Send letters to local offices marketing yourself. sm
Posted By: nm on 2006-03-19
In Reply to: Need advice on starting my own business - Heather L. Rivenburgh
Watch the want ads, and offer yourself as IC backup instead of FTs. It works!
As you pick up your accounts and back-up accounts, just do a good job and meet expectations or better.
The only drawback about your own accounts, it leaves little time to clock out and have your own life. If you can find someone else to work the accounts while you rake in the money, that is all the better.
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I don't know about now, but they used to have local field offices. sm
A friend of mine had a problem, and she went in and talked face to face with a really nice person, who helped her through it. If you're close to an office, and if they still have them, that might be your best bet. Good luck.
Please send me your letters!
I have received only a few letters to the President about transcription. I want to send a packet full of letters is my goal! Now I know a few of my friends are still working on their letters. I want to address outsourcing, voice recognition & offshoring with the President. So please join me to help get our voices heard! Email me & I'll give you my address so that you may get your letter in to me by the deadline of 1/28/09.
*** MTSTARS DISCLAIMER ***
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If you are that slow, why don't you stop in some local doctor's offices, pt, chiropractic, etc
do their backlog? That has always kept me extremely busy.
I'll send out letters
I write letters all the time to different government bodies, politicians, school districts, you name it and I'll write. I think this is a wonderful idea. My letters and/or phone calls always get public attention in my area - I have even put in for a presidential pardon for a relative who is in the federal prison system. I've exposed a principal who was abusing special ed kids, problems with taxation in Texas, and many other issues. My motto is - if things aren't being done properly, you can always write a letter. My pen is poised over pad and paper......
You could send letters of your feelings
before this judgment came down. However, it is basically a "plea deal" and nothing can be done about it.
why not give us the address to send our own letters??
Perhaps this will pack more of a whallop. We could synchronize what day we will mail them and it would look better, IMHO. Calm down, okay? You're doing a good thing.
Has anyone ever tried those multilevel marketing businesses such as Fortune Hi-Tech marketing...sm
My friend wants me to sign up...she is making about $2000 a month now but working quite hard at it. My husband claims it is like a pyramid. I just don't know. I wondered if any of you have had personal experience with this type venture. TIA
Outrageous. I just forwarded to a local radio station in my area. Who else can we send this to?
nm
Buy local. The local stores pay taxes to support your city and state. (SM)
Using online and catalogues does nothing to promote the local economy. We complain about outsourcing and about the big companies gobbling up all the work so the jobs at local hospitals are gone, yet we do the same thing when we buy on ebay, catalog, and these web sites that may be located any place in the world as their primary business location.
Marketing
I do brochures, flyers and postcards. I mail out using a list I have. I also have accounts in several of the large medical buildings by hospitals and I will often go from floor to floor giving out my information. I have gotten a 20 to 25% reply so it works. Since I have been in this for 15 to 20 years now a lot more comes from word of mouth but when I started out I just sent out information about my service.
E-mail me if you want more specifics. Patti
I went local. Great local tech support, they know what I do and were able to set it up just for me
:)
It is all about marketing and sales. Looks like they have your $$
x
Marketing Ideas
Hi, I am in the process of searching for my own accounts as well. may I ask what sort of information you put into your brochure? Also, I have built a website and have it being hosted by my ISP, but how do you go about having it searchable through Yahoo and Google? I am just curious, as I need to expand my searchability. Your help would be greatly appreciated.
thanks. Kathy
Need advice on marketing.
Got a call from a doctor. I have a questionnaire that I use to ask questions. Then I gave him the rate over the phone and included a proposal and brochure which I faxed to his office.
I did this before and nothing happened. I'm worried I gave out information prematurely. Am I doing this right?
Running out of marketing ideas. sm
I've sent letters and brochures. Is there any other way to market this business? Don't have a lot of time for cold calls. If I send the same stuff over and over, I'm afraid they'll throw it in the trash and I will not have gotten their attention. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Writer and PT marketing consultant
z
See message - marketing own accounts
Make up a brochure/flyer -- very simple stating what you will offer and for what price and send out or take around. Be prepared to do tapes or digital. Lots of info on here about that. Be acceptable to pick up and deiver or send via FTP. Do mass mailings to MD's, DO's chiropractors, oral surgeons, vet's, etc. or concentrate in the area where you want the account and do it every 4-6 weeks. Network via local chapters of MT's, MA's what you have available. But be prepared to know it can take several months to get a bite and sometimes longer. You need to be in the right place at the right time. If hospitals have their employee newspaper see if you can place an ad. But it sometimes takes mass marketing to get that first account. Good luck.
multi-level marketing nm
fff
Isn't network marketing another name for Amway?
xx
Any MTSO's out there willing to give marketing advice?
