Medical transcription the choice of many WAHMs

If you’re looking for an at-home business that offers flexible hours and interesting work as well as consistent pay, you should consider medical transcription.

Many a mom who works at home has chosen transcription work as their go-to business because they can control their schedule. But there is a generous amount of work available, so earnings are consistent.

Why become an at-home transcriptionist?

There are many advantages to doing transcription at home. You can control your hours and do the work whenever it suits you (as long as you meet deadlines and deliver work when it’s due), and you can work exclusively at home, never needing to leave if you don’t want to. The work can be interesting and the pay can be good, depending on how experienced you are and how smart you are at setting your rates.

However, to be a transcriptionist, you need to either have past experience doing this kind of work (perhaps at a job outside the home) or you must take classes. If you decide to run your own business, it can be hard to get clients initially, but if you work for another company that simply sends the work your way, you might not make as much as you would with your own business. The advantage of working for another company, of course, is that you don’t have to seek out your own clients.

Training

If you are entering the medical transcription field for the first time, you must take some classes in this field. The terminology is complicated and you won’t be able to decipher what you are hearing without having some medical terminology under your belt. Of course, you will get faster and understand more as you work, but it’s unlikely you’ll be able to find work without having some medical terminology classes under your belt first.

Even if you have worked for another company doing medical transcription, you should take more classes when you start your own business. This is something you can note your résumé or credential sheet and it will help you find work.

How to find clients

If you have worked in this field before, you likely have some contacts and you should work those contacts to find your clients. If you are new to the field, you can do several things. First, create a good resume or credential sheet. Outline all of your work experience, not just the experience that relates specifically to medical transcription.

Your overall experience can help potential clients decide if you are a good fit for them. For example, medical transcriptionists should type quickly, so a note about your typing speed is useful. You might mention that you have had experience working in an office environment, which gives the client confidence that you know how to do work that is assigned and do it on time.

It’s advisable that you invest some money in business cards and perhaps a flier or – even better – a brochure that outlines your services. You can hand deliver these to medical offices or you can mail them to targeted potential clients.

Offer to do an audition transcription, whereby the potential client gives you a small transcription job and you complete it at no charge. If the client is happy with your work, you can pick up a new client. This is one of the best and easiest ways for a new medical transcriptionist to add new clients.

Working at home as a medical transcriptionist is a good way for moms to make extra money. You can work part-time or full-time, or a combination of both depending on your needs at any particular time. Many moms find the work exciting and interesting and they don’t get bored. And once a client base is developed, the job can lucrative as well.

WAHMs need to learn the finer art of networking

Getting your WAHM business off the ground can be tough. At any given time, you might be competing with thousands of other businesses who are also trying to get attention for their own businesses. How can you make yours stand out? It’s all about networking.

Networking is simply talking to people, getting the word out about your business and then doing the same for others. In recent years, the world of networking has changed to reflect the impact that the internet can have. If you play your cards right, you can network almost exclusively online.

If you have a WAHM business, you might want to know how to leverage the power of the internet to drive traffic to your own business. Here are some ideas.

Website

Build a website. No longer do you have to know HTML to build a website; you can buy a software program that will build the site for you or you can pay for someone to design the site for you.

Once you have a website, you need traffic to that website, so write – or have written – articles that are targeted to your subject matter. If you are working at home selling your homemade coin purses, for example, you might write and post articles that talk about fabric, the craft of sewing and unique gifts, all while extolling the virtues of coin purses.

Links

Once you have a website, you have something you can direct people to. Having a website isn’t a “build it and they will come” kind of proposition. You need to market that website, promote it in some fashion.

Here’s how you can do that. Read blogs that are somehow related to your subject area. In the case of your coin purse business, for example, you might read blogs that are about housekeeping, crafting, sewing, and fashion. Make comments on blog posts and provide a link to your site. People will read your comments and if they like what they read, they might click on your link. That drives people to the site and provides you with a method to get information about your website out to hundreds or thousands of people at a time.

Facebook

Many businesses create Facebook pages. You might have a personal Facebook page, but this is different. You create a page just for your business and provide as much information as you can about yourself and your business there. You can also provide a link to your Facebook page on the blog comments you leave, as well as provide a link to your Facebook page from your own website.

This can benefit others as well, because you can invite people to become your “friends” on Facebook. If they also have businesses they want to promote, they can become your “friends” and possibly find more friends themselves, which helps their business as well.

Twitter

Yes, everyone these days is “Twittering”. It can be a time waster as people twitter that they “just put dinner in the oven” or are “waiting for a delayed flight”. But many people have also discovered the power of Twitter as a networking tool.

You can post a link to your site in your Twitter profile and you can post comments related to what you do. People will “follow” you and you can “follow” them. As you post blog comments, or you update your web page, or even post updates to your own blog, you can make Twitter comments that include links to these things. You can also add a link to your Twitter page on your website.

It might take some time to get all of these things started, but take the time to do it – it’s all nearly free advertising and can turn into big money for you.

The online world offers many opportunities for WAHMs

If your interest in working at home focuses on a job that requires no phone use and no leaving the house for work, you might be looking for an online job.

