8 CRUCIAL Questions BEFORE You Go Full Time in Voice Over
The decision to go full-time in voiceover is likely the largest, most important decision you will make in your entire voiceover career. And it is one that is not made lightly.
There are so many things to think about and consider. It can be super confusing, overwhelming, and downright deflating if you let it.
When I had this decision to make several years ago, whether or not to go full-time, I did not go through the same process that I'm about to lay out for you now.
And it almost put me out of business.
Today I'm going to give you my checklist of crucial questions you should ask and answer for yourself if you're considering going full-time in voiceover, so that it doesn't bite you in the ass like it did me.
I, like most everybody else, I started out doing this as a side hustle, as a part -timer. And when I decided to go full-time in voiceover, at that point I was only making a couple of grand a month as a part -time voice actor. So I knew I had to put a plan together to generate more revenue to build my business to the point where I could make the leap to full time.
After several months, I booked an insanely huge amount of work in a very short amount of time. For that story, check out this video right here. —>
I knew for sure that I was probably never gonna have that opportunity to book that kind of volume of work in that short amount of time. And so I shot my shot.
I quit the day gig. I seized the day, and six months later the day seized me by a couple of body parts I won't mention when the CEO of my client said, “You know what? We're looking for a younger sounding guy. Thanks so much.”
50 % of my income gone overnight. Like I said, it almost, almost put me out of business.
Why? Because I did not ask and answer the questions that I'm about to lay out for you.
So let me do that right now. Here are eight crucial questions you need to ask and answer for yourself when you're considering going full-time in voiceover.
Question Number One: How much money do you need to survive?
You cannot, should not, please do not make this decision without knowing what success looks like. If you're someone who is allergic to budgets, doesn't want to think about budgetary things, I've got bad news for you. Running a business means knowing your numbers.
So, if you are allergic to budgets and you've not done one, then that's your first step. Sit down and do a budget of your monthly expenses down to the dollar.
At the end of this process, you should have that down to the dollar or pound number of your monthly expenses. That's the minimum income you need to survive, which includes not only your business expenses, but your personal expenses as well.
Question Number Two: how much revenue are you generating now?
This one's pretty easy to find. Look back at the last 12 months. Take the average of the last 12 months revenue.
Why 12 full months? Because being a business owner, being an entrepreneur, certainly being a voice actor, means having a volatile income. Some months feast, some months famine. You're always going to have dry spells, especially when you're new, especially when you're part time.
Next, here's a pro tip. Throw out your single best month and take the average of the remaining 11 months. This will help account for if you had one month which had one huge job in it that was responsible for that entire spike in revenue that month.
This will give you a more accurate reflection of what you're actually making.
Number Three: What's the difference between your minimum monthly expenses and the revenue you're generating right now?
In most cases, you're going to have a negative number. That's okay. There's no shame in that, especially when you're part time. That just simply means that your expenses exceed your income right now and you're not quite ready to go full time yet.
Number Four: How much savings do you have set aside that you could dip into if absolutely necessary?
This does not count, ideally, long-term planning, money for retirement, investments, long-term savings and the like. This is money that you could lose some or all of and still survive. Call it an emergency fund.
Let's say you had a bad month and your minimum monthly expenses are $3,000 and you only brought in $2,000 in revenue. Well, that remaining $1,000 in expenses still has to get funded. It still has to come from somewhere.
And that's what your emergency fund is for.
Number Five: How much is that emergency fund divided by your minimum monthly expenses?
So, let's say your emergency fund is $12,000 and your minimum monthly expenses will continue the same example, we'll say they're $3,000. Twelve divided by three is four, meaning you could survive four months if you didn't bring in a dime.
You need to know what that time window is and I recommend a minimum of six months, ideally twelve months or more. Now here's the trick. When you have a bad month, let's say you only bring in $2,000 and your expenses are $3 ,000 and you pull $1 ,000 from that emergency fund.
The next month, let's say you have a good month and you bring in $3,500. Rather than pocketing that $500, that $500 goes back into the emergency fund for the next rainy day. And in fact, you're going to put the profits back into that fund to bring it back to where it was or ideally over time, growing your emergency fund.
The larger your emergency fund is, the less vulnerable your business is.
Number Six: How are you going to cover health insurance?
Are you covered on your spouse's or significant others plan, maybe even your parents plan? Are you a member of NAVA, the National Association of Voice Actors? If so, you have access to more affordable health coverage through NAVA, thanks to their hard work. If you're a citizen of the U.S. and you're in the U.S., you have access to the federal health care marketplace. The links for NAVA Health Care and for the National Healthcare Marketplace are below.
How you handle health insurance is entirely up to you. You should do your research and make the decision that's right for you and your family. But if you're going to go full time in voiceover and that means possibly not having health insurance?
That's not a smart option and that's not an option I recommend.
If you do your research and you make your decision and you come to a number you know what your health care will cost you then that number needs to go back into your monthly expenses budget from question one.
Now those first six questions in my opinion cover most of what you need to ascertain for yourself when making this decision financially. But financial considerations aren't the only ones. There are a couple of other questions I believe you need to ask yourself.
Question Number Seven: How will going full time in voiceover increase or decrease your stress level and affect your mental well-being?
For example, in my case, in the first six months I went full time, I was on cloud nine. I thought I made the best decision in the world.
And then that big client went away. And quite frankly, it was one of the most stressful times of my entire life.
I was making decisions from a place of survival rather than from strategy and strategic strength. And trust me, that's not where you want to be.
Had I asked and answered all of the questions that I'm laying out for you based on my experience and my learning since then, then I wouldn't have put myself in that pickle in the first place. I would have saved myself a hell of a lot of stress.
How might that apply to you? Okay, so let's say you're in a day job that you absolutely hate. You just abhor it. It is soul-crushing and it's very easy to think at that point that you know going full-time and voiceover is going to be your mental and emotional savior.
But if you're not prepared financially and mentally and you go full-time too soon like I did you're just trading one set of problems for another. Not where you want to be.
And Question Number Eight: (maybe for some people the most important question) How will you develop your mindset?
Wait, what? Yeah, your mindset.
Starting a business, especially as a creative freelancer, will be one of the hardest things you've ever done professionally in your life. Are you mentally prepared for that?
Now to be honest, the answer for just about everybody is no, you're not prepared for that, at least not initially.
I promise you, there will be a time, there will be multiple times where you're gonna think, “this is too hard,” “I can't do this,” “I'm not good enough,” “I suck,” “the market is this or the market is that” or “I'm not cut out for this.”
How will you get through that? How will you find a way to stay in the game?
Are you the kind of person that says, “You know what, no matter what happens, I'm going to figure it out.”?
The single biggest factor in determining your success or failure as a voice actor, as an entrepreneur, hell in life in general, is your mindset. Starting a business will test you, it will stretch you, it will grow you in ways that are super uncomfortable. But that's how growth happens.
Growth does not happen without discomfort.
If you're not willing to fight through that from the jump, then it's entirely possible that you're not ready to go full-time in voiceover.
At least, not yet.
Go to VOPro.pro for more information on the VO Freedom Master Plan, the VO Pro Community, and to get my Move, Touch, Inspire newsletter for voice actors that comes out every Thursday.
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