For parents who are looking for a job because they need the income but want to stay home with their children the job of legal transcriptionist is perfect. The investment costs that need to be covered are relatively low. A cheap computer, head phones, an MP3 player, and maybe a pedal are all you need. A total start up investment of about six hundred dollars can be scraped together by most people.
It is a good idea is to take a class and get officially qualified to become a legal transcriptionist. Certification is not absolutely necessary. Many online schools offer a program to become a certified transcriptionist. A low monthly payment will get you enrolled and will provide you with a student id card that will qualify you for discounts in movie theatres and some other community events. You will start saving money before you even apply for a job. Do not wait until you are done with the schooling. Try to find clients as soon as you have the equipment and intention to become a legal transcriptionist. It helps if you can say you are enrolled in a transcription program. Write and email lawyers who might need a transcriptionist. Visit a few potential clients or employers in your community and give them your card and resume. Tell them you are willing to work for free for a few weeks or for a certain amount of work so you can prove to them that you can do it. After all, the only skills you really need is typing and listening carefully. Initially you also need a lot of patience because you will have to get used to legal terminology. Do not take up too much work to start with. Take one client with a limited amount of work and gradually increase your work load. You have to earn the trust of your employers and be able to deliver accurate and timely work, even during the time you do some work for free. You can also find some employers online. Watch out however for work at home scams. If you have to pay to get started consider that a bad sign. There are plenty of work-at-home jobs out there that provide a legitimate work-at-home income. Freelance work-at-home is widely available and legal transcription is a good field to get into if you are an aspiring work-at-home mom. It gives you the “I am self-employed and have my own business feeling” and whoever has been there knows how that feels. Some companies offer legal transcription jobs that do not require being self employed. You basically clock in when you go online and get paid per hour just like everybody else whose money comes through payroll.
If you have to work for free or extremely low pay to start off, consider it to be an apprenticeship. Once you get the hang of it your pay will go up fast and an hourly pay rate of sixteen dollars an hour becomes feasible once you are an experienced legal transcriptionist.
Keep in mind that as a legal transcriptionist you swear confidentiality. No matter how much certain cases are in the news, you are not supposed to talk to anybody about the contents of the audio you receive and transcribe. Breaching confidentiality can cause major trouble.
