Latest / The Side Hustle Career Podcast with Fexingo: Second Income, Freelancing While Employed / How a Police Dispatcher Built a 10K Monthly Side Hustle in Court Transcription
Transcript
- Lucas: So I was reading a forum for police dispatchers last week, and there was this thread about side hustles that fit around shift work. And one name kept coming up: a woman from Ohio who does court transcription on the side. She started three years ago, and she's now pulling in ten thousand dollars a month. Luna: Ten thousand? That's not a side hustle, that's a second full-time income. What's her background? Lucas: She's been a dispatcher for eleven years, so she types fast and she can handle high-pressure, fast-talky situations. But she didn't have any legal background. She started with a certification from a transcription association, then worked her way up through a national agency that sends court transcripts to freelancers. Luna: Honestly, if today's episode helps you think through a similar move, that's exactly the kind of thing we love hearing about. And if it was worth a coffee to you, the link is right there — buy me a coffee dot com slash fexingo. We keep the show ad-free because of listeners like you. Lucas: Yeah, it's a small gesture, but it genuinely keeps us going. Anyway, back to her story. She told me the first year she made about thirty-five hundred a month, but then she started getting direct clients — law firms, court reporters, even a legal tech startup that needed transcripts for their AI training data. Luna: So she didn't just rely on the agency. She built her own client list. That's the difference between a gig and a business. Lucas: Exactly. And the rates are interesting. Agencies typically pay between one and two dollars per audio minute, so a sixty-minute hearing gets you sixty to a hundred twenty bucks. But she's charging direct clients three to four dollars per audio minute now. Luna: So she's essentially quadrupled her rate. What's the actual work like? I imagine it's not just sitting and typing what people say. Lucas: Right, it's a lot more than that. She has to identify speakers, handle overlapping dialogue, note non-verbal cues like nods or objections, and format everything according to strict court guidelines. One hour of audio takes her about four hours to transcribe — so she's doing maybe two hours of audio a day, which works out to roughly two thousand dollars a week at her direct rate. Luna: Wow. But that's a serious time commitment. She's basically doing another full-time job. Lucas: She is, but she's smart about it. She blocks out four early-morning hours before shift on days off, and she uses her lunch breaks to proofread. She says the key is consistency — spending at least fifteen hours a week, every week, no exceptions. Luna: What about the emotional side? Court transcripts can be heavy. Domestic violence cases, custody disputes, sometimes really dark testimony. Lucas: That's a real concern. She told me she has a no-go list — no cases involving crimes against minors, and no cases where she knows any of the parties. She also sets a daily limit on how many stressful cases she'll take. That's something not everyone thinks about when they start. Luna: That's smart. You have to protect your mental health, or you'll burn out fast. And it's not just about the content — it's also about accuracy. A single typo could change the meaning of a sentence in a legal document. Lucas: Absolutely. She uses a foot pedal and a professional transcription software, and she has a second monitor for the audio waveform. But she says the biggest mistake beginners make is trying to transcribe everything in real time. She types everything word for word, then goes back to clean up, instead of trying to summarize or edit on the fly. Luna: So what kind of certification does she actually have? I've seen ads for transcription courses that promise six-figure incomes for a hundred dollars. Lucas: She did the Certified Court Transcriptionist program through a national court reporting association. It's a few hundred bucks and takes about three months. She says the certification itself doesn't guarantee clients, but it gave her the credibility to pitch law firms directly. Plus, it taught her the formatting standards that most agencies require. Luna: So the certification is the foot in the door, but the real money comes from direct clients. How did she find them? Lucas: She started by cold-emailing solo practitioners and small firms in her area, offering a discounted rate for the first five transcripts. After a few good jobs, she asked for referrals. She also signed up on a couple of legal service platforms, but she says the best clients came from word of mouth — attorneys talk to each other. Luna: So it's not just about typing fast. It's about building relationships and reliability. Lucas: Right. And one thing that sets her apart is her turnaround time. Most transcriptionists promise three to five days, but she can do twenty-four to forty-eight hours because she understands the urgency. Attorneys often need transcripts quickly for hearings or depositions. Luna: That makes sense. Speed is a competitive advantage, especially if you're also accurate. Lucas: She also mentioned that legal tech startups are a growing market. They need transcripts to train AI models for legal research and document review. She's done a few projects for one such company, and they pay a premium because they want clean, well-formatted data. Luna: So there's a whole B2B angle that most people don't consider. Instead of just transcribing for courts, you're feeding machine learning models. Lucas: Exactly. And that's where the ten thousand a month comes from — she's got three income streams: the agency work, direct law firm clients, and the tech company. She told me the tech company alone pays her about three thousand a month for a set number of hours. Luna: That's a smart way to diversify. If one client dries up, she's not stranded. Lucas: Yeah, and she's careful about that. She never lets one client make up more than forty percent of her income. She learned that lesson when a big agency cut her hours during a slow season last year. Luna: What does she do about equipment and software? Does she need to invest in anything special? Lucas: She uses a decent foot pedal, which runs about fifty bucks, and a subscription to a transcription software that costs around thirty dollars a month. She already had a good headset from her dispatch job. So her total startup cost was under two hundred dollars, not counting the certification. Luna: That's pretty low. Most side hustles require more capital. But what about the learning curve? I imagine there's a period where you're slow and making mistakes. Lucas: Oh, absolutely. She said her first few transcripts took twice as long and she had to redo several because of formatting issues. But she treated it like a job — she practiced every day, even if it was just fifteen minutes, and she joined a transcriptionist community online where she could ask questions and get feedback. Luna: So it's not a get rich quick thing. It's a skill you build over time. Lucas: Exactly. And that's what I love about this story — it's realistic. She didn't hit ten thousand a month overnight. It took three years of steady work, networking, and refining her process. Luna: For someone listening who's thinking, 'I type fast, maybe I could do this,' what's her advice for getting started? Lucas: She says start with a free typing test to make sure you're above seventy words per minute with high accuracy. Then take the certification course, and while you're doing that, start transcribing practice audio from legal podcasts or public court recordings to build your ear. After that, apply to one or two agencies to get experience, and in parallel, start pitching local law firms. Luna: That's a clear roadmap. And I like that she emphasizes accuracy over speed. A fast typist with sloppy work won't last long in this field. Lucas: Right. And she mentioned one more thing — you have to be comfortable with confidentiality. You'll hear sensitive information, and you can't talk about it, even to your spouse. Some clients require you to sign non-disclosure agreements. Luna: That's a serious responsibility, but it also comes with trust. Once you prove you're reliable, clients will stick with you. Lucas: Exactly. So that's the story of a police dispatcher who turned her typing speed into a ten thousand dollar a month side hustle. It's not glamorous, but it's steady, flexible, and it didn't require a huge investment. Luna: And it shows that sometimes the best side hustles come from skills you already have. You just need to find the right market for them. Lucas: Yeah. If you're a fast typer with an eye for detail, court transcription might be worth a look. We'll put some resources in the show notes.