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Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... How is my VO Business doing? Voice actors ask themselves this question over and over again at every stage of their career. Most attempt to answer the question by looking at how much money they're making or by examining their audition-to-booking ratio, but fail to look further... "There are many metrics beyond your VO revenue & booking ratio to see how your voiceover business is doing" - Tom Measuring your voiceover success: break it down by genre. When looking at my voiceover revenue, I break it down by genre. I think about every gig's "Origin Story". I perform a quarterly client churn to see how many clients I’m losing & keeping in the long-term. What about my booking ratio? I don't suggest tracking your booking ratio to measure success. The casting process can be random and arbitrary. If you feel the need to, here are some statistics: For those new to voice acting, expect a 1:100 or 1:150 ratio, especially if you're only auditioning on Pay-to-Play sites. For experienced voice actors auditioning on Pay-to-Play sites, via representation, and via Direct Marketing clients, expect a booking ratio of around 1:50 to 1:60. Consider Social Media Engagement Although it is fun to look at Likes and Comments on social media, the Shares are what really matter for marketing purposes. Shares create organic reach which puts your posts in front of a new audience and can potentially get your voice in front of a voice seeker. Takeaways: Look deeper than your overall revenue and booking ratio to determine your quarterly success. If you're a vet and booking 2% of the time, you're doing well! Keeping up with clients directly is the best way to book consistently + without auditions. Focus on creating shareable posts to get your face (and voice) in front of voice seekers. There is no shame in staying on P2P sites, auditioning regularly, and pulling new clients offsite to turn them into direct-marketing clients. Paid Links VOS Book Club: Voice Over Legal Voice Over Legal was written by Lawyer & Voice Actor Rob Sciglimpaglia. If you want to gain a better understanding of what voice actors need to know on a legal level, this book is a must-read. Grab Studio Gear As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Download VO: How-to Videos Upcoming Events & Appearances Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Need help? Work with me. Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Another guest appearance Last week I was interviewed by a dear college friend who has her own podcast which focuses on "the power of arts in education". I had a wonderful time! When the episode goes live I'll post it here. "Don’t focus on numbers; focus on culture. The numbers will come." - Tom Waxing Nostalgic Spending time with my old friend and reminiscing about my college days got me thinking about my theater training vs. my voiceover training. Did they complement each other? Contradict each other? The first thing I'll say is that I got a massive amount of theater training but it was about 30 years ago. The other thing I'll say is that I got far less voiceover training but it was much more recent. Does that matter? Honestly I'm not sure. What I do know is that I use bits & pieces of both my theater training and voiceover training almost every day. Most of the time I don't even realize it. Don't get me wrong, I'm not using my Stanislavski training to break down my voiceover scripts, but I'll put it to you this way. In theater, often you have weeks or even months to build your character. In voiceover, sometimes you have as little as a few seconds. Most of the time you are playing you anyway, but getting in touch with an authentic you can be a challenge, hence your theater training can help you catalyze the process. Tip Of the Week You can't rely solely on theater training to be an effective voice actor You can't rely solely on voiceover training to be an effective voice actor, either Acting training will make you a better voice actor Improv training will make you an even better voice actor Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book Club This month's book is Accents: A Manual for Actors by Robert Blumenfeld. Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Yeah, this sucks. I'm pretty sure I got it traveling to or while I was at VO Atlanta but that pesky Omicron variant is running around NYC too so who can say. Symptoms have been moderate (fever, congestion, fatigue, etc.) and I've been feeling them for almost two weeks now. Ugh. The good news is that my voice is (mostly) fine so I've been able to record auditions & bookings. Anyway... I don't have the brain power to come up with a topic for this week's blog. Instead, here's a video of an interview I did a few weeks ago for a student who's interested in doing voiceovers for a living. Enjoy! Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book & Gear Club This week's recommendation: the Manley Reference Cardioid Microphone! This is a high-end, fabulous mic heartily endorsed by J. Michael Collins. Here's the Amazon blurb: Custom-wound Manley output transformer for that big MANLEY sound! Unit is hand-wired with silver solder and audiophile-grade componentry Rugged, high-quality outboard power supply Vacuum tube is hand-selected for low noise and excellent reliability Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

How much do I charge? For anything? One of the most confusing things about the voiceover industry is understanding rates. How to quote a project is one of the most common voiceover-related questions, right up there with "Which microphone should I buy?", "How do I get an agent?", and "Which Pay-To-Play site is better?" Figuring out terms like buyouts, rebuys, perpetuity, conflicts, and exclusivity can make your head spin. "Most people would rather live with dull despair than experience one moment of genuine pain to escape it." - Tom

