Pricing and Performance for Legal Transcriptionists

You want to make money as a legal transcriptionist, but you know you also need to first get and then keep clients coming back. In our experience, clients tend to stay loyal to companies that are both skilled and keep promises with regard to due dates. In this article, we’re going to give you some tips on what to consider when pricing your legal transcription services. This will make sure that you get what you deserve and that you attract clients willing to pay that price, are satisfied with your services, and continue to send business your way.

Know Your Value

Knowing your own value is a key component of success in any endeavor. It also helps you to avoid the unnecessary frustration that comes with working hard and seeing little reward. As a professional legal transcriptionist who has takes courses and achieved advanced certification, you deserve a fair rate of pay for the specialized service you provide. When it comes to being a legal transcriptionist, knowing your own worth and what you want out of your job, goes a long way towards making sure that both you and your clients are happy.

Consider Both Price and Performance

We believe when pricing our services that it all comes down to a balance between a fair price for performance. To that end, you need two key pieces of information. One, you need to know how quickly (on average) you can produce pages. And two, you need to decide how much time you want to put into your job each day, each week, and even each month. This will give you some idea of how much work you’re able to handle on a daily and weekly basis and thus you can price yourself accordingly. For example, let’s say you want to work 30 hours per week, and it takes you three hours to complete one hour of audio. Armed with that information, you would know not to accept more than ten hours of audio for a weekly turnaround.

Once you have figured that part out, now you can work within your client’s schedule by accepting only the amount of work that you know you will complete on or before the date your client needs it back. This is a conversation to have in the very beginning with each and every client on each and every job. To be successful in this line of work, we must be able to get the completed transcripts back on or before the date they’re due. It is always better to agree to a conservative due date that you know you can honor rather than to promise something quicker than you might be able to do.

Leverage Professional Tools

Also, never forget how important it is that you hone your skills over time and use the tools available to you to shorten production time like templates and typing shortcuts. Don’t miss our review of several text expanders to help you shorten up your own production time. Use professional legal references; they are specialized to our line of work and will save you time in the long run. Take a look at the legal transcription references we have listed here on our website. And remember, not all audio files are equal. Accents, sound quality, and dense material can impact your production. This means that on some files you’re doing a lot of slowing down, rewinding, and relistening. Good noise-canceling headphones are a must. Here is our review of five quality headsets to get you started. Experienced transcriptionists not only make every use of every technology that they can, but also utilize shortcuts and procedures to speed up the process so that over time a solid production average can be achieved.

Summary

As a professional legal transcriptionist, it’s smart to keep timeliness and accuracy at the forefront of all of the work you complete. With proper planning, work can be completed on time most of the time. In the rare circumstance that you are going to miss your agreed-upon deadline, let your client know as soon as you do and seek a resolution that works best for your client. It’s always best to work within your client’s desired parameters whenever possible. It’ll not only make your life a lot easier but it can also make your career that much more rewarding with satisfied clients who continue to send business your way time and time again.