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Serving Over 20,000 US Medical Transcriptionists

Even with a salary you're kind of a small business owner!

Posted By: MTmidwest on 2008-09-24
In Reply to: Question - Tam

Even if you're paid a salary you are your own agent, so to speak. Why not hire a part-time helper and pay them a subcontractor rate. That's what a service owner does. You are no hero for not getting some help. MTs who have their own accounts have responsibility for 7 days a week coverage, but not all of us type 7 days a week. Put an ad in the job seekers board and pay someone to take up the overflow. You will burn out and not be able to work at all eventually. Good luck to you.


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You are the owner of this business, are you not?
If you want to make it 20 minutes, that's your perogative. You don't need to ask permission to do what you need to do.
As an IC, you are a business owner .
The organizations you mention are for employee labor relations.

It is up to you to negotiate for your business.

Ok, but what kind of salary do you think you will make
As say, opposed to working in the doctors office? The salary in the MTing field has gone down dramatically over the past years. I trained inhospital for over a year and have seen the salary drop and drop and drop. It probably is not a good field with out the outsourcing that is going on to try to make a decent living anymore- What kind of speed do you have with typing? I think loads of trancriptionists unhappy with where we are now days. I got into transcribing because my speed was excessive (130-140) and always was good at spelling and loved the medical field. I thought with my working in the field for so long would be a breeze when I started this. Was I in for a BIG surprise! I certainly never considered this job because of being able to stay at home because when I first started spent years and years in the office. Having said that, I, if I wanted to support a family and knowing what I do now, would certainly not recommend to others as a way to make a living.
YES! I get a salary of 20K and then business makes 50K...nm
and believe you me, I take good care of the MT's who work for me. They pay for my house! As JRR said, it's all in getting your own accounts. Anyone CAN do it, but most people WON'T do it.
As a business owner, you set the rates.
The doctor has a choice to pay those rates or not. If he has someone that will do the same job for 2 cents less, why should he pay you more? If he won't pay what you think you deserve, then it is time to find new clients that will pay the rates you desire. Good luck though. I find more and more MTs are willing to work for less just for the opportunity to work at home and that drives down the wages for all of us.
I've know the owner and it is a small company. He doesn't know the first
thing about MT, word processing programs, etc.   I have worked for the company through 3 owners and now I do prn work for him.  
We won't sell it from under them. Never. If they want to do a owner finance kind of thing, they w
nm
Allscribe in Suffield Ohio. No longer in business. Tammy was owner

As an IC, you are your own small business. As a

contractor you have NOT been in their emloyment.  You have worked as contract labor for them, whether it be 1 month, 1 year or 5 years.  They owe you absolutely nothing at any point in time of the contract.  However, should you contact their clients (as you mentioned below), there can be legal repercussions for you so I would seriously think twice about this before going forward.


As an IC, it seems you would know that you should not put all of your eggs in one basket. I would bet that most of us that are IC's work for at least 2 companies.  For the ones that don't, they probably work for 1 company and have their own accounts, OR better yet have all their own accounts.


TAT is of the utmost importance.  It only takes twice with me and I won't send anymore work to that particular IC anymore, which is my option.  I might give them a second chance IF their work was top notch.


Small Business
According to what I read on the internet regarding corps, yes you can and you can be the only employee under I believe the S-corporation.  There are C-corps, S-corps, partnerships, proprietorships and LLCs.  That is the way I read the info.  Reading all info gives me a headache, members, stocks, annual meetings, and so on.   Yuck!  Really do not know if it is worth it.  If you go to MTT Jobs, I have noticed that many, many companies are now requesting employee status.  At first I thought it was so they could have control over you, now second guessing. They may not have a choice in the matter.
Just became IC myself. Do I need a small business license?
dd
Small Local MT Business
Hi Rachel,

What part of California are you in, and are you looking for any partners?

If so, please e-mail me.
I use Turbo Tax Small Business - sm

It will walk you through everything and prepare a schedule C for you as well.  I would recommend this if you are going to prepare your own taxes. 


Independent Contractor vs. Small Business?

