When my son was born, my husband and I decided I would stay home because daycare would be too expensive. During that time, I've started doing transcription work. Most people consider it to be grueling and unbelievably monotonous, but I really like it a lot.
I'm an independent contractor, and I've been contracting with one company for close to a year. I have no problems with pay (which can be a hassle. A lot times, transcribers get stiffed. There's a lot of flakiness out there). My 'boss' is a retired English teacher, so she always gives me feedback on my transcripts. She's a great lady, and I like her a lot. As soon as I submit a transcript, I get paid immediately. I could get another contract in addition to this one, but I have to be transcribing for at least two years to get a competitive wage.
Now, with that being said, I'm a beginner, and by being a beginner, I get beginning pay. Now that my kids are older, I can work outside of the house. I don't have some awesome career that I left prior to staying home. I would just find a job to pay the bills that would go nowhere probably. We're not destitute, but more money would be nice.
Right now I'm doing a lot of work for a little bit of money. As I get more experienced, I'll get faster, get better contracts, or my own clients, but that's not happening right now. My question is should I get a job outside of the house and do the transcription on the side, or should I just focus on getting better? If I get a job outside of the home, I won't have much time to transcribe. My husband supports either decision. We can pay the bills, but more money would be nice. I guess it's a bird in the hand and two in the bush sort of thing....
What would you decide?
In my opinion, as the kids get older, you actually need to be around more -- i.e. middle school and high school -- so an at-home job sounds perfect, especially if you will continue to earn more as you go along. I would see it as an investment. I would stick with it if I were you. I have always worked part time, but out of the house, and have wished I could work in the house :) Good luck!
I would continue to do it part time, but aim for something better part time while your children are in school. My friend did this same exact thing... she was an experienced transcriber but it was tough finding work. She ended up doing something else in the medical field she learned through some of her transcription contacts.
I also do transcription work on the side. I enjoy it also but after two days of steadily typing, my hands and wrists can begin to ache. I wear supports on both wrists. You're lucky you get paid so quickly. Sometimes that's a problem for me. If I have a court order for my services, it takes 6 weeks for the county to cut me a check. On private pay, I've learned to get a deposit and to charge late fees. Like you said, the transcriptionist gets stiffed if the money runs out!
I used to do it to make up for part of my salary because I was cut from full time to part time. Now that I have a full time job again, I still do it on the side. It's nice to have that little extra occasionally. Sometimes I'm really busy, other times nothing. Like now, I haven't had a side job for about 2 months. But that's okay. I enjoy having my weekends.
See, that's the thing. If you do transcribe on the side, your evenings and weekends are tied up. After working a 40 hour week, I have to literally FORCE myself to go in and work on the transcription stuff. And a lot of times I feel guilty because I don't have any time to spend with my hubby and GD.
If I could stay home and strictly do transcription full time, I would. You can make your own hours so you are free to do things with the kids during the day and then work when they're in bed. The faster you get, the more money you'll make as you know. Right now I type about 90 wpm so I'm very fast so it is really a good gig for me!
If you get a job, you have additional expenses of gas, clothes, eating out, drycleaning, and such. Plus, who will care for your kids or run them around? Will you pay a sitter?
Just my opinion but one year in a field is not nearly long enough and dividing your energies is rarely a good thing. I think with a full time job you'll find yourself spread too thin to do the transcription on the side. Like others have said you'll be cutting into your family time to do the sidework and that is no fun. Right now you enjoy your job, you like your current contract and you are promptly paid. I would invest another six months to a year to work on improving your skills with the aim of taking on another contract. Set yourself a timeframe based on your knowledge now to reach the next level and invest your energies in improving your skills/gaining more work. As you know money isn't everything. Rejoining the rat race (set hours at a full time job on someone else's schedule) has its own set of tradeoffs and also it's own set of additional expenses. Good luck and best wishes whatever you decide.
I think I would get a part-time job outside the home for some adult interaction. I was a retail merchandiser for 3 years and loved it, unfortunatly my company gave our work to a third party so now I am at home. It might be something you may want to look into. With alot of the companies you are in charge of your own schedule. Doing it part-time would still give you time to continue your transcribing. When I started I had NEVER done that type of work but I learned pretty quick. Good luck on your decision.
