published / soon to be published work
  • Proofreading drafts for accuracy in spelling and grammar
  • We even offer a call in dictation, for those who have equipment malfunctions or may not be proficient with equipment needed to record and transfer files. This service is available, whether we transcribe the audio or not.

We also like to help you keep costs down, so we offer / accept several methods of transfer, free:

Dropbox, where we share a folder with you rather than you pay the service to accommodate the size of your files.

FTP site, safe, secure, and easy to use. (Some browsers do not support ftp transfers and may require an additional program download (free))

Sendthisfile (size/use limitations)

Yousendit (size/use limitations)

And of course, we accept file transfers via email, and many other online programs, as well.

We also offer a free email through the CLK domain that you may use, password protected, to organize your “junk mail” or for those “sign up” sites that usually clog your professional email in-boxes. This leaves access to you, and no more sorting through the junk and possibly miss that important email you’ve been waiting for.

And for those of you who wish to have a ftp site for your professional needs, other than sending files to CLK, we can set you up through our domain to utilize a folder and share with your contacts, associates, or project manager for a low monthly fee.

Payment for CLK services is easy as well. We itemize your invoice, showing the filename length of audio, and amount charged. We offer several methods of payment (check, money order, Paypal, Dwolla) – and no prepayment is necessary. We invoice twice a month and offer 15 days leeway for you to remit payment for the invoice – which is technically up to 30 days from the time you submit the work to having to submit payment for it. We also offer discounted rates and payment plans for those with the strictest of budgets.

It is easy to communicate with CLK – by phone, via instant message, FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, or email. We are available 24/7 to accept files, and offer extended office hours 7 days a week to assist you personally or walk you through any step of the process. We understand our clients do not have a 9 to 5 day, so we remain here for you.

Lastly, we do love our writers, authors, journalists and freelancers – and we offer discounts throughout the year to members of ASJA, UPOD, NASW, FLX, AHCJ and APH.  We look forward to joining forces with other major organizations as well, and would love to hear from those who may want to utilize our services.

So whether you have interviews, meetings, webinars, seminars, telecasts, broadcasts, books, dairies, IEPs, or even business cards and recipes you would like to have transcribed, organized, or converted – find out how we will save you time and money, visit us today – www.clktranscription.com – Where we are not professional bloggers – we are transcriptionists!

Come and join us on the various social media sites – we love to share your work and promote the great writers of today and tomorrow.

Twitter = @CLK_Shortcake

Facebook = http://www.facebook.com/CLKTranscription
and
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Why I work with newbies…they all have a story and it ends with a desire to do the job.

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I first started utilizing “newbies”, because I found that they are the ones who have spent thousands of dollars to get the education to do the job, only to find it difficult to find the work (without of course the usual two to five-year minimum experience) because so much of our work was being off shored.

I taught transcription courses for a local vo-tech and worked with many schools on the east coast and found that what they were teaching was barely enough to even consider calling the graduates typists, much less transcriptionists.Some didn’t even explain how to load files into a player, or even how to market themselves for a position with a company or private work.

I also found that the newbie was unspoiled by the usual ‘stuff’ those in the business have come to use as a crutch of sorts – speech recognition, hot keys – shortcuts. I don’t believe in such things because nothing beats the human ear, and no one ever speaks the same words in the same manner or with the same tone, every time they say them. Those shortcuts could cause major errors. I don’t use shortcuts – I use skill.

For over 8 years now, I have brought on and worked with the newbie who has had everything from years of school to a few weeks of transcription experience, and found that they can be the best and most dedicated workers out there with a little extra work on my part – yet no one wants to take the time to work with them.
Why won’t they work with them? They have spent literally thousands of dollars to get what they were told was the education to do the job. They have spent hundreds if not thousands of dollars to get the equipment they need to do the job. They have the desire to learn the job and do the best they can. They still want to do the job and want to learn all they can after their own research shows them what a painfully stressful job it can be. They still want the job when all they hear from others in the field is how horrible the job can be and how difficult it is to make a living doing transcription.

Why not work with them?

My guess is that it is that because they are newbies, they can place unreasonable experience requirements on them so that they (the larger transcription companies) can continue to off shore the transcription projects they handle. Most larger companies off shore their work without ever telling their clients they actually do. They hide the information on their website, will even say they do not offshore, but have ‘branches’ or ‘satellite’ offices in the Philippines, India, or Mexico. They off shore even though there are skilled and educated people, or those who want to be trained, ready and willing to work right here in the US.

So why do I work with newbies?

In addition to the dedication and desire I mentioned above, here is what I found in working with the newbie:

They are mostly single moms, women taking care of a disabled family member, disabled themselves trying to supplement their income, widows and widowers, battered women trying to start over, a college student trying to ease the financial burden on their parents (and themselves). They are the wife of a service member trying to make whatever they can while their spouse is deployed, an at-home mother working to ease the financial crunch of the household, women battling  cancer, Lupus, or other illnesses – all who need work just as much, if not more than their desire to work.

 

For those reasons alone, I am proud to work with newbies. They not only want it, they need it. I would rather take the time to train the newbies, and allow them to be the best they can be, to earn the extra they need to get by (and hopefully more than), to help them free themselves from some of the stresses of their lives. For those reasons, I would rather work with a newbie than to consider off-shoring any work off shore.

 

Sure, I may not ever have free time for that yearly vacation because I have to put a little extra time (okay a lot of extra time) working with the newbies to get them to the point where they are no longer considered newbies, and I may get frustrated with the additional concerns newbies have when starting a new venture, but I know that I have helped a family, while building a kick ass team I like to call the CLK family.

They are all independent contractors, I am their client, and in addition to training them in the art of transcription, they gain the experience of running their own “company” from billing to taxes to finding ways to save on the programs and devices they need to ‘run’ their business, to how to market themselves and bring even more work back here to the US from the companies off shore. Some of my team have other jobs, some have many other clients, but all are respected for the work they do for CLK.

I started this company with a few “seasoned” transcriptionists and a handful of newbies who have now become the backbone of the CLK Team, and have seen that team grow with additional newbies over the years who have gone through rigorous training, quality assurance checks, and the guidance of the team. Not all make it, but those that stick it out are transcriptionists who love what they do and they do it with love.

 

To my team at CLK, whether you have been with me ten years or ten hours – Thank You for the work you do. Thank you for the patience you have with me and my quirks. Thank you for your best – that is all I ask. Thank you for helping me make CLK Transcription the best we can be!

Happy Labor Day 2012.

 

If you would like more information on the services CLK Transcription has to offer – from interview, meeting, IEP, scholastic transcription, voice mail transcription, audio conversion, call in dictation, hard copy conversion, database development, and more – contact carollee@clktranscription.com or visit us at www.clktranscription.com.

 

We have been noted in multiple best sellers and TV programs, and work with freelancers, authors, production companies, publishers, corporations, and scholars to complete their project timely, with quality at a cost they can afford.

 

If you are interested in a career in transcription, please forward why you chose this profession and a little bit about yourself to transcription@clktranscription.com. (No resumes and no phone calls, please)

 

 

 

www.clktranscription.com