Outsourcing

March 22nd, 2010 |

Author: CourVO

That’s such a loaded term these days. But, look…as voice actors we tend to wear lots of hats to keep our business going, and guess what gets lost in the shuffle? Auditioning. Practicing. Learning. Marketing. Growing. Cold-calling…the CORE activities that define our central goal.

Didja ever consider that other free-lancers like yourself might be able to do some of those un-core tasks off your hands for a fair price? It’s not that you CAN’T do it…but could it possibly be cost-effective to “farm” out some of that stuff?

Perfect example: You probably know I love dabbling in techy stuff, be it software, hardware, social-networking, blogging, site-authoring. But as much as I love it…should I be spending inordinate hours DOING it? Enter Brett Bumeter, who runs SoftDuit: “…Helping adapt business models to the web with WordPress powered CMS sites..” Brett so deftly, affordably, and creatively moved my old blog to the new WordPress format it made my head swim. I coulda spent days doing what he did in no time!

Working a long-format naration? Don’t have the time or motivation to edit the fnal production? Many voice-actors send off the raw sound-file to someone whose bread ‘n’ butter is audio editing.

Lousy at writing a bio, cover letter, resume? Send it to a professional writer who can spruce it up. You’d be surprised how they — like you — produce quality work in a timely manner.

Many voice actors have a CPA or an enrolled agent handle their taxes. Why not seek the proper expertise for designing your audio-chain? That can be at LEAST as arcane as the tax code sometimes!

The point is, it pays you to hire a professional to do certain specific tasks, just like you would expect someone to hire you to do the very specific work of voice-acting.

Not only do you benefit from their expertise, it makes YOU look better, and you stimulate the freelance marketplace.

Do a web search for ‘virtual assistant’ or ‘office assistant’, and you’ll find services that’ll do everything from walking your dog, to taking out your dry-cleaning.

Hey, if those mundane tasks are the mental roadblocks that stand in the way of me getting my next voice-job, then I’d hire ‘em in an instant.

Unfortunately for me, no one offers outsourcing help for my roadblock: the inability to take my own advice!

CourVO