Voice Acting is a business.
That’s it.
Voice Acting a business.
Say it again…write it down on a piece of paper and hang it in your studio…tell people you’re a business person…do a business plan…create a Sub-S Corp…register with the state…get an EIN (Employee Identification Number)…engage in professional bookkeeping…set goals…I could go on and on.
There are about a gazillion books and resources on how to run a freelance business. About a gazillion more websites, blogs, webinars, newsletters, and online forums offering mostly free information about being your own entrepreneur.
Until you grasp this concept, you are (probably) an outstanding voice talent with no clients — or few clients — wondering what’s wrong.
You’ve got the expensive audio chain, you’ve studied with the best VO coaches, bought the whisper-room, attended all the right conferences, joined forums and groups online, and — again — you’re wondering what’s wrong.
Great. You gotta have that stuff too. Didn’t they tell you that when you’re a freelance VO, you wear about 12 hats?
OK, it’s more like 15…but the point is none of those hats are more important than the BUSINESS hat. Be disciplined. I’m amazed at the voice actors with unremarkable (high, thin, raspy) voices, who are KILLING it in this profession because they are business savvy. The pipes amount to only 10-20% of your success. The rest is…you guessed it…business.
So get the Focusrite Pre-amp, the TLM103, the expensive acting classes, and the awesome recording studio.
—THEN—
Get down to BUSINESS.
Voice Acting is a business. Wash. Rinse. Repeat.
CourVO
Thank you for this, Dave. I have a friend who kept saying that she wanted to do voice over…she does have a beautiful speaking voice. So I invited her to come to my home studio and I’d give her a quick overview of the process. While she was on her way a 15 second voice over job came in and I thought it would be perfect to show her the process with that.
After I printed the script, made a few notations, recorded, edited and then sent the audio, I turned around and looked at her, and she looked dumbfounded. She said, “I didn’t know it was that much work.” I told her we hadn’t even talked about the marketing I did to earn that client, my production log, and billing process, thank you notes, etc…
I sent her off with an edition of James Alburger’s book and I haven’t heard a peep from her since.
Best…Dory