Thank you for stopping by!  I hope you find the information contained in this hub interesting!

This hub is a collection of the transcripts from my podcasting series called Business Basics for Voiceover artists.  It is aimed at voiceover artists who are just starting up in the voiceover business.

I am a professional voiceover artist with a British accent.  My voice samples can be heard at my website, and the audio podcasts can also be located on the pods and blogs link.

If you’re considering starting a Voiceover business you need to consider the challenges you will face as well as the benefits you will hopefully reap. Here are the first 5 of ten tips to help start your voiceover business.

1. Do what you love. This is often the first thing people think about when they consider setting up a business – here is an opportunity to make a living doing something I really love and that I’m passionate about.  I’m assuming that as a voiceover artist you have that passion because anyone pursing any creative business whether its voiceover or, acting, film directing, musicianship, writing – if you don’t love what you do you will find it so difficult to have a successful business with it.  The creative industries are incredibly overcrowded and are a really hard nut to crack and if you don’t have a love of what you do and a self-belief in your talents than it will be a struggle to make any money at all let alone enough to support yourself & your family.   Also remember you’re going to be spending so much time and energy starting and developing your voiceover business its really important to know now that you do truly enjoy what you do.  And keep this in your head when you hit the tough times.

So we know you’ve got the passion  - now get rid of it.   Stand back - Think dispassionately.  Can you turn your voiceover hobby into a profitable enterprise?  Is there a market for your voice? This process of market research is probably something you’ve done without realising it already through your hobby as a voiceover talent. If you look hard enough, even for the most unique unusual voices there will be projects and productions looking for a sound like yours.  Ask yourself whether these projects will be often enough and lucrative enough to make a living from it.  If not, what are your options? Change career?  Or maybe take some training to develop your range and techniques as a voice artist to improve your employability.

 2. The business plan – it can be quite useful to write a business plan for your voiceover career.  I must admit its not something I did straight away but it is a good exercise in focusing your mind, getting in the professional mindset and defining exactly what you want to achieve, how and when.  Its also a great opportunity to dream!  They’re great to have to refer back to as your business develops and changes.   You’ll find various general business templates available on the web and also voices.com have one available, which is designed specifically for the voiceover artist in mind. A business plan is also vital if you need to raise finance through a bank loan or overdraft for example.  Investors want to see in black and white what they’re investing in.  Finance also brings me to my next point…

3. Finance – how much money are you going to need, what do you need it for and how you going to get it?  With the credit crunch seemingly not wanting to go away, raising external finance through bank loans and investors isn’t as easy as it once was.  So you will need to consider your options. Firstly – what do you need the money for?  Well to start with you’re going to need cash to pay the bills and feed yourself until your business gets going.  Some say that it takes about 3 years before a business gets really established and generates a decent income.  So having savings, an additional job, or in my case, like many others, a very understanding partner or spouse with a steady income!

So what else do you need finance for?  A home studio comes high on the list of most voiceover artists. There have been plenty of articles, blogs and pods about home studio equipment and their costs which I'’ not going to go over here.  Surfice to say, when you’re starting up you really don’t need all the fancy gear.  Start small and as your experience ad expertise grows then grow your equipment chain around that.  For my first voiceover jobs, I didn’t even have a proper microphone! I recorded into a Sony digital video camera and edited the audio using video editing software!  Needless to say the audio quality wasn’t brilliant, but it got me jobs and I could build up my portfolio and my bank balance so I could afford better and proper gear!  Take a look at Harlan Hogans portable studio booth for $129 what more could you ask for and he even has an article with instructions as to how to build one yourself – visit harlanhogan.com.  Think carefully and spend wisely – do you really need ISDN facilities right away?  So lets take a look at other set up costs.

 4.  Setting up costs – business cards, website design, domain registration, hosting, office equipment, advertising & marketing costs and a whole host of others.  Work out what do you really need now, what would be nice to have in the future – what can you really do without.  Also look at your skills what can you do yourself to keep costs down – do you really need a website designer, can you design a simple site for yourself using FrontPage, or why not purchase an inexpensive web template which you can amend to your needs.  Are there any goods or services that you could do an exchange for your voiceover services?  Why not see if your local printers can print some free business cards or letterheads in exchange for recording their phone greetings or website audio?  And always look around on the internet to get a range of prices for whatever you need – vistaprint do an excellent range of free business cards and inexpensive postcards for marketing.

