Not difficult if you are prepared sm
Posted By: MT4Life on 2008-08-03
In Reply to: trying to decide - Carol
but also you have to be prepared to stick it out until your income picks up. You're not going to come out of the box making huge bucks right away. I find that MT is something you either love or you hate, no inbetween. Read the boards and look at the comments. Check out the new MT/student board and see what they're saying. Quite honestly, anyone that has asked me about going into MT recently I've suggested they find another career as MT ain't what it used to be. Good luck to you though.
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Prepared
Bravo! Well said. I live in Florida. I heard Jeb Bush say the other day that people had plenty of time to stock up for at least 3 days. I cheered - he is so right! I'm tired of all the whining from all the "victims" in this country - people need to take responsibility for their own lives and get on with it. The government should help the people who truly need it - handicapped, elderly, sickly of all ages, but healthy people who take handouts are just irresponsibile and reprehensible.
and be prepared
All I know is in VA they zapped the heck out of me and I had to get a business license to boot. Employee status is a little more restrictive but Im getting money back not paying out over 2000 a year..
Fed govt should have been prepared.
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Los Angeles Times
Despite Warnings, Washington Failed to Fund Levee Projects
By Richard A. Serrano and Nicole Gaouette Times Staff Writers Sun Sep 4, 7:55 AM ET
WASHINGTON — For years, Washington had been warned that doom lurked just beyond the levees. And for years, the White House and Congress had dickered over how much money to put into shoring up century-old dikes and carrying out newer flood control projects to protect the city of New Orleans.
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As recently as three months ago, the alarms were sounding — and being brushed aside.
In late May, the New Orleans district of the Army Corps of Engineers formally notified Washington that hurricane storm surges could knock out two of the big pumping stations that must operate night and day even under normal conditions to keep the city dry.
Also, the Corps said, several levees had settled and would soon need to be raised. And it reminded Washington that an ambitious flood-control study proposed four years before remained just that — a written proposal never put into action for lack of funding.
What a powerful hurricane could do to New Orleans and the area's critical transportation, energy and petrochemical facilities had been well understood. So now, nearly a week into the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, hard questions are being raised about Washington officials who crossed their fingers and counted on luck once too often. The reasons the city's defenses were not strengthened enough to handle such a storm are deeply rooted in the politics and bureaucracy of Washington.
With the advantage of hindsight, the miscues seem even broader. Construction proposals were often underfunded or not completed. Washington officials could never agree on how much money would be needed to protect New Orleans. And there hung in the air a false sense of security that a storm like Katrina was a long shot anyway.
As a result, when the immediate crisis eases and inquiries into what went wrong begin, there is likely to be responsibility and blame enough for almost every institution in Washington, including the White House, Congress, the Army Corps of Engineers and a host of other federal agencies.
For example, Lt. Gen. Carl Strock, the Corps commander, conceded Friday that the government had known the New Orleans levees could never withstand a hurricane higher than a Category 3. Corps officials shuddered, he said, when they realized that Katrina was barreling down on the Gulf Coast with the vastly greater destructive force of a Category 5 — the strongest type of hurricane.
Washington, he said, had rolled the dice.
Rather than come up with the extra millions of dollars needed to make the city safer, officials believed that such a devastating storm was a small probability and that, with the level of protection that had been funded, "99.5% of the time this would work."
Unfortunately, Strock said, "we did not address the 0.5%."
Corps officials said the floodwaters breached at two spots: the 17th Street Canal Levee and the London Avenue Canal Levee. Connie Gillette, a Corps spokeswoman, said Saturday there never had been any plans or funds allocated to shore up those spots — another sign the government expected them to hold.
Nevertheless, the Corps hardly was alone in failing to address what it meant to have a major metropolitan area situated mostly below sea level, sitting squarely in the middle of the Gulf Coast's Hurricane Alley.
Many federal, state and local flood improvement officials kept asking for more dollars for more ambitious protection projects. But the White House kept scaling down those requests. And each time, although congressional leaders were more generous with funding than the White House, the House and Senate never got anywhere near to approving the amounts that experts had said was needed.
