Like any business, 2010 presented The Transcription People with its fair share of ups and downs, and there were times where closing down the business and packing shelves at Woolies was quite an appealing idea, fortunately though, the ups outweighed the downs which is why we run our own businesses right?

2010 followed a similar pattern to previous years for The Transcription People, steady business growth and the continuation of lessons learned from a plethora of life and business experiences thrown my way, some of them very hard lessons, some of them on a personal level and some were just poor judgement on my part. We saw one of our larger government clients leave us, opting for price over quality after three years of service and another client dropping us (again after three years of service) with an attempt to bully us into letting them off a large invoice – perhaps it’s a three year business itch?  Those of you who know me will know that 1) I will not be bullied by a business of any size and 2) I have principles and I stick to them – I work damn hard to continue to build a professional transcription service and I will fight to keep my reputation and if all else fails – invest in a great debt collection service!

Like many businesses staffing continued to be a challenge for us. We have a great team of transcriptionists both onsite and work from home (online) across Australia. Our workload continued to remain steady throughout the year and we managed to allocate audio files, have them transcribed and proofread and returned to the client on time, every time. This highlighted to me how important processes are within the business which in 2010 we set about implementing and improving these.

On the positive side we saw 60 plus new clients utilise our services; we created an employment opportunity for a school leaver with a disability to complete a one year traineeship, Rhianne, my ever faithful and loyal PA graduated to her second year traineeship; was nominated and won Trainee of the Year for Business Services for our region. I also had to confront my fears with some speaking gigs at various business functions. Throughout the year I was invited to speak – mainly about social media and its uses within business – at several events in Sydney and Newcastle. These included The Australian Businesswomen’s Network, Digicitz, A-List Entrepreneurs and AICD Newcastle. I won’t lie to you, I was pretty nervous before each event but during and after was quite a buzz. I was buoyed by many of the positive comments I received at the events and after via twitter and Facebook. Public speaking is something I do quite enjoy (once it’s over) and one of my goals in 2011 is to do more. I’ve been told that I could talk for Australia if talking ever becomes an Olympic sport, so I really enjoy talking about what I do and enjoy – business and social media.

Time to move on with 2011 – onwards and upwards!

Running, no sprinting into the 21st Century the team at The Transcription People are starting to become more and more active in social media in Australia and Worldwide so now it is time for our blog to be born.

The role of your stereotypical typist has changed greatly over the last ten years. We no longer use dictaphone tapes, audio files are now now digital and shared across the internet. We don’t wear large headphones on our ears straining to hear the the audio we have to type above the noise of a mechanical typewriter, these have been replaced by iPod earbuds and the gentle click of nails on the keyboard. We don’t even work in your office, your state or in some cases your country.

Transcription Typist

In our blog we will bring you information from the life and times of an outsource transcription business. What to expect? Plenty of advice on transcription, dictation, digital voice recorders and voice recognition software. Amusing experiences with our clients, small business advice and generally anything we think is mildly entertaining to us we will pass on.

Annalisa
Principal of The Transcription People