Begin again

At this risk of sounding dumb, I am going to just put this out there. Can some one tell me how to start on your own? I have been transcribing since 2002. I have always worked through a service, several over the years, starting out in an office using microcassette tapes, moving on to Dictation Services Group, Transportal, Acusis, etc., etc. When it was tapes I can completely wrap my brain around how a person would do that for themselves, i.e., go pick up tapes, type, and deliver. That being said, how does one start by themselves? I know Microsoft Word, but I do not know computers.

Infraware, my favorite platform, does not license for single MTs, not that I am sure how exactly to do that. I mean, how can I be confident and go to a provider and want to be their transcriptionist if I can't answer and do not have an understanding of how I can digitally get their work and get it back into their system? I am being completely serious. Am I missing some breakout software that is available for the single MT? How does it hook to a provider's office? My old office job used Lanier I think and she said that was a dated system.

I am reasonably fast and I get so tired of the pools drying up or the doc I am assigned switching to speech recognition, or as I like to say wreckognition, leaving me to choose to work for sweat shop rates or refuse the account. I would just like to know if it is still possible for a person to truly work for themselves in this field and how I would get my home office prepared to work without a middle man taking half (or more for all I know) of what the client is paying just for having a system in place that I do not know how to set up.

Can someone wiser please lay out the baby steps of it for me? Right now my account started using another system and I can realistically make about $100.00 a month from the run-off they are going to send over to me, after four years, and I worked in their computer through an FTP, but again, how to set that up is beyond the scope of my knowledge. The MTSO I currently work for that has this contract actually makes very little profit off them just so I can have a wage; they are good that way. Unfortunately, since my account changed to this other system with me on a p.r.n. standby and the MTSO has nothing else for me right now, I just wonder if maybe its time to step out truly independent, but have no idea where to begin.

Use Rich Text Editor with Full Options CLOSE

Begin again - Mae

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