 5. Professionalism. Be professional from the start.  Everything about you and the way you do business needs to let people know that you are a serious professional.  Get yourself some business cards, a work phone number – get your voice on the business line voicemail, and a proper business email address.  And get professional help – it doesn’t take long to realise that running a voiceover business isn’t all about being a voiceover actor – you are now responsible for a whole diverse range of activities: book-keeping, sales & marketing, administration.  Some of these tasks would really benefit from expert help – If you’re not an accountant – hire one, if you need to write a contract why not hire a lawyer.  This also applies to tax and legal issues: it’s an awful lot easier (and cheaper) to get these things sorted right from the start rather than trying to unpick a mess afterwards.  Are you setting up as a sole trader or are you registering a business – these will have implications on the tax you’re liable for and the VAT you may have to pay.  Its worth seeking out professional help from your local tax office to get all the information you need and the forms that you need to fill in.

Consider joining professional organisations/ unions.  The recently created SAVOA organisation – Society of Accredited Voice Over Artists is a good place to start – visit their website at www.savoa.org to find out more.  Unions vary from country to country Equity in the UK, Screen Actors Guild, and American Federation of TV & Radio Artists (AFTRA) in the States and ACTRA Alliance of Canadian Cinema Television and Radio Artists in Canada.  It may also be worth considering your local small business organisation – where you can keep up to date with the latest in general business practices as well as providing a good avenue for networking.

 If you are considering setting up as a professional voiceover artist it important to remember the business aspects of voiceover.  What do you need to set up as a voiceover artist.?  This article focuses on five elements to keep in mind.

This is the first of a series of articles about the business aspects of working as a professional voiceover artist.  Firstly I am assuming that you are in business and voiceover is more than just a hobby to you.  It’s important to get into the professional mindset – as it  will subconsciously influence your manner of communications and it will give you credibility both in your mind and more importantly in the minds of  others.

So you’ve set yourself up in business as a voiceover artist/ talent / actor whichever term you prefer  – now what!  The voiceover business is no different  to any other online or offline business.  All need to be concerned and involved with marketing, sales, finance, administration, branding, web and so on  and  so on.  Auditioning is a process that’s really no different to a construction company, for example, tendering for a building project.  The key for any  business is closing the deal, making the sale, getting your voice chosen for that project!  In all these situations, communication is critical and can mean  the difference between getting cast or not. 

In the on-line world how you communicate and the way you present yourself through these communications, especially through the medium of email is  really important.  

Firstly speed of response - so a company has found your website, listened to your online demos and likes what they hear.  They send you an email  requesting further information, may be a quote or request for your rate card.  They hit send and then what.  Put yourself in their shoes.  This may be the  first time they have ever outsourced a project before.  They’ve not met you in person before all they know of you is your online presence.  They want to  know are you still in business?  A clue to that is whether they see that your website gets updated regularly. –– maybe you have a last updated date on  your website to show visitors? They also need to know has their email got through to you – one possibility is to set up an auto response on your email  program.  Include a message thanking them for their interest and that you’ll be in touch ASAP. That gives them the reassurance that the email has got  through and to the right person!  Once they know you actually exist and their email has arrived they will be waiting for your response.  Again a prompt  response is really appreciated.  Although not so prompt that you forget to include all the information they’re after!  

Make sure the manner of your response is professional but also in-keeping with your own branding – does your VOICE come through your writing? And  also consider the company that you are corresponding to – for example my voice is often used for corporate training narration’s and therefore the  branding of my voice leans towards the straight-forward, matter of fact, authoritative edge,  and the companies that contact me tend to reflect this, they  lean towards a more corporate, conservative structure so they appreciate a correspondence style that is similar to their own.  Whereas if your signature  voice is more laid-back and relaxed in nature, maybe your communications should reflect this more. Obviously there is a balancing act to follow, it’s just  something to keep in mind - Don’t get too casual or they may not take you as a serious professional and worst case scenario,  try to beat your rates  down, but on the other hand don’t be so formal as to alienate people.

