Your voice can help you earn a living. Its power to direct, inform and persuade is worth thousands, maybe even millions. This beginner’s guide to a business in voiceover can help you get started.
Starting a Business in Voiceover
Seek Proper Training
Before you start voiceover acting, you need to learn how to control your voice. Manipulation is critical to master your voiceover skills.
Practice
Training shows you what to do; practice helps development and improvement of the skill. Practicing should be a regular part of your career, so you might as well get started.
Gather Necessary Equipment
If you’re going to do voiceovers, you need to have the right equipment available. You can use a studio, or you can make one in your home. In either case, it is good to have your personal microphone, recording software, and audio card.
Create Demos
Demos are what you will use to show people what you can do. Once you find your preferred voiceover niche, create samples to show off what you can do.
After recording the demos, you may want to play around with the audio-editing software to make it perfect. Remember, this is the first impression you’re giving people when they’re considering you for a voiceover project. Make it a good one.
Market
Once you have the demos in hand, you are ready to show the world. Start applying to voiceover gigs online and in your local area. You may have to take some lower paying gigs at first, but as you gain experience, you will be able to increase your rates and take on bigger projects.
You may want to start marketing yourself as well. This may include creating a LinkedIn profile, website, and running ads on sites or publications that many business owners receive.
The voiceover business is 80% marketing and 20% working. Since it is a business, the only way to get clients is to show what you can do to people looking for voiceovers and those who many need them. You want to position yourself to be able to earn enough money in that 20% of working that you will be able to devote the rest of your time (the 80%) to marketing. At first, you may find yourself working more than you’re marketing. That is okay. You’re still trying to gain experience to be able to land those projects that will pay you enough to market yourself most of the time.
It’s Time to Get Started with a Business in Voiceover
Now you know what you have to do to get started with voiceover acting. It is not difficult if you have the natural talent. All you have to do is know how to use your voice in a different way. Once you do that, you will be on your way to starting a business in voiceover that can be rewarding and successful.
Do not ever be afraid to reach out to other voiceovers for advice. You may even want to find a voiceover or business coach. This person can help guide you in the right direction, so you do not get too discouraged or lost in the beginning stages of your business in voiceover.
Good luck to you!