A few weeks ago I posted a blog about the wonderful conversation I had with my dear friend Stacey Tirro on her 'Changed For The Better, The Power Of Arts In Education' blog/podcast. You can read the blog here If you prefer, you can watch the video here. A big part of the conversation involved how my anxiety negatively impacted my college experience as well as my voiceover career. "Vague goals will get you vague results. Specific goals will get you specific results." - Tom Voiceover Anxiety? Moi? Yes, Tom Dheere STILL has voiceover anxiety! Most of the time I'm fine, but during my weaker moments I still worry about where my next gig will come from. I still get nervous when business slows down. And yes, I occasionally suffer from Imposter Syndrome. All that does is make me human. The question is, do I control my anxiety or do I let my anxiety control me? It used to be the latter but now it's the former. Tip Of the Week How can a voice actor effectively manage their anxiety? First off, understand that not all anxiety is created equal. Mine is relatively mild and does not require medication so I count myself fortunate. Other people's anxiety can be crippling and may require pharmacological help. Find a good cognitive therapist, psychologist, or psychiatrist to determine if you have anxiety, the nature of your anxiety, what kind if help you need, and if you require medication. There is no shame in seeking help or taking prescription medication if that's what you need. Check out MoodGym. It's "like an interactive self-help book which helps you to learn and practice skills which can help to prevent and manage symptoms of depression and anxiety". I used it years ago and it was a big help, but it's no substitute for therapy and medication. The voiceover industry is not for the faint of heart. It is inherently chaotic and unpredictable with no guarantee of success. Anxiety is about fearing the future and letting it either paralyze you or make your life spin out of control. For me at least, one of the most effective coping mechanisms to deal with voiceover anxiety is to take control. Seek control through education, genre proficiency, development of business acumen, mastery of project management, and all of the other skills that will strengthen the foundation of your voiceover business. Creating stability and control may lessen your anxiety. Harness the power of your anxiety to improve your voiceover career! Take that anxiety-driven energy and put it to good use. I use it to stay motivated & organized but I make sure that I don't let it devolve into "busy work" and endlessly scrolling on social media. Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book/Gear Club Today's recommendation: laptop computers! I've had the Lenovo Thinkpad X1 Carbon for about a year now and I love it. I've used it many times for recording on the road doing PowerPoint presentations with no issues. The price has gone down a bit since I bought it but here is a link to a refurbished one for only $664, Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing consultant since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

A Neglected Topic I looked it up and I haven't penned a blog entry about Search Engine Optimization (SEO) for over ten years. Ten years! Since it's been so long, I thought it would be a good idea to talk about SEO again. What has changed in SEO over the past ten years? "To be an effective voiceover artist inside the booth, you must be an effective voiceover business outside the booth." - Tom, VOS Hack #1 Everything And Nothing Yes social media has made a huge impact on how search engines value content like Tweets & stuff and yes there are new strategies for keyword use blah blah blah, but for us individual voice actors with one teeny tiny website in an ocean of voiceover websites, do the changes really matter? Meh. The fact is that unless you're a super-mega-highly-specialized voice actor with a truly unique sound narrating lesser-known genres, nobody is going to find your website via a search engine. There are thousands of voiceover websites out there and anytime a voice seeker types in some voiceover-related keywords, all of the Pay-to-Play sites will come up first. Tip Of the Week If you are early in your voiceover journey or even if you've been around for a while, I don't recommend putting much effort into improving your website's SEO. There are many, many other things you can do to improve your chances of connecting with voice seekers by driving them to your website instead of you praying they discover it. We're talking about Inbound and Outbound marketing techniques and other strategies. If you insist on trying to improve your SEO, here are a few tips: Make sure the pages and guts of your website has all the SEO-crunchy things like tags, keywords, inbound and outbound links, etc. There are many articles & videos out there that can help you, just make sure they're current as the SEO rules change all the time. Blogging. Every time you post a blog about voiceovers, your website publishes an additional page of content that is (hopefully) dripping with voiceover-related keywords. Looking at it that way, www.tomdheere.com is 20 years old with over 600 pages. That's why I occasionally book voiceover purely on the power of my website's SEO, but I can't depend on that and neither should you. Get on as many free online casting sites as possible. Yes, there are TONS of free online casting sites out there. You don't know about them because every time you use Google or Bing or Yahoo or whatever, the Pay-to-Play sites who spend thousands and thousands of dollars on SEO always pop up first. Do some digging and you'll see what I mean... Get interviewed on a podcast, trade magazine, or local newspaper and promote the crap out of it Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book Club Today's recommendation: shock mounts! A while back, I bought the Eggsnow universal shock mount & mic clip. The problem is that a few of the rubber bands broke and apparently Eggsnow has no website, contact info, or any way of buying replacement rubber bands (I bought it on Amazon, BTW). Since I'm not interested in playing the guessing game of what size the rubber bands are and ordering from someone else, I decided to get a new shock mount. I purchased the Rycote InVision INV-7 HG mkIII Microphone Shock Mount. While the Eggsnow shock mount was under $10 and the Rycote shock mount is $75, if nothing else this shock mount doesn't require rubber bands to secure my Sennheiser 416. And it looks really cool! Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

