Ikigai: The Why

Pronounced [ikigai] (ee-kee-gah-ee) is a Japanese concept that means “a reason for being.” The Why.
You can see from our short promo video for Module 1 WHAT we’re doing with TranscribeRight, but today I thought I’d talk about the WHY.
After the excitement and relief of launching Module 1, we have been heads down preparing Module 2 and, as I sit here and look at our draft framework for Modules 2 and 3 and see how much we want to share, it makes me realise how much the experience we have counts. Anyone can type, these days we’re all expected to, but not everyone can make a living doing it, working from home, as a transcriptionist. What they CAN do, however, is learn…and our aim is to show you how.
Why do it?
Well, it’s not always easy that’s for sure, nothing worthwhile ever is. There are days when you don’t feel motivated, or finding the next client seems just too hard. BUT, at the end of the day, it’s YOUR business, so you find that motivation and you talk to people and tell them what you do, you leave cards with local businesses, and you subcontract until you find those clients of your own.
Why work for myself?
Because YOU are in control of your own destiny working for yourself. It means that you can be on hand if you are a carer, a mother, a father. It means you can support yourself if you’re a student. It means you can work the hours you choose. It’s also flexible, you don’t have to work full-time. You might have a 24-hour deadline, but if the weather is gorgeous, you can take some time out to enjoy it and work in the evening. Or, you can work around going to see the school concert, pick up a sick child, go help a friend, take your parents out for the day.
Why TranscribeRight? What makes us different from other online courses offering transcription training?
Because we were you. We had been working for other people since leaving College, working full-time, but then our lives changed, in both cases for myself and Sonya, with our young families, and suddenly the long hours at the beck and call of others lost its appeal. So we both started to look online at alternatives. For me, that was in 2003. Since then, we have individually run our own small businesses with our own clients. We have also subcontracted for large transcription companies, run their systems, allocated and edited other typists’ work and dealt with their clients. We now have our own small, bespoke transcription company, with an expert team that offers a truly personal and collegial service to our clients and, when we were looking to expand our numbers earlier in the year, we found that although many people who applied said they offered transcription, only one in ten of those made the cut.
Why?
Because they had not been trained, pure and simple. From the outside looking in, they thought they knew what it took to be a transcriptionist, but we can tell you that nine out of ten of them would not have been taken on by any of the transcription companies we know because they lacked the fundamentals we all look for. Transcription companies are nearly always looking to grow their teams, and we know the sort of experience they want to see.
Ikigai: Our Why
Sonya and I have nearly 30 years’ combined experience in all kinds of audio files, single voice, two/three voice interviews, focus groups, telephone conferences, interpreter-led interviews, files covering virtually every possible subject, background noise and accent. We know how to create templates for different transcripts, how to invoice, how to create spreadsheets to monitor workflow and finance. We have a wealth of experience covering years and years of doing just this.
But more than any of that, the WHY for us is about passion. We honestly have a passion for what we do. A passion that has allowed us the freedom to be with our families and watch them grow. So much passion for what we do that my own daughter now transcribes to support herself at University, and Sonya’s daughter is in the process of completing a touch-typing course with a view to undertaking our training modules and starting her own career as a work-from-home transcriptionist.
And this passion for all that we’ve learned along the way extends to a passion to share, not just the basics of how to transcribe, but to share tips and shortcuts, chair exercises to help you iron out the kinks after a long day, how to set up your office, set up a travel kit, develop a cheat sheet, glossaries and terminology documents, style guides and finding your “Google-fu”. By the end of Module 3 you will have dealt with hours of audio files of single voice dictation, two and three voice interviews, multi-voice meetings and focus groups, accents, telephone or Skype interviews and how to prepare a verbatim transcript. We will also have covered how to invoice your clients and set up basic book-keeping spreadsheets.
We know what we are offering is unique.
WHY have we created TranscribeRight?
Because we want to share our passion, and what we love with you. We want to help you achieve what we have achieved. We want you to be find and live your Ikigai. Are you ready to start your journey?