So following on from my last blog about sacking clients that are not respecting your process and paying their accounts, taking them to court is a situation that you may just find yourself in when all else fails. This is not a situation I share loosely with people because a) it’s not a nice situation to be in and b) it has been such a lengthy ordeal (one that is still ongoing) that I prefer to put it in the back of my mind and chalk it up to experience. However, a lot of my colleagues, particularly small businesses, have found themselves with no option other...

This week I had the unenviable task of firing one of my clients. The decision to let this client go was not an easy one, it really goes against the grain of any business, after all we are here to attract clients not to get rid of them. But there are times when you have to make hard decisions which are in the best interest for your business and this week was one of them. Let me give you a little bit of background. We provide a business to business service, our clients provide us with audio which we transcribe into text and give back to them in the form of...

Those readers who follow me closely know I love all things social media, so when I was given the opportunity to live-tweet at the Media140 for Foodies event I didn’t think twice. My fingers were poised, ready to send tweets via my trusty iPhone, @dictates wouldn’t hand over his iPad ! Media140 was founded by Ande Gregson in February last year as a way of bringing people together at events and conferences all over the world to “explore the future of the real-time web”. Twitter icon Mahei Foliaki ( @iconic88 ) and his partner The Internet Chef...

I should probably be blogging about this ‘after’ my next blog regarding the transition (in its entirety) from home office to commercial premises however it bugged me so much, I couldn’t wait! This blog is about a fridge! So generally how a commercial lease works is you have your rent each month plus you have outgoings which are things like general upkeep of the actual building, maintenance, cleaning and security of the common areas (you pay separately for these for your own office). On our floor, in the Highpoint Building at Erina, there...

I’ve only written a handful of blogs and generally they are very structured and relevant about my transcription business and when I read back over them, they appear to be informative but pretty boring. I wasn’t quite sure why as I love to tell a story and consider myself pretty good at it but it wasn’t until I went to a conference recently “ConnectNow” and heard two key speakers on the day, that I realised exactly what it was that was missing from my blogs. It was me. Whilst I was away camping over Easter at a hoe-down (that’s another story),...

Recently Rhianne, who has been with us at The Transcription People since early 2008, finished her Certificate III in Business Administration and is about to start Certificate IV in Front-line Management. Rhianne came to the organisation straight out of school after finishing Year 12. With the decision made not to go to ‘schoolies’ and to become focussed with starting her career was the perfect start. “… Although the tempation to have a break and go to ‘schoolies’ was hard to resist, the benefits of starting the job was...

I am often asked the question “What is Transcription?” when chatting to people about what I do and am often quite surprised when people don’t know. Put quite simply, transcription is the conversion of speech-to-text from video or more commonly digital audio recordings. However there are a lot of steps to go through to transform a digital audio file into a useable text document – and there are many reasons in business for needing an accurate record of events. Our clients upload their digital audio files via our secure online server, which...

In the lead up to the end of 2009 and in the first week of 2010 I’ve read a lot of blogs listing the writer’s goals for this year. I think this is great and I have a list of goals I’d like to achieve too, but I prefer to make my first blog for 2010 a retrospective look at what I decided were my must-have items from last year. Here I have decided to list everything that has made my business a success in 2009 and helped build it to the operation it has become. 1. Must-have networking group – The Australian Businesswomen’s Network (ABN) I joined...

Christmas is a time of giving, but it also a time for being with friends and looking back at the year that has gone before, celebrating what has been achieved. I intend to do just this when I attend the CCBiz Christmas Cocktail function at Ettalong Mantra on Friday night (November 27), both as an event sponsor, but also a member of the Central Coast’s own networking group. It has been a big year for The Transcription People, with our move from our home office into the HighPoint Building at Erina, as well as the business’s growth. We have big plans for...

Being a busy transcription business, we often receive around ten job enquiry emails per day either requesting information or submitting resumes for transcription work. Whilst this can be quite time consuming to review each email and resume, the process is often shortened by the occasional email that I don’t even waste my time reviewing. I have been shocked over the years at people’s lack of consideration and social etiquette with something as serious as asking for your employment. The following can deter me from even considering an application: Not...