Sunday, April 15, 2007

Working in my pajamas

A few of you have expressed an interest in finding out about the work I do from home, so here are some of the details. For some reason, my brain is kind of scattered today, so I'm just gonna do random facts here.

  • I do transcription work, specifically transcribing insurance statements.
  • These are usually interviews between a Big Insurance Company claim rep and an insured.
  • I work for a small mom-and-pop (really just mom) company who has contracts with several insurance companies.
  • The transcripts I type range in length from 2 pages to over 100 pages.
  • There is a 3-day turnaround.
  • I get paid by the hour; it's better than minimum wage, but less than I made as a full-time Administrative Assistant.
  • I use a Panasonic transcribing machine that costs around $200 new. I bought it myself, and deducted it as a business expense.
  • I pick up and drop off my tapes at my employer's house.
  • Our transcripts are done in Microsoft Word.
  • I e-mail completed transcripts to the office.

PROS:
  • With my "employer," I can work as much or as little as I want.
  • I can work any time of the day or night that I want.
  • I love typing.
  • Sometimes the transcripts are very interesting.
  • I never miss Go Diego, Go or Pinky Dinky Doo!

CONS:
  • The lady I work for is a very bad money manager.
  • She's been behind on payroll for almost 6 months now.
  • I'm currently 2 months behind on getting paid.
  • Sometimes the tapes are poor quality.
  • Murphy's Law ensures that when a tape is poor quality, the transcript is probably going to be long.
  • Sometimes the insureds (or even the claim reps) are just big weirdos, and after an hour or so of typing, I get sick of them.

Overall, though, the reasons that I stick with this gig are:

  • I get to stay at home with my kiddos.
  • I don't have to deal with butt-head bosses or co-workers (just no paychecks!)
  • She eventually pays me.
  • With my Crohn's Disease, it would be hard for me to find a regular job, whether full- or part-time.
  • I'm a nosy-butt, and I love hearing these people's stories. Most of the time.
If this still sounds like something you're interested in pursuing, drop me a comment or e-mail and I'll send you the contact information. Although I'm local and the work I do is on tapes, I know that she does also have electronic files, and people all over the country who work for her.

Also, in be-bopping around the World Wide Web this morning, I found the following links for (I think legit) WAHM opportunities or information:

All Custom Content - Transcription, proofreading, research, writing opportunities
Work at Home Blog - Info and networking

I'll post more links as I find them, and by all means, if you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail me or comment here. Just be sure that if you ask a question in comments, that you have an e-mail address in your profile so I can respond.

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