The Virtual Assistant Transcriptionist

Audio and video media are becoming commonplace in online business. It is easier to record this way for later use. Businesses will need the services of a virtual assistant to turn the recorded media into print.

Medical professionals have used Dictaphone and dictating services for a long time. Doctors later have their notes transcribed for patient and hospital records. The same goes for legal proceedings. It is more convenient to use a recording device and later create a written copy.

The Market

Online businesses have found ways to market their products with audio and video. Tutorials, how-tos and interviews are uploaded to websites for viewing and hearing. But, we all know that sometimes you can’t always understand what is being said. That requires the need for a transcribed record of the recording.

Just like movies , audio and video can be translated into other languages to increase your marketing efforts. Many business owners would like to do that but they don’t know how to transcribe or translate. They need the help of a professional like a virtual assistant well versed in transcription and translation.

Transcribing recordings is not as easy as you might think. As a virtual assistant transcriptionist your clients will not have to struggle with this issue. Using your transcription software, you will be able to handle all sorts of recordings for them using the format that they choose for the written copy.

Some of your services can include:

• Medical Transcription
• Legal Transcription
• Video Transcription
• Podcast Transcription
• Transcription Translation
• Audio transcription for business meetings

Clients can email their work to you as audio or video files according to what file extensions you accept. They may even want to mail CDs or tapes for non-rush jobs. Depending on their needs, you can provide verbatim transcription or cleaned-up transcription that is grammatically correct.

For the virtual assistant transcriptionist who is also fluent in another language, you can offer translation services to your clients. This gives them the opportunity to expand their customer base with products for non-English speaking customers. Each area of transcription can become a sub-niche if you want to specialize further. Medical or legal transcription alone can turn into a lucrative business.

Transcription services are one area that a virtual assistant can specialize in as a business idea. As more and more online businesses use other media as marketing tools, they will need the skill of a transcriptionist and even a translator for their work.

Jan Tallent
Tallent Agency Virtual Assistance

p.s. I attended Rolla Institute in Rolla, MO and took a course in Computerized Medical Office Technology. With this course I was given extensive training IN medical transcriptions, which I must admit was the hardest but also most rewarding class I have ever undertaken!

There are countless ways a Virtual Assistant can be of service to you and your business. Just like an assistant in a brick and mortar office, your own
Virtual Assistant can be one of the best investments you can make FOR both your business and your own peace of mind!

Among the thousands, I am sure, services a Virtual Assistant can perform, here are just a few to give you an example and help you decide if a Virtual Assistant is right for you.

Although, of course, your Virtual Assistant can be either male or female, to keep from saying “he or she” and “his or her” for every task, I will write this in the SHE and HER mode.

Your own Virtual Assistant can:

Respond to customer e-mails and phone calls

Help out with some facets of your social networking
so you can spend more time SOCIALIZING!

Schedule appointments and interviews

Do the transcriptions of your interviews, podcasts, videos, etc.

Handle your Bookkeeping chores; for example:

invoicing clients, receiving and paying bills, balancing checkbooks
and reconciling bank statements, tracking expenses and tax records,etc.

Perform internet research for various facets of your business

Plan your travel and make necessary arrangements

Maintain your ezine and customer mailing lists, manage your ezine ad sales,
do research FOR ezine content and even write and/or compile it for you

Maintain your website, for example edit when needed, make changes and updates

take customer orders, create sales reports, ship orders and products

Submit your articles to other publishers and article sites

Update, edit and maintain your blog and research content for you to use on it

Proofread your documents, advertisements, web pages, etc.

Place advertisements in print or e-publications and on websites.

Format eBooks, create PDF files, send out printing jobs or do them herself.

Perform Data Back Ups so that all of your important information,
downloads, documents, etc. are safely duplicated in case of data loss

Research, list and maintain products for your online store, eBay store, etc.

( which is one of the duties MY own Virtual Assistant will have when I get one! )

and just about anything else your own in office assistant could do for you,
without the added expenses of a fully stocked office on your premises,
insurance and other benefits you would have to provide FOR
an in house employee AND she can keep the paperwork
overload in HER office instead of yours!