Remember people want to do business with people they like and people they like are like them!    You want to create relationships with clients and  maintain them so they keep coming back for more.  Whichever style you correspond, the key is to persuade this company that they want to work with  You and your voice.  They need to feel, and you need to make them feel that they are in the best of hands.  That they can trust you to deliver what  they’re after.  Not just in terms of interpreting the copy but the delivery of the audio file in the format they need, in the timescale you’ve promised, in the  budget you’ve set.

Again, if this is the first time they have worked with a Voiceover artist, through your email communications, you need to hold their hand and walk them  through the process so it’s as painless as possible.  Believe me it is really appreciated by your clients.  And hopefully if you deliver all that you promise,  in a manner they relate to they will not only use your voice again but also recommend you to other business associates.

I hope you found the first 5 tips helpful.  Here are the final five ideas to keep in mind when setting up your voiceover business.

1. I wanted to briefly mention the issue of starting your voiceover business while your still employed in your day job.  This is the route most Voiceovers take and makes financial sense for most of us.  But, before you start trading, it could be an idea to double check your existing employment contract first.   You may find that you are subject to a Restrictive covenant which would prevent you from setting up your business while continuing to work for your current employer.  If this is the case, than your employer may be able to claim damages if they show that they have suffered a financial detriment as a result of your breach. Even if there isn’t such a clause in contract there is still an implied term of mutual trust and confidence.  If you take a common sense approach you can usually work out whether you trading as a Voiceover artist will make an impact on your day job to the extent that your current employer will seek to terminate your contract.  If you’re working on your voiceover business in the evenings and weekends it should really not interfere with your current employment.  However, if you’re taking calls at work for your voiceover business or taking time off work to devote more time to voiceover your employer might well have a problem with that!  Also, think about what you and your boss consider your free personal time.  You may both have quite different ideas and expectations of what it actually is.  With the advances in technology  - mobile phones, broadband, wi-fi  - you can be contactable by your boss at any time.  Do they expect you to be on call at any time?  Delineation’s between work and free time brings me to my next point which most people setting up any kind of business will face.

2. Working for yourself and working at home.  There are so many issues under this broad banner so I’m just going to touch on some, lightly.  It’s a topic that really deserves a whole article to itself.  When you start working for yourself you quickly learn how much there is to do so its quite easy to let work overtake your home life.  Working for yourself allows you the opportunity to do things your way.  However, self-motivation is key and if you don’t have it you could be your own worst enemy.  If you lose focus your business could suffer.  You may be able to choose your own hours, but this doesn’t mean taking frequent holidays.  Remember you will only get a lot out of your business if you put a lot into it.

Working from home may seem ideal but striking the right work-life balance can be hard.  It can be difficult to switch off from work if the temptation to carry on is there, or difficult to concentrate if for instance, you have children (which will be discussed in the next tip).  Try to schedule in periods in which to relax and set yourself cut off point in the evening to stop working in order to maintain a boundary between work and the rest of your life. Other tips include - Starting the working day with something easy, fun or interesting. This helps to build momentum throughout the day. - Stick to a schedule.  Many people have found that a 9-5 schedule really helps them keep on track and productive. - Separate your work read from your living area – this includes your phone & computer - Work on networking – since you don’t have co-workers its good to get to know people who are doing the same things as you do – forums like voiceoversavvy.com and http://www.voice-overs.com/forum/ are really helpful.  And the latest site http://www.voice-overs.com/forum/ has tons of useful info and links to other voiceover artists.

There are so many issues when it comes to working from home and my next tip focuses on one of the main ones…

