Yes, you certainly can.

There are many transcriptionists out there making a whole lot of money. The money in transcription does not come from working FOR ANOTHER MT service. Go out and seek your own clients. With that you take on greater responsibility, but you are compensated for it. If you transcribe 1200 lines five days per week and charge the modest rate of 0.14/line that is more than $40K per year.

Some will say, what about the benefits? To hell with the benefits. With the additional $18K per year I'll make on my own I can afford my own insurance, retirement account, etc., plus have a lot left over.

My beef with our profession is line count based on characters in a file. While I agree it is a great way to be paid, there are far too many definitions as to what constitutes a line, and it all depends on the software you use, etc. Additionally, it is too easy to add what I call 'ghost characters and nearly impossible to be fair. I think we need to agree on a universal formula to determine lines. Here's my vote:  Word count divided by 11.5, or even 11. That's a line, no matter how small or large the words.

That will cover a, an, the, as well as hepatosplenomegaly.

Sorry about that. I sort of got off the subject. : )

• Has anyone else seen ads for MT schools that promise 40,000 yearly? This doesn't appear to be tru - Susan
  • Yes, you certainly can. - Susan
    • it is definately possible - notjustatypist
  • A lot of the crap schools do - but no one in their right mind should
    • That's probably why most legitimate junior colleges don't even have an MT program anymore - it's not worth taking
  • Starting out definitely no more than in the SM - it's not true
  • Even after years of doing this, it's NOT true for the majority of MTs these days. Look at how man - of us are moving on. nm

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