I am negotiating a contract with a clinic to be one of two transcriptionists.  I have typed for this clinic for several years as a sub-contractor, but the current contract holder is not renewing the contract.  The clinic's lawyer is not comfortable with "Independent contractor" as the contract would be for one year and for the usual questionable definition of an IC. 


I tried to research this and just became more and more confused.. so I hope I can get a little advice here..  I do not want to be employed by the clinic - I prefer to be self-employed.  Do I make myself a small business and get a license?  I do plan to meet with my accountant to ask some questions, but I was hoping to get a little info here so that I would not sound completely stupid!  (Doesn't seem as bad to sound stupid here rather than in person!)  I am used to getting a 1099 and paying self-employment tax. 


Are you an Independent contractor or a small business?  I do not plan to have any employees..I just want to type for this clinic and get paid! THanks!


Any small MT business owners in CA out there? I need advice!!

I'm looking start up my own small bus., just a couple accounts, but I need to know if there are any HIPAA contracts or anything else that I should be providing for the doctor and myself to sign.  Any advice would be truly appreciated!!


Thnx, Rachel


Want to start my own small business, need advice..sm
Hi all.  I am looking to get started doing some transcribing on the side for myself, and perhaps turn it into a small business.  Right now, I only have the capabilities of doing tapes and using Word as my software to transcribe in.  I feel like I should look into digital and see how much the equipment would run, and how easy it would be to use.  Does anyone have any recommendations on something that is relatively inexpensive for a beginner? Should I stick to my guns and start out with tapes first?  Any advice would certainly be appreciated.  I have been doing this for 16+ years and I feel like I shouldn't have any problems getting some local work drummed up.  I am getting ready to type up some letters to send out and I guess I will go from there.  Thanks in advance!!!!
I need some advice on starting my own small side business. sm

First of all, I have worked for several nationals in the past few years, and equipment has always been provided.  I currently have a f/t position with a national that I use my own personal computer for, they just put their software on it.  I had what I needed already, as far as foot pedal, Expander program, etc.


I have just been sort of rolling ideas around in my head about possibly starting up something small perhaps on a p.r.n. basis just to bring in a little extra income.  As I am still just mulling this around in my mind, my questions are:  How do I go about getting started? Do I try to purchase equipment first, or start out using tapes? I am worried about spending the money and not having any takers, so I am thinking, I should send out some sort of letters first; but, without having the equipment already, how do I tell them I plan on doing their transcription.  Maybe mention tapes first, and tell them I have plans to go digital after I get up and running? These are all just things I wonder about.  If anyone has any ideas, please feel free to email me with any advice. 


I have been an MT for 16+ years, but as I said, I have always had all of the stuff provided for me and just don't know how to start. 


Thanks in Advance!


 


Well, it all depends. What kind of business are you looking to start?

Why would they care? Management is paid salary and that's all they're concerned with.
We're an expendable commodity to those people. If we quit, we're easily replaced.
It is absolutely TRUE! Comcast and vonage not sure about, but AT&T small business says NOT ALLOWED!

Vonage nor Comcast work with all equipment (static, echoing, etc.) and I would be interested in learning more about what "the fine print" says for these two companies.  So, you must be misinformed because I have a sister who works at AT&T and no matter what package you buy, MT IS NOT ALLOWED.....and that is a FACT!   


