“I’m on the road, travelling free and easy…”
– (Barry Mann, Cynthia Well)
Whether you just want to get away for a few days, take a long road trip, or travel overseas, transcription is one of the few industries that allows you to truly work “anywhere.” As long as you’ve got internet connectivity and can charge your laptop (or if you know you’re going to be out of range for a few days, you can prepare and download your audio prior to going), the world is literally your oyster.
We love to go away in our camper-trailer whenever we can, and we have solar panels and a battery pack that will charge my laptop and phone (for use as a hotspot) so that I can be in a different place every day if I want and yet still be able to run our business.
One of our team members has just done a road trip from Queensland down to Victoria, working as she went, complete with tent, hubby and pet. Sonya frequently travels to South Australia from Queensland and can work as she goes.
Is the weather gorgeous and calling you to go outside? Rather than be stuck inside in an office, you can just move into the sunshine in your garden, a nearby park, or local café. There really are no limits to what you can do as a transcriber, as long as you make sure you’ve got your mobile office ready to go, you can be away in an instant. My daughter frequently transcribes in her University library between classes, or on the train if she’s travelling, the options are endless.
Whilst you can take your work anywhere, you do need to make sure that your screen cannot be seen by anyone else so that you maintain confidentiality just as if you were working from your home office.
Transcription is the perfect work for every stage of your life: students travelling overseas and wanting to still be earning some money; carers in their middle years looking after loved ones; right through to retirees who don’t want to dip into the pension as they travel and want the mental stimulation that transcribing brings to us and the opportunity to be always learning something new.
So pack your bags, don’t forget your pedals and set out on your journey. Where will transcribing take you?