What happened this year was typical: Local levee and flood prevention officials, along with Sen. Mary L. Landrieu (D-La.), asked for $78 million in project funds.
President Bush offered them less than half that — $30 million. Congress ended up authorizing $36.5 million.
Since Bush took office in 2001, local experts and Landrieu have asked for just short of $500 million. Altogether, Bush in his yearly budgets asked for $166 million, and Congress approved about $250 million.
These budget decisions reflect a reality in Washington: to act with an eye toward short-term political rewards instead of making long-term investments to deal with problems.
Vincent Gawronski, an assistant professor at Birmingham Southern College in Alabama who studies the political impact of natural disasters, said the lost chances to shore up the levees were a classic example of government leaders who, although meaning well, clashed over priorities.
"Elected politicians are in office for a limited amount of time and with a limited amount of money, and they don't really have a long-term vision for spending it," he said.
"So you spend your pot of money where you feel you're going to get the most political support so you can get reelected. It's very difficult to think long-term. If you invest in these levees, is that going to show an immediate return or does it take away from anything else?"
Gawronski said flood control projects do not have the appeal of other endeavors, such as cancer research and police protection. At the same time, Congress habitually approves billions of dollars for highways and bridges and other infrastructure that politically benefits individual congressmen.
Gawronski called it inexcusable for the United States to have been "gambling so long" that the old levee system in New Orleans would hold.
"Disasters are often low probability, high consequence events, so there's a gamble there," he said. "It's not going to happen on my watch, there's the potential it might, but I'll bet it won't."
In the case of New Orleans and flood control, another factor was at work: the reputation of the Corps of Engineers. Over the years, many in Washington had come to regard the Corps as an out-of-control agency that championed huge projects and sometimes exaggerated need and benefits.
The Corps began as a tiny regiment during the Revolutionary War era; it now employs about 35,000 people to build dams, deepen harbors, dig ditches and erect seawalls, among other things. But critics say some projects are make-work boondoggles.
In 2000, Corps leaders were found to have manipulated an economic study to justify a Mississippi River project that would have cost billions. The agency also launched a secret growth initiative to boost its budget by 50%. And the
Pentagon found in 2000 that the Corps' cost-benefit analyses were systematically skewed to warrant large-scale construction projects.
As a result, said a senior staffer with the Senate Appropriations Committee who spoke on condition of anonymity, requests by the Corps for flood control money were especially vulnerable to budget cutting. "A lot of people just look at it as pork," said the staffer.
The Bush administration's former budget director, Mitch Daniels, was known as an aggressive advocate for Corps reform who cast a skeptical eye on its budget requests.
"The Army Corps of Engineers has a very large budget, and it has grown a lot over recent years," Daniels, now the governor of Indiana, said. "To the extent there's been any limitation of [the Corps'] budget, it has to do with previous tendencies to build marinas and things that don't have much to do with preparing us for disaster."
The Bush White House maintains it never ignored the security needs of the Gulf Coast. "Flood control has been a priority of this administration from Day One," said White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan.
He said hundreds of millions of dollars were spent in the New Orleans area in recent years for flood prevention, and he said the failure of the levees was not a matter of money so much as a problem with drawing the right plans for the dike work and other improvements.
"It's been more of a design issue with the levees," he said.
Other administration officials said there were not enough construction companies and equipment to handle all the work that had been proposed.
John Paul Woodley Jr., assistant secretary of the Army for Civil Works, who has responsibility for the Corps of Engineers, said: "It's true, we cannot accomplish all of our projects at full funding all the time. I think that's true of any agency, particularly any public works agency, but we had a lot of work underway in New Orleans, and I was personally supportive of it.
"As a native of Louisiana," Woodley said, "I understand the problems associated with flooding in New Orleans. I don't think there's any lack of support for flood control projects in New Orleans, particularly within the context of other projects around the country."
On Capitol Hill in recent years, several Democrats warned that more money should be marked for the protection of New Orleans. For instance, in September 2004, Landrieu said she was tired of hearing there was no money to do more work on levees.
"We're told, can't do it this year. Don't have enough money. It's not a high enough priority," she said in a Senate speech. "Well, I know when it's going to get to be a high enough priority."