3. This section is for working mums and dads. Setting up a business when you have children adds a whole extra challenge.   There are some websites workingmums.co.uk and http://www.hbwm.com/ (homebasedworkingmoms.com) that can offer general advice and tips.  Launching a voiceover business is tough if you don’t have clear, childfree time to devote to it.  Recording voiceovers brings its own unique challenges that have a compatibility problem with children – unless you have extremely quiet children.  Fitting work into ‘nap times’ or while the children are watching cartoons is not a realistic option.  Childcare is key! Whether its friends and family helping out for a few set hours or more formalised arrangements with a nursery, childminder or nanny.  It is wise to get childcare options sorted out as soon as possible.  It can take ages to get your child into the nursery or pre-school of your choice so if you can plan the earlier the better.  As a working mum or dad you will need to plan your time even more carefully.  Work out what aspects of your work you can do while the kids are around and what needs to be left until they’re out of the house.  I tend to find looking and responding to emails are all that can be done with my little one around.  Possibly writing and sending invoices, checking web stats, monitoring forums and blogs, can be managed also.  But anything that involves recording voiceovers, writing press releases or podcast – these need my undivided attention so I leave these until little one is at nursery, with grandparents or daddy has come home.   Some people recommend getting up extra early (some as early as 4am) so you can have some quiet working time before the household awakes.  Its also extremely helpful if you have a supportive spouse or partner who can take the kids outside or keep them entertained elsewhere in the house while you work.  Alternatively, staying up later also helps.  Once they’ve gone to bed can be the perfect time to plan for the next day, clear out the inbox and get some writing or recording completed.  Remember its also important to switch of the microphone and play with them – work is important for so many reasons but so is spending quality time playing and having fun with your children.  Their childhood last such a short time and a great benefit of working as a voiceover is that you can work from home and spend quality time with all your family.  

4. Tip number nine is something you can implement at any stage of your voiceover career – get yourself a mentor.  Having a mentor can be a huge support and can help you see the wood from the trees.  Mentoring can provide a second opinion and offer constructive feedback and impartial advice.  A mentor won’t run your voiceover business for you but can give you the benefit of their experience, and bring with them their skills and knowledge as well as widening your contacts within the industry. What makes a good mentor for you will be a completely personal decision.  You may prefer someone who you can develop a friendly easy-going relationship, another voiceover may prefer a mentor who specialises in the technical side of voiceover.  Whichever mentor you choose it’s critical that you find someone you’re comfortable working with.  Mentoring can help you personally by building confidence in your own skills, decision making and problem solving abilities.  Its important to remain open to their feedback and - take their opinions and thoughts as constructive criticism.  The guidance and wisdom of a mentor can be invaluable to the success of a new voiceover business.

5. My final tip is this…. Don’t give up too early.  There is no such thing as an overnight success story.  It can take years; decades even, to get established as voiceover artist.  Try something and if it doesn’t work try something different.   The successful voiceover artists, are those that have persistence and tenacity in bucketloads. 

I'm hoping that this article will appeal not only to the voiceover artists themselves but also the voiceover seekers as well.  Hopefully the information will be as pertinent to them. The topic for this article is voiceover Pricing, which is often a neglected part of the marketing mix but as we all know quite a crucial aspect.  If you look at any of the voiceover forums, it does cause immense problems & I think it causes problems on each side - voiceover seekers don’t know how to price a project -what budget to set.  At the same time voiceover artists struggle to set a rate for a particular project.  They  don't want to price themselves too high and obviously they don’t want to undercut themselves so its a tricky balance of finding a happy medium where both parties feel comfortable and they both feel that it is a good price for the VALUE they are adding and receiving. 

It always surprises me that some voiceover seekers , even though they are searching out the services of a professional voiceover are not willing to pay a fair price for the services offered.  They must have some awareness, a notinal idea of the benefits that using a pro voiceover will bring to their brand,  their company, their product/service yet they're not willing to pay for it or willing to pay a fair price.  So why is that?  And what is a fair price?

I think some of the problem may stem from the impression that voice over is an easy job - anyone can do it.  And with the internet and more accessible technology its easy for anyone to set themselves up as a voiceover talent.  And this mentality seems to have reached some voiceseekers who are unaware of the true costs and investment that is necessary to provide you with your professional radio commercial voiceover, your e-learning narration, your corporate video read.  And its also important for you, the voiceover artist, to remember how you have got to where you are now and how each element needs to be thrown into the mix to arrive at a pricing strategy that gives you and your work value. So if you or a client starts to question your rates here's some things to take into consideration when and why the price is what it is.

1. Firstly,  TIME.  This is a significant factor.  I have a huge problem with job postings that start - "this is a quick easy job, will only take you 5 minutes if  you know what you're doing"  followed by a budget of £10/ $20.  I don't know if I'm the only one who finds this sort of posting extremely rude and just  plain naive.  No, No No !! I've just spent those 5 minutes opening my email client and reading your job posting - it will take me another 5 minutes to reply to it , so there's 10 mins already.  And all those minutes are billable.  It isn't just the time it takes to record the voiceover.  What about the time it takes to communicate with the client, to discuss the script, the style or delivery, the quote, the turnaround time, the licence usage etc.  Then you record,  edit, convert the audio to the format of their choice, upload it to their server, wait for feedback, do any re-records if necessary, edit, convert, upload  again.  Then write the invoice and no doubt have to spend hours or days chasing the payment.  So no, a 5 minute voiceover does not take 5 minutes. 

