a must-read for newer MTs --

• How to make money MTing - Dano
  • Thank you for taking the time.... - Donna
  • Thank you for taking the time to post this good advice. NM - fg
  • Also... to add one thing to that, for encouragement - Good advice
    • I don't feel in control of my paycheck - Encourage me some more!
      • Some thoughts on that... - Good advice
      • Suggestion - Dano
        • Thank you for trying! - Encourage me some more!
          • You're welcome SM - Dano
            • Thank you.. you are right. I'm in control of what I do about this! - Thanks again! NM
  • Thanks for sharing... sm - Good advice
  • Excellent advice! - Busy MT'ing
  • a must-read for newer MTs -- - another old dog
  • Excellent. Old dog here too. SM. - Anon
  • I agree 100% especially with reading as one types (I do also) and if a company sm - You know what
    • I mean't "work" instead of "woek" - oops
  • I have been doing this forever as well, but - Celestialmls
  • Thanks for the excellent post! - DJ
  • Very sound advice... - MTMT
    • DItto what MTMT said. - Midwest MT
  • Thanks for taking the time to share! - Always wanting to learn! nm
  • Very good ideas! Thanks for taking the time to share. - barbv
  • Great tips! - kyradmtky

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Ignore 'Shroom.  Don't let yourself get into that mentality.  Life is what you make it.  MT CAN be a very profitable profession.  It's not for everyone and not everyone can do it.  But if you are good at spelling and grammar, and you can type fast, and you are dedicated to really learning and not just doing a crap job as fast as you can so you can get paid more, your patience and hard work will pay off.

My #1 advice is:  Get a job in a hospital transcription department.  Not acute care at home for a service.  Get a job with a hospital.  The pay not NOT be as much as you could make at home for a service, but that experience will prove invaluable.  Work there for a few years.  Learn the ropes.  Learn to do all types of reports - the basic 4 plus everything else.  I have worked for a service and for a hospital and I learned so much more at the hospital.  The service was about production; the hospital was about quality.  They wanted us to really KNOW what we were typing and when there were words no one could get, the MT supervisor would ask the doctor and we would get it straight from them.  Doctors would also come down to talk to us and explain things to us sometimes, and that was a big help.  I worked at a hospital and a service at the same time and there were so many things (terms) that the service MTs didn't know that I knew only because of my hospital experience. 

Now I own my own service.  I get all my accounts through word of mouth, partly (actually MOSTLY) from my contacts that I developed back when I worked IN a hospital.  I have never had to advertise.  I have always been praised for being an excellent MT.  The hospital supervisors at the hospital where I used to work know that.  When they get a call from doctors or other hospitals asking who they recommend for transcription services, guess whose number they give out?  Yep, mine. 

When I first started out I didn't make much money at all.  But I worked hard and learned everything I could.  I never had an attitude like some on this board, that I wasn't being paid fairly, or that someone owed me more money, or that I was being cheated.  I worked and gained knowledge and experience, and made sure my quality was excellent, and added to my expander, and developed new ways of using shortcuts, and kept looking for the next opportunity that would move me up a little more.

I never make less than $25 an hour.  I usually make $35 to $40 an hour.  I have had an occasional hour where I made over $100 - yes, $100 - and no, I am not lying.  It was a surgery center account and one day a week I would transcribe routine cataract extractions with lens implantations.  I had that I had a template for and all I had to do is pop in the patient's name, right or left eye, and the size of the lens used.  I would do one right after the other, over and over, and make over $100 in an hour.  Would have been nice to do that all day long, but after an hour I was done with the cataract surgeries. 

Anyway, don't sit there thinking you are never going to make any money in MT.  Don't listen to the people who want to bring you down.  Don't waste time thinking your glass is half empty.  Look at the opportunities that are in front of you and start taking them.  Maybe you make 8 cpl now.  Do the best work you can do for that company.  Be valuable to them.  Become an asset to them instead of a liability.  And when you find something that's a little better, do the same thing there.  Work your way up. 

After you get the experience (hospital preferably), keep working and honing your skills.  Then decide "Okay, I am going to spend X hours a week working on getting my own accounts."  Maybe 4 hours every Saturday.  So you set aside that time and you think of points you want to make to potential clients.  Set up a business number or a separate phone number to receive business calls.  Put a business message on the line so if you miss a call they can leave a message.  Figure out how you will receive dictation - dictation system, TASP, or whatever.  Make flyers.  Drive around and check out potential clients in your area.  Go through the phone book or the little blue book of doctors in your area and start sending out flyers or walking door to door.  Every Saturday spend 4 hours doing the next step.  Decide you'll send out or deliver 20 flyers a week, or whatever you want.  You may not see results right away.  Don't get discouraged, just devote 4 hours a week to it, every week. 

There is money to be made in MT.  You have seen people on this board tell you how much they make.  They didn't answer an ad for an MT school on a matchbook and suddenly they are making $35 an hour.  It takes time and patience and a good attitude.

would not send them to the "z" section of a book or any website.  Maybe a Google search would have worked, but I didn't try it to see.

How about lightening up on the new MTs asking questions on the Word Board.  I am not a new MT (20 years), and I've asked questions.  I'm not so sure there is a "level of word asking."  Why be so brusk and hard on the new MTs?  Are you afraid they will take your job?  Don't worry there is plenty of work to go around.

I would hope if you had a question on the Word board, someone does not go on another board and post how horribly incompetent you must have been to ask that question on the Word board.

This is a wonderful resource. 