She then told of a New Orleans emergency worker who had collected several thousand body bags in the event of a major flood. "Let's hope that never happens," she said.
But in May 2004, then Senate Minority Whip Harry Reid (D-Nev.) said he had visited the levees as a guest of Landrieu and believed them adequate.
He praised the ancient water pumps for keeping the waters from cascading into the city, proclaiming them "these old, old pumps that hadn't been changed since before the turn of the century, that still keep New Orleans dry."
"It was as clean as a restaurant," he added. "These big old pumps work."
Today, eight of those 22 pumps are underwater and inoperable.
Over the years, several projects either were short-changed or never got started. The Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project was authorized by Congress after a rainstorm killed six people in May 1995. It was to be finished in 10 years, but funding reductions prevented its completion before Katrina struck.
The Army Corps of Engineers did spend $430 million to renovate pumping stations and shore up the levees. But experts said the project fell behind schedule after funding was reduced in 2003 and 2004.
The Lake Pontchartrain Project was a $750-million Corps operation for new levees and beefed-up pumping stations. Because of funding cuts, it was only 80% complete when the hurricane hit.
The project that never was started was an examination of storm surges from large hurricanes. Congress approved the study but did not allocate the funds for it.
In May, AL Naomi, the Corps' senior project manager for the New Orleans district, reminded political and business leaders and emergency management officials that a Category 4 or 5 hurricane was always possible. After that meeting, Walter Brooks, the regional planning commission director, came away shaking his head.
"We've learned that we're not as safe as we thought we were," he told the local newspaper, the Times-Picayune.
Last week, Corps commander Strock defended past work, saying, it was his "personal and professional assessment" that work in New Orleans was never underfunded. What he meant by that, he explained, was that no one expected such a large disaster before all the renovations and other improvements could be completed.
"That was as good as it was going to get," he said. " We knew that it would protect from a Category 3 hurricane. In fact, it has been through a number of Category 3 hurricanes."
But, he said, Katrina's intensity "simply exceeded the design capacity of the levee."
Asked whether in hindsight he wished more had been done, Strock said: "I really don't express surprise in my business. We don't sit around and say 'Gee whiz.' "
Times staff writer Mary Curtius contributed to this report.
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Be prepared to pay big bucks - nm
nm
Also true... but bid low and be prepared to do it yourself...sm
because the lower you bid, the less likely you're going to find a quality MT who will do it for you for less that what you bid it.
That's all I'm saying. I know that's the way it's going... it's going that way everywhere... doesn't mean we have to take the lower pay. There are good paying jobs out there, you just have to look a little harder to find them. There are MTSOs who won't bid too low to pay their good MTs a decent rate and they should be commended.
Yep. But also be prepared for them to immediately end your contract. nm
x
Sorry, disagree -- be prepared to do all accounts
If you want to start off with your own accounts you have to prepared to take anything and everything so that you can get your name out there. Also, there are still many docs that use tapes and though they are the minority, they do exist. Also I have many calls from people that want seminars, conferences, etc. transcribed and they are all on tapes. 75% of my accounts are still on tapes and I pick-up, deliver, print, cut apart chart notes, etc. Part of my SERVICE to the customer. If you need to so this, you can build this into your cpl. I enjoy getting out of the house and doing it, good write off for the use of my car, I get to know the office staff and docs and I feel we are "people" to each other and not just a voice. Again, when starting out you cannot be so picky -- but that is just my two cents but have been in the business for 18+ years so it works for me. Patti
I would call Linksys, but be prepared...
Linksys tech support is in India.
If US wipes out its MT industry, it better be prepared to
I know I'm at an age where, if US MT disappears entirely, I'm too far from Soc. Sec. or retirement to be able to take advantage of that, and too old to go back to school for the length of time it would take to learn a new skill that would pay the rent/groceries/gas/etc. So most likely I'd be on the government dole. Multiply that x tens of thousands, (hundreds of thousands if you add in all the OTHER US workers in other industries, but in the same boat age & skill-wise, and you've got a whole 'nother Katrina going on.
Oh please, Floridians had plenty of time to get prepared.
