A community of 30,000 US Transcriptionist serving Medical Transcription Industry

One foot out and - Ready to Run

Posted: Aug 02, 2012

After 13 years of being an MT, I am beginning to see a way out. I've always had an interest in being a writer, and dabbled a little, but it's hard to make a living that way. But then again, so is transcription. I figure the world of writing and publishing can't possibly be any more stressful, and its a lot more fun (and I can listen to music while I do it ).

After a year of moonlighting, I just had a book of true short stories published (I was an editor and a contributor), and I have another short story in a Christmas anthology coming out later this year. (I would do a little shameless self-promotion and tell you the book titles, but I'm not sure about the rules for advertising here. Can I do that?) I am also learning to convert books to e-book format for Kindle and Nook, and hope to get a little business going there. I'm not quite to the place where I can totally quit MT, but I can see it from here.

So my point is, if you want to get out, take stock of what your talents are. What have you always wanted to do? Find out what it will take, and go for it.

Good for you!! - JC

[ In Reply To ..]
Awesome!!

Congrats - and good luck!

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What a bonus that you are doing something you enjoy.

I have a dream - 11th-hour save

[ In Reply To ..]

I always wanted to be a writer too, but life got in the way, I really had no idea how to begin, and I ended up in transcription as a means of staying at home with my kids 20 years ago. Along the way quite accidentally, however, I found another passion that I like even better... sports videography.

I started out filming short clips of my son years ago in T-ball (so that my parents 600 miles away could see what the kids were up to). It was a tiny digital camera, the quality wasn't that great, but I taught myself how to use Windows Movie Maker, learned some editing tricks online, and turned out a pretty good music video from of one of his games. The team got wind of it and started having me film key games, which I would then turn into music videos and post on YouTube for the kids.

A couple of years down the road as I got better with the filming and editing, I used my tax refund to purchase a quality video camera and a good movie editing program, then a couple of years later, I was able to afford a good sound editing program and a better computer. Eventually, through the many teams my kids have played on over the years, word got out that I make pretty cool music videos. I started dreaming about being able to do this on a regular basis and make some money from it, but I just didn't know how to go about starting up a business - or if I even had the confidence to make it work, or enough willpower to leave the dead-end job I've been doing for 20 years in transcription.

Finally, this summer as baseball season was ending, I was approached by several teams asking me to come out and film their kids and make DVDs for them next season. Word had gotten out that the weird lady always pointing a camera around was actually doing something with the film, lol. Things have started falling into place since then. A lot more parents are viewing my videos on YouTube and contacting me about football this fall and other sports along the way. I've found that Vista Print is a great way to get some business cards dirt cheap, which I can design myself.

I think filming some kids that aren't my own will bring a whole new quality to the videos and I'm so excited! I plan to be in business full swing as a little league sports videographer by next spring!

That's really all of us need to get going on our dreams... a little pat on the back, a kind word of appreciation. I haven't gotten these tokens of appreciation from any transcription company in years.

Don't give up fellow MT and QA peeps!! I'm going to see my dream through. I have to keep working in the meantime, but I'm looking at it as a means to an end... a silver lining in a cloud - and not some depressing, demoralizing job that I'm destined to do for the rest of my life.

Good for you mompreneur! - Thanks for the inspiration - nm

[ In Reply To ..]

Success!! - 11-hour save

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Kudos!! It's so nice to hear that someone found the exit door on this business, lol.

Best wishes to you! :)

Yeah! Good for you! - I will email you - sm

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so you can shamelessly self-promote to me individually. I would love to know the names of your books and any website, etc.

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