What’s an online job? Basically, an online job is that which you get online, work online and that requires you only to have a computer and some other job-specific tools. Many WAHMs find that online jobs work well for them because they can work whenever and however they want and can withstand many interruptions without much problem.

Ebay

One of the most well-known of the online jobs, Ebay has made many a mom a nice income from home. You can sell any number of items on Ebay, but moms often sell used baby and children clothing, custom clothing, collectibles and other such items.

Selling items on Ebay comes with its own set of challenges. There is shopping to be done, so that you can build an inventory of things to sell, and the job requires good customer service skills. Some customers can be difficult to deal with and you don’t have the advantage of looking them in the face when dealing with them.

Making money on Ebay has become a bit tougher in recent years as postal rates have risen and Ebay fees have increased. Smart WAHMs have adjusted how they sell in order to keep their profit consistent. They might sell clothes in “lots” rather than single items. They might seek out new methods for acquiring goods, and buy in bulk so they can get a better deal on inventory.

There’s little investment necessary to sell on Ebay, other than a computer (high-speed access is recommended for uploading auctions), and inventory. It also requires the investment in basic mailing materials and sometimes business cards.

Writing

Several recent national news stories have pointed up the many benefits of writing online. From professional writers to people with little writing experience there are many opportunities for people who can put words together into a compelling whole.

To become an online writer, you can begin with sites that let you upload your stories and then pay you a small amount based on how many page views the article gets. This is ideal for a new writer who might have a hard time taking on clients, but can write well. Once you have established yourself on these sites -- and made a few dollars to boot -- you can begin finding clients.

There’s little investment required to become an online writer, other than a good computer and word processing program. If you join sites to bid on work or acquire new clients, you might pay membership fees there.

Online marketing

Many WAHMs have learned and conquered the world of online marketing, which allows you to market any number of items. Many people market eBooks and promote them over the web, then get a cut each time someone buys the book.

To that end, you can also build websites and get a small cut of the profits from when people click through the ads. You might start a blog (which also places this in the writing category) and promote it in a professional manner, bringing advertisers and many readers to your site. Some bloggers can claim incomes of more than $100,000 each year.

There are many opportunities for moms who want to work exclusively online. All it takes is a little research and creativity.

Scheduling the key for WAHMs

To be successful working at home, you must have schedules. It’s easy to get sidetracked with the laundry, the cleaning, and the errand-running. But to have a successful business that brings in the necessary income, staying focused on the job at hand is essential.

How can you do that? It’s all about scheduling. Let’s say that again – schedules are good, schedules are essential, schedules will keep your productive at work and in control at home.

Why do you need schedules?

Especially if you are a more creative thinker, scheduling things can seem rigid and unwelcome. You might not like the idea of having to schedule when you get things done, or the idea of planning meals ahead of time. But doing these things actually provides freedom.

When you work at home, you are shoulder to shoulder with the mess, the laundry, and the children. It’s easy to get sidetracked trying to take care of these things. But if everything is on a schedule (even the children, if they are home during the day), you can get more done. You’ll be able to focus on work when you’re working because you won’t get sidetracked thinking about all the other things that you need to get done.

How do you schedule?

Think about the things that you need to get done on a daily or weekly basis. Consider the laundry, the cooking, the general cleaning and the childcare. If you know that you are usually home on Sundays, for example, you can plan to make Sunday laundry day. You don’t allow yourself to do laundry on any other day but Sunday and you stick to that schedule. During the week, you won’t get sidetracked folding laundry.

Planning menus is essential. If you are the primary cook in your house, you must know what you are gong to cook each day or at the end of your workday, you’re going to end up in the car in the fast food lane. Since most women choose to work at home in order to be more available to their family, working at home all day and then providing takeout is hardly a step above.

Instead, plan a week’s worth of menus at a time. Ideally, you will plan a month’s worth of menus, but you can start with a week. Buy all the groceries you need for the week and even clean and cut veggies, put meat in marinades and measure out rice ahead of time. When you close up your work shop for the day, you can easily get a simple meal on the table because you were organized enough to get some prep done ahead of time.

To be efficient in work, it’s best if you just work when you’re working. That means don’t get sidetracked with paying bills or ordering books for your child’s book collection. Save those things for evening time, when you are more focused on home endeavors, or for your breaks.

Take breaks

On that note, be structured enough with your time to take breaks. Think of yourself as working in an office. You might head to the break room for a cup of coffee and on the way, have a brief discussion with a coworker about a party you both attended the night before. You might take another break later in the day and make a phone call to your child’s teacher.

If you think of your work at home life in a similar fashion, you can quickly see the results of your structured time. Take regular breaks and during that time, you can send a quick email to a friend or send a text to another. You might make that book order or that phone call. A few minutes later, you return to work just as you would if you worked outside the home.

Get started right

Finally, start each day in an organized fashion. Make sure the breakfast dishes are done, that the beds are made and the house is generally straightened. Sit down to a clean workspace. As you start your work for the day, you’ll have a sense that everything is in order and you can feel at peace focusing on your work needs because there are no other pressing needs you must worry about right now.

Structuring your time as a WAHM might seem like one more thing you must take care of, but doing so will actually free you to focus better at work and at home, even when those worlds intersect.