Business Basics For Voiceovers - Setting Up Your Voiceover Business - Part Two

By Alison Pitman

I hope you found the first 5 tips helpful. Here are the final five ideas to keep in mind when setting up your voiceover business.

1. I wanted to briefly mention the issue of starting your voiceover business while your still employed in your day job. This is the route most Voice-overs take and makes financial sense for most of us. But, before you start trading, it could be an idea to double check your existing employment contract first.

You may find that you are subject to a Restrictive covenant which would prevent you from setting up your business while continuing to work for your current employer. If this is the case, than your employer may be able to claim damages if they show that they have suffered a financial detriment as a result of your breach.

Even if there isn't such a clause in contract there is still an implied term of mutual trust and confidence. If you take a common sense approach you can usually work out whether you trading as a Voiceover artist will make an impact on your day job to the extent that your current employer will seek to terminate your contract. If you're working on your voiceover business in the evenings and weekends it should really not interfere with your current employment. However, if you're taking calls at work for your voiceover business or taking time off work to devote more time to voiceover your employer might well have a problem with that! Also, think about what you and your boss consider your free personal time. You may both have quite different ideas and expectations of what it actually is. With the advances in technology - mobile phones, broadband, wi-fi - you can be contactable by your boss at any time. Do they expect you to be on call at any time? Delineation's between work and free time brings me to my next point which most people setting up any kind of business will face.

2. Working for yourself and working at home. There are so many issues under this broad banner so I'm just going to touch on some, lightly. It's a topic that really deserves a whole article to itself. When you start working for yourself you quickly learn how much there is to do so its quite easy to let work overtake your home life. Working for yourself allows you the opportunity to do things your way. However, self-motivation is key and if you don't have it you could be your own worst enemy. If you lose focus your business could suffer. You may be able to choose your own hours, but this doesn't mean taking frequent holidays. Remember you will only get a lot out of your business if you put a lot into it.

Working from home may seem ideal but striking the right work-life balance can be hard. It can be difficult to switch off from work if the temptation to carry on is there, or difficult to concentrate if for instance, you have children (which will be discussed in the next tip). Try to schedule in periods in which to relax and set yourself cut off point in the evening to stop working in order to maintain a boundary between work and the rest of your life.

Other tips include

- Starting the working day with something easy, fun or interesting. This helps to build momentum throughout the day.

- Stick to a schedule. Many people have found that a 9-5 schedule really helps them keep on track and productive.

- Separate your work read from your living area - this includes your phone & computer

- Work on networking - since you don't have co-workers its good to get to know people who are doing the same things as you do - forums like vo-bb.com and http://www.voice-overs.com/forum/ are really helpful. And the latest site Voiceover Universe has tons of useful information and links to other voiceover artists.

There are so many issues when it comes to working from home and my next tip focuses on one of the main ones.

3. This section is for working mums and dads. Setting up a business when you have children adds a whole extra challenge. There are some websites workingmums.co.uk and http://www.hbwm.com/ (homebasedworkingmoms) that can offer general advice and tips. Launching a voiceover business is tough if you don't have clear, child-free time to devote to it. Recording voiceovers brings its own unique challenges that have a compatibility problem with children - unless you have extremely quiet children. Fitting work into 'nap times' or while the children are watching cartoons is not a realistic option. Childcare is key! Whether its friends and family helping out for a few set hours or more formalized arrangements with a nursery, childminder or nanny. It is wise to get childcare options sorted out as soon as possible. It can take ages to get your child into the nursery or pre-school of your choice so if you can plan the earlier the better. As a working mum or dad you will need to plan your time even more carefully. Work out what aspects of your work you can do while the kids are around and what needs to be left until they're out of the house. I tend to find looking and responding to emails are all that can be done with my little one around. Possibly writing and sending invoices, checking web stats, monitoring forums and blogs, can be managed also. But anything that involves recording voiceovers, writing press releases or podcast - these need my undivided attention so I leave these until little one is at nursery, with grandparents or daddy has come home.

Some people recommend getting up extra early (some as early as 4am) so you can have some quiet working time before the household awakes. Its also extremely helpful if you have a supportive spouse or partner who can take the kids outside or keep them entertained elsewhere in the house while you work. Alternatively, staying up later also helps. Once they've gone to bed can be the perfect time to plan for the next day, clear out the inbox and get some writing or recording completed. Remember its also important to switch of the microphone and play with them - work is important for so many reasons but so is spending quality time playing and having fun with your children. Their childhood last such a short time and a great benefit of working as a voiceover is that you can work from home and spend quality time with all your family.

4. Tip number nine is something you can implement at any stage of your voiceover career - get yourself a mentor. Having a mentor can be a huge support and can help you see the wood from the trees. Mentoring can provide a second opinion and offer constructive feedback and impartial advice. A mentor won't run your voiceover business for you but can give you the benefit of their experience, and bring with them their skills and knowledge as well as widening your contacts within the industry. What makes a good mentor for you will be a completely personal decision. You may prefer someone who you can develop a friendly easy-going relationship, another voiceover may prefer a mentor who specialises in the technical side of voiceover. Whichever mentor you choose it's critical that you find someone you're comfortable working with. Mentoring can help you personally by building confidence in your own skills, decision making and problem solving abilities. Its important to remain open to their feedback and - take their opinions and thoughts as constructive criticism. The guidance and wisdom of a mentor can be invaluable to the success of a new voiceover business.

5. My final tip is this.... Don't give up too early. There is no such thing as an overnight success story. It can take years; decades even, to get established as voiceover artist. Try something and if it doesn't work try something different.

The successful voiceover artists, are those that have persistence and tenacity in bucket-loads.

Alison Pitman Professional Voiceover Artist. Provider of audio recordings for business including, podcasts, website audio, phone system recordings, training and presentation narrations, corporate video narrations, product tour audio, radio and television commercials and much more. Please visit my website to hear my demos http://www.thephonevoice.com/