3 Things to Know Before Becoming Voice Over Professional

This is a great industry to work in.  If I didn’t believe that, then I wouldn’t be doing the work and making the effort to secure more jobs in the field.  However, there are some downsides to the career, and those are things that you should be aware of before you try to break into the industry.

There is a Lot of Competition The technological age has delivered us many wonderful things, opened many doors that would have been securely shut to us before.  This includes the opportunity to branch into businesses that might have been too far out of our reach previously.  The voice over industry has grown by leaps and bounds in the recent past, as more and more people realize the potential that exists because of the internet and readily available high tech equipment.  This means that the demand for voice over talent has increased, but so has the talent pool.  Unfortunately, the latter has increased by a much greater rate.  That means that you will be facing a great deal of competition should you decide to become a voice over professional.  More competition means bidding wars, and that means less pay per job too.

It’s a Solitary Position If you are a social butterfly, then this is probably not the job for you.  I cannot emphasize this enough.  There are social aspects to the job, of course, which I will touch on in this next section, but you will spend a lot of time on your own when working as a voice over talent.  For some, that is a welcomed experience, but for others it can take on the feel of solitary confinement.  You need to be aware of how well your personality will mesh with that sort of lifestyle before you invest in the career path.

It Takes Much More than a Nice Voice Being a voice over professional is probably about 25% speaking clearly, concisely, and in an attractive voice.  The other 75% of the job is essentially being a good businessman. You have to know a good deal about marketing, about accounting, and about contracts, about working on line via emails, texts, phone calls often never meeting the clients you work with, because you will become your own business. Someone has to run it. Someone has to secure the work. Someone has to write up the invoices. That someone is you. I could elaborate on this section but for not for this short blog.

If none of this has scared you away, then maybe you really are cut out to be a great voice over talent!