The Author’s Experience with dictation transcription, management & running a secretarial services business

My first job in supervision and management was in 1951. At age 16 in my sophomore year of high school, I worked part-time after school and Saturdays during the school year. I worked full time in the summer making $0.55 an hour. My pay for 10 hours was $5.50. I started out as a clerk and was promoted to supervisor supervising six counters with six employees in the front of what was then Neisner Brothers Dime Store on 185th Street in Cleveland, Ohio. My title back then was Floor Walker.

After graduation from Euclid Senior High in 1953, I began my very first permanent full-time job with the former Pennsylvania Greyhound Lines in Cleveland as a secretary. I typed dictation from a Dictaphone transcriber that used a blue plastic belt called a Dictabelt. After 64 years, my transcription experience now includes dictation from audio cassette tapes, mini-DV video tapes, digital files (i.e. WAV, MP3, etc.), call-in dictation, internet videos, and VHS tapes.

After moving to Florida with my children in October, 1975, I worked for Landmark Union Trust Bank in St. Petersburg, Florida. I went to night college for nine years and graduated with honors and a degree in Banking and Finance at age 51. At that time I was Assistant Operations Manager helping run 27 bank branches in Pinellas County.

After my job was phased out in 1989 due to the bank’s merger with C&S of Atlanta, I worked for 10 years as Assistant to the President of United Bank of Pinellas.

When I started working at United Bank, in 1990 I was introduced to computers. (I’m totally self-taught.) After 30+ years working with a desktop computer, my expertise now includes, DOS, Windows (all versions), Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, Nuance OmniPage Pro, Corel WordPerfect and Quattro Pro, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe InDesign, Roxio Creator, and many other professional software programs including HTML and XML programming. In 2000, before they had templates and website builder aps, I designed my own web site and web sites for two customers using HTML code.

In 1998, I retired and formed a sole-proprietorship business, Tailored PC Documents, to work at home doing secretarial work to supplement my social security. Through my Tailored PC Documents web site (no longer active) and the many free ad sites I listed my business (Yelp, Google+, LinkedIn and many others), customers contacted me from as far away as Bearcreek, Minnesota, Phoenix, Dallas, New York City, Roanoke, Chicago, Illinois, California, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, Florida and even London, England. Over the years, the list of customers and jobs grew and grew; far beyond my wildest imagination or expectations. I wasn’t getting rich, but the monthly net income after expenses was enough to supplement my social security and help me remain independent.

The various types of documents I have typed and/or transcribed include: correspondence, interviews, depositions, city council, board of directors and homeowner association meeting minutes, legal documents, seminars, workshop lectures with question and answer sessions, radio and TV program content, research material, family history journals with photographs, contracts, wills, term papers, dissertations, patient evaluations, manuscripts and plays for publication as well as spreadsheet creation and design and data input.

Later on as ebooks and indie self-publication on-demand advanced, many of the jobs I took in were transcribing manuscripts for various writers and professional authors. After transcription, the finalized copy was formatted and uploaded to online/on demand book publishers for publication in print and as an ebook. To date, there are 24 of my customer’s books for sale in Amazon, Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Scribd, Alibris, AbeBooks, ibooks and other online bookseller sites.  There are several of my own stories listed in Smashwords.com as free to download ebooks.

Keeping up with advancements in technology and computer software, I devised inovative ideas and workarounds to enable me to do at home the type of jobs a large firm would offer. Example: call-in dictation on my business line connected to my computer which I then transcribed using a transcription program. This service has been responsible for at least 60% of my gross income. For sound (WAV or MP3) files too large to send by email, my customers and I used DropBox. I downloaded the customer’s sound files  and transcribed them using a transcription program called Express Scribe. I typed and/or transcribed files using Microsoft Word. Completed documents were sent to the customer by email along with my invoice. I was paid through Paypal or check.

In 2017, after nearly 20 years of running Tailored PC Documents, I decided it was time to phase out the business. I took down my web site and cancelled the phone line. I’ve switched to writing cozy mystery/suspense/thrillers, adventure novels and short stories.

I have three novels written. The first titled Warning! Cave Exploration Forbidden is scheduled for publication the end of 2020. In 2021 I hope to publish my second novel titled, Susan’s Stalker – Double the Fear. By the end of 2021, I hope to publish my third novel titled Road Rage Dolls – Someone is Murdering Road Rage Drivers. Eventually, I also plan to put together two books on working for yourself at home and transcription tips.

The contents of the tips, tricks, shortcuts, secrets, and articles in this blog site and the two books I plan to write are based upon over 67 years of real life experiences plus over 20 years running a home-based secretarial services business. I describe in detail the many valuable procedures I devised to not only work more efficiently, but to actually do jobs most people don’t know you can do at home to earn extra money.

The titles of the two books I hope to publish in 2022 or 2023 are: How to Establish, Build, and Run a $ucce$$ful Secretarial Service at Home and Transcription Tips, Tricks, Secrets and Shortcuts.

The titles of just a few of the short stories I’ve written and hope to publish along with many more in one book.  The Brave ‘Lil Cockroach, A Box of Tissues, 2 Rolls of Toilet Paper and a Plastic Bottle of Water, and others.

I hope you enjoy my stories and find the articles posted in my website helpful. If you have any comments, suggestions and/or topics you would like me to write about and post in this site, please leave me a message in the Leave a Comment section below.

Thanks for stopping by. Don’t forget to check the Schedule of Future  Posts and Past Articles.

Hope to see you again soon.

When you subscribe to my website you will receive occasional email updates and notifications about new articles and short stories, my full novel publication dates, FREE ebook downloads, and future events and contests. Sign up using the Subscribe form below.

Processing…
Success! You're on the list.