Reflecting back- Looking Forward

Trusty Transcriptionists is now into its fourth year of business. As usual a blog post has been a long time coming but I gleaned some advice today from somebody in SEO, keep the blog current. But who has the time? Well, this week I have more time than I did last week, so no time like the present I guess. I am finding it staggering how much time has gone by since I first started this enterprise. It has me reflecting back on how it all started and where I am headed. When I first started Trusty Transcriptionists it was on a bit of a whim, as a way to use a skill that I had so that I could work for myself and also to have flexibility to attend voiceover jobs. Voiceover jobs? Yup. I cut myself a shiny voiceover demo in London after I got made redundant from my job with the police. I peddled it out to some agencies and I got a few bites! It was all very exciting. I did some paid voiceover work (corporate stuff) but you know what? I found it terrifying, I got super stage fright. A dream I had turned into a bit of a nightmare and I found it just wasn't for me. In addition, the cost to get to London for jobs with relatively no notice was quite expensive during the week.

So instead I concentrated on running Trusty Transcriptionists and doing a bit of writing (the writing has been on hold for six months now, umm yes, that old chestnut). I feel I got very lucky in my first two years of trading as I had some wonderful clients and many of those clients gave me referrals to others which in turn generated more fantastic clients. Last year, I did not have to spend as much money advertising as I was actually booked up with work for the whole year, this surprised and delighted me. This year however, has seen me having to turn a lot of work away because I have been so booked up and just have not had the capacity to take on the work. I've been lucky because all of the clients I have had to turn away, have always come back to me again (I guess I'm doing something right!) But I always feel bad having to let people down by not accepting their work.

Family and friends encouraged me to take on some self-employed freelance people. Originally I dreamed of hiring some part-time people, getting an office and actually having people to talk to! This was just not feasible, my work comes in ebbs and flows which means I never know how busy I'm actually going to be. The expense of staff and running an office in addition to my other expenses would have probably pushed me out of business. I was also nervous about the decision because my unique selling point was the confidentiality I offer, as in, I am the only one that ever listens to the recordings. I decided a solution to this problem was to offer clients on the Booking Form the choice to have the work done solely by myself or allow some of it to be done by carefully chosen people who have signed a confidentiality agreement, this seemed the most practical solution. And so far this seems to be working out well!

Until next time...
Kim