My First OVC! Whoo hoo! I'm VERY excited to be presenting at the One Voice Conference in Dallas for the first time. And it's just a few weeks away! There is a highly impressive array of presenters this year including keynote speaker Nolan North, J. Michael Collins, Bev Standing, Carin Gilfry, Mary Lynn Wissner, Scott Brick, and many more! Blurbs to follow... Here's what the OVC2022 folks have to say about the event... The One Voice Conference has been the home of voiceover talent and voice actors since 2018. Our goal is to give voiceovers of all skill levels a place to learn, network and have a great time with the amazing people who make our industry so great to be a part of! This year, we're giving even more voiceovers the chance to be part of our amazing One Voice community by hosting both a UK and US version of our conference, as well as hosting both of them online and in-person, so you can join us face-to-face, or take part from anywhere in the world. And here are my blurbs...! "Master Your Marketing Mindset" (5th August, 2022 10:50 am) This talk will demystify and deprogram you! The reason why most voice actors can’t market themselves is because of their mindset. They don’t know how to get out of their own way! How can you effectively market yourself in the current economic, social, and technological environment? VO Strategist Tom Dheere will lay out the reality of most voice actors’ marketing mindsets and teach you how to get yourself unstuck from the past. "21st Century Voiceover Marketing Intensive" (6th August, 2022 4:00 pm) FYI this workshop costs $129 and is in-person only. The voiceover industry has changed dramatically! That means your marketing strategies & tactics must adapt to the new realities of the voiceover industry as well. In this 3-hour hard-core marketing intensive, VO Strategist Tom Dheere will drill down on what it means to be a modern voiceover marketer. Topics will include defining marketing success, building marketing campaigns, developing marketing strategies, tips for creating quality social media content, and tactics for marketing your voiceover demos. Tip Of the Week Obviously, I recommend attending the One Voice Conference! It will be August 4-7 in Dallas. You can attend any day you want either in-person or online. You can also sign up for the One Voice Awards show August 6th at 7PM. Click on this link to get your ticket! Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book Club This week's recommendation: the book that started my journey to becoming an effective voiceover business, Stephen Covey's 7 Habits of Highly Effective People! It taught me how to think outside the box and my comfort zone. It also taught me how to craft and execute effective goals. If you want to get out of your head in a good way, read 7 Habits of Highly Effective People! Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

I had a newsletter once... It was called "The Rognog". In case you're wondering, that's the name of a Dungeons & Dragons character I used to play. Great branding, huh? Anyway, I started sending out a quarterly newsletter in 2004. Here what it looked like: Yeah, Not So Great As you can see, it was highly self-centered, toxically positive, and, well, lame. It took me many years to figure out what it took to make a newsletter more effective but I stopped sending it out a while ago. Why? I didn't see any ROI. All I saw were a bunch of "unsubscribe" notifications. Was it because of the quality of the newsletter? Maybe. Was it because nobody has the time or interest to read most of our voice marketing content anymore? Probably. Can a newsletter still be an effective tool to stay top-of-mind with voice seekers? Possibly. Tip Of the Week If you wanna give a newsletter a try, here are some tips: Get permission to send them the newsletter first! This is very important. Many companies around the world have adopted the GDPR guidelines established by the European Union. In other words, if you add someone to your mailing list without their permission, they can flag it as spam and you could get in trouble. That means you need to cold call or cold email them first which takes lots of time & effort but could be worth the effort. Make your newsletter about demonstrating your value & progress as both a voice actor and a business, not about showing off. There is a subtle difference but there's not enough time to get into that here. Make your newsletter about demonstrating your value & progress as a human. Most of the newsletters that voice seekers get are nothing but an obnoxious LOOK AT ME!!! AREN'T I GREAT?! exercise and is very off-putting. Talk about you as you: maybe share your hobbies or your family life or your personal challenges. Be vulnerable, be transparent, be genuine. That will resonate with them much more than you bragging about the last Explainer video you narrated. Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book/Gear Club This week's recommendation: the Motu M2 Audio Interface! Features include: Sabre32 Ultra DAC Technology Best-in-class Speed Best Metering Live Streaming Loopback A Tradition of Engineering Excellence Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Happy VO Strategist-aversary!!! Ten years ago, I was sitting on a couch at the Disneyland hotel with my very first VO Strategist student. Her name is Pearl Hewitt and she has gone on to become an award-winning audiobook narrator with almost 200 titles under her belt. "The goals you set are not what make your life. It’s the pursuit of the goals that make your life. And the character you develop. And the wisdom you acquire. And the people you touch." - Tom 10 Years Later... …and I love what I do even more than when I started! I've had the pleasure to speak at almost every voiceover conference and works with hundreds and hundreds of voice actors