Fazzles Creative Living Newsletter Archive
 

Creative Living - Home, Business and Family...

Welcome to the 25th Edition of "Creative Living."

Thursday, April 1, 2004

In this issue we have:
 1.) Article: A Medical Transcription at Home Career
 2.) Hot Craft Tip:
 3.) Recipe: Chocolate Popcorn
 4.) On Parenting: -
 5.) Home Tool Tips:
 6.) Car Tool Tips
 7.) Tasteful Joke
 8.) Reader's Questions:
 9.) Editor's Word Pick
10.) Last Minute Reminders
11.) Inspirational Quote
~~~~~~
A Medical Transcription at Home Career
 
By Michele Miller

As a medical transcriptionist, I do get asked
several times a month, how I got started in this
business.  So many people nowadays want to work
from home, especially mothers with young children.
That's the primary reason I started my home business
ten years ago, so I could be there for my daughter.
I didn't want someone else taking care of her after
school instead of me.

It's really not hard to start a medical transcription
business.  The start-up costs are low compared to many
other home-based businesses. 

You need a form of education, via home study courses
or by attending your local community college.  You do
NOT need a degree in medical transcription to start a
business either.  In a short amount of time, usually nine
months or less, you can be working from the comfort
of your own home, just like me.

You will need some equipment, such as a computer,
a printer, a transcriber, and some reference books. 

All of which can be purchased second hand if need be. 
The latest and greatest equipment is not necessary to
get started.

Now, there are some special skills you will need,
outside of the education, which include:

*  Excellent grammar skills

*  Good Listening Skills,

*  Basic computer skills with a word processing   
   program

*  Research Skills

*  Ability to type - your speed will increase with
   experience

*  Must be detail oriented

*  Ability to work on your own

*  Ability to maintain work deadlines and be a
   self-motivator
 
You will also need some computer programs such as a
medical spellchecker and a word expander utility to cut
down on the amount of actual typing you do.  Some
programs, such as Microsoft Word® include this type
of utility.  It is the best invention by far, in my opinion.

Basic bookkeeping is necessary, but not difficult.  A
good bookkeeper is great to have when it comes to taxes
and advising you about saving money with tax deductions
for your business.  

Medical transcription is usually paid by the amount of
work transcribed.  Therefore, it is quite normal to charge
your clients by the line.  If you charge 13 cents per line
and type 200 lines per hour, (this is a very comfortable
speed to type) your hourly rate would end up being
about $26.00. 

Being self-employed does have some pitfalls.  One must
consider, as with any home based business, that once you
become self-employed you are responsible for securing
your own health insurance, and putting away money for
retirement.

However, there are many positive things about being
self-employed, as I'm sure you can imagine.  For me,
what I love the most, is the flexibility I have with my
 time.  If I want to work late in the day I can, and if I
want to work early in the morning, that's up to me. 
Running a home-based medical transcription business
is a lot of fun. 

Medical transcription is not for everyone, and it is
important before venturing in to any business that
you weigh up the pros and cons of it all and do what
is best for your situation. 


Michele Miller is a home-based business owner and
medical transcriptionist.  She is also the author of an
E-book about medical transcription.  You can visit her
website at: http://www.fazzles.com/medical


********************
Craft Tip:

What a fun site this is for crafty people who like
to make home made gifts. Lots of free things.

http://www.allfreecrafts.com/homemade-gifts/index.shtml

~~~~~~~~~~~
Recipe:
~~~~~~~~
Chocolate Popcorn

 
6 cups popped popcorn
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons corn syrup
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 ½ tablespoons milk
Dash of salt
 

Melt the butter in a saucepan on low heat. Stir in
corn syrup, cocoa, milk and salt. Stir until blended
and bubbly. Pour over popped popcorn. Stir to coat.
Let cool, then eat it all up!
 

~~~~~~~~~~~
Weight Loss Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Walk... Walking is a great way to help rev up your
metabolism and give yourself a time out. It can be very
enjoyable. If you don't like to walk alone, get a
buddy to walk with you. Make it a date.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

I announced this last issue, and put in the wrong url,
can you believe that?