2. What about the other costs that you've incurred - what about your home studio ? Some voiceover artists make this cost quite transparent in their pricing by charging a studio fee. For others , they prefer to factor it into their final quote. Quality recordings come at a price. Even though equipment has  become more affordable, it will need updating and replacing as your career continues to grow and succeed. This all needs to be factored into the investment you've made and continue to make in your voiceover career.

3. Training, and coaching - consider the investment you have made in attending workshops, purchasing VO books, taking part in local college courses. 

4 Demo production

5. Maybe you have a royalty free music library that you offer to your clients - how much did that cost. 

6. And what about the basic running costs that every business incurs - stationary, printing cartriges, postage, envelopes, telephone calls, broadband connection.  And your marketing materials  - websites , postcards, e-newsletters, all have costs involved.

7. Memberships - online casting websites, union memberships, SAVOA  for example

8. Travel costs to studios and auditions.

All of these and no doubt many more costs all need to be considered for your pricing strategy.  These are to remind you of the value you have placed on yourself and your voiceover career so that when your fee is questioned you are confident that the value of your voiceover recording justifies every penny of your quote.

So how do you come up with some concrete figures to put on your rate sheet?

If you're a union member than this is fairly straightforward- unions do tend to set minimum rates and guidance.  And I assume these are followed by clients who employ union talents.

If you're not then you have some options: Go to the voiceover forums - a lot of fellow voiceover actors have very generously shared their own ratecard.  This is hugely helpful and will help you decide how you want to set your rates ,do you do it per word, per finished minute, per page .  You'll notice this will vary from voiceover artist to voiceover artist as well as the method changes depending on the nature of the project and the market it is being used in. Also visit the online casting sites such as voices.com who have a downloadable pdf document with rate guidelines for different projects and different markets, and I believe  www.Voice123.com  also have a document that sets out their average rates for projects. 

There are also pricing strategies and psychologies that other businesses employ when they are setting prices - here are some of them which you may want to consider using when creating your rate card. I want to thank Ivana Taylor (strategystew.com) for these ideas from her 8 Pricing Strategies article on the www.smallbiztrends.com website.

1. The 9 and Zero effect. People associate the number nine with value and zero with quality. Look at the difference between fast food and a gourmet restaurant. A burger meal can sell for about $4.99 while a gourmet entree at the best place in town may go for $30. So the psychology of pricing isn’t so much about gaining additional sales because the price appears to be lower, it’s about what the price communicates about your offering. So which do you want to communicate? Value or Quality? Now you can price accordingly.   2. Prestige Pricing. Higher prices connote higher quality. Luxury brands are the perfect example of this strategy. A latte at Starbucks has a higher perceived value than a basic coffee with cream. Simply improving the look, packaging, delivery or promise of your product you can justify a higher price and support a prestige pricing strategy.

3.Quantity suggestive Pricing. Consumers are receptive to purchasing items in suggested quantities. This is the strategy that is responsible for my eating too many Arby’s sandwiches. The offer typically reads “5 for $5.” When you suggest how many you want your customers to buy and give them an attractive price, they will do what you tell them.

4. Stuffing the bundle. But wait there’s more! Consumers perceive more value when there is more stuff included in the bundle. You can even call this a form of value-building. TV informercials are notorious for this strategy. They introduce a main product and keep adding more and more items to the mix to build value — while simultaneously “discounting” the retail price.

 Well I hope this has given you a few ideas about pricing and I hope that your clients will have a better understanding of the true costs involved, that they're not just buying a voice - but all the expertise, technical ability and branding value that the particular voice brings to their project. 

So what's all this business about social media marketing?  I know some of you have already taken to this wholeheartedly but there are others amongst us for whom social media marketing is a mystery as to what it is and why they should bother getting involved with it. 