Again, DON'T go with a for sale by owner agent. Buy Owner is the same thing.
l
I think you're the one who needs to get out of the business.
or at least get out of the house and make some friends in the real world. You're losing it fast.
If you're not a business, but an IC...sm
you can use your SSN.  If you do have a business license, it's how you set it up in the beginning...I have a business, but it is not incorporated or anything like that and I use my SSN. 
They're a small company in Texas. Would that be the one? nm
s
you are still an IC when you're a business, you stop being an IC when...sm
you incorporate. Then you become an employee of your corporation. Most home based businesses don't require a business license. Since you aren't having customers traipse in and out, nobody really cares. No advantage to getting a tax free ID since you aren't collecting sales tax. The only thing you really should do when you get your own account is to set up a business checking account with a credit card attached to it. The physician office should make the invoice check out to your business, not you. The separate account simplifies bookkeeping and keeps the IRS happy. No need to really incorporate until you are making about $50K a year. Then you might want to think about it to save on the SS taxes.  If you do get your own account, find a CPA that you can talk to (i.e. approachable). There are self employment IRA's etc that you will want to take advantage of. As far as getting up enough nerve to walk into the office, I call it "the $10,000 question." All you need is one acccount on your own to make an additional profit of $10,000 over what you are making now. But the only people who get paid that are the ones who get up enough nerve to walk into the doctors' offices. Are you one of them?
It's none of their business why you're leaving.
**
Yup, they're about to lose my business. NM
nm
I get it. But in return for supporting the small business the poor folk get nothing in return.
I understand why you don't shop at Walmart. You support those who support you but it doesn't work that way for me. I can go to an independent shop and by a dishwasher, pay lots more for it and get nothing in return to supplement my support of their small business. Same for all the poor folk who are shopping in Walmart trying to stretch a paycheck. I am glad Walmart exists for those folks.
you're kind of bullying in and it just isn't nice.
surely you can do better about presenting your advice.

you're just not going to get along well here with that bully attitude.
It depends on what kind of work you're doing..sm...

If you're doing clinic work, you would need the book that pertains to your clinic.  I'd also recommend a Stedman's Abbreviations, acronyms & symbols.  I'd also recommend Sander's Pharmaceutical Book.  Other than that, I'd use Google and trustworthy websites. 


 


You're so kind, thank you for the good thoughts! sm
She does have to be on a high-fiber diet. They think this might be related to H-pylori, even though she tested negative for it. I told her lets not worry until we have to, easier said than done, but she is a worrier, and yes, I have inherited that from her as well:) I was reading up on this MALT lymphoma and if that's what she has, it looks like it is pretty treatable if caught in the early stages, so we will pray. Thanks again. I will update when I know more. Thanks for posting - means a lot:)

Jen
If you don't know what a typo is, you're in the wrong business.
This is a message board, not a paid document.
No matter what type of business you're in, there does -
come a time when you have to draw the line somewhere. It seems like a no-brainer that if the price for transcription was X amount of dollars with letterhead provided by the client, then it would be X amount MORE with letterhead provided by the service. Still I would imagine she panicked a little, fearing she'd lose the account if she stood her ground about a separate rate for providing the paper. Knowing how expensive paper is, I still have trouble seeing how she could just let it slide in the beginning.

In her position, having allowed him to cheat her for a certain amount of time, what I would do next is give him notice that next month (or next week, or whatever), due to the overhead costs of supplying paper for the account, she could no longer do it at the old price, and then quote the new price.

If she gets 'replaced', she'd have to figure that it was going to happen sooner or later anyway, and if he was that cheap, there were probably other 'surprises' down the pike, as well. So probably good riddance. It might seem like a better deal to keep that account and let the guy keep cheating her like that, but then again, a better account is probably just around the corner. OR --- he could start to take her seriously when she sticks to her guns and says she has to raise her price. She has to make a living, too, right? OR --- he could go with someone else for a while, realize he had a good thing when he was using her service, and come crawling back. At that point, she could probably charge him almost anything she wanted, within reason of course, and he'd gladly pay it.

I had a non-MT, service-type business a number of years ago, and some of my BEST clients were the ones who left in a huff when I had the 'audacity' to raise my prices along with the rise in overhead, only to come back on their hands and knees a few weeks or months later. Some of them became the most generous tippers, too. It was funny how male colleagues of mine in the exact same business were rarely, if ever, questioned when it came to their charges for services rendered. Yet as a female, it was almost expected that if the client tried to get me to provide the same service for less, that I wouldn't stand up for myself and would just accept it because I was a female.

Until there is an equal double-standard to go along with the perception that women's work is worth less than men's, and we can pay half what men pay at the gas pumps and in the grocery stores due to our gender, then we shouldn't have to simply settle for less than they would get for the same job, either. And you just KNOW that if medical transcription had evolved into a 'men's' profession instead of a 'women's' profession, it would most likely be a good, high-paying white-collar job that they would have fought long and hard to prevent from being offshored. We just stood there and allowed the hospitals to reduce it to about the same level as janitorial work, or lower.

