By far the most important element of starting a successful transcription business is having the typing skills necessary to do the work for your clients. As a professional who offers transcript services, you'll be required to type extremely fast and accurately. Understand the basic requirements for typing: You need to be able to transcribe over 200 lines per hour at 98% accuracy. You need to be able to type over 65 words per minute. You need to type with accuracy, using grammar and correct spelling. Test your typing speed and accuracy. There are a number of websites where you can do this, or you can schedule a typing test with a local company or educational service. Before you start anything else, you need to make sure to improve your typing speed and accuracy. This can only really be done through practice. Consider: Enrolling in a typing class at a local junior college to improve your typing skills. Spending time practicing as much as you can. Type things up just for fun or to challenge yourself. Retype old hand-written recipes. Try to transcribe your favorite television show. Just about anything will do. Testing yourself frequently to measure any progress you've made. While many people think that transcription is a no-investment field and transcribers simply use MS Word or similar programs, this is often incorrect. Transcribers often need to invest in specific equipment and software to meet the needs of specific industries they work for and to increase their productivity and efficiency. Examples of commonly used equipment include: Transcription software will give you a huge advantage over programs like MS Word because their auto correct features are often better, they have short cuts, macros, hotkeys and other things that will increase your efficiency and accuracy. They also include integrated video and audio playback and file storage solutions. A foot pedal. Your foot pedal will enable you to efficiently control the speed and sound level of your audio playback. A headset. After working on your general skills, you need to decide what specific field you want to practice transcription in. While you can market yourself in several fields, its best to focus on one to begin with and become an expert in that field of transcription. Many business owners require the use of a transcriptionist, but they also need transcribers who are familiar with their field of business. Understanding the industry means that you will recognize the technicalities of the industry, including terms and vocabulary. Decide whether you want to transcribe for the medical field, the legal field or a general field. There are a wide variety of transcription courses offered on the internet and in a traditional brick-and-mortar setting. Many transcription courses are field or industry specific, and will focus on educating you for that field. Transcript courses will teach you: Industry specific terminology. If you don't already know legal or medical vocabulary, enroll in a terminology course at a community college or transcription school. Industry specific style and format. General transcription practices. You may also enroll in a program that teaches every aspect of transcription. While your transcription course might fulfill the requirements of certification for a specific field, it also might not. If it does not, you need to research the requirements of certification in your chosen field and become certified. In some fields, like medical transcription or legal transcription, certification is often required for work. If it is not required, it will at least make you much more competitive.

Summary: Know typing qualifications. Improve your typing skills, if they don't measure up. Buy the necessary equipment and software. Decide if you want to specialize in a specific field. Enroll in a transcription course, based on your chosen field. Secure proper certifications, based on your chosen field.

Start with whatever letter you want. A simple capital letter, like "A," is a good place to begin, but you can use the exact same technique for lowercase letters, too. Don't worry about making this letter look perfect, because it is just a guiding line you'll erase it later. Once you've gotten the hang of drawing bubble letters, you won't need to draw the interior guiding letters anymore. Make sure you avoid going over any interior or overlapping lines. For example, if you wrote a "F," you shouldn't trace over the lines where the short lines overlap with the long vertical line. Similarly, for an "x," the part where the two lines overlap should be empty, and you should just trace around the outside in pen. The pencil marks are just there to guide you in drawing your bubble letter; you don't have to stick to them exactly. Feel free to accentuate the curves and make adjustments as you outline your letter.

Summary: Sketch a lowercase or capital letter in pencil. Outline the outside of the letters with pen or marker.

For plastic, you need a blade with a high tooth count. Look for a blade that says it's made for acrylic or plexiglass. You'll get a much cleaner cut with these blades. You can use a regular blade, but the cut will be more jagged. Before beginning, mark what you want to cut with a permanent marker. With a circular saw, table saw, or saber saw, you can cut a straight line. With a jigsaw, you can cut curves. Use a straight edge if necessary. Placing masking tape over your cut line can help you make a cleaner edge with a jigsaw. Start at one edge of the mark you made. Push the acrylic through the table saw at a steady pace, being sure to keep your fingers out of the way of the saw. Don't move too quickly, as you'll create a rougher edge, but don't go too slowly, as you can melt the plastic. Set up the acrylic glass on 2 beams so that you can cut through it with the jigsaw. Push the jigsaw from the outer edge towards your body along the line you made, so you can constantly keep your eye on the blade and the line. If you get stuck at an angle, pull the jigsaw out the way you came, and cut from the other edge.
Summary: Use a blade meant for acrylic. Mark the cut. Push the acrylic through a table saw for a straight cut. Cut a curved line with a jigsaw.