"Candy-Profits From Home." A book that teaches you how
to start your home business in making candy.
It's also an excellent resource to read if you are
managing a candy wrapper business. It comes with
some great bonuses such as 1001 Beauty Secrets,
Little Prayers for Little Hands, and the Science of
Getting Rich. All for one Low Price.
Read about it here: http://www.candy-profits.com

~~~~~~~~~~~
Safety Tip:

I watched Oprah the other night and she had lessons on
how to protect yourself. One lesson struck me strongly.
It was about children's vitamins and iron. It seems
iron is so toxic that many children die or get brain damage
if not treated promptly at a hospital.  The vitamins look
like candy, kids get into them, and then have flu like
symptoms.

Also, the doctor on call, stated that 1/5 children that
eat medicines, get them at grandma's house. So, be careful
as a parent and a grandparent.

~~~~~~~~~~
If you have ever wanted to build a website, or have been.
This site has the really cheap, high quality designs.
Her work and customer service is outstanding.
Take a peek at some of her adorable site templates.
www.countrymanordesigns.com


~~~~~~~~~~~
Parent Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
You do far better if you don't tell your children they
are bad. Try, "it is so much nicer to be with you when
are being good"  rather than the negative side.

Also, you might consider to take a time out yourself
if you find yourself yelling. Yelling seldom accomplishes
anything.

Also, try not to put your child down at any time, but
especially in front of their peers. If they need punishing,
send their friends home, or take your child home before
giving them their restriction or the lecture.


~~~~~~~~~~~~
Household Tip:
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Just cook fish? Put out a 1/2 cup of vinegar on the
counter or stove in a glass jar.. within 15 minutes
to a half an hour, fish smell be gone!

Onion fingers - hold a spoon under cold water with
your fingers holding the spoon. Let the water
run over your fingers and the spoon. This helps take
the smell away. It works the same with garlic and bleach.
************************
Car Tip
~~~~~~~~
Your car is your transportation. It also reflects on you
as a person. If you have an old or a new car, keep it
clean inside and out as much as possible.

Carry a small garbage bag for your car, and some wet
cloths to clean sticky little fingers.

Do you or your kids get carsick? Try ginger. There are
crystallized Ginger Candies, and Ginger Snaps. Give one before
a trip and see if it works. It works for a lot of people.

~~~~~~~~
Marriage Tip?
~~~~~~~~~
Some of the biggest fights in marriage are over money and
how to discipline children. Get as many books that you
can and have a pow-wow with your spouse on a few changes.
Don't try to go overboard and change everything at once.
It's hard to change a whole lifestyle overnight. Pick a
couple of things.

If you try too much at once, you can set yourself up
for failure.

Like:

Write a list before shopping and DO NOT purchase anything
else. Or, shop for your household supplies at a Wal-Mart or
other similar store, rather than your grocery store. You'll
be amazed at the savings.

Also, just because a product is $1.00 less, doesn't mean you
won't have to use twice as much for results. I gave up years
ago on trying to save a few pennies on using products that
need twice the elbow grease to work.

Talk to your spouse about this one:

Come up with a special word that means NO... let your
child pick the word and you and your spouse will be
surprised at how well they respond to that word. It's a word
that can be used when you really mean business.

I did this with my own sons, (yep, Ryan) when he was small.
His daddy would play with him then say, "that's enough and
throw a play punch."
Ryan would jump in and play some more. Then daddy would say,
"that's enough." 

But, Ryan did not really know daddy was serious and the
game would end in upset..... so I chose the word.
I just said to Ryan, "If daddy says, 'ONE' firmly, then it is
over, that's it."  It worked beautifully.

Later, I found friends allowing their children to choose
a word and that works too, as the child feels responsible
for choosing the word that is said firmly, that means stop
no more..

~~~~~~~~~~
Speaking of Ryan, he had a birthday on the 30th.
Happy Birthday Ryan!

Oh, okay, today is my Birthday... (no April fool's
joke; it's for real)


~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Joke


An elderly man lay dying in his bed. In death's agony,
he suddenly smelled the aroma of his favorite chocolate
chip cookies wafting up the stairs. He gathered his remaining

strength, and lifted himself from the bed. 

