Word-Processing Service

Many students, business men and authors still prefer to write their documents by hand before transferring them into a typed format. For someone with little or no typing technique the thought of hiring someone to do this for them is delightful! In addition to typing out documents word processing services also offer basic layout and binding services. If you’ve already got another job or a full time obligation with the kids this is a great way to make extra money on your own time.

Before The Start-Up – Let’s Not Get Ahead Of Ourselves

You’ll want to be typing at least 60 words per minute before marketing your services, a good understanding of MS Word or Open Office is also required. Your clients might also ask you to convert hand drawn graphs; learning to use the graphing feature in MS Word will be a great asset to your service. MS Office contains Publisher, this program has great pre-made layout for doing covers and other documents, learn to use its basic functions.

The Start-Up

You’ll need a work space, desk and a computer with an internet connection. You’ll also need a high quality laser printer for handling document covers and graphs that your clients may request.

MS Word is the most common word processing software, if you are planning on buying software MS Office 2003 is a good idea as it contains many other applications that you might need at a later stage, such as Excel for spreadsheets or Power Point for presentations. If you have a high speed internet connection and would prefer the open source route, download Open Office at openoffice.org. Open Office contains a range of similar programs to MS Office. If you do decide to use open office be careful to always save your documents in .doc format so they are readable by people using MS Word.

Making It Work

Charge per page for your services, many clients might approach you with very badly written documents, set a per page surcharge for hard to read handwriting. Consider expanding your business to include basic binding, a binding machine is very affordable and when combined with an attractive cover page can add great value to any document.

Marketing

Market your services on notice boards at your local college or university, students will often be your biggest clients. Placing an advertisement in the local classifieds is also worth a try. Aim your marketing efforts at a local level to minimize travelling time for you and your clients.

Don’t Forget

Your clients will be relying on you to accurately type their documents, often their grades or reputation will be on the line; be sure proof read all your work before returning it.