These hurricanes were not unexpected events. In fact, there is no excuse for being unprepared as there is a specified hurricane season every year. This happens every freaking year. What part of be prepared don't you understand? At least start preparing now for next year. It's not that hard.
We were prepared to survive 3 weeks cut off from the outside world.
We moved out of Florida after getting hit with 3 hurricanes last summer, but since Hurricane Andrew in 1992, we took it very seriously. As long as the roof held, we had 3 weeks of emergency canned goods, batteries, a portable TV and radio, oil lamps, sterno, pallets of bottled drinking water and at least 120 gallons of stored water in containers tinctured with bleach for personal hygiene and flushing toilets. Cars gas tanks were topped off before the hurricane.
I no longer live in Florida, but everybody should always have some emergency supplies and extra food and water on hand. Every part of the country has some kind of weather or power outages at times. My parents lived during the depression and taught us to be self sufficient and never wait for a hand out.
I went to career step & graduated 3 yrs ago. I think it prepared me well.
Be prepared to pound those keys for a national
and you have to be able to stay focused if you chose a national requiring set hours. Consider your benefits. There are pros and cons to working from home. I would say unless you have a really good reason to type from home, then keep your day job. I do fine myself because I am an IC, but I sometimes feel very isolated from the outside workforce. I do have children, but adult conversation when you are pounding those keys all day is hard to come by. The other duties you speak of on-site keeps you sane! Just my opinion! Good luck whatever you decide. The money is just not there anymore working for these nationals unless you are willing to put on long days and pound out about 300 lph. 
I am prepared to quit, too! Have the patches. Going to get popsicles and lollipops.
dd
Your daughter will be better prepared for life by having a part-time job now. sm
Meanwhile, her BF will end up feeling entitled to everything she wants because she's being spoiled now. Hopefully your daughter will continue to work because she enjoys it...the money, the responsibility, the feeling of being a little grown up. Maybe it'll rub off on her BF. If not... well, rest easy knowing your kid is doing all right.
I felt very prepared for a job after finishing AT-Home Professions course.
The ladies and instructors at the school were very helpful. I have been working as an MT for 7 years now and felt like they tought me a lot. I think it depends on who you talk to. Definitely helped me that I first got my experience in a small hospital where I was able to learn at a slow pace and built speed with time. I didn't pay 2-3000 dollars for the school but felt very confident when I went looking for a job.
Of Course Endiqua read your post. It is irrelevant to her what you wrote and she is fully prepared
Hush and take notes. Endiqua is the authority on all things and doesn't need to read your post or even understand it. She's got an opinion and by gawd you will listen. QA is annointed boss of you.
Husband likes it prepared in skillet basted with bearnaise sauce. nm
Forget dinner! Just prepared a huge lunch. Skillet chicken: Skinless boneness breasts cooked in skil
golden brown, add can of cream of mushroom soup, 1 cup of frozen mixed veggies, 1/2 c water - cover and cook about 15 minutes.
Then I made homemade mashed potatoes - extra thick - with plenty of pepper :0
Then, boiled my water for my sweet tea....with lemon.
After the chicken is done, pour a cup and a half or so of mozerella cheese on top and let it sit for about a minute or so.
The mixture from the potatoes is a creamy blend with mixed veggies poured over either rice or potatoes. I just make stuff up all the time like this. You could even add crackers to the mixture to give it a crunchy feel. My 2 boys were in heaven today. Of course, I may have to work the night shift when my lunch is finished - when I eat like this during the afternoon I usually skip dinner altogether because of the carb content.
Remember with this dish: You can do it low fat by substituting above ingredients. Also remember to have plenty of color to your diet! Voila!
For me, it 's more difficult after 2 p.m.
doesn't matter what it is. But that's only because I've been doing it since 4:30.
It can be difficult...
to know the right thing to do. So many companies are unfair to their MT's, but is it right to dish it right back to them?
I would say it depends on how they treat you. If they are great to work for then be fair to them. If they are awful to work for then, well, use your best judgment.
If you do lower your rate just be sure that they understand this is your rate for THIS account of mostly macros. If they want you to do an account with straight typing they need to readjust.
