ICing: "Hidden" Costs - Anonymous99

While I'm a veteran MT and former MTSO, I just had my first experience as an IC.  No doubt some here are veteran ICs who have already learned about what I have dubbed "hidden" costs.  I am posting this in the hopes that it helps some other newbies to ICing who, like me, are looking for extra work because they need the income. 

During my initial phone interview, the manager of the company told me, "All you need is Windows XP, MS Word, Excel, an expander program (such as Shorthand 10), and a USB footpedal."  They would provide all other software.

Lessee:  High-speed internet (cable) -- check, Windows XP -- check, MS Word -- check, Excel substitute (Open Office) is free -- check.  Expander program about $27 for a year, and about $85 for the footpedal, so my initial start-up costs will be about $112.  I can handle that!

Now for the fine print:  In order to transcribe for these yahoos, one must run FIVE programs simultaneously.  Yes, they supplied them, but they never told me the amount of memory (RAM and free disk space) required to run all five programs.  (Even my lame primary employer does that!)  Several attempts at installing the software were made before it was advised that I add memory to my PC.  So, I put my 'puter in the shop (working around the schedule of my primary job) and spent $100 on additional memory.  Evidently that wasn't enough, because shortly after installation I began having shut-down (jamming) issues.  So, while the software "runs," it is suboptimal and interrupted frequently, requiring numerous reboots during the shift.  Just for the record, I have a VERY NICE Dell PC, and the memory was nothing to sneeze at before.  However, I am already running four programs for my primary employer (including Nuance voice recognition).  So an additional $100 needs to be spent to add additional memory in order to run their software properly.  (Cha-ching subtotal:  $300 [$200 for memory, $100 in lost income {lost transcribing time because of reboots}])

Next expense:  LD phone calls.  The manager and owner are in a different city, and there is a lot of back and forth, mostly via free messenger software, but as you can imagine certain sensitive info shouldn't be transmitted in that manner, and one's fingers DO tire from all the typing.  Thus far I have incurred about $50 in LD phone calls (I'm on the carrier's discount plan).  (Cha-ching subtotal:  $350)

Next expense:  TIME.  You are probably thinking, huh?  Well, as I said before, I work for YAHOOS, and they are incredibly disorganized.  They can't even keep the simplest of records.  Daily we submit report totals and other info to the managers, yet we receive e-mails asking us to "resend them to make sure they're correct.." (Mine were correct on the first go-round.)  So, this second job has now eaten into my personal, off-the-clock time because the idiots don't know what they're doing.  The foregoing is just one example; there have been other things as well.  I estimate that I have spent about two hours of my time, off the clock, complying with their requests like the above.  (Cha-ching subtotal:  $400)

The above have been incurred in just a few short weeks. 

I hope this helps those who, struggling in this economy, are seeking work as an IC.  The moral to take from the story is twofold:  (1)  Don't take what they tell you at face value (the company I work for IS dishonest [how long to count the ways!?]), but that is for another post).  (2)  You will probably need to have some cash lying around --- or access to some -- if you are going to IC.