Here are some industry related articles written by Gaynor. We are happy to discuss writing articles for your pubilcation.
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Typewrite Transcription and Typing Services - The Story So Far
By Gaynor Paynter
www.typewritetranscription.co.za / [email protected]
Contact me to buy my E-book “Working From Home as a Transcriptionist in South Africa”.
In December of 2004, I decided that I was going to quit my job as a resume writer at a recruitment company and work from home. I’d initially tried to be a transcriptionist in 2000 during a period of unemployment, but I realised that my idea was just slightly ahead of what technology offered in South Africa at that time. I had to wait four or five years for technology to catch up with me. I’d completed an N5 Secretarial Diploma and by 2004 had 10 years experience working in an administration position. Of my two sons, one was starting Grade R and the other had learning problems and required therapies such as occupational therapy, all of which was not conducive to me working an 8 – 5 office job.
Like any newbie I had some qualms, but I just seemed to have a knack of knowing what to do, or at least what would work for me. I realised that I couldn’t just quit my job with nothing to go to. In addition, I knew that it was going to be a fight of note for me to actually leave the company I was working for. It was a small company with a very manipulative boss, so I knew it was going to take me some months to get out of there.
For three months I worked days and some nights at the company, came home, had supper and worked nights on getting my business going. I marketed anywhere and everywhere and by the first month I had my first client – typing a manuscript for an author. I realised however that regular clients or retainer clients were what I needed to ensure a regular income for myself and I concentrated my marketing accordingly – I remember searching the Yellow Pages for businesses in my area and telling them about me and advertising in my local paper. While I still have one of the clients I picked up from there, that is the one and only time I ever paid for advertising. With advertising a business like this, your main investment is time, and as with any investment the more you put in the greater your return will be.
At this point I was lucky enough to come across the Women At Work group and I made many many contacts there.
Last year my business had grown to the point where I did not have enough time to get all the work out myself. I was getting queries for 20 hours of transcription and with my regulars still to cater for, this became problematic.
I am not the type of person to let a problem beat me. I played chess at school and learned to look at the bigger picture. I discussed the problem with my friend and colleague Alison Fourie of AMF Typing. We realised that there must be many South Africans out there who would be only too happy to assist us with our big projects, and that we had a lot of experience and knowledge to offer to newbies. There MUST be people out there providing specific skills we were looking for. How were we going to get them together, so that we could help teach newbies, provide support and find the means to get our big jobs done?
The answer was TAVASA. TAVASA is the Transcriptionists and Virtual Assistants of South Africa, and you can sign up here http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/tavasa/ or go and have a look at our website www.tavasa.weebly.com. We launched this as a Yahoo Group and marketed it on the internet, and I’m proud to say that we are now a thriving group, and each time somebody gets a project too big for them to handle alone, help is at hand. We have provided a lot of support to our members, and have very interesting discussions too, which alleviates another problem facing the work at homer – loneliness.
This brings me up to today. Today I believe I’ve built the foundation of my organisation. Each year it’s been in existence it’s grown stronger, and in 2008 I’ve really built a platform from which I can launch in 2009. The potential is unlimited.
Just a word or two about support that is available:
Transcription and VA work is not for the fainthearted. If you’re expecting to come home, work for an hour and then watch soap operas, forget this. I for one have not found that I spend much more time with my children either now that I am working from home. However, I am here in the afternoons and so are they – we have no need for aftercare and they can make arrangements with their friends, etc. In a nutshell, put a lot of work into this and channel your energies correctly, and you will get a lot out. I’ve seen me working day and night for weeks on end. The rewards are worth it.
So what help is out there?
When I was starting out there were not many resources to help me in South Africa. I can offer newbies a different scenario. There’s TAVASA, and I’ve put my experiences and what worked for me in starting up a transcription business into my own e-book which retails for R120 – “Working From Home as a Transcriptionist In South Africa” – thus entitled because transcriptionists in South Africa have their own set of challenges, different to other countries. Contact me for info about this.
By Gaynor Paynter
www.typewritetranscription.co.za / [email protected]