BoothJunkie - Blog , The Business of Voiceover

Balancing a Full-Time Job with Your Voiceover Dreams: Tips for Staying on Track

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 15:00:43 -0400

Pursuing your voiceover dreams while holding down a full-time job

Pursuing your voiceover dreams while holding down a full-time job can feel like a never-ending balancing act. You’ve got the passion, the drive, but let’s be real—finding the time and energy is tough. How do you keep moving forward when your weekdays are packed, and weekends are gone in a flash? The good news is that many successful voice actors started exactly where you are now—and they found ways to make it work. I know because I was there too. For several years, I balanced a full-time job with my voiceover dreams, working late into the nights and dedicating weekends to my craft. It wasn't easy, but those sacrifices helped me transition to full-time voice acting. If I could do it, so can you! Here are some practical tips to help you stay on track.

Create a Realistic Schedule

The first step to making progress in voiceover is setting realistic goals that fit around your existing commitments.

You don’t need to stay up until 3 AM every night, but it’s about carving out consistent, focused chunks of time—even if they’re small.

Instead of aiming for hours of practice every day, start by setting aside 20 to 30 minutes of focused work, two or three times a week.

Maybe that’s recording a script, practicing character voices, or getting better at editing.
Make the time, and hone a skill. Try to get just a tiny bit better. If you practice with intention, the skills will come.

Tip: Treat these practice times as non-negotiable.
Block them out on your calendar,
just like you would for an important meeting.
Consistency over intensity is what builds momentum.

Optimize Your Practice Time

When your time is limited, it’s all about making every minute count. Focus on the activities that have the biggest impact on your progress. If you’re working on character voices, spend that time in front of the mic actually recording and listening back—don’t get caught up in tweaking settings or procrastinating.

Another way to make the most of your time is to batch your recordings. If you can set aside an hour, record multiple scripts or exercises back to back. You’ll get into a rhythm, and it’ll help you maximize your productivity.

Tip:
Keep a checklist of the key skills you want to develop. That way, whenever you find yourself with a bit of extra time, you know exactly what to focus on.

Maximize Your Weekends and Evenings

For a lot of aspiring voice actors, evenings and weekends are prime time. Plan ahead for what you want to get done over the weekend—whether it’s practicing scripts, working on your editing skills, or even networking with other voice actors online. Break your goals down into manageable tasks, so you don’t feel overwhelmed and can make measurable progress each week.

Tip: Use Sunday evenings to plan your voiceover work for the upcoming week. It helps you start Monday with a clear idea of when you’ll fit in those practice sessions.

Build a Support System

Balancing everything can be exhausting, so having a support system is key. Talk to your friends, family, or partner about your goals so they understand why you’re dedicating time to voiceover. You’d be surprised how much support you can get just by sharing what you’re working towards.

Another great source of support is the voiceover community. Find groups or forums online where you can connect with others on the same journey. It helps to have people to share your struggles and celebrate your wins with.

If you don't know of any voice acting communities,

a great place to start is the Booth Junkie Discord

Don’t Strive for Perfection

One of the biggest obstacles is wanting everything to be perfect. When your time is tight, perfectionism can be your worst enemy. Practice is about getting better, not being flawless. It’s okay if your recording isn’t perfect or you stumble through a script—every minute you spend practicing is progress, even if it doesn’t feel like it.

Tip: Remember, each mistake is just a step toward improvement. Voiceover is a journey, and you get better by doing—not by waiting until you’re perfect.

Take Advantage of Free Resources

If you’re looking to become more proficient with your DAW, I offer a free class that’s specifically designed to help voice actors master their software and workflows. Whether you're a complete beginner or just want to level up, this class is a great place to start. to get started!

Get Personalized Help with One-on-One Coaching

Sometimes you need more than general advice—you need someone to look at your specific setup and give you tailored guidance. That’s where my one-on-one coaching comes in. If you need help tackling specific challenges or just want a focused session to boost your skills, consider booking a coaching session. and let’s make progress together!

Final Thoughts

Balancing a full-time job with your voiceover dreams isn’t easy, but it’s totally doable. Consistency, effective use of your time, and the right mindset can keep you on track. Remember, even the most successful voice actors started somewhere—often with little time and lots of challenges. Stick to your schedule, make the most of your practice, and embrace the journey. You’ve got this.
Now, take that next small step—schedule your next practice session and record something amazing!

