How to Start a Voice Over Company
- 1). Build your own studio. Renting studio time is expensive and cuts into your profit margin. Invest in a professional microphone, audio mixer, digital audio workstation and a small room insulated from outside noise.
- 2). Produce a demo. You should be your own first customer. Edit your best voiceovers into a short presentation that excerpts samples clients can get excited about. Make sure the demo includes variety and well-known productions. The production should also demonstrate your ability to provide "hard sell" as well as "warm and fuzzy" announcements. Showcase any memorable characters created for past clients. If you can impersonate celebrities or other famous announcers, include those examples in the demo.
- 3). Establish partnerships with other announcers who bring something unique to the table you can't provide, like announcers of a different gender or those who have a substantially different vocal character useful for specific kinds of clients.
- 4). Distribute professionally packaged copies of your demo CD to area ad agencies and media production studios. Create a website where visitors can download your demo for free. Create an email campaign that targets potential clients nationally and links to your website demo. Leverage any established connections by marketing to past clients who have expressed a desire to continue working for you.
- 5). Make regular follow-up calls with people to whom you have distributed your demo. Clients may not have an immediate need when you first let them know about your business, so be persistent. Consistently plant reminders with potential clients so when the need for voiceover work does arise, they think of you first.