Managing a voice-over business itself is a full-time job, and trying to do it all alone can be quite challenging. Delegating some of the tasks that have less ROI (or joy) not only can help you maximize the hours in your day, but perhaps even help you reclaim some semblance of sanity.
Or maybe, you’re new to the voice-over industry and want to find a source of steady-ish income while you grow your career, but you’re not sure which path to take.
Let me turn you on to something that covers both bases: virtual assistant work.
Virtual assistants are a hot topic in the business world right now, and for good reason. Thanks to the interne, you can be anywhere on the planet and hire someone to help you run your business or work as a virtual assistant to someone thousands of miles away without changing out of your pajamas. And if you choose to work as a virtual assistant, you also (probably) don’t have to change out of your pajamas. It’s a win-win, right?
Well, yes and no. Let’s talk about it.
Working as a Virtual Assistant
Let’s say you’re considering working as a virtual assistant to other voice actors for supplemental income and to grow your career. Excellent choice! Since you’re working for yourself, you typically get to set your own rates and hours. A friend of mine works as a virtual assistant for a handful of other voice actors while she works between jobs, and has a steady flow of income on her terms – done on her time, and at her designated rate.
Another benefit of working as a virtual assistant is you get to meet new people. If you’re already familiar with the voice actor you’re working with, chances are you already know them and are comfortable with them, and they are hiring you because they know, like, and trust you. Perhaps you’re hired on by someone you’re newly acquainted with; you’ll get to know them better and see how they successfully run their business. Maybe you attend a function with them, and they introduce you as their assistant – this puts you front row center to new people, thereby growing your network. That adage, “Your net worth is your network” is 100% true. A good friend of mine says, “It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you” and I couldn’t agree more.
Maybe you’re nodding and saying, “Yeah Bonnie! Tell me more about how to get started!” If so, great. Here’s how:
Assess Your Skillset: What are you good at outside of the booth? Are you super organized? Great at social media, copywriting, website building, or long-form audio editing? Think about how your unique skills can make another talent’s life easier.
Set Your Prices: Decide if you will charge weekly, hourly, or per project. If you’re just getting started, don’t discount taking an internship while you learn the ropes.
Look at Your Network: Who do you know that you actually want to work for? Have they posted about needing help on social media? You can also check out platforms like Upwork to find clients.
Here’s the not-so-fun-part: marketing. UGH! I know. “But I already have to market myself as a voice actor!” Yeah, that’s the world we live in. But if you look at it through the lens of, “I want to help people”, you’ll probably dread it a lot less. So, post on social media that your office hours are open and set meetings with folks who could use your services. You can also add a tab on your website that says you help other voice talent or creatives that showcases your virtual assistant services. Lastly, check out VA for VO, which is a fantastic network run by incredible humans who connect VAs with the talent who need them (not sponsored, I just know them personally!).
Lastly, here are some TLDR pros and cons of working as a voice actor:
The Pros:
- You get total creative freedom over your schedule. I have a voice actor friend who VAs for 4 or 5 other VOs and works completely overnight because it fits her life.
- Watching someone who has already “made it” will deeply inspire your own business, and as that person grows to trust you, they become a permanent professional relationship and a massive source of referrals.
The Cons:
- Public personas can be vastly different from private realities, and sometimes it’s hard to un-see what happens behind closed doors.
- You also have to balance building someone else’s career while growing your own. If you are a recovering people-pleaser, it is incredibly easy to let your own goals slip through the cracks. Boundaries can get blurred, and navigating those lines objectively is tough.
- Sometimes your brilliant ideas will be credited as their own.
- And ironically, you might get so good at it that you become too in-demand and run out of time to work on yourself.
At the end of the day, working as a VA saved me and paid my rent when voice-over clients took 90 days (or more!) to send a payment. It’s also been one of my only mostly-fully remote jobs that I could work, and I’ve met some of the coolest people from my time working as a VA. While no side hustle is perfect (if you find one, let me know), I think it’s one of the most under-utilized and underestimated ways to grow your voice-over career, and I encourage anyone who wants to grow to give it a try!
P.S. If you haven’t yet taken our introductory voice-over class, where we go over everything one needs to know about getting started in the voice-over industry, sign up here!
P.P.S If you want to learn more from VO experts and grow the knowledge you already have, join our VO Pro group!
