What is business transcription?
Today, there are more opportunities available for transcriptionists than ever before. Many small and large companies, individuals, and organizations outsource general and business transcription to home-based transcriptionists. In addition to medical transcription and legal transcription, there are many opportunities for general and business transcription work.
Business transcription is any transcription needed for businesses. Business transcription covers a wide variety of work, such as transcribing business meetings, interviews, quarterly reports, phone calls, single-person dictations, video presentations, focus group discussions, speeches, seminars, conferences, webinars, workshops, movie scripts, podcasts, and anything else that can be recorded.
High demand
There is a considerable demand for transcription for a variety of industries. Many businesses, entrepreneurs, organizations, and individuals need transcription of audio and video. The demand for business transcription has increased in the last couple of years as many people are using audio and video online and often provide a transcript of their audio on their site. The use of podcasts and webinars has increased as well.
The internet has made it possible for freelance transcriptionists to thrive and you just might find this an ideal opportunity to work from home. Transcription services are in demand as you can see from the many transcription jobs that are advertised on the Internet. You can find job postings for business transcription work in freelance sites and a variety of job sites.
Why businesses need transcription
- Archiving: Transcription makes it easier to archive the content of audio and video (e.g. recorded events, meetings, and interviews) and provides easy future reference.
- Search engine optimization: Transcribed information can be easier indexed by search engines and is easier found by people searching the web.
- Legal requirements: Some state and federal laws require businesses to keep records of certain information, such as minutes from quarterly reports.
11 Businesses that use transcriptionists
Transcription is used in almost every business sector. Below are just some types of businesses that regularly use transcription services:
- The insurance industry (insurance transcription/general transcription)
- Financial institutions (finance transcription)
- Academia (academic transcription/general transcription)
- Focus groups (focus group transcription)
- Public speakers (general transcription)
- Teleconference organizers (conference transcription/general transcription)
- Police & law enforcement departments (police transcription/legal transcription)
- The media / Movie producers (media transcription/entertainment transcription/general transcription)
- Non-profit organizations (general transcription)
- Religious organizations, e.g. churches (general transcription)
- Government agencies (general transcription)
Why do many businesses outsource transcription work vs doing it in-house?
The majority of businesses are sending transcription work to freelance transcription services and home-based transcriptionists instead of doing the transcription in-house. As their businesses do not require transcriptionists on a daily basis, outsourcing transcription jobs to freelancers on an “as needed” basis is more practical for them.
Here are just some of the benefits businesses get from using transcription services and the reasons why many businesses outsource transcription work:
- Businesses get quality, accurate transcripts within a good turn-around time. An experienced transcriptionist can do a better and faster job than an in-house employee who is inexperienced in transcription.
- Outsourcing transcription saves companies time, energy, and money.
- Save time: Transcribing in-house is time-consuming if the staff is not experienced in transcription.
- Outsourcing costs less: If they don't need transcription daily, outsourcing transcription jobs to freelance transcriptionists on an “as needed” basis is more cost-effective than having an in-house staff of transcribers. They only have to pay when they need work done. They have less overhead, need fewer employees, and don't have to pay vacation pay, sickness pay, or other benefits.
- Outsourcing enables employees to focus on tasks that better utilize their expertise.
- Outsourcing is less work and less hassle. They don't need to recruit specialized staff and get specialized software.
- Transcripts may include confidential information they don’t want employees to know.
Business transcription is easier to get started
Contrary to medical or legal transcription, you do not need to go through extensive training and you do not need to be familiar with medical or legal terminologies to get into general transcription.
Of course, you need to have the skills to do the work such as English language and grammar proficiency, listening competency, typing speed, and accuracy, and word processor know-how.
Transcription Training – Resources to learn transcription
You can learn general transcription by reading specialized books, using general transcription practice files, and taking a specialized general transcription course.
I recommend Janet Shaughnessy’s intensive, multi-media general transcription course, General Transcription: Theory and Practice™.
It is a detailed, comprehensive, online, multi-media course that will help you become a general transcriptionist. The course includes typing drills, transcription skills, transcription formats, grammar, lots of practice files, and everything you need to know about doing transcription work. Get more information about this awesome course at https://generaltranscriptionworkfromhome.com/blog/general.
TRANSCRIPTION RESOURCES
- FREE General Transcription Mini-Course.
- Detailed, multi-media General Transcription Course.
- General Transcription Practice Files.
- FREE Legal Transcription Mini-Course.
- Medical Transcription Course.
- Check out this complete transcription starter kit at Amazon.
- Grammarly is the best online spelling and grammar checker to help you edit your transcripts. Grammarly has a free version and a premium version. Check it out here.
Disclaimer: If you purchase a product through a referral link, I will get a commission at NO extra cost to you and it helps me to keep providing you with quality information.