So lets start at the beginning.  What is Social Media Marketing?  Essentially, its another marketing strategy - which ,bottom line, is why you should be interested in it, if you're interested in marketing your voiceover business.  Its a marketing strategy that's developed out of an intense dislike of hard sell marketing tactics.  Instead of banging people over the head with marketing methods that could be considered bullying ,hard sell , in your face selling. Social media marketing is about creating and maintaining relationships with potential customers so that when they are in a position to buy what you're selling, they automatically think of you and the service you provide.  And your name springs to mind because of they way you have presented yourself in your social media marketing activities, as an expert in your field, a trustworthy and interesting person, who can deliver on what they promise, and someone that people would like to do business with.  People like to do business with people they like. So through your communications through social media marketing you have positioned yourself as that person. 

In marketing speak, Social Media Marketing is what's known as Permission marketing, or inbound marketing.  Its developed as a reaction to the traditional forms of marketing.  Traditional marketing approaches have been things like seminars, tradeshows, telemarketing, print ads, direct mail.  The problem has been that more and more people have found methods to block out these marketing messages, making these approaches less and less effective.  Some people don't answer their phones unless they recognise the number calling them,  many email newsletters and correspondence can get caught in the ever efficient spam filters,  people are able to fast forward their way through the tv adverts, and some 'watch again facilities' delete all the adverts for you anyway.  As information has become more and more accessible through the internet, customers really don't need this type of marketing as they can get all their information they need from other sources.  So social media marketing is way of marketing that avoids all these problems as it encourages customers to find you once they're ready to make their purchase. 

So how do you do this Social media marketing malarky?

The key is to get Social!!   And you can do this in three ways -  publish, share & network.  Social media marketing sites can be roughly  divided into these 3 categories although when you do investigate them you'll soon realise that a lot of these do overlap within themselves.  The general rule for all these sites is to join in, become a member and DONT TRY AND SELL.  If you make blatant self-serving sales messages, people will quickly turn off and you won't get too far.  But if you join the community, and add value to it then you will acheive higher levels of success with social media marketing.

Category 1 - Publishing.  The joy and the horror of the internet is that anyone can publish anything, anytime, anywhere, available for anyone & everyone to view.  For no cash you can publish something that could potentially be seen by millions. So which are the publishing sites? These include sites like - flickr, twitter youtube, squidoo, podcast.net, wikipedia to name but a few.  Publish everything , everywhere : videos, podcasts, articles, thoughts and opinions - anything relevant.  Also monitor what other people are publishing and promote it.  If people are writing flattering things about you and your business, make sure you know about it and direct your clients towards it  And empower and make it easy for your customers to publish your content on their social media sites.  The more people that see it the better.

Category 2 - Sharing.  These are sites like : stumble upon, digg, delicous, mixx, propellor, reddit etc ... also known as social bookmarking sites. These are the sites where you can share and promote yours and others content.  Find out where your audience hangs out and share content that will appeal to them - whether its articles, blogs, webinars, whatever.

Category 3 - is networking.  These site are : facebook, bebo, linked in , myspace, friendster etc.  These are places where you can connect with fellow Voiceover artists and existing and potential clients.  This may actually be the best place to start your social media marketing plan.  Firstly, have a look at each of them and see which ones you want to join.  You may already have ideas as to which you think will work best for you - maybe you've seen other voiceover artists on particular sites and have heard good reports back about certain sites more than others - some sites, such as bebo for example may be better for personal networking whereas places like Linked in and Ecademy lean more towards the business side of networking.  Once you join, make sure you set up your profile and fill in all the relevant bits.  Make sure you add links to your website, blogs and other contact media.  And also put these links into your email signature.  Once the profile and signature is completed you can start networking.  Start with existing friends and clients and then broaden your network as you get more confident. But remember to add value to your interactions. Share useful content, answer questions where you can. Dont be promotional, be helpful.

In conclusion there are four key points to remember when you embark on your social media marketing campaign:

1. At the end of the day it is a tool.  It is so easy to become overwhelmed by the shear scope of possibilities that social media marketing presents, but set your goal and always keep in mind your reasons for using it.

2. Get involved - discuss, share , become a part of the community.

3. Don't overly sell or broadcast - people will run a mile.  Be helpful.

4. Enjoy it !- you meet interesting people and come across interesting information which could help you and your business and your personal interests.