Good for you for having high values in an industry that is getting more and more amoral every day :-)
Not difficult for you maybe
But obviously she wouldn't have posted if she didn't have feelings of uncertainty about it. I know when I have had to make a decision about something being right or wrong I find it difficult. You have a clear opinion on this, she didn't. I was just trying to be supportive. I WAS NOT making a blanket statement that it is difficult to treat a bad company badly, or playing the SAME GAME that your company is playing. Geez!!!!
Not only is it the most difficult sm
it is also extremely depressing, or at least it was for me. I used to work for M. D. Anderson years ago and did a lot of Peds. Also, the protocols change faster than you can keep up with them so expect to spend a lot of time searching but internet would probably make it easier. Good luck and I hope you like it...somebody has to do it but not this body anymore.
How difficult is it to set up?sm
Also, what equipment do I need? I have a Linksys wireless broadband router.
Yes but difficult! nm
x
I was LPN 30 yrs ago. It is more difficult now. SM
I would encourage you taking the course, but then try working in a doctor's office, clinic or private duty. Most definitely, not in a hospital.
I remember loving the course, but hating it when I got out into the real world.
So difficult
It is very difficult for me too sometimes. So many tragedies.
It seems life is often so tough. My views and understanding of where and why we came from have been changing over the last few years, and I am having a very rough time trying to make some sense of it.
I don't know if any particular field is more difficult
than the next, if all you do is type one speciality. I think ER and Psych are mentally hard because with ER a lot of the patients die and it is depressing and then psych is depressing because of the severe dysfunction of the patients and/or their families. Oncology can be depressing too cause outcomes are not always great and like the previous poster said frequent new meds.
I used to transcribe for a teaching hospital connected to a medical school and that dictation was very hard, much more technical than your normal hospital, lots more dictators too and a new crop every July.
It's difficult but necessary to be in control
Otherwise you are simply allowing little Hitlers to grow up and become *adults* - your job is not to be their friend, your job is to be their parent.
Why would you allow your kids to have friends that you wouldn't allow in your house if they were your friends?
Why would you allow filthy language, out-of-control behavior, and downright liars even on your property?
Are you afraid of your kids? if so, why?
Good luck
It is so difficult for MTs these days
With voice recognition, hospital cut backs, and companies overseas. I have been doing this 30+ years and have enjoyed it up until now. I can so relate with you. I have been looking at a company SilentType? Any input on them or any others who do not consider you an IC, I don't mind paying my own cable or DSL as I have that for home anyway.
It is difficult, I won't deny that.
I stretch quite often.
I take breaks, too, or I couldn't do it at all.
I won't be doing this more than about 2 years so I can hold out.
I'm not kidding though, I have to work hard and I'm not bouncing around like Tigger at the end of the day. I'm tired and sometimes sore. I can't make this kind of money from the comfort of my home anywhere else though!
Was very difficult to learn and there are
still some things I cannot get the hang of. But, it is the only Expander I am permitted to use so had to bite the bullet after resisting for a few months. Takes about three months go use it effectively. Try using it for a few hours every day. When you get frustrated, close it and type everything out. On short-fuse days, skip it altogether. Over a few months, with this method, you will begin to develop speed and each new problem will be solved one by one so your line count will not get suffer greatly. Using IT requires doing a massive amount of reading initially. But, I have to say, I love it now (and am still learning how to use it six months into using it).
Difficult to remember
I also have struggled with that. I have been trying to think of a creative way to remember, but I keep coming up empty. If you think of someway to keep it straight in your mind let me know.
Why would you find this so difficult to believe?
Especially considering that Brad PItt - famous movie star - had the world by the family jewels with a beautiful wife, Jennifer - multimillion dollar mansions and $$$$ coming out the ying yang, yet he up and left it all to be with a woman who's a lesbian, Angelina Jolie, PLUS he adopted her two orphan children to boot, as well as knocked her up.
Now .... who do you think has more power over Brad - his mother or Angelina? Think about it, not that it needs a lot of contemplation...Angelina can do things for Brad his mother never can, if ya' know what I mean, which is why I told the original poster to LET IT GO because she's FIGHTING A LOSING BATTLE SHE CANNOT EVER WIN.
