Marj Schneider and Donald Moss created Tybee Types in May 1999, after both of us had been transcribing for several months for researchers we knew. We realized this activity had business potential. We also needed a business that was portable, allowing us to live in Minneapolis during warm months, but spend winters on Tybee Island, Georgia. Since we soon learned that you had to be a certain “type” of person to live on an island like Tybee, we decided to use its name, punning on the word types.

As a transcriptionist Marj found she took to the work of making written sense of what people said aloud. She could use skills she had as a good listener and student of communication.

 Previous work teaching, writing and editing also gave her skills that were called upon in the transcribing process.

Don has worked with several independent consultants, working on projects spanning from education and social services, to science and medicine, to corporations and product development. He was quite familiar with all sides of the interview and focus group process, having written interview instruments, conducted interviews, analyzed and presented results to clients. Both Marj and Don enjoy self-employment and being in control of our working environment.

Clients have come to us almost entirely through word-of-mouth referral. Our business grew in this manner so that after moving to Savannah, just 20 miles inland from Tybee Island, in 2003, we found that the number of clients and size of their projects required that we hire several part-time typists willing to move beyond verbatim transcription.

Most of our clients’ projects demand just that, thinking typists, who can gently advance the communication process along, turning spoken words into more concise and readable prose. Don’s focus on more concise prose has led to a number of editing projects, working with consultants and graduate students on their writing projects, from early stages through final draft.