I have been transcribing for 6 years and want to get my own accounts. What is the best way to do this? Any info would be great! Thanks
Amway, Quixstar & Network Marketing
First let me tell you that there is nothing wrong with Network Marketing and that it's a wonderful business to be in. The best advice I can give is first of all, research several companies and see what their compensation plans are. I would NOT sign up based on someone feeding me a bunch of hype. Also, look for a product that you can believe in. Next, check out the company. Just as it is done here, everyone is checking out all the companies before they get in. Make sure that the company is founded and operated on sound ethics and business practices. As for spending a lot of money on books, tapes and seminars.....ALL of us should be doing that on a DAILY basis. It's called personal development and that is the best thing in the world you can do for yourself. So to sum it up and because of limited space to write here....tell them to GO FOR IT!!! If you have any questions go ahead and email me and I can go into much more detail to help. Take care and have a blessed day!
I wasn't putting down Network Marketing...sm
Simply stating where the money in Quixtar comes from. Sure, you get a bonus check every month if you sell products, but the majority of the money comes from the tools. Tapes that are made from Quixtar seminars are sold and pushed on people. If you don't get on the tool program, they don't want to help you - because they won't make money if you don't buy the tools.
Harika - marketing/converting clients
is a numbers game. You just have to keep promoting your business over and over and over again. Work on promotion for 1-2 hours per day so you don't get burned out on it.
There are many tasps out there. I see them on the banners on this board all the time. Some are basically pay as you go. The one I have is less than $100 per month with unlimited uploading and downloading. All the doc needs is a recorder or you can use a tasp with a call in system. I think the call in systems are high $ though. Nobody answer my post last week why the call in rates were so high! If you go to affiliates on the left there are tasps on there.
To me the tasps really remove the need for a middle man taking a 60% cut like the big nationals.
it all started with the VR software marketing personnel. SM
This craze started about 10 years ago and kicked into full force within the past five years or less. Someone selling the software convinced the physician practices, hospital personnel that they could save a fortune on their transcription costs. Little did they know it takes a Transcriptionist to pretty much retype the report produced by VR, and then sometimes QA/editor to check it. Now that's what I call a savings people. Now the VR systems are being utilized by our ILPs, who try to correct the errors in VR when they do not have a firm grasp on the English language...We're talking double disaster here. Let the doctors and hospital administrators think they are saving bundles on their transcription costs. How very sad and ignorant on their part.
The whole notion of a liver detoxification is just a marketing ploy and a myth.
Myth
I agree, and O'Reilly marketing his books and novelty times
a joke and sad that old folks down in fla watch it and get brainwashed, much like old people get tricked by contractors and other things. I hope I don't lose my marbles when I get old.
Nice marketing too..a bogus statement about US MTs to discredit the competition nm
nm
Offices are different.
Your supervisor should be able to email you a rundown. My office has many different incentives, in fact, I have a hard time keeping track of them!
Why are all offices not ran the same?
x
One of the Ohio offices
I'd rather not say which. Been there years.... it's gotten worse, not better!
How do you change offices?
?
it seems to be all offices, have you signed
up for IPAY? I have not gotten a check yet either, but there is a statement there for 09/02 which obviously is not a regular paycheck
incompetent offices
Geez Mandy, you must work for the same place I did before I left LOL.
Offices need not comply .. but
we find that most do for the continuity in care issues that any practitioner faces.
Can anyone tell me how they like working for the NE Region of MQ as all offices in the NE are
going there one by one as the local offices close down. What are the people like to work for there and the QA people as far as feedback on things. Thanks
So they are consolidating offices, big deal.. it's a
c
Doctors' offices, not hospitals
Sounds like the OP is referring to doctors' offices and not hospitals. If we took the initiative and talked to local doctors in our area, perhaps they might be interested in having their work done in a more "personalized" fashion. We don't know unless we try.
I think the hospitals might be a "lost cause" in this regard because they are run by financial people and not the physicians themselves, but I think I will start making some appointments (which I need to do, anyway!) and query my physicians about who does their work. I think the office managers might brush me off, but I do not believe the physicians would.
I do agree with the OP that we all need to try to take back the medical transcription field ourselves and get it out of the hands of big business.
Small doctors' offices do!
My second job is for a small (3-physician) specialty office. I am paid by the hour at a nice hourly rate. I was also paid hourly when I worked in-house last year at a specialty practice. I got this job initially by asking the doctor personally who did their transcription when my daughter had a check-up appointment there.
Really, your best bet is to do some networking and research on local offices in your own community. A lot of small doctors' offices do not want to mess with big nationals and prefer a local dependable transcriptionist. As a poster below had suggested, offer to do a SMALL portion of their work for free on a trial basis.
I know what you mean about being burned out, though! I hope you find what you are looking for.
I think the MDs that care in their offices or clinics sm
keep their trans in-house. My personal MD does and overseas every last little detail and she is tough! The ones who dont want to mess with it go to a service and let the service take responsibility. So neither will care....IMHO
My experiences with home offices...
I used to have my office in the living room. It was really difficult for me and my family.
I moved it into the dining room ... again, was just a bad fit and crowded/cramped everything.
Finally I moved it to my bedroom. Now at first, I had my desk sitting out in the open and it became depressing. While I enjoyed the privacy and quiet (I could actually shut my door), it was all I saw when I was in my bedroom. That blank monitor staring at me, either making me feel guilty by not working more or making me dread going to work.
