1. Brush up your business skills. Go to a community college. Take a training. Get a mentor. Read up on marketing, advertising and sales.

2. Study the competition. What are they doing that is working? How do they do it? What can you learn from them
and how can you carve out a niche for yourself?

3. Learn another language. Oral aerobics will keep the muscles in your mouth in shape. Take acting classes. Get in shape. Join a choir.

4. Improve the way clients can find you, and make yourself less dependent on P2P’s and agents. If you don’t have a website, get one. Better still: learn how to design and update your own pages.

Personally, I do a few other things to compliment my voice-over business:

-I work as a translator; some voice-over clients ask me to translate a script and record it straight away
-On occasion, I work as an emcee (see my blog: http://nethervoice.com/nethervoice/2009/09/22/how-i-became-world-famous/)
-I’m also a wedding officiant: there’s nothing like marrying people! It’s a joy and a privilege.
-I conduct media trainings and platform skills seminars
-Every now and then I do on-camera work through casting agencies. It’s a great way to connect with clients that would not necessarily have found me as a voice-over talent.

As always your encouragement is highly appreciated. I just hope that some of the more established VO talents can take a good long look at how things are going financially for them and try to figure out if they need to supplement their income before its too late and the only option they have is to sell their assets.

Taji

The thing is, this article was written mostly for those established VO artists who work full time in the profession. I see them as the culmination of my efforts and where I would like to end up in a few years from now… but also I do not like to discourage the younger generation of VO artists because there has to be a constant influx or else the whole profession dies.

The ones that come in young and wide eyed will eventually wisen up. Yes they will do some damage… but nothing that will eventually won’t get repaired… and like I said i the article… don’t waste your time with the lesser paying clients who just want a job done for a budget and don’t care how well the performance is. For those guys… they deserve the lowest bidder.

A couple of random thoughts:

1. Some voice-over sites have done an excellent job of making it look so easy to start a new career. Do you have a voice? Do you have a computer and a mic? Do you have a credit card? Congratulations: you’re now a professional voice-over! People with experience and with no experience can compete on a level playing field. I know of no other profession where this is considered even remotely acceptable. This is setting folks up for failure.

2. It’s easy to underestimate what it takes to be an independent contractor. I have seen incredibly talented people go under because they had zero business skills. Celebrity Photographer Annie Leibovitz nearly avoided bankruptcy this year, because she couldn’t handle her finances.

3. Speaking of money: one of the reasons voice-overs can’t make ends meet is because they mess up the market by underbidding on jobs that already have a ridiculously low budget. In an effort to secure short-terms gains, these people ruin their chances for a long lasting future, and in the end, all of us are paying the price. It’s like global warming: this does not happen overnight and it’s man-made.

4. To the people who stubbornly, intentionally or foolishly make the above mistakes, I have only one thing to say: GIVE UP. You’re not going to make it. If you like to use your voice as a hobby, fine. Most people know that it’s ludicrous to audition for a Broadway musical if you have little or no training or experience. So, why do you think it’s any different in the world of voice-over acting? Stop auditioning. Read to hospitalized kids and people in retirement homes. You’ll find it much more rewarding than using your voice to sell silly things nobody needs.