CHAPTER 1

Introduction

In today’s society where divorce rates are high and the cost of living is constantly rising, many single women with children are looking for a better and easier way to earn an income and maintain a balance between work and raising their children. Many women would like the opportunity to work from their home and earn an adequate living while being able to spend more time at home with their children. In the words of Carolyn Kepcher, Carolyn 101 Business Lessons from The Apprentice’s Straight Shooter she states “Your role as a working mother is to be a good manager both at home and at work. Set clear expectations. Establish a routine. Be organized. Communicate effectively. Offer praise. Often, the same rules apply at work apply at home” (Kepcher, 2004. p.151).

There are more and more women becoming entrepreneurs and the opportunities available today are enormous. For those women who wish to work from home, the medical transcription field may be a career field that can fulfill this desire.

Women who have a desire to work from home are attracted to the medical transcription field because of the flexible part-time hours and lack of commute and day care costs.

Although medical transcription and working from home sounds very attractive, is not for everyone. To become a professional in the medical transcription field specialized education, understanding and use of good grammar, and typing and spelling skills are the “must have” skills. If a candidate already has exposure to medical terminology or has worked or is currently employed in some capacity in the medical field, the chance for a successful transition into this field will be much higher than for those without any medical field exposure.

If an individual is willing to learn and prepare, can type relatively fast and accurately, has a lot of patience, and is willing to apply good business principals, then medical transcription can be a very lucrative, enjoyable, and satisfying occupation.

The contents within this book will show that there is a need for professional medical transcribers. The importance of this book is that it will be an aid for those people who are considering medical transcription as an occupation. Future Medical Transcriptionist’s will be able to clearly identify what is needed to be successful before they make a financial and time commitment to this career field. There are literally hundreds of medical transcribing schools that claim success after completion of course work, but in reality most students just simply cannot complete the program because they didn’t realize what it would take to be successful in the program.

Presented in this e-book is information to help prospective medical transcribers to successfully enter the small home-based business profession. Research shows that the future of the medical transcription field is one that is growing and provides a good income to those who have been properly trained. The research will show that for a stay at home mom this is a wonderful occupation that can allow them to have a good balance between work and family commitments.

The information in this e-book provides general strategies for establishing and managing a home-based medical transcription business. For example, the study covers specialized training, skill building, innovative market strategies, superior customer service, good business practices and overall know-how. This e-book will also focus on the “How to’s” of getting started as well as the general requirements, i.e. choosing aname for the new business, licensing, tax considerations, marketing, price structure, and fees, specialized education, skills, equipping the home office and the future outlook for the medical transcription industry.

Research indicates without previous medical experience, it is a very difficult and complex profession to learn. Candidates are challenged by technical medical terminology, anatomy and physiology, medical procedures, and the constant introduction of new drugs hitting the market almost on a daily basis. In addition, there is the challenge of acquiring excellent skills in grammar, typing, and spelling. If these skills are not learned and perfected, it is highly unlikely that the prospective medical transcriptionist will even complete the program to become a successful transcriptionist. Many students quit their training after investing 6 months to 2 years of their time and $1,000.00 - $3,000.00 or more of their money because they didn’t investigate the amount of preparation needed for entering the medical transcription field.

Research of the most popular web sites used by major employers’ shows that there is a need for qualified medical transcribers. In the medical transcribing business there is a high rate of business failure. The main reason for failure is lack of experience and know-how.

Mismanagement, improper marketing strategies, and poor customer service are also other reasons that medical transcription businesses fail.

Since medical transcribing is a service-based business, medical transcription businesses must recognize good management practices, have excellent typing and grammar skills and provide superior customer service as indicated by many experts in this highly-specialized industry.

This e-book will discuss proper management approaches, marketing strategies, and levels of education, guidelines, in addition to the skills that must be implemented in order to grow a prosperous and successful medical transcribing business.

The basis for this e-book was completed by consulting data from books, articles, on-line web sites, and several personal interviews with real-life small business owners, coordinators of hospitals, officials from medical transcribing schools, and recent medical transcribing school graduates.

In this e-book the author looked at as many objective aspects as possible to determine if the medical transcribing business could indeed result in a possible viable solution for mothers who wish to work at home to be with their children, and others who wish to start a business from home.

According to the author’s data it appears that medical transcribing itself may very well be; in light of a few pitfalls, the answer for many mothers, and others wishing to work from home.

Purchase

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