You need a good set of ears, a fast pair of hands, and the ability to work with clients in technical, academic, governmental, and other specialties. For instance, transcription for a doctor would include medical words and phrases; lawyers use legal and court terms and special forms of citation for cases and law. The good news is that a number of tools are available to help you perform work in specialty fields. You can purchase medical, legal, or technical dictionaries, and electronic add-ons can expand spell-checkers in word processors to cover specialized terms.
You will need to have equipment capable of working with different types of media, including microcassettes, full-size cassettes, and digital memory. Most word processing software, including industry leader Microsoft Word, is able to accept or output files to or from most other programs. Most businesses use PC equipment; a relatively small number of companies use Apple Macintosh hardware. In most cases, both types of machines are capable of reading data files from each other. One way to transfer your files without having to worry about converting from one type of media to another is to send them electronically over the Internet.
You will need a professional-quality transcription machine for the up-front expenses; the most common format uses microcassettes, but you may need to buy several machines to handle tapes or digital memory that use other types of media. Machines range in price from about $200 to $400. You will also need a current personal computer that runs a major word processor such as Microsoft Word, plus a professional-quality printer. If you plan to accept digital files over the Internet or send your completed transcripts that way, you will need access to the Internet. Other expenses include advertising and promotion.