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

Start your own business - chamiya

Posted: Jul 29, 2011

I am really tired of working for other people and have them treat you like dirt all the while making millions of bucks off our hard work.

Has anyone looked into starting their own company? What resources are required and how does one go about licensing, getting clients, etc.?

Any information on this topic would be helpful. Please don't reply if you have anything negative to say. Just want some good clean advice :)

Do google searches - sm

[ In Reply To ..]
In google I just typed in How to start your own transcription business and a ton of links popped up. Some of course they want you to pay, but here's an e-how link I saw.

http://www.ehow.com/how_4706987_start-medical-transcription-business.html

Back about 10 or so years ago when I got out of school I was thinking about doing that. I think the tough part would be getting the clients. I would think you would have to be good at marketing yourself. Then there would be the question of are you going to work alone or hire other people. What kind of system will you use. Are you going to invest the money in the transcription system for the docs. I would think it's pretty expensive. Are you going to have multiple clients or just one doc. What if that one doc has more docs in his office that want you to transcribe for them. Can you handle all of it or are you going to hire others to help. This is why I prefer to work for a transcription company. They have all that taken care of. I think you need to just find the right company that treats you nice. I work for a great company since 2006 and never once got treated like any of the messages here on this board of other people.

Either way I wish you luck, let us know what you decide and how it works out.

thanks - chamiya

[ In Reply To ..]
Thanks for the help! Does anyone know how much the transcription system costs and how is it implemented? I would most likely be the sole proprietor and marketing to clients isn't my concern, but I am very confused about the software program. For example, the company I work for now uses MDinTouch. Do doctors dictate directly into the system and is it necessary still for MTSOs to print reports. What about data archival? How much does that cost typically for a year? If anyone who has been through this process can offer some advice, I would be so grateful.

Starting an MT business - Kat

[ In Reply To ..]
I have been reading about starting an MT business also. One of the things that I have wondered about is..how do you know what is a reasonable rate to charge or the "going rate" so you can decide what prices to charge? About the systems, I do know that you can do something as simple as Word documents and use ExpressScribe to transcribe. You can get an FPL site to secure your documents and send and receive documents and voice files. You might want to look into something like that to begin with instead of investing so much money into a software program. I know of one place that I worked that had used this system for years. If you have any advice for me about how much to charge, I'd sure appreciate your help. I thought I might just pick up my own accounts and if I start getting too many, then advertise to get more MT to help out, which would be starting a bussiness slowly. Once you hire a few people to cover the accounts you have, then you can start working on over seeing the MTs, QAing their work, canvassing for more work, etc. I hope this has helped you.

pricing - mt

[ In Reply To ..]
if you're the same kat as above, just charge whatever you want and then bill what you need, afterall, ethics aren't an issue, right?

To get local pricing, call your local prospective clients and ask what they pay. Some will tell you, some will not. Then open the phone book (if you can come across one) and call the services in your area and ask what they'd charge you to transcribe. Some will tell you, some will not.

Where I live, 10-12cpl is all we can charge as an IC. Trying to pay for help out of that means, I can only pay 8-9 cpl.

Doing on the cheap - xmtso

[ In Reply To ..]
I hope you're doing more research than asking questions on here. Going into business for yourself means you should know how to run a business. That goes a little deeper than asking a few questions here.

Are you looking to just be an independent contractor (guessing from your sole proprietorship comment)? Does that mean you would be handling all the work yourself? Have you considered pricing? Changes in techology, implementing into a EHR, HIPAA (and I don't care what someone said on here earlier, if you put yourself out there as a "business entity" for HIPAA then you do have to abide by the rules of HIPAA, including calling yourself a "security officer" and making that known to your clients).

It's no longer as simple as get the dictation, pay for how you got it, do the work, get it back.

There are several types of call-in systems that charge you XX per line for lines processed through their system.

And for the record, most MTSOs done "make millions." The large services make money based on sheer volume. As a contractor, you're not going to make millions either. You *may* make more by cutting out the middle man, but then remember, it's your baby, 24/7/365, sun, rain, summer vacation, sick, well, etc.

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