Thought I'd put my 2 cents in - I have been with Transolutions for about 4 months now, and I agree with the statements about how nice they are - they really are.  I am working really hard to increase my production and get up to level 5, which is the higher pay.  Dolfan, do you have any suggestions on that?  You said you just stay there no matter what it takes - does that mean you just put in as much time as it takes to get that many lines in?  Does it usually take you significantly over your scheduled time?  I keep resolving to do that, but then I get tired and end up between level 2 and 3.  I am still adding docs to my glossary on a daily basis, so I keep hoping that I will get there eventually. 

I agree also about the benefits - I am part time (25 hours/week), but I am earning PTO, holiday pay, etc.  When you do have to work a holiday, you get benefit pay, PLUS time and a half - I think that is fairly unusual for an MT company. 

The scheduling is flexible, too.  I worked for as an IC before, but I actually found that I needed a schedule or I would leave work too late and burn out.  But, that is just me.

Hope that is informative, and Dolfan, thanks for any help in advance!  (Or any other Transolutions people out there reading this, if you have any suggestions.) 

Melissa

you've forgotten your own words! Your post above is 100% different "flavor" to it, now all positive and cheery! Your first post was 100% doom and gloom every which way, including "raining on your parade", and "if you want to go forward"...God, sounds like she's talking about jumping into oncoming traffic! Here is your quote:

My first boss (the one who hired me as a new grad) gave me some words of wisdom that I haven't forgotten. She said that transcribing at home with small children NEVER works under any circumstance. Either the work will suffer or the parenting will suffer.

****

How can the word "NEVER" in caps be interpreted in any positive way? You took about 8 paragraphs to cover every aspect and completely dash this poor woman's dream.  I'm not blind, I'm not talking about day care at all, I'm talking about the total negativity of your original post! You know exactly what I'm talking about, cause you added some sugar to your second version! And that's much nicer than the first!

article/link that someone just posted on the main board.

Good luck, whatever you do! 

From a government site, said that with the growing population and the expansion of new hospitals and medical facilities, the need for the medical Transcriptionist will increase.  There are many people on here who will say, don't do it, and we hate our jobs, but I don't think there are many jobs where you can sit at home and do your work.  You save on gas, clothing, food, day care, etc.  In my opinion, it will be here for a while.  Even if there are voice recognition programs, there will be someone who will have to edit those files because of grammar, ESL doctors, and just doctors who cannot speak.

There is also a concern for outsourcing out of the U.S.  I do not think that is a problem.  I know a few doctors who went with an India service and came back pretty quick.  I doubt the need for the MT will reduce in the future. This is my opinion from what I have read.

Please be aware that if you are working in the evenings doing MT, and another agent calls you and says he/she has a contract on your listing, you WILL have to drop what you're doing MT wise and go; to not do so would mean you could (most probably) miss out on a sale, which you certainly don't want to do after having put all your heart, soul, and $$$ on the line.

Also know there are time constraints involved in all contracts,and they will not go according to YOUR schedule. 

Please be aware that if a seller calls you and says he/she wants you to list their home -  please come over at 7:30 p.m. - you WILL have to drop what you're doing MT wise and go; to not do so would be to risk the seller listing their home with another agent.  In addition, you'll also have to spend time preparing for the listing meeting before you arrive there. 

Also be aware that the majority of home buyers work during the day, so the busiest time of day to go out looking at homes with buyers is naturally when they are not working; i.e., evenings and weekends.  If you are summoned to take buyers out looking at homes at that time, you WILL have to drop what you're doing MT wise and go; otherwise, there are thousands of other agents out there who are more than willing to drop what they're doing to show homes and make a possible sale. 

You will find that Buyers do NOT wait.  Real estate agents are considered a dime a dozen as there are so many of them out there who are willing to show homes at 2:00 a.m. if need be.  Buyers want to see homes when they want to see homes.

I'm not trying to be snitty here, but I think you have an unrealistic view of making money in real estate.  If you think you can work real estate during the day and that's it, you are going to be sadly surprised.

There's a lot of homework that goes into real estate and a lot of time involved in all aspects of real estate that go with it. 

If you are planning on making any money in this whatsoever, daytime hours only won't cut it, and you will soon find that all you're doing is spending a lot of money, spinning your wheels, getting frustrated, and going absolutely no where.

Trust me when I tell you to be successful in real estate, you must give blood; this includes in the form of your energy, time spent, knowledge, competiting with other agents who would slit their own mother's throat to make a sale, and a multitude of other things that I don't have time - or the room here - to tell you.

Tread carefully into your new venture and realize there's no job out there that's easy, and least of all real estate. It's one of the hardest fields, but I know most folks think's its so simple - sorta like the little gal with a typewriter/computer who watches ER and, therefore, thinks she can be successful in starting a medical transcription business or SC'g for a service. 

This is a public forum.  While there is certain language that will be not tolerated, we are not going to delete every post that deems another post "stupid", "idiot", "moron", "hag", "retarded", etc.  If I removed every post that had such petty name-calling in it, more than 50% of the posts would be removed.

The fact is everyone's opinion of abusive or hateful is different.  We try to moderate as little as possible.  I am not the board police or kindergarten cop.  Neither am I on this board 24/7 trying to watch for every single offender in order to slap them on the wrist and shake my finger in their face and make them play nice.

Simply don't read posts that are offensive to you.  If there is swearing, hate speech, vulgar language, threats, by all means report those posts.  However, please consider that this is a public forum and that there simply has to be some tolerance here. 

No one is forced to post nor read.  Everyone should look for the posts that are of interest to them.  Yes, it would be nice if all posters were mature in their discussion; however, they are not. 

If anyone needs or wants to discuss this policy, please do e-mail me. 

Goldbird