If a woman running an independent MT business such as this woman is STILL doesn't want to do things like give clients the bad news when a price hike is in order, why not simply borrow a strong male voice to make those calls? And to have a little spiel on the voicemail system, so that it SOUNDS like the system is owned and run by a man? If the client believed a man owned the business and was making those kinds of decisions, I bet she'd be able to command a higher price for her services all around, not just when supplying the letterhead. Something to think about!
$72 is not their salary, it is their salary and benefits package
including wages,insurance, retirement pension, COLA fund, etc.
Only if you're producing that kind of quality and volume!
No need to call others names, though.

Guess that's what happens with that big ego, though.

Heh ... twice the price cuz they're an AAMT business partner! - nm

I've heard with Dell if you tell them you're a business,
you'll get someone from the US.  I already have two HPs but tried it anyway.  I used to say home or home office but said I use it for business and still got someone from India but he spoke very, very good English compared to some I've spoken to in the past.
It depends on what kind of voice files you're playing.

The sound on Express Scribe is terrible.  I think it's worth it to find a player that plays your voice files with good sound.  If you use wav files, a Bytescribe wav player would be excellent (get the dongle version so you get unlimited installs).  They also have a version that converts DSS to wav.  I complained about the DSS files not sounding clean on speed up and slow down so they told me about another version they have.  If you have a Bytescrive wav player, it's already on your computer.  Of if you're using DSS files you could also use a DSS player.  (I've never tried them). 


Oh, I hope you're right. The surgeon just gave her the info and kind of let her sit on it.
He didn't have time to go over it in a lot of detail. She tried to call back to have him give her more info., but he had left for the day and won't be back until Thursday. So, we'll see. Thanks for posting:)
Depends on what kind of hospital? Large urban hospital or small community hospital? SM

Also, is it a large teaching hospital? If so you have to consider there will be A LOT of different residents dictating, usually a lot of ESLs at teaching hospitals, and the residents rotate out and new ones rotate in every summer. So you can't expect to get the same dictators and build up your macros because the dictators change all the time.


I would say 9 cpl would be a pretty good offer for a small to medium community hospital where you will be doing the same dictators on a daily basis.  But for bigger, urban or teaching hospitals I would want at least 12 to 15 cpl. 


In general business're running slower than usual but running. NM
nm
small mentality usually means small pocketbook
Still make more than you and I but that is deserved. They've put the effort forward and educated themselves.


Unfortunately it is legal..so yes it is business and they will continue with bad business practices
x
I made my business your business by posting and...
I totally respect everyone's opinions. It is easier for others on the outside looking in. That's why I pushed the "post reply" button yesterday. I trust my fellow MTs and I know the more I read from you all, the more confident I am becoming. I just need that final push, not from him though. I also wanted to let you all know that the physical abuse while I was pregnant was documented by my doctor and the hospital. I only wish I had known then that it is a felony to abuse a pregnant woman. I also photographed my face from a couple of weeks ago and told several people in my circle. I had such high hopes for us. Now...not so much. I'm not saying that I won't try to get him to church, but I realize that God can only do so much for someone who isn't listening. j
Business is business. Internet forums are
.
salary
60,000+ last year
salary
Two years go, I made $67,000.00.  Last year approximately $40,000.00 but I had an illness to deal with and Im still dealing with it, so probably this year, the best I will make is $25,000.00.  However, Im feeling stronger, my illness is getting under control so Im aiming for next year at least $50,000.00.
salary
@.10/line I average $45,000 to 53,000 depending on how many days per week I work.
Salary
I charge $60 per audio hour or $1 per minute for my general transcription work and understand this to be the going rate. There is plenty of work out there but it is not easy to find. I am currently enrolled in a good MT program, but am going to keep doing my general work on the side even after I get work as an MT, because it really concerns me that some MTSOs hire people whom they do not fully employ. It seems like a lot of MTs post here and elsewhere that they don't get enough work to do. How can anyone project their income if they don't know if they will get any work to do or not?
salary
Worked in rural hospital at low end of #1 for 6 six years.
MT salary
What is the average salary of someone starting out being a MT, and what type of raises do you get. Is it a good career for someone young to get into?