4 Ways to Increase Your Voice Acting Income

4 Ways to Increase Your Voice Acting Income

Posted: 28 Jul 2009 06:55 AM PDT

Isn't it great to be in business for yourself?

While you may be enjoying the successes you have now, are you aware that you could be paying yourself more and reaching greater financial goals?

Here are 4 practical ways that you can increase your income as a voice actor.

1. Increase Your Fees

If you have been charging less than you'd like, there's no better opportunity to change your rates to reflect what you feel you should be making. Something you'll want to do to determine how much money you actually need is to write a budget for your business and also write a budget for your home life. Figure out what it is that you need to be making to more than break even each month in your business. When you are in business for yourself, whatever your business makes, you make. Be sure to set aside a salary for yourself or give yourself a raise. Increasing your fees can help you to do this.

To get started, view some standard voice over rates, charging what the rate sheet suggests or higher.

2. Increase The Frequency That Your Clients Need You

๏ Set shorter contracts
๏ Stay in touch more often
๏ Propose new business around holidays
๏ Give the impression you're readily available (people will pay more for expediency)

3. Increase Your Client Base

You can do this by:

๏ Advertising online
๏ Social networking
๏ Auditioning more often
๏ Offline marketing (sending out mailers)
๏ Doing more traditional networking
๏ Attending events

4. Increase Your Skills

๏ Learn something you didn't know last year
๏ Learn a new piece of software
๏ Learn a new editing technique
๏ Learn a new voice acting technique
๏ Branch out into other areas of voice over

If you've always done commercials, explore narration or audio tours. If you've always done animation and cartoons, translate those acting skills into narrating audiobooks. You can do it!

Summary

Use one or more of these ideas to lay a fresh foundation for increasing your income and reaching your goals. I'd love to hear about your experiences, whether past or in progress, increasing your rates.

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Best wishes,

Stephanie