of all experience levels navigate the voiceover industry. I'm eternally grateful that so many people would come to me for guidance. Grateful and humble. Tip Of the Week What have I learned after 10 years of coaching voice actors? I love teaching! Even better, I love it when my students become more successful at voiceovers than I am. Yes, the majority of aspiring voice actors only book a few jobs (if that) then quit, but when a former student books a national spot or wins an award and they thank me for helping them, it's the best feeling. Being the VO Strategist makes me a better voice actor! I have to constantly be on top of all the trends in the voiceover industry so I can confidently and competently give good advice. Voiceover is an artistic endeavor, but it's also a trade. Both are equally important and you need a myriad of skill sets in both to have any chance of being an effective voice actor in the 21st Century. Most aspiring voice actors have no idea what they're getting into and it's not their fault! As Americans we are woefully unaware of how little practical knowledge we actually get from our educational system. Business/marketing savvy, managing your money, and managing your time are often the biggest obstacles and that's why I focus so much on helping my students develop those skills. No matter how long you've been pursuing voiceovers, it will never be smooth sailing! The types of challenges change based on where you are in your voiceover journey, but you will never get to the point where you can put your feet up and watch the gigs roll in. You have to constantly adapt to how the voiceover industry is evolving on a technological, marketing, social, and even political level. Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Back In The Blogging Saddle! Remember last week when I said I didn't have time to write my blog like I usually do? It was for a good reason! I had the pleasure of being a guest artist at the Ocean County Vocational Technical School Grunin Performing Arts Academy. My old friend from college Doug Bollinger is one of their acting teachers and he asked me if I could talk to the kids about the world of voiceovers. I happily accepted his offer! Tom Dheere: high school teacher! Sort of. For three days, I worked with the school's Acting majors in all four grades. On day one, we talked about show business in general and the voiceover business in particular. On day two, we talked about how to market yourself as an actor. On day three, we went to the school's (very impressive) recording studio and we worked with some scripts. During one of the four periods, they phone patched in a client who directed me in a booking so the kids could see how a professional recording session works. One of the students volunteered to be my reader and she did a fantastic job! See what I mean by an impressive studio? Tip Of the Week For ten years I have worked with adults on their narration technique as well as their understanding of the voiceover industry on both a marketing and business level. What did I learn teaching the same content to teenagers? I was about to write that kids don't know what they don't know and adults do but that's not necessarily true. Most people entering the voiceover industry have very little understanding of what they need to be, do, and have to become an effective voice actor in the 21st Century. Many of the students thanked me for explaining what it takes to be a successful actor in an organized, thoughtful way so they can make informed decisions about their own career path. And some of them were bored out of their minds. And that's fine, too. Voiceover isn't for everyone. Acting is scary but thrilling when it feels right! It was so much fun to coach up the students and see them grinning from ear to ear when their read improved. Of course I see that with my adult students too but it was more visceral with the kids. It was a blast watching them go from nervous & timid when they stepped up to the mic to laughing & smiling when they stepped away. Regardless of age, everyone has dreams. You are never too old to change your life and do something that brings you joy. What was interesting was that I saw the same look in their eyes as I do in my adult students' eyes. The look that says "I want this but don't know what to do. I'm not even sure what THIS really is." And that's okay. It's not okay when you have those thoughts & feelings but don't take steps to empower yourself. So, empower yourself! Take more classes, and not just the cartoon & video game ones. Take the classes on the business-side and the marketing side. THAT will empower you to make the right decisions for your career! Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use the promo code FBSUMMER22 to get 20% off ALL videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book Club Rich Dad’s CASHFLOW Quadrant is a guide to financial freedom. It’s the second book in the Rich Dad Series and reveals how some people work less, earn more, pay less in taxes, and learn to become financially free. CASHFLOW Quadrant was written for those who are ready to move beyond job security and enter the world of financial freedom. It’s for those who want to make significant changes in their lives and take control of their financial future. Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

Guest Blogger! Sort of. I gotta keep it short this week. I'll explain why in next week's blog. It's for a great reason, trust me. Anyway, my dear college friend Stacey Tirro is the author of a wonderful blog/podcast called 'Changed for the Better, the power of arts in education'. I am proud to be a recent guest! You can watch the video or read the blog here . Enjoy! Tips Of the Week Video summer sale! Use the promo code FBSUMMER22 to get 20% off all videos at the VO Strategist Shop ! I will speaking at the Mid-Atlantic Voiceover Conference ! If you're thinking of attending, here's a coupon for $50 off!: MAV022GS Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear Want studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist , a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.

