This past weekend was my final weekend of working at my outside job. I will still be working there during the week for a few hours, but as of yesterday, I won’t be working weekends any longer. I have to tell you all that I was quite surprised at how quiet the weekend was. I was able to leave my shift early both days since the restaurant was so quite. I was pretty happy about this actually. So…. the weekends are now my own. I wonder how I’ll fill them?

So I’ve been busy lately applying to different transcription companies. Well, I’m happy to report that I now have a contract. The money is not great, but at least it’s money. And it will be an awesome way for me to gain the much needed experience that I need to start applying to other higher paying customers. So things are starting to look up. I’ll still look for other companies that may take me on, but at least for now I will have some transcription money coming in!

I am so….. not a patient person. A couple of weeks ago, I applied for a transcription job and still have yet to hear back from them. Well, this is driving me crazy!! They did pay me last week so I know they got my transcript, I just wish they would reply back whether or not I got the job. I’m giving them one more week and then I will e-mail them. I’ve gotten to the point that I really don’t care if I got the job or not, I just really need to know one way or the other.

If I EVER hear back from them, I’ll be sure to let you know if I got the job or not.

So last week I made the decision to see if I could find some more income opportunities off the Internet. I am trying to line a few things up so that this summer I can take a leave of absence from my outside job and be able to replace the income that I will be losing. Yesterday I applied for a couple of different writing jobs, and I’m still waiting to hear back on a transcription opportunity. Hopefully these things pan out in my favor. If so, I will be able to comfortably replace my income and won’t worry so much about leaving a sure thing. I’ll be sure to let you all know how this all turns out.

So I’ve started back at my home crafting business. This is actually the best time of year to sell handcrafted jewelry so I have been a busy little beaver getting ready for the upcoming Christmas season. I have sold a few pieces and am extremely pleased about this, but I would love to sell a whole lot more. So I have been advertising a lot more and am thinking about branching out to different areas of the business.

One area where I have been paying close attention to is my customer service. Although I am quite pleased with the customer service that I do offer and the customers seem to be pleased as well, I know there are areas that I could improve in. One such area would be the methods in which I use to contact and to interact with customers. I have been checking out some virtual hosted predictive dialers to see if this type of service would benefit me in any way. I really do think it would so I am going to give this area a lot more thought and then maybe after the Christmas season is behind me, I will check into this option a little more closely. All these improvements can only help the business right?!

Right now I am trying to get two businesses up and running. The main business I’m trying to promote would be my home transcription business and the second business that I have been working at is my small home crafting business. But with so much going on in my life lately, I really haven’t been working at these quite as much as I should be. I realize that to attract potential customers and clients, I need to advertise. And that’s the exact area where I have been slacking. So I have been checking around the Internet to see if I can find an award winning public relations company to help me out in this area.

Well I have found one that I really think I could work with. This company would give me all the exposure and publicity that I so desperately need and at a very reasonable cost. I think I will test them out with my home transcription company and if I get some results that I like, I will then let them have a go at my home crafting business. Any type of help like this will certainly help me out in the long run.

Well now that I’ve been doing my general transcription from home for a while, I have discovered that I really like doing this type of work so I’m pretty sure that I’m going to try to start up my own home transcribing business from home.

The first thing I need to do is to set up my home office properly. I have most of the items and equipment that I need to have to make this endeavour successful. But there are still a few pieces of equipment that I’m going to need. One of the first things I will need to purchase is a new phone. After checking around on the Internet for reasonably priced phones for my home office, I have decided to make my purchase from www.primelec.com. This site offers the very best used discount Avaya partner phone system as well as the most reasonably priced phones that I have been able to locate.

Once I have this purchase made, then I will be able to talk to prospective clients from my quiet office on a dedicated work phone line. I’m getting so excited just thinking about what I will be able to accomplish once I get my home office all set up.

Tonight is my final shift for a week. Normally I only work Tuesday and Thursday evenings. Next week I asked for Tuesday off as it’s my youngest son’s 9th birthday. So after my shift ends tonight, I will not have to go to work for an entire week! I am so…. looking forward to this break. Lately I have been quite dissatisfied with my job and I’m wondering if this week off may just give me the time to decide whether to leave or not. But I’m not sure quite yet. I’ll be sure to pop back in here and let you all know of my final decision.

Although I haven’t been in here and posted a lot over the past few days, I have been busy working on my computer. Lately I have been getting a lot of work doing general transcription and have just started inching my way into medical and legal transcription as well. Although I do love the work I’ve been doing, it is a lot of work and I am now starting to get a little burnt out. So I’m really hoping to be able to have all my work completed by 6 p.m. tonight so I can sit back and take a little break. So finger’s crossed that this plan works out well for me.