How Do I Get Into The Voice Over Business As A Beginner

Becoming a voice over actor in today's gig economy has become a lot easier than ever before. If you are interested in starting a work-from-home voice-over business, this is the website for you. With access to so many ways to start and grow your business, now is the time to begin your part-time or full-time journey into VO!

Voice Over Industry Topics To Consider:

• Voice Over Equipment - is affordable and easy to find. Recording software is cheap and with some learning, very useable. 
• Voice Over Jobs - it's easier now to find voice over work than ever in the history of the voice-acting industry.
• Demo Reels - With the internet, access to creative directors, editing software, and home studios, you can create amazing demos.
• Vocal Performance - Access to voice coaching is more abundant and super simple to find. And with websites like Zoom, setting up a meeting from your home is a no-brainer.
• Online Agencies - Websites like Fiverr, Upwork, ACX, Voices dot com, Voice123, and many more, finding paying clients are now accessible to everyone.
• Processing Audio - there is lots of work out there for people that can do voice-over AND process their own audio.
• Social Media - social media makes our lives so much easier when it comes to marketing.

Voice Talent Definition:

A voice talent is an actor that performs for commercial purposes, either to sell a product or a character in cartoon animation. Voice-over artists use their voices to relay messages, brands, ideas, and philosophies.

Starting Your Voice Over Business the Right Way

When I started, I thought it would be cool to be an audiobook narrator and perform in video games, so I found work wherever I could. I look back on it, and if I had a coach, I would have done probably 10 things differently. It is a specific number, but being a successful voice artist and learning how to get voice acting jobs has taken me years perfect, so 10 seems like enough to start with.  

However, I’m glad I started the way I did because it taught me a lot – and it’s what has enabled me to successfully guide others through their VO journey. 

Everyone is going to have their own opinions on what works and what doesn’t, and I’ll say right off the bat that there is no right way. However, based on my experience, there are 2 key things that are essential to setting your VO business up for success.

Now, as a disclaimer, I say this with the assumption that you already have:

• The ability to record yourself
• A good-treated space
• VO equipment 
• A DAW set-up (Adobe, Audacity, Pro Tools, etc.)

Being able to produce high-quality audio is a given. Once you’ve done that, you’re ready to really start your business, and this is what I recommend as a starting point:

1. This first idea is simple: Whatever you do, don’t let your fear of screwing up stop you from starting. Don’t fall into the trap of paralysis by analysis – just give it a shot. 

2. Focus on getting yourself and your content in front of as many people as possible. 

This is the biggest challenge that any online business has – getting people to see you, to listen to you, to find you. You need to get in front of people who are looking for your services. 

This sounds obvious, but the reality is a lot of times people get caught up in the logistics of trying to learn to build a website, exploring fancy new websites they received an email from or watching video after video on VO work. 

That shouldn’t be your initial focus – you are running an online business, and if you aren’t getting eyeballs on your work, your business can’t thrive. Everyone works online now, and your business needs to cater to that. 

But how do you do that? You look at who is getting the most traffic: Google is the #1 search engine, followed by YouTube. 

However, trying to get your business to show up as the top search result on Google or YouTube isn’t a real place to start. Instead, you should leverage the websites that are devoting hundreds of thousands of dollars to show up as top results on Google and YouTube. 

By joining these websites (some pay to play, some freelance), you will reach the target audience you’re seeking and without paying a dime. Now, you will pay a small percentage fee on the backend if potential client orders from you, but the targeted traffic you receive from these websites is more than worth it. 

Join 10, 20, 30 of these websites if you can – you should be everywhere. 

From there? That’s when you can start to build the infrastructure for your own website, an email list, a client base, etc. 

Go where the eyeballs are, learn what they’re doing and how they’re doing it, and duplicate it so that you can achieve success with your VO business.