Beti Spangel dabbled with several different projects to see if she could create a viable and sustainable freelance career, without much success. 

About five years ago, she and her husband moved from upstate New York down to Mississippi, and she finally achieved her dream.  Transcribing was the answer for Beti.

Let’s find out more about her situation.

Can you tell us a little about how your search for your freelance dream began?

Sure.  I had been searching for a sustainable job to do from home for DECADES. I call myself a serial entrepreneur – I’ve started more cottage businesses than I care to think about.  None were  successful and all died a quiet death.

When my children were small, I wanted to work from home to be around for them more, but being a single mom for a while required a secure and steady paycheck.  Then, after the kids were grown and I remarried, my freelance dream resurfaced after we moved from upstate New York to Mississippi.

How did everything come about for you after the move?

Well, I had done freelance writing for many years for my local newspaper and some magazines.  However, after moving to Mississippi, I couldn’t seem to get any traction with my writing.  As a result, I went back to my bread and butter of secretarial work. I was fortunate to get a job as a legal secretary with a wonderful group of people.

So, just to be clear, most of your work experience is legal secretarial?

Yes.  I’ve been a legal secretary for almost 15 years as well as a general secretary in various areas.  I would say that I have had a diverse education that has served me well and continues to do so.

I might add that I was extremely fortunate to have some wonderful employers along the way.

So you were finally able to leave your day job and launch your current freelance transcription business?

Yes.  When I started transcribing, I was terrified because I’m not what I’d consider a very technical person. New software scares the bejesus out of me.

But I just took it slow, one piece at a time, and forced myself to ask questions. I wanted to make sure I liked it and could do it.

Sounds like it worked out just fine for you after all.

It did.  After a couple of months, I thought about what it would take to make this work as a full-time, at-home endeavor.

My first goal was to eliminate some debt that had been a monkey on my back for years.

Then, once my transcription billing got in a rhythm, I began taking my paycheck from the day job and putting it in a savings account and living off just my transcription income.  I thought if it didn’t work, I at least had my salary to fall back on.  And if it did work, I was building up a nest egg in the event something catastrophic hit me.

What did you find to be the most difficult part of working two jobs?

The most difficult part was the time.  Transcribing from 5 a.m. to 7 a.m., then going to my day job, then transcribing from when I got home until my eyes got blurry, sometimes midnight or later if it was something that I had to get out.

I was exhausted and knew I couldn’t keep this up.

Yes, that is a lot to have on your plate.  What did you do at that point?  

I practiced living off my transcription income for about three months.  Afterwards, I started talking to my husband about leaving my day job for good and freelance from home. Fortunately, he had seen how hard I worked and knew how badly I wanted this.  He gave me his full support.

Backing up a step, how did you find your freelance dream job?

I had uploaded my resume on Indeed.com looking for any sort of data input/typing work. I wasn’t finding anything but junk and had pretty much let it go.

Then out of the blue, I was contacted by a company looking for transcribers for a large government contract.  I guess my legal experience caught their eye.

Although it took months to get through all their paperwork and security checks, the day finally came when I started transcribing immigration hearings for them.

RELATED:  Legal Transcription.

How do you like working from home compared to your former day job?

My description of what I do working from home is about three-fourths time.  I love it. After working pretty much full time all my career, this is taking some adjustment, though.  I like routine, so it’s been fairly easy for me to sit down and work a block of hours without being distracted.

And the freedom to set my schedule is nothing short of awesome!

What about feeling isolated in your freelance career?

Right.  I do miss the camaraderie of the office environment since I was fortunate to have had a wonderful boss and fabulous coworkers.  So I still go into the office for maybe half a day every week to do some work for them that they asked me to keep doing.

To be more clear:  It’s important to not let yourself get isolated. I’m active in my local writers’ group and get a lot of helpful information from transcription Facebook pages.

Beti, what are your feelings about transcription training?

I do think some training is important and would certainly help me when I have a question that I feel like I should know the answer to!

RELATED:  Learn to Transcribe.

I’m hoping to take a course in the near future (now that I have time!). But my advice is that I think to go into transcription cold is making it harder on yourself than it has to be. 

Conclusion…

Our sincere thanks to Beti for sharing her story of how her perserverance paid off and allowed her to ultimately find her freelance dream job.  She can be contacted at bspangel@hotmail.com if you’d like to chat with her!