Voice Over Today

Things used to be simple in the voice over business. You had an agent in the city in which you lived, you got a call, you showed up at the studio, voiced the commercial or narration, and you went on your way. Your agent sent the invoice and followed up on the payment and finally, sent you a check. Of course, you probably did some marketing to ad agencies in your city. Maybe you even sent out a few demos. Maybe you did a lot of work, maybe you didn't.

Today, to stay competitive, a voice over artist needs have a presence on the web, which often means you are your own negotiator, engineer, web designer, bookkeeper, and promoter in addition to being voice talent. You need discipline to stay on top of all the management duties you have. You need to continue to learn and grow in the technical aspects of recording and editing in addition to keeping current with voice over trends - and run an organized business. You need to stay focused on a daily basis in order to stay in top form. What do you do if you aren't booked with wall to wall sessions for the day? Play hooky? Or do you dig into that filing that's been backing up? How about touching base with clients you haven't heard from in awhile? Take care of those pesky "housekeeping" chores in your studio/office that always get put on the back burner - make those calls, take care of business so that you can put that mound of papers into the next mound - the to be filed stack? Ah, yes. It's a glamorous business we're in!