Kiva Iowa profile: ‘Something different to say’

INDEPENDENCE — In 2015, Michelle Beier first went to work transcribing recordings for a marketing group.

She discovered that she loved it — and now she’s still doing that same work for her own company, Transcriptions by Michelle.

Transcriptions by Michelle provides transcriptions for Property & Casualty Insurance Companies of their recorded statements. The company can even handle taking recorded statements themselves in order to streamline the process, and it’s expanding into correcting mistakes in AI-generated transcripts as well.

“We are a home-based, online business, and all of my employees work from home as well,” Beier says. “I love that I'm able to give them the opportunity to work a very flexible schedule in an environment that doesn't require silence, like most work-from-home jobs do. I get to give people a chance to support their families when otherwise they wouldn't.”

It also gives Beier a chance to do work she enjoys. By typing lectures, seminars, personal statements and more, she gets a chance to learn from the people whose words she is transcribing.

“When we were doing academic lectures, it’s like you get to sit in on a class when you transcribe it,” she says. “You absorb a lot. Every transcription is different, and they all have something different to say.”

While the arrival of speech-to-text programs and automatic transcription services like Otter.ai created new challenges in her industry, it also opened opportunities.

“What we’re finding is that there’s an area where you can specialize in fixing those (automatic transcripts) because they come out with so many errors,” Beier says.

“Some of the companies that have initially used the AI software are now contracting with companies like ours to fix those transcripts. We’ll sit down with the original recording, look at where mistakes were made and correct them until they pass our quality inspection process.”

Finding funding

As Transcriptions by Michelle grew, Beier wanted to start bidding on contracts for government work.

In order to do that, the company had to be vetted and approved. While going through that process, Beier was linked with Julie Fagel from Iowa State University’s Apex Accelerator.

“When I told Julie about my struggles to find a loan, she directed me to Kiva,” Beier said.

Kiva gives entrepreneurs access to a microlending platform to raise zero- interest, zero-fee, extended-grace-period loans. The loans can be for up to $15,000, and lenders can give as little as $25 at a time.

Kaitlin Byers, NewBoCo’s Kiva manager, “helped me get through the application, which was quite in-depth,” Beier said. “She really helped me to understand the process, and she’s been really great at giving me a pep talk when I get stressed about making the goal. Working with her, I feel like it’s gone much more easily than I expected.”

Beier applied for a $10,000 loan — fully funded by Kiva lenders in one week — for expanding her business, including purchasing equipment, investing in marketing expertise and hiring more local employees.

She believes Transcriptions by Michelle has missed out on a few opportunities because potential clients thought the firm was too small to handle them and that the expansion will address that.

“I think that some people might not know Kiva has the ability to do what they do with business loans,” Beier said. “So I would encourage anyone who is in need of a business loan to reach out to them. It’s definitely worth the time to invest in it.”

Beier’s loan campaign continues through April 13. To learn more about Transcriptions by Michelle, visit https://transcriptionsbymichelle.org/. To learn more about the Kiva Iowa loan campaign or to contribute, visit https://www.kiva.org/lend/2733857.

Rob Merritt is director of communications at NewBoCo. Comments: rob@newbo.co