Soooo, then I got creative and I've been thrilled every since.
I pulled all of my clothes out of my closet and bought a beautiful armoire with drawers and a rod in the top to hang clothes. Beautiful asset to my bedroom.
I purchased a smaller but very nice desk and fit it right inside my closet. I have a lovely little lamp on my desk, streamlined all my paperwork to a minimum and put as much as I could live without (in tangible form) on the computer. Have a small vase I keep fresh but cheap flowers in. All I have is in the closet and I can close it up out of sight when I am done. I can store my books up on the shelf above plus I have a small CD player up there to play soft music while I work.
I did not want an ugly office chair anymore. I really liked my upholstered chair in my bedroom. So I had my son put rollers on it and now it is my chair. When I'm not working, I just turn it and angle it into the corner like it has always been...when I need to work, I just sit and slide right under my desk.
I could not be happier with this set up and it has been this way just over a year now.
I get copies of the schedule from the offices. sm
you are an IC, so you can call the shots. You can let them know that if you don't receive the work by a certain time, you will assume there is none, something of that sort. If you need a day off, give them advance notice and don't "ask" them for it, because you are an IC so you set your own schedule per IRS rules. You do not need their permission, per se. Obviously, we accommodate the docs as much as possible to keep the accounts, but only to a certain extent. We shouldn't be on call for them 24/7, either. They wouldn't wait all day for a patient that may or may not show (and sometimes even charge if the patient is a no-show!!) If you wait and wait for work, play their game and put it in writing that you will charge for your time -- and then DO it. A few extra charges on the old invoice will likely bring about a change. ;)
Even with the schedules provided, the docs can and do change them at the last minute, so there's no way you can ever know for sure, but at least you can have SOME idea what's going on if they provide them. The way I see it, if he tells you he will be out, then that's what you go by. Even if the staff can't verify it (strange, since most docs are highly reachable by staff), you've heard it straight from the horse's mouth so if you want to take that opportunity to have a day off, let the staff know you'll be off that day, period.
If the doc changes his mind and comes in that day, well, I'd still take the day off if I made plans. Keep that saying in mind that poor planning on their part does not constitute an emergency on your part. If they don't like it, then maybe they'll make better future efforts to keep you in the loop.
Whether hospitals or independent offices,
I'm speaking from experience.
MQ offices- If there is an MQ office in your city/state, is it possible to
apply for an MQ job outside of your state? I think I have been blacklisted from the MQ here in Birmingham, AL. I worked part-time for them when they first setup an office here, and they were named Transcription Limited, I believe. They only paid 6-7 cpl at that time. Well I worked for them a couple years and then opportunity came where I could work for another transcription company, and I am assuming was a competitor to them in the Birmingham market. Mind you, I left in good standing (so I thought), two-weeks notice and all, and was an exceptional employee, but years later, every time I have tried to apply through them, I get turned down. So I am wondering if I could work for another MQ office outside of Alabama, or will they refer me to the Birmingham office?
I get .135/.13/.16/.195 direct from hospitals or doctor offices.
.
How much do most people charge for doing IC work for doc offices, just
What program is good to use for line counting?
I was thinking 13/cents a line? Is that undercharging? I have to remember that I have to pay my overhead so even though 13 sounds high, I have to pay equipment, equipment, equipment.
help
go solicit medical buildings/offices...nm
So tired of dealing with incompetent offices...
they just emailed me for the upteenth time for a stat report that I already sent to them 40 minutes ago. Wouldn't you think they'd check to see if they had it first!?! Constantly emailing me questioning what they've sent me and when. Why can't she keep logs like I do!?! Doesn't take a rocket scientist! Can't remember from day to day to send me patient lists. Don't know what the heck she does with incomplete reports I've sent because doc doesn't give a name of messes up his dictation and cuts half of it off. I'll get a call a couple of weeks later saying doc insists he dictated on so and so, but they never got the report. I'm the one who has to go back and search for the nameless reports and match up the the patient they're missing with diagnoses, age etc., then tell her that's the one I sent you on that date that was incomplete. Why can't she figure that out!!! If I functioned like they do, I wouldn't last a week! Sorry, had to vent.....
I am an IC and my accounts are clinics and doctor's offices
So I have weekends off unless the docs dictate late on Friday, in which case I have the choice of working late on Friday or getting the work done over the weekend.
With clinic work, you don't have the constant flow that you have with a hospital. You can't work harder or longer hours to make more money. There is a specific amount of work, and when it's done, that's it. Your income will fluctuate. But if you're willing to put up with that - you can have your weekends off.
Start by calling your personal doc offices. Probably
s
There are so much better accounts out there. Start calling offices sm
to get new accounts, let this one go, and don't look back.
I have in this situation many years ago. Believe me, I learned along the way. There are dream clients out there and there are these type.
I have found in my 25 years experience in MT, 18 of those working as an IC, that as one door closes, another one opens.
Most doctors offices are like that because they are not open on the weekend...
and work doesn't start trickling in until late monday afternoon/evening so why bother waiting around, just take the day off!!!
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