VO-BB - 20 YEARS OLD!

[Philip Banks]

Do you really believe that a job is a job? Try this. Divert all your calls to your mobile phone then go and sit on a park bench or the beach. When a new or existing client calls with a job factor in the cost of hiring a studio, travel to that studio and the return trip to your home. Quote the price which includes all the factors I’ve mentioned and add a profit. Should the client tell you how much he is prepared to pay and the total fee is less than your calculations ask the following question.

“My fee includes the cost of hiring a studio, travel to that studio, the return home and a profit. Which part of my calculations should I have excluded?” If the client tells you then deduct that cost and adjust your cost.

“Ok, do we have a deal now?” The client should say yes. Great, you have a job and the deal appears to be one in which you have agreed to cover some of the costs your customer should be covering.

In business it is possible to cover artificial costs but in the voice over business I can’t think of something a Voice Over sells for something which costs nothing. One could argue that the part of the costs you cover is marketing, in other words if the client likes what you do he’ll come back. Is he likely to offer you work at a higher price thereby making the marketing investment worthwhile? The sad truth is that the "pay more later" jobs come along so infrequently the marketing write-off is precisely that, a complete write-off.

As a Voice Over you go into a studio and under direction record a script for a client – That’s your job. Any job which doesn’t involve the former means you have to hire someone else. For one week do this, hire the following.

Administrator
Audio Engineer
Director (if the client is not present in person or via ISDN/Phone patch)

At the end of the week pay your staff and spend the remaining money on riotous living. How’s business, how’s the riotous showbiz life? In my case all staff would be part time and if I paid them over the market rate my year end accounts would show a healthy profit, if yours wouldn’t you have to charge more or declare your Voice Over business a hobby or part of your income stream from a number of sources which when added together makes YOU a profit. Remember, like any other business Voice Over work is a business. The idea of a business is to make a profit; it’s as simple as that. If your business is making a loss and you are unable to identify a way of turning it from loss to profit within 2 years then do what any company would do, shut up shop and do something else.

There are those who would argue that one has to see the bigger picture. I agree, but do not file the things you don’t like thinking about in the “bigger picture” file. Anything you give away to a client which costs you money must end up with a genuine, measurable CASH RETURN.

A little while ago during a conversation with one of my clients I offered audio demos at no cost so to help when they were pitching for new accounts. I gave away my time, studio time and admin time. What a fool! So far this year that one client has paid me over $42,000. As the song goes “What kind of fool am I ?”

It’s Sunday so you will have time to do a little number crunching and spend some time analyzing your business. A job is a job, but you first need to be able to tell if it’s a job for you. $9 per hour, petrol filling station in Buckie, fancy commuting, after all “A job is a job”, isn’t it?

[Lee Gordon]

[Philip Banks]

Far be it from me to argue.

[Monk]

Lee made me laff.
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Company, villainous company, hath been the spoil of me...

www.monksvoice.com