New to transcription work and would like some advice please

[Nell91]

Hello,

I've been working as a freelance audio transcriptionist with an agency for a few months now and really enjoy the work and would really like some advice from more established freelance transcribers about how they started their own business. I only have 6 years experience as an audio typist before I moved into marketing for 10 years so am thinking that perhaps targeting market research companies is the way to go. Where did you find your first client? I would assume that advertising doesn't work and that word-of-mouth is more beneficial but it's just getting "out there". Did you find networking worked?

My youngest child is only 18 months so I am not really looking to work on a full-time basis at the moment but just one, perhaps two clients that are able to provide a few hours of dictation a week.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you.

Yes networking is really important when you're a freelancer or starting your own business! I'm a freelance copywriter and I get most of my work through word of mouth.

Are their any agencies you can sign up with to get a feel for the work and what kind of clients use the services? Then you can target similar types of companies?

What about trying something like Google Adwords? It's free to create and list an ad, you only pay when someone clicks through to your website. (I'm assuming you have a website? I get lots of jobs through mine - potential clients like to read about you before getting in touch.)

Do you know any other transcribers you can befriend to get advice? Are there any LinkedIn groups for them? Have you got a LinkedIn profile with your job title as freelance subscriber?

Hope some of this helps!

Thank you very much for your advice.

I'm in the process of setting up a website but hadn't thought about Google Adwords, that's a great idea, thank you. Hopefully once the website's up and running I'll be in a better position to start networking with possible clients.