Radiology is not that difficult ...
it does take some extra study of anatomy, and a good radiology word book, and there are websites where you can learn a lot about radiology. I do both acute care and radiology, and I like both.
Almost always the first except if a difficult dictator. (sm)
Then I am constantly listening again to make sure I have it correct.
Difficult decision
Hi,
It sounds like, despite all the problems, that you love him and want to remain a family, particularly for the sake of your son.
Without disrespecting that, what I would suggest is that you tell your husband to either grow up already (and pull his weight around the house while he is at it) or please go ahead and divorce you and marry his mama.
In the meantime, make sure that your name is not on his credit card bills, etc. and that you DO expect him to provide child support while he is absent from the family, the home, the marriage. If he fails or refuses, take him to court--that should make him wake up and smell the coffee and grow up fast. Otherwise, let mama figure out how to manage his payee check with that new expense.
HTH.
It isn't that difficult to create your own...
Yes, it will take a bit of time, but you will then have a test that belongs to you. Any that you might find on the internet are most likely not meant for the use of others.
You have a very difficult situation
and I wish you the best. For many who work outside the home, they can stop and forget for a little while the problems they have at home. They are able to socialize, confide, and have outside relationships. You have made a hard and a valid choice for your priorities. Stick to it. Be proud of the choices you made. As for the family, pretend they are just background noise and turn down the volume.
difficult dictators
I'd advise to stick with it also, even the difficult ESL ones. That's how you get better. Just plan on not making much money initially but look at all the experience you are building. I made peanuts when I first started out and I'm sure a lot of us did. It'll pay off for you in the end when you are able to pick and choose your jobs because of all the experience you have under your belt.
another difficult thing for me...
...is the fact that relatives and friends just don't understand the obstacles we have to deal with as an MT. They think we have it made "getting to work at home" and that we are just typists. Do they realize the constant battle to stay focused and remind people that even though we are home, YES, we are working, and quite hard at that, I might add! No, we can't babysit, we're WORKING! No, I can't talk on the phone, again, I'm WORKING! We probably work harder than a lot of people since we are paid on production and live and work under that stress - we can't have a "bad day" where we just take it easier at work if we don't feel good or had a fight with our husband. We have to be on at all times or our income suffers. My husband doesn't get it when I get really stressed and in a bad mood and fed up when I get horrible dictator after horrible dictator and my line count suffers and I have to sit there for longer than expected; nobody does. Thankfully we have each other - we're the only ones who TRULY know what it's like.
Most difficult: Americans!
I absolutely cannot get the American accents in which the doc sounds like he/she is running an auction. At least with the ESLs I can get into the rhythm. Not with these guys. Although once I figure out what a grunt or a cough means I make a normal LOL.
I understand that they are difficult
and it's frustrating, but why are they low class? There are probably few MT jobs without ESL.. they are here to stay.
very difficult business
I think that is another reason why I am attracted to this profession. Since I am an IC, this is my business, and I have always wanted to be self-employed. It is very challenging, but that is what also motivates me to succeed.
It is still difficult to get assistance. SM
I would say give it a try to the OP, but don't be surprised if very little or no assistance comes. I may be reading more into this than is there, but OP probably needs assistance with house/rent payment, keeping up utilities, etc. and the public assistance people will look at it like he or she will be well in XX weeks, things will work out. Unfortunately, people who truly need short-term public assistance can't get the help they need to get them through trying times like this. OP may be able to get emergency food stamps fairly easily though.
I would also suggest, if OP is a member of a church, letting the church know what's going on and seeing if there is help there (they are usually quick to respond) or trying Catholic Charities or another faith-based organization set up to help. You don't have to be a member of that particular religion to get help. The key is to reach out NOW while the situation is unfolding and not wait until things get so bad you are getting forclosed on or evicted.
difficult personalities
I had a very difficult hospital manager to deal with at one point. She would rant about how Dr. so and so got so angry and is going to the staff office, and blah blah blah.....All of this was passed onto the company managers and QA who in turn passed it on to MTs in this very manner. It did not go over very well, we lost a lot of good people because of the constant threat of losing their jobs, and was a very hard lesson learned, get my point?
