How to start your own Voiceover business

I am a successful voice over artist and I have been doing voice-over work for about ten years now. I meet many people who are interested in doing voice over work but they do not know how to get started. So here I am writing a hub, giving a few tips on how to get started and how to market your talent; based on my own experience.

For me the voice over business just started out as something I loved doing and I did it just for fun. In school and college I used to do the announcements for any functions that were held, or give the welcome speech or farewell speech, anything just to be speaking on the microphone.

The beginning of my big break came in a small way when I got a job as an instructional designer in an e-learning content creation company. We were divided into 6 teams and each team was asked to put together a demo where the GUI, layout, color schemes etc were to be considered. The best one was to be sent off to the client. So as part of the presentation, I recorded a bit of the content and my team added my voice and background music to our presentation and since then there was no looking back.

It is very important that you know how you sound over a microphone. Very often people do not realise that their voice is amplified over a public broadcast system, so they do not need to shout. Speak in clear strong voice without shouting. Read out and record a few lines and then playback to listen to how you sound. You might be surprised at how different you really sound. You may be dismayed at how you just do not seem to pay attention to punctuation, or that you do not have enough breath to read the sentence in one go, or the sound of your breath is too loud when you draw in air in the middle of a sentence.

Thus it is important that you learn to modulate your voice properly. There are many voice-over training courses that you can enrol for. These give you tips on breath control, on proper modulation, on how to emote, or bring in emotion if you are recording dialogs, etc. They also teach you the importance of punctuation. The punctuation marks are your guidelines for pauses, breaks, building up pitch, or ending sentences on a flat note. For example the way you would read a question is totally different from the way you would read a statement. A question needs to end with a questioning tone.

Some people (like me) have a natural flair for it, nevertheless you will need to put in a lot of practise before you begin recording as a professional.

One tip is to save every file you have recorded. And over a period of time, listen to the ones you recorded when you first started out and compare those to that latest ones you recorded. You will find a marked difference. Practise makes perfect, and there is always room for improvement.

Once you are ready to go, you will need a demo to market your talent. A demo works like your portfolio. So you would like to record many samples for different markets. There is a market for voiceovers in the education, training, advertising, corporate presentations, e-learning, video presentation, information on the internet, guided meditations, voice for animated characters and many more areas. The market is unlimited.

You might want to have some samples where you add music in the back ground, you might have a couple of samples for advertising etc. You can either record these samples yourself if you have the set up and the know-how, or spend some money and get them recorded from a professional studio. Make a few copies of the CD. Also ensure that file sizes are light enough to add as attachments in emails if you need to mail a sample to a potential client. Very often clients will ask for a voice sample reading their text so they get an idea of how their matter will sound when you read it. So be prepared to record and provide ‘client specific’ samples if required in addition to your own. In the beginning it may seem like you are recording only samples, but be patient and hang in there for if you believe you are good, your break will come in the form of a fantastic assignment.

This is a very important part of your business. Unless you do this, you yourself will not know your value. This is a business where you can earn good money.

 Many people hesitate to quote a price as they do not feel very confident and thus shy away from charging the right price. Overcoming this block is a huge step. To be on the safe side, you need to be abreast of the current rates that people are paying and charging so you can quote your price within the range. Then when you know the range in which you should quote, start quoting your price, whatever it may be; you may lose some clients because you quoted too high or even too low, but it’s okay. It is learning experience. You will get comfortable quoting and charging a good rate for your voice.

When you quote your price, you need to consider factors such as the volume of work, the studio costs and the time that you will spend recording and editing and processing it. Some people charge by the minute and some charge by the word count, some average between the two.

When I started out, it just so happened that the company I worked with, needed voiceover artists, so I just started doing voiceover work in addition to my own work, because I loved doing it (at first, it was at no extra pay). Over the years, my reputation as a voice over artist grew, within the company and spread outside, and it was more from word of mouth and recommendations from colleagues than me marketing myself. I started getting requests from friends, and friends of friends. Some offers came from professional studio owners who processed files I had recorded for friends in my home studio for they had a shoestring budget.

There are sites on the internet where you can register and upload your samples on your profile page such as at guru.com. There are some other sites where you can register as a voice over artist and then bid for voiceover projects and when you do, you can send the prospective client a sample of your voice for example getfreelancer.com. http://www.getafreelancer.com/affiliates/veedeebee/
you can sign up for free.

In addition to all this you must include that you do voice-overs when ever anybody asks you what you do. There are many social occasions where you do meet people and you can slip this little nugget of information whenever you get a chance.

You can also approach local multimedia companies, or companies that make presentations for builders, developers and leave your voice sample with them. They will contact you if they like your voice and they have a project for you.

I would summarise the success of marketing your talent will be a total mix of using all the avenues. I cannot say that any one method works best. It is something you need to try out and decide which one works best for you.

These are some of the ways in which you can make a start. As for the rest of it, your own experience will be your best teacher.