He slowly with his almost his last strength got to
downstairs.

There, spread out upon newspapers on the kitchen table were
literally hundreds of his favorite chocolate chip cookies.

Was it heaven? Or was it one final act of heroic love
from his devoted wife, seeing to it that he left this world
a happy man?

Mustering one great final effort, he threw himself
toward the table, landing on his knees in a rumpled posture.
His parched lips parted; the wondrous taste of the cookie was
almost going to be in his mouth.

The aged and withered hand, shaking made its way to a
cookie at the edge of the table, when it was suddenly
smacked with a spatula by his wife.

"Stay out of those," she said, "they're for the funeral."

********************
Editor's Word Tip on Commonly Misspelled Words
~~~~~~~~~~~~
definitely
awful
discontent
tomorrow

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Oh, if you have a friend, or yourself who have any kinds
of fears, from stage fright to fear of flying, then
please take a minute to do this. I'm working with a company
called The Phobia Clinic, which helps anyone to quickly and
easily overcome fears and phobias! They do a lot of amazing
work with things like Fear of Flying, Public Speaking,
Claustrophobia and so on.

Anyway, they have a wonderful product called "Vanquish
Fear & Anxiety in Just 24 hours. Guaranteed." Its a
powerful CD Home Study Program, and its outstanding.
It's at:

http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/cmd.asp?af=135525

Lets face it. Most of us don't have a full-blown phobia,
but I've heard 63% of us have Fear of Public Speaking,
so this can really help with that or any other kind of fear.

You can go to their website and check it out.
Its the usual 60-day money-back guarantee, which they are
happy to honor (because it is so seldom people ask for it!)
so there's no risk.

If you have friends and/or want to affiliate, you can go there
and sign up from their main page, too.


http://www.changethatsrightnow.com/cmd.asp?af=135525

~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Today's Quote:

"Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything
that counts can be counted."

Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

If you have questions that you would like answered, send
them in.

~~~~~~~~

I can't believe it, I walked into my little town's variety
store, and they added some crafty stuff. Suddenly, we have
candy melts and candy, soap and cement molds. I've never
seen a cement mold before, at least not in plastic.

You have to realize we don't even have a clothing shop here.

We do have a collector's mall. I have small booth there where
I go in once in awhile and put stuff up for sale. It's fun.
It would be a fantastic business to start. It's quite clever.

They have a good sized building, and people who do crafts or
get second hand things, lease small areas, either shelves
or floor space.  The place is filled from antiques to used
Barbie Dolls. (I'm not making a profit) Everytime I go in,
I end up buying something.)  Yesterday, I picked up one cute
candy mold for a dollar, a doll that I think my niece will
like, and some old juice glasses like my grandmother used
to have. The place is filled with nostalgia for me.

Anyway, they charge you for your spot, they handle the money
and selling. Your job is to bring stuff in, tagged of course.
You pay a price, and they take 10 percent of anything you sell.
My booth is $35.00 per month. I'm barely breaking even, but
it sure can make you think when you are garage sales, and
things.

My coolest find? Well, its a full sized rooster lamp. I'm
guessing probably early 60's. I don't know when safety plug
in cords started, but I do know I had to change the plug.
How easy can it get? 

Have you ever changed a plug? I bought wire strippers, and this
plug thingy. I was all prepared for this task at hand.
Can you believe this? I cut the old wire with scissors, pushed
the two prongs together, it popped out, stuffed the wire
in, and made it snug, and I had a safety plug in.

Okay, enough rambling....

If you have any suggestions or questions, do send them
in.

Until next time!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Thank you for being my reader!

Teresa King

Creative Home Living
is sponsored by
http://www.tipsfortop.com
eBooks and Marketing
and by
http://www.wrapcandy.com/candykit
Personalize Candy Bar Wrappers
for Fun or profit with Ryan Sawyer

If you would like to recommend this newsletter to a friend,
please do so. The best way is to write them and tell them
where they can sign up. http://www.fazzles.com

 

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