Transcription work is popular and plenty. From private individuals reciting their memoirs, to authors writing a new book, minutes of meetings, conference recordings, police reports, legal meetings, medical reports and so on, there is a growing need for conversations and public events to be recorded and then transcribed. Even podcasts and webinars.
So, the need for a Virtual Assistant with excellent typing skills (speed and accuracy) is a must for those who need this type of work carried out. Note the accuracy comment – it is very important that you have good written skills in the language in which the recording is done. English, for example – is it UK spelling or US spelling? And what about the terminology – medical, legal or some other industry? You need to be familiar with terms and the correct spelling of them. The spelling of people’s names are also important.
Transcription is not easy work, although some might think it is. A one-hour recording can take between 3-6 hours to type up, depending on the speed of speech, clarity of speech, terminology, background noise, more than one voice and so on.
Some transcriptionists charge by the audio hour and some by the typed hour – so you need to be clear on your charges and you need to make sure your client is also clear. No use quoting an hourly rate and the client thinks they’re only paying for the one-hour recording only to find they’ve copped 4 hours’ of typing instead.
This is a great niche for those who really enjoy typing, and like listening to others speak.
Lisa Olinda says
I recently read a post on Facebook by another Virtual Assistant that Transcriptionists are NOT virtual assistants. I quote “If you are in the business of transcription, you are a transcription business/transcriptionist, not a Virtual Assistant. By design/brand and definition, a VA is someone who administratively supports a business as a whole.”
Made me wonder do we as Virtual Assistants define what a VA is or does the industry (clients) define what a VA is?
Kathie Thomas says
Thanks Lisa. A transcriptionist might not be a VA but a VA can certainly do transcription work and I know many VAs who do.
I do have a definition on the front of my website and as do other networks.
Originally we were homebased secretaries (who, co-incidentally often did transcription work too) prior to the internet and our work has evolved as the internet has developed and grown.
Many VAs do the very things they used to do in the corporate world – bookkeeping, data entry, database support, transcriptions, graphic designm wordprocessing and so on. I did transcription work when working as a PA in the corporate world but was never called a transcriptionist – it wasn’t the only duty I performed.
While I agree that if they only solely provide transcription as a service that they may be considered Transcriptionists and not VAs, the reality is that many also provide other services and the public tends to look towards us (the VA networks) for that skillset amongst others. I’m certainly not going to discourage clients coming to us for support for those things. Through VA Networks clients get a one-stop shop.