If you are a small businessman doing a good amount of dictation, the question becomes how best to go about getting all of your audio transcribed to the written word. There are a number of systems available, but many of them are large and expensive, primarily designed for large businesses. There are, however, a couple of important options to consider for a small business.
A micro cassette recorder
In case you didn’t know, cassettes are still around, and they are often used to record dictation. Unlike their predecessors, they are much smaller but hold quite a few minutes of audio recording. However, a dictaphone microcassette transcriber system is not just a tape recorder. You can use a micro cassette recorder to dictate your material, but the system for transcription consists of a player with headphones for the transcriptionist. There is often a foot pedal to pause the cassette as the person types because the spoken word is faster than a person can accurately transcribe.
A digital system
This is the next step up because it makes it easy to subcontract the transcription work. Basically you can speak into a recording device like you normally would do, but the system is digital. Because of this, you can go back and edit your words, so you get the exact audio file you want transcribed. In addition, because the file is digital, you can transfer it from the digital recording device to your computer. From here, you can send the file to a transcription service to have the work done by someone else. This saves money on labor by not needing to have a permanent employee responsible for transcription work.
If your business does a significant amount of dictation and needs transcription work, how you go about doing this will affect the productivity and profitability of your enterprise. The two systems above will both be beneficial. The first is likely better if you have an employee who can do this type of work as part of their day, but they also have other responsibilities. When the dictation load becomes greater, a digital system with outsourcing is usually the better choice.