Not difficult at all. You dont want to do ESL,
x
Interesting. Was it difficult
to adjust to that type of keyboard? Do you use your mouse at all?
I can't seem to get totally away from using the mouse, but that would be a big help too.
No, not difficult at all. I do still use mouse but
use keyboard for cut and paste for inputting into my Expander and also use keyboard for bolding and unbolding. My next thing is going to be programming a key on the left side for my comma. I edit a lot and find I have to put in commas and want to be able to navigate with the mouse while I backspace to delete and then insert comma with the left hand. I also use the arrow keys alot to navigate, I have taught myself to do a lot of this by feel, so I dont have to look at the keyboard. I am thinking of getting a one hand keyboard to I can keep one hand on mouse while I type with the other hand,lol. That should be interesting.
It should not be difficult to determine
your line rate if you are currently charging by the page. If you like the page rate you are charging, then take a typical line count for one page and divide the charge per page by that many lines. For example, if you charge $5.00 a page and 30 lines is an average line count for one page, then $5.00 divided by 30 equals 16.66 cpl. So if you want to still receive $5.00 per page or thereabout, you would need to charge between 16 and 17 cpl. This is based on a gross line count. Ask if any editing is necessary. Charge a fee for editing based on an hourly rate.
It's difficult but can be done with a lot of sacrifice...SM
I did this for a couple of years and it was exhausting but do-able. I had a primary on-site transcription job from 6 a.m.-2:30 p.m. When I got off of that job, I would go to one of the IC docs to pick up any work he had ready. His work was due back on Tuesday and Thursday. I would then stop by my other IC account (three ESL geriatric docs) and pick up their work for the week. Their work was due by Friday afternoon as most patients were seen weekly.
When getting back home on Monday, I would sort thru and organize the transcription that needed to be done. I'd then make the STRONGEST pot of coffee possible, and dive into the sports medicine dictation. This would literally take me until 4 a.m. Having to be at my primary position by 6 a.m., this meant no sleeping on Monday nights. I'd take a shower, have yet more coffee, and go off to the hospital for my shift.
After my shift there, I would then drive over with the completed work to the sports medicine clinic and drop off the completed jobs and pick up everything else they had for me that needed to be turned in on Thursday.
Tuesday was a good day. I actually got to sleep on Tuesday nights.
The next day (Wednesday), I would work my shift at the hospital, then go home and brew one of those wicked strong pots of coffee. I'd start working on the sports medicine tapes at about 4 p.m., and again work until 4 a.m. No sleeping on Wednesday nights allowed, so drill was the same as for a Monday night.
Thursday, I would do my shift at the hospital, then drive over to the Sports Medicine facility and drop off the completed work from the night before and pick up the next batch which wouldn't be due until the following Tuesday.
Once I got home, I would spend all night typing my other IC reports, which were the 3 ESL geriatric physicians.
Sleeping not allowed on Thursday night...See Monday night's drill.
On Friday, I would work my shift at the hospital, then head over to the geriatrics clinic and drop my work off and pick up what he had completed that he would need for the following Friday.
Friday night was my time to spend an afternoon and evening with my daughter, and also trying to catch up on my lost sleep during the week by sleeping as late as I could on Saturday.
Saturday afternoon I again spent with my daughter and also had "date night" on Saturday night with my boyfriend (who was very patient during all of this workaholic activity).
Sunday I would again sleep late, preparing for the drill to begin on Monday.
I lost a lot of sleep. I also lost a lot of weight. I ran on pure adrenaline at least two days a week. People would just shake their heads when they heard the schedule I was keeping.
The upside was that I was living in a terribly expensive part of the country and these three jobs afforded me the opportunity to afford a few things about life's necessities, such as a really nice dinner out once a week for my daughter and I, school clothes for her on a more regular basis, and, sadly, the one treat for me was a housekeeper to come in once a week to take care of the deep cleaning I no longer had time for.
Sorry this was so long, but I really did want you to understand that it CAN be done, but there are a lot of sacrifices and schedule-juggling that go along with it. I never complained about doing it because I actually found on some perverse level I enjoyed it.
Good luck to you whichever direction you decide to take.
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