A long time ago, in a blog far, far way... Actually it was only five years ago and it was in this blog. I'm always up for a Star Wars reference. Anyway, about five years ago I shared 10 voiceover tips for voice actors. I figured it's time to share some more! "Good ideas come from good listeners." - Tom Here are the 10 from the aforementioned blog entry Hire a freelance-savvy CPA to help you file your taxes. Schedule Quarterly Estimated Tax payments so you don’t get hammered when you file your taxes. You can download the form here. Self-garnish your checks by putting 20%-30% in a savings account for said Estimated Payments. As Robert Kiyosaki once said: pay yourself first! Put away money for yourself every month, even if it’s $10. Never skip any bill payment, even for just a month. Most billing companies for things like medical bills are happy to set up a payment plan you can handle. Make your credit score your friend. Know what your scores are and nurture them. I use Credit Karma to keep an eye on mine. Interest is the enemy! Pay your credit cards bills once a week. Paying in full regularly helps your credit score. Keep an eye out for “derogatory remarks” on your credit score and address them immediately. Never cancel a credit card. It actually lowers your credit rating. Open a Health Savings Account. Use pre-tax (W9) income to make deposits. The money you deposit does not get taxed and it’s a write-off. Opening an HSA last year made me go from owing money to getting a refund! I still stand by those tips as they seem to have stood the test of time. Only five years have passed, but quite a bit has happened in our world since then. Here are five more! Tip Of the Week Look into starting a SEP-IRA. A SEP-IRA (Simplified Employee Pension) functions like a regular IRA but you can contribute up to 20% of your annual net profit (minus Self Employment tax) or $61,000 in 2021, whichever is lower. It’s great for voice actors when you have a good year and want to sock away that extra money. FYI a SEP-IRA is not an interest-bearing account. It’s a performance account which means it’s subject to the whims of the market. Consider incorporating only after you consult a professional. Many voice actors think they should incorporate because people who know nothing about the voiceover industry tell them to a because it will make them FEEL professional. Make sound business decisions based on facts, not feeling. Don't' seek financial advice on social media. I can't even count the number of times I have seen voice actors ask questions online and they get straight-up wrong information from fellow voice actors. You can always tell it's bas advice if the answerers don't ask the asker any questions. That right there is a red flag! If you don't get a 1099 from from a client, you still have to pay taxes! All American clients are required to send you a 1099-NEC form if you earn more than $600. If they pay you less than that or don't send you one, you're still responsible for paying taxes on that income. Continue to invest on your voiceover career. Even though inflation kicking our collective asses right now, you still have to spend money to make money. Just be smarter about how the voiceover classes you take and the equipment you purchase. You're always welcome to ask for my opinion. Just book a free 15-minute consult at your convenience. Join me at an upcoming event Here's what I've got going on in the next few months - register to attend and add your voice to the mix! Study on your own time - download & watch VO How-to Videos Use Promo Code GETMORE for 20% off 3 or more videos! Paid Links Grab Studio Gear VO Strategist Book & Gear Club This week's recommendation: the SA-87 Condenser Microphone, a Vintage Large-diaphragm Condenser Mic. The SA-87 is an exact reproduction of a 1979 (rev16) vintage Neumann U 87 microphone, considered by most engineers as the finest sounding U 87 ever made. Want more studio gear & reading recommendations? VIEW ALL As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Keep Going - Work with Me Book a Strategy Session and get your VO business together! Want more VO Strategist? Subscribe on YouTube for the latest... Tom Dheere is the VO Strategist, a voice over business & marketing coach and demo producer since 2011. He is also a voice actor with over 25 years of experience who has narrated just about every type of voiceover you can think of. When not voicing or talking about voicing, he produces the sci-fi comic book Agent 1.22.