Pricing your work for recording Bulk News Articles, etc

Tue, 25 Jan 2022 12:43:50 -0500

You may be approached to narrate content over a long period, here are ways to ensure you get paid a worthwhile rate, and the client is happy.

NB: There are many ways to do this. This is how it has worked for me. Your mileage may vary.

My experience is that news organizations pay less for article narration than similar length e-learning videos. This is because articles have a short shelf-life, and are not monetized very easily. And, the margins are already pretty thin. Charging e-learning prices would be at a loss for them and you won't get hired. The news org will need to get their money back on an article in 1 to 7 days. After that the listen rates taper off, and so does revenue.

Knowing that, changes the calculus to decide if it's worth it for you. Bulk work can be profitable, or a loss, depending on how you price it . YOu need to think about what it takes for you to actually produce the work (and bear in mind a couple "gotchas" at the end of this article.)

This is important:
When working in bulk, it's prepay only, and not billed after delivery. They must prepay, or you'll get screwed when they don't actually deliver the bulk work.

Often their eyes are bigger than their stomach. And the bulk work never actually materializes.

So, determine a bulk discount rate that works for your time but makes it attractive enough for them. In this scenario, bulk is key -- how much work will you get? The more work they have, the better you can negotiate.

The key for you is to know how long it takes you to generate a minute of finished audio from a cold script. It may be something like 5 to 8 minutes of actual work per-finished-minute. It all depends on your cold-reading skills and editing workflow. At 150 to 200 spoken words per minute you can work out how much time you need to create that audio. A 1,700 word article will take between 45 minutes and 60 minutes for 10 minutes of audio.

This time is spent:

researching (pronunciations etc)
recording
editing
QA-ing
mastering to desired technical standards
delivering / uploading
administration (billing, tracking etc...)

Finally consider turnaround time. How fast do they need it back. Today or next week. .

You could factor that into the negotiation. One rate for fast turnaround, another for 48hrs+, or whatever. You can always turn it around faster, but if they demand it, they should pay for it. Add something in your discussion for what deadlines are, so everyone is on the same page.

So, how much do you need make for that hour's work, and have it be profitable? How close is that their budget?

I would offer a discounted rate if it meant I got a consistent 5 to 10 hours a week in recurring predictable revenue.

I offer coaching sessions to review audio or help set up your Reaper DAW or recording space,learn more.

Once you calculate a number that works for you, you can work with them in a few ways to make it attractive to them. You can do this a few ways, depending on how reliable the recurring work will be. I have have clients in all three buckets:

My favorite way:

1) Pre-purchase words in bulk. Bill them in advance for the words. They keep sending scripts until the word count runs out, then issue a new invoice. ." Then, keep a spreadsheet of how many words each script is. Share the spreadsheet in view-only mode so they know where they stand. This is good for high volume work, and is clear for everyone.

My Second favorite way:

2) Pre-purchase Flat fee per script. Again, whatever numbers work for you. Then, as above, keep delivering scripts until the pre-purchase runs out.

My Least favorite way:

3) Bill per finished minute at an agreed-to rate, say $3 or $5 /min and either round to the nearest minute or bill to the second. They pre-purchase minutes in advance.

number of minutes + ( number of seconds / 60 )

gives you the percentage of the minute to bill

Example: a 7 minute 16 second script is 7.26 minutes. 7 + (16/60)

I like this third way somewhat less because they'll get you to speak faster, which makes for a harder read for you but with less pay.

Two gotchas to be aware of:

Often, news articles have names of people or places that you may not know how to pronounce. Factor in time to search for pronunciations of those words. Or, a pronunciation / phonetic guide for "out of the ordinary" names. terms, locations, etc...*. It sucks to lose 15 minutes researching to pronounce certain names or places.

Pickups:

Pickups are only free for your mistakes. If they change a script, there is an fee, not the corrected words. This fee pays for the time to reopen the project, do the pickups, re-render and deliver. Make it reasonable. Something like: $10 per set, per article, whatever.

I hope that helps. I've done it each of these ways. They all can work, so long as you know how long it takes you to create the work.

So, If it takes you 20 minutes to create a finished minute, then it may not work.

Need help